Platform Mortgage

mowgliisaG

claireyfairy83 said:

  So frustrating! We're starting to worry we'll end up missing stamp duty holiday. Good luck with the move!

Thanks, I hope you have better luck than us! We got a letter in response to our formal complaint today so at least they’re looking into that I guess! 

Could you not look into borrowing more with another lender to absorb the early repayment charge? We’ve done this and it wasn’t a huge difference in monthly payments. 

What was the backdrop here? Why the complaint?

GJOphthal

Chicksy84 said:

GJOphthal said:

Hi. Applied for mortgage on 7/12/2020 - had no update yet. What’s timescales like for new applicants at the minute does anyone know? Comments from a while back obviously state weeks and weeks, is it still the same as I have heard the wait time isn’t too bad for offer to come through?

thanks!

New business / new applications seem to be faster than expected. 

Our mortgage offer took 10 working days 
we applied 24/11/2020 and offer was with MA on the 8/12/2020
fingers crossed for you 

That’s great! Wow. Thanks for getting back to me. I am really hoping for a fast offer, obviously! Have you heard of any other new applicants getting their offers faster? I feel like you was just one of the super lucky ones! 😇

claireyfairy83

mowgliisaG said:

What was the backdrop here? Why the complaint?

Hahaha where do I start? My main complaint was that I asked them to instruct the valuation and homebuyers survey on four separate occasions over the course of a month and was told that would be done, only for nothing to happen. I was supposed to receive a call updating me on what was happening with instructing the surveys, nobody called me back. Somebody was supposed to call me this week as well - nobody has. So I’ve basically run out of patience.

On top of that, new applications are being turned around within a fraction of the time it takes for a porting application to be approved so they have you over a barrel. Either we wait 10-12 weeks (potentially longer as they were reviewing applications submitted 21st September as of last week) just to get approved, then a further two weeks to receive the mortgage offer, and risk the chain collapsing, or pay the ERC and go elsewhere. I thought this was unacceptable and said so when I called last week, and was invited to make a formal complaint so I did. I doubt anything will come of it but they’re treating existing customers pretty shabbily and I don’t think it’s fair.

So that’s the gist of it really!

mowgliisaG

claireyfairy83 said:

mowgliisaG said:

What was the backdrop here? Why the complaint?

Hahaha where do I start? My main complaint was that I asked them to instruct the valuation and homebuyers survey on four separate occasions over the course of a month and was told that would be done, only for nothing to happen. I was supposed to receive a call updating me on what was happening with instructing the surveys, nobody called me back. Somebody was supposed to call me this week as well - nobody has. So I’ve basically run out of patience.

On top of that, new applications are being turned around within a fraction of the time it takes for a porting application to be approved so they have you over a barrel. Either we wait 10-12 weeks (potentially longer as they were reviewing applications submitted 21st September as of last week) just to get approved, then a further two weeks to receive the mortgage offer, and risk the chain collapsing, or pay the ERC and go elsewhere. I thought this was unacceptable and said so when I called last week, and was invited to make a formal complaint so I did. I doubt anything will come of it but they’re treating existing customers pretty shabbily and I don’t think it’s fair.

So that’s the gist of it really!

Wow that is disgraceful on their behalf..so they were looking at application from 21st sept last week for the people porting or all applications??? 2 weeks to get the offer out?? That’s crazyyy!!!

Chicksy84

GJOphthal said:

Chicksy84 said:

GJOphthal said:

Hi. Applied for mortgage on 7/12/2020 - had no update yet. What’s timescales like for new applicants at the minute does anyone know? Comments from a while back obviously state weeks and weeks, is it still the same as I have heard the wait time isn’t too bad for offer to come through?

thanks!

New business / new applications seem to be faster than expected. 

Our mortgage offer took 10 working days 
we applied 24/11/2020 and offer was with MA on the 8/12/2020
fingers crossed for you 

That’s great! Wow. Thanks for getting back to me. I am really hoping for a fast offer, obviously! Have you heard of any other new applicants getting their offers faster? I feel like you was just one of the super lucky ones! 😇

Yes someone else on this forum got an offer recently in 7 days. 

mowgliisaG

No news by anyone today?? Nobody got any offers or updates??

claireyfairy83

mowgliisaG said:

Wow that is disgraceful on their behalf..so they were looking at application from 21st sept last week for the people porting or all applications??? 2 weeks to get the offer out?? That’s crazyyy!!!

I contacted them today and they finally instructed the valuation yesterday (5 weeks after I told them to, repeatedly) but Sod’s law says I now don’t need them to as our mortgage advisor has found us a good deal with the Leeds which we’re going with instead!

I’ve asked them to put the valuation on hold just whilst we apply to the Leeds and once we’re underway I’m going to cancel the Platform application and get the fees we’ve paid refunded (I’ve already asked for the homebuyers survey to be cancelled).

I didn’t get an update on where they’re up to in the queue but it is still 10-12 weeks, then the offer needs to be posted, signed, sent back and then processed in the post room (up to 5 working days just to go through the post room apparently) and allocated to the right account. They do fax the offer to the solicitor though. We just can’t work with Platform’s timescales unfortunately.

I believe 21st September was porting applications but I’ve been getting conflicting info on new ones - the lady I spoke to today at Platform said it’s the same timescales for new applications as porting ones but my mortgage advisor says it’s taking a couple of weeks for straightforward ones, which is backed up by what her contact at Platform says. Not much help sorry!

mowgliisaG

claireyfairy83 said:

mowgliisaG said:

Wow that is disgraceful on their behalf..so they were looking at application from 21st sept last week for the people porting or all applications??? 2 weeks to get the offer out?? That’s crazyyy!!!

I contacted them today and they finally instructed the valuation yesterday (5 weeks after I told them to, repeatedly) but Sod’s law says I now don’t need them to as our mortgage advisor has found us a good deal with the Leeds which we’re going with instead!

I’ve asked them to put the valuation on hold just whilst we apply to the Leeds and once we’re underway I’m going to cancel the Platform application and get the fees we’ve paid refunded (I’ve already asked for the homebuyers survey to be cancelled).

I didn’t get an update on where they’re up to in the queue but it is still 10-12 weeks, then the offer needs to be posted, signed, sent back and then processed in the post room (up to 5 working days just to go through the post room apparently) and allocated to the right account. They do fax the offer to the solicitor though. We just can’t work with Platform’s timescales unfortunately.

I believe 21st September was porting applications but I’ve been getting conflicting info on new ones - the lady I spoke to today at Platform said it’s the same timescales for new applications as porting ones but my mortgage advisor says it’s taking a couple of weeks for straightforward ones, which is backed up by what her contact at Platform says. Not much help sorry!

Fair play to you in going to leeds as the timescales 10-12 weeks is utterly ridiculous...
there just seems to be no information on their website or anything on actual timescales...

claireyfairy83

mowgliisaG said:

Fair play to you in going to leeds as the timescales 10-12 weeks is utterly ridiculous...
there just seems to be no information on their website or anything on actual timescales...

I know right? If they could let you know where you were in the queue, how many days til review, how close you are to offer etc it wouldn’t be as bad because at least you could then let the rest of the chain know. Luckily our chain is just our buyer (FTB living at home), us and our vendor (moving in with her mum) and everyone is pretty understanding but we can’t keep people hanging on like that. Plus our advisor has managed to get us a better rate with Leeds so other than the ERC we’ll have to pay, we’ve not done too badly by going elsewhere. 

One thing I did find out yesterday when I spoke to a very helpful lady at Platform is that you can request to speak to the same call handler again so if you do get through to someone on the ball, you can ask to speak to them again. Not sure if that’s helpful to anyone but I thought I’d mention it.

mowgliisaG

How long are platform taking to get offers out once accepted?