HSBC Mortgage Underwriting

somerlouise

staceyw82 said:

We submitted our application on the 11th Sept. Had DIP already in place. We just got an email yesterday to say its finally moved to the underwriters. 5 weeks so far! 

We are similar- applied 15th September and have been told to expect to hear something next week. 

As we applied through a broker HSBC won’t tell us much. 

armitagejames189

It's now been 41 days (1.5 months!) since we started our mortgage application with HSBC.
We're in a similarly frustrating position as some of the other posters here. Here are the details:
- We have a pre-exisiting mortgage with HSBC (that we've been overpaying on), so this is porting over and increasing slightly to buy a bigger house. 
- We have a Mortgage in Principle for this new house.
- We've jumped through all their hoops and submitted everything as required and within hours of being prompted.
- We both have excellent credit histories. My wife is employed at a school in a management position and I'm self-employed.
- Because of the large return we've had from our house sale (plus other savings) we have a large amount of equity that we're putting into this move. So our repayments will be around the same figure per month as we've already been paying HSBC (we've been overpaying our mortgage).
And we're STILL incredibly nervous, having received a call from the underwriter yesterday (late in the day). We called back twice that day and were told they were unavailable. Apparently, there's a specific person we have to contact.
We're concerned that this is a rejection of our mortgage because reading other messages here seems to indicate that you receive a text message if your mortgage is approved.
We call regularly for updates and are told different things by different people. Lots of conflicting reports. It's with this person, then there's been a mistake and it's with someone else.
Over the months we've been waiting we've been told multiple times that there have been "admin errors" on their end. One of which was someone on the mortgage team entering the price of the house wrong, thus increasing the property value!
We are incredibly frustrated and feel let down big time by HSBC.

cf357

This thread has been super useful to me to understand the process, so I wanted to give back and share my own experience with HSBC. The process wasn't what I'd call super-smooth, but it was fast overall.
Here is what happened:

May 5th: I start working with a mortgage advisor for a 80% LTV mortgage. Working with them was a great experience, but due to the complexity of my profile, they couldn't proceed (in the UK for less than 6 months, thus low credit score, assets in different currencies, deposit came from a mix of annual bonuses and shares I've sold – my proof of deposit required 12 pages of statements and explanations – I couldn't even provide a National Insurance number and PAYE statement.). They told me that there was a "first line of defence" that wouldn't let them proceed with the application. They advised me to deal directly with the lender (HSBC).
May 13th: I start my application online with HSBC, with no advice. I get a quote, an AIP, and that's it. First surprise, I receive absolutely zero notification to confirm everything is on track.  I visit my local branch, they could just tell me "yeah we received your application you will receive a document in your mailbox". I called the online support to double-check, and they told me my application was stuck in a weird state, and they had to intervene to trigger the survey (I went with the free and quick option)
May 18th: I get a letter asking to provide my proof of ID and address to my local branch (which I do).
May 25th: I call the support team to chase my application, now I'm told I should provide my latest payslip and my employment contract, and that my application would be reviewed.
May 28th: I call again, and the operator asked some updates to the underwriting team. They asked me to prove the source of funds for my deposit, which I built by selling shares I had bought as an investment. I returned the documents. At this stage the online status moved from "Decision Obtained" to "Manual Referral".
June 1st: Status moved to "Ready for Offer" and then I was able to pay the fees and generate the mortgage offer.

So for us the whole process took 2 weeks with a couple of bank holidays and a few hiccups. Lesson learned: don't hesitate to ask their support team, they've been very friendly and helpful in our case!

FashionHeart

I'm currently in the process of applying for an HSBC mortgage too, but through my mortgage broker and have also found this thread to be super useful too!

It's nice to have a guideline of when things can finally complete without hiccups - but obviously it does depend on each person(s)' cases.

Here's our story:

18th June: Agreement in Principle (AIP) approved.

22nd June: Mortgage broker applies for the mortgage. Application is provisionally accepted at this stage.
It turns out because I changed my surname, there is a slight discrepancy on my credit file - but apparently I am told that it is not serious enough to cause a rejection.

23rd June: We send in the 'expected usual' documents - 3 months bank statements, 3 months credit card statements, offer letter, 3 months payslips and credit score from Experian. 

29th June: Broker says Underwriter requests Contract of Employment.
However I only have an offer letter as my employer do not give contracts per se.

Now it's a long waiting game to see when we can get our property valued first before actually receiving our mortgage offer...

Exciting times ahead...well hopefully! 

london21

HSBC are a bit slow at present.
I made an application online on the 5th of June.
survey came back all good but been with the underwriter since the 9th June says 

Manual referral.

likely use a broker going forward as I have had to buy cash and get a re-mortgage afterwards. 

vi009na

My Story so far. Applied for 90% LTV

• 16th June: Got AIP from NatWest via broker charging too much fees and indirectly forcing me full application with NatWest. 
• 21st June: Applied to HSBC Mortgage which was good deal compare to NatWest. Also, via fee free broker. All documents submitted upfront 
• 25th June: Additional clarification requested on monthly commitment. Provided required info and silence since then.

Unaware of proceedings at the moment. Whether valuation booked or not, any further queries from HSBC for me. Chased broker today regarding same. Hoping for the best. Lets see.

vi009na

london21 said:

HSBC are a bit slow at present.
I made an application online on the 5th of June.
survey came back all good but been with the underwriter since the 9th June says 

Manual referral.

likely use a broker going forward as I have had to buy cash and get a re-mortgage afterwards. 

Did you get any update on your application or you withdrew your application due to delays?