HSBC Mortgage Underwriting

heston2014

London_FTB said:

tigsly said:

Our mortgage offer was completed today 

Congratulations!

heston2014 said:

  Are you sure they booked your valuation? Did you get a standard one free or paid for it?

Yes we are pretty sure. 2 people at HSBC have confirmed our valuation was already approved. We had a free valuation included in the rate we chose. Have you heard anything today?

We still haven't heard anything from HSBC, since it was sent to underwriters on 01/07.
As we completed the application with an HSBC mortgage advisor (with advice), I imagine we won't need to upload any more documentation as they were pretty thorough, and we don't physically have any more documentation to provide! When we've chased, phone advisors have told us that the underwriters have made 'good progress', but since then it hasn't appeared to have progressed at all despite their mortgage advisors expediting it twice now.. We keep being told different durations for HSBC underwriters' assessment from different HSBC phone/online advisors (4-6 days, 7 days, 10 days), which doesn't help!
We really don't want to hold our vendor up, so keep hoping it'll come any day now!

Ours is currently at ‘Manual Referral’ which changed today. I rang them and they said it’s currently being reviewed by underwriter and moving in the “right” direction! Should have an update by Thursday this week, they also said again, 7 days from full application (including documentation upload) which then moves to underwriting. No indication as to whether or not next stage is valuation, or if that’s already part of underwriting our application. We are applying for second home mortgage, 80% LTV on 5 years fixed term (non-advice route). Going by other people’s timelines, 7 day assessment turnaround seems to be fairly accurate, so hoping to get an update in the next couple of days. Can’t wait for this to be over soon! 😬

London_FTB

heston2014 said:

Ours is currently at ‘Manual Referral’ which changed today. I rang them and they said it’s currently being reviewed by underwriter and moving in the “right” direction! Should have an update by Thursday this week, they also said again, 7 days from full application (including documentation upload) which then moves to underwriting. No indication as to whether or not next stage is valuation, or if that’s already part of underwriting our application. We are applying for second home mortgage, 80% LTV on 5 years fixed term (non-advice route). Going by other people’s timelines, 7 day assessment turnaround seems to be fairly accurate, so hoping to get an update in the next couple of days. Can’t wait for this to be over soon! 😬

Yours seems to have moved very quickly!

We called HSBC again today and have now been told our application hasn't even started the final underwriting process.  They said it's due to be assigned to a Credit Officer! Does anyone know how close we are to getting a decision? Our application's status has been 'decision obtained' since 02 July, despite being told it passed valuation and that it's already with underwriters etc.
We keep being told so many different things from their advisors over the phone. It's becoming a little frustrating.

heston2014

London_FTB said:

heston2014 said:

Ours is currently at ‘Manual Referral’ which changed today. I rang them and they said it’s currently being reviewed by underwriter and moving in the “right” direction! Should have an update by Thursday this week, they also said again, 7 days from full application (including documentation upload) which then moves to underwriting. No indication as to whether or not next stage is valuation, or if that’s already part of underwriting our application. We are applying for second home mortgage, 80% LTV on 5 years fixed term (non-advice route). Going by other people’s timelines, 7 day assessment turnaround seems to be fairly accurate, so hoping to get an update in the next couple of days. Can’t wait for this to be over soon! 😬

Yours seems to have moved very quickly!

We called HSBC again today and have now been told our application hasn't even started the final underwriting process.  They said it's due to be assigned to a Credit Officer! Does anyone know how close we are to getting a decision? Our application's status has been 'decision obtained' since 02 July, despite being told it passed valuation and that it's already with underwriters etc.
We keep being told so many different things from their advisors over the phone. It's becoming a little frustrating.

We had a call from the underwriter today as they had a couple of queries.  After the call, we then received a text from HSBC that our mortgage has been approved subject to valuation.  No idea when it will be booked but we called just to double check, so far, they don't need anything else from us and will let us know when valuation has been completed.  We also paid the booking fee online today as the Full Offer won't be generated until booking fee has been paid.  Will call again tomorrow just to make sure things are still moving in the right direction.  Some applicants have had full offer immediately after valuation passed, your information seems to be different? It is very frustrating to get different information every time, so far, they have been consistent with us. We have applied for 80% LTV and 5 years fixed, second home.  Not sure if they treat applications differently depending on LTV.  So far, we have got this far because we keep calling them every day and will continue to do so until we get the final offer letter.  Hope you hear back soon.

London_FTB

heston2014 said:

We had a call from the underwriter today as they had a couple of queries.  After the call, we then received a text from HSBC that our mortgage has been approved subject to valuation.  No idea when it will be booked but we called just to double check, so far, they don't need anything else from us and will let us know when valuation has been completed.  We also paid the booking fee online today as the Full Offer won't be generated until booking fee has been paid.  Will call again tomorrow just to make sure things are still moving in the right direction.  Some applicants have had full offer immediately after valuation passed, your information seems to be different? It is very frustrating to get different information every time, so far, they have been consistent with us. We have applied for 80% LTV and 5 years fixed, second home.  Not sure if they treat applications differently depending on LTV.  So far, we have got this far because we keep calling them every day and will continue to do so until we get the final offer letter.  Hope you hear back soon.

That's great! Did you notice your 'last modified' date change as the underwriters worked on it?
Our date has now changed to 'last modified: 08 July', however we still haven't heard anything. Our mortgage advisor emailed this morning to say she'd try and chase our application again for us. I'm unsure what exactly 'last modified' refers to, as our status is still 'Decision Obtained', as it was one or two days after application submission..

heston2014

London_FTB said:

heston2014 said:

We had a call from the underwriter today as they had a couple of queries.  After the call, we then received a text from HSBC that our mortgage has been approved subject to valuation.  No idea when it will be booked but we called just to double check, so far, they don't need anything else from us and will let us know when valuation has been completed.  We also paid the booking fee online today as the Full Offer won't be generated until booking fee has been paid.  Will call again tomorrow just to make sure things are still moving in the right direction.  Some applicants have had full offer immediately after valuation passed, your information seems to be different? It is very frustrating to get different information every time, so far, they have been consistent with us. We have applied for 80% LTV and 5 years fixed, second home.  Not sure if they treat applications differently depending on LTV.  So far, we have got this far because we keep calling them every day and will continue to do so until we get the final offer letter.  Hope you hear back soon.

That's great! Did you notice your 'last modified' date change as the underwriters worked on it?
Our date has now changed to 'last modified: 08 July', however we still haven't heard anything. Our mortgage advisor emailed this morning to say she'd try and chase our application again for us. I'm unsure what exactly 'last modified' refers to, as our status is still 'Decision Obtained', as it was one or two days after application submission..

Yeah, last modified date changed and status under "what have you done so far" updated as well.
After submitting application, it was Decision Obtained.  Same after we uploaded documents. It only changed to 'Manual Referral' when it was passed to an underwriter for manual assessment.  HSBC also does automatic underwriting if nothing flags up on the application that requires manual intervention.   Then status changed to 'Application under review' > 'Ready for offer' > 'Final offer' (or review our offer).

As we applied directly, we called every day to chase and just to make sure that our application is progressing in a timely manner.  Keep calling for an update, so far, HSBC advisors have been really helpful and sympathetic even though we kept pestering everyday! lol

From initial application to Final Offer, 13 days including weekends.

jamesm5094

I had an appointment earlier with a MA at HSBC and have done a direct application, has gone to underwriters but have been told it would probably be a week before it gets looked at. Am inpatient already lol just want an answer. Going to be a stressful time waiting!

dexterwolf

Well we applied 3 weeks ago uploaded all our stuff and since Friday says waiting for review with underwriter. No wonder the house buying process takes so long with mortgages and solicitors . I mean surely can they pay x amount and is the property ok for us to lend on and then it just be a case of approving it . 

London_FTB

Hi All,
We finally received our mortgage offer today! Woohoo!! 
I thought I'd post our timeline below, to help those about to begin the process:

16th June: AIP issued. Called for mortgage 'with advice' appointment.
22nd June: Mortgage Advisor appointment. We had less than a week to wait for an appointment as there was a cancellation, otherwise we were told the wait was 2 weeks for one.
1st July: We chased our application as the online tracker hadn't moved past 'Decision Obtained', to be told our application had passed it's valuation. We were also told our application had been sat dormant as our advisor was on annual leave. The Mortgage Manager then pushed the application through to the Underwriters.
10th July: As we were applying with additional investment income, additional documents were requested from Underwriter
13th July: Underwriter declined our application.. saying the additional investment income we were initially told we could use, cannot be used. We then frantically called to amend our application, as we luckily could increase our deposit and change the mortgage rate to 85% LTV. A Manger then offered us a last-minute appointment the same evening, during which we had to go through the application process all over again. Luckily they were able to use the pre-approved valuation as it was for the same property.
14th July: Woke up to a text and email from mortgage manager saying mortgage approved!

All I can say is that we had a very drawn-out experience due to the misinformation we were given about our additional investment income. Had we initially applied without this, I imagine the process would be a lot shorter. Had we not been fortunate enough to afford a higher deposit, this would have been even more frustrating than it already was. The initial advisors did not seem very clued up in what documentation was needed for this additional investment income. However, the last Mortgage Manager who dealt with our application was beyond helpful and a pleasure to speak with. 
The Mortgage Manager told us that had one of us not been previously on furlough, and had the application not already been assigned to an Underwriter, they could approve it themselves without it needing to go to underwriting.

Happy to help with any more information if anyone needs it and good luck to everyone! 

crashmanbristol

One thing in the HSBC ts&cs I haven't seen anywhere else - there is a standard condition that they can request additional valuations during the term, without giving a reason, at the applicant's expense. Has anyone else spotted this?

Heres_the_deal

We’re HSBC customers and applied direct. From DIP to mortgage two hour advice phone call was three days. Hard search done during the call and it came back refer to underwriter . Advisor said a desk valuation would be done and to expect a final decision in three to five days. (Day three is today)

The reason it went to underwriter : we applied for a ten year mortgage but I retire in five years,  my income was not supposed to be included, only my partners, so not sure why that happened. Only borrowing a small amount around 25% LTV.