Platform Mortgage

TT89

Joiningtocomment said:

TT89 said:

We are porting. Platform received our formal application on the 14th of November. It took over a month of phone calls to get to the stage of submitting our formal application. We have sold our house and must vacate by the 29th of January, in hindsight we shouldn’t of concluded the sale prior to getting our mortgage offer but we were at risk of losing our buyers. We are still waiting for our mortgage offer, and we have just been told by the sellers of our onwards purchase that we have until the end of January or they are putting their house back on the market. We will lose our onward purchase and this will leave us with nowhere to go. Oh and I am 32 weeks pregnant, and we also have a dog and three cats which is an obstacle to finding a suitable rental/ temporary accommodation. I don’t know what to do. I have read this forum throughout and I can see that existing customers are also experiencing the same ridiculous timescales, while new customers are being prioritised. We tried launching a complaint but they just reiterate that they are busy, ect. We asked if they would waive the ERC to allow us to go elsewhere, and ofcourse they said no. 

Worst case scenario is slowly happening for us. If we have to start looking for a new onwards purchase, what seller is going to be patient enough to deal with these ridiculous timescales? We are set to lose thousands via the ERC, whilst losing our onwards purchase and finding ourselves homeless with a newborn. Send help! 

I’m in the same position as you and we’ve sold and vacated already (back in October). We’re experiencing pressure as the chain we are in can’t move forward until we have the mortgage offer. We also have a huge ERC and we have no options but to wait around. We only sold our house to make use of the stamp duty saving. 

 I would expect 15 weeks maybe 16 weeks from the date they put your application on the system (which is not necessarily the day they received it). Ours was a day later.  It’s totally out of your circle of control so you can’t do anything. I would let your solicitor and seller know that it’s the mortgage company (Lender) and they’ve signalled back logs. 

I’ve complained and it’s got me no where and it doesn’t have any influence on them. They don’t care. The amount of times I’ve been told someone will call me and they don’t. 

We do not have our offer but I can let you know when we do if that would help? Our form was in early October. 

Thank you for your post. I’m sorry you are having the same difficulties, it’s so incredibly frustrating for everyone effected. 15/16 weeks would mean we can expect our offer in early March, which is also when our baby is due! If this is the case I think we can expect to lose our onwards purchase as the seller is going to put the house back on the market in February. Thank you very much Platform 😞! 

Our solicitor is aware and we are trying to explain everything to the seller to get more time but they are getting pretty frustrated also.

15/16 weeks is beyond ridiculous though especially when we were initially told 10-12 weeks. Have you complained that it’s now past the initial 10-12 week timescale that they initially gave? I honestly think they should waive the ERC if that’s the case as it’s just not fair, and I cannot believe they are getting away with it. I thought 10-12 weeks was ridiculous from the onset especially when new customers are waiting 4-6 weeks, or even less than that as some of the posts on this thread may suggest. We have also complained, and my husband spoke to them again this morning. Apparently they reiterated the same old waffle about being overrun, it being a different team who deal with internal applications and so on. You would think internal applications are quicker as they already have the customer on file, but apparently not.. We’ve been told we are no 285 in the application queue, but I’ve no idea what that means as I’ve no idea how many applications they typically get through in a day. They did say, given our circumstances, that they will expedite our case but that they cannot give any guarantees that it will be completed by the end of a January. Judging by your own experience, I am not holding out much hope for my case. I do hope you get your offer soon, hopefully any day now. 

Joiningtocomment

TT89 said:

Joiningtocomment said:

TT89 said:

We are porting. Platform received our formal application on the 14th of November. It took over a month of phone calls to get to the stage of submitting our formal application. We have sold our house and must vacate by the 29th of January, in hindsight we shouldn’t of concluded the sale prior to getting our mortgage offer but we were at risk of losing our buyers. We are still waiting for our mortgage offer, and we have just been told by the sellers of our onwards purchase that we have until the end of January or they are putting their house back on the market. We will lose our onward purchase and this will leave us with nowhere to go. Oh and I am 32 weeks pregnant, and we also have a dog and three cats which is an obstacle to finding a suitable rental/ temporary accommodation. I don’t know what to do. I have read this forum throughout and I can see that existing customers are also experiencing the same ridiculous timescales, while new customers are being prioritised. We tried launching a complaint but they just reiterate that they are busy, ect. We asked if they would waive the ERC to allow us to go elsewhere, and ofcourse they said no. 

Worst case scenario is slowly happening for us. If we have to start looking for a new onwards purchase, what seller is going to be patient enough to deal with these ridiculous timescales? We are set to lose thousands via the ERC, whilst losing our onwards purchase and finding ourselves homeless with a newborn. Send help! 

I’m in the same position as you and we’ve sold and vacated already (back in October). We’re experiencing pressure as the chain we are in can’t move forward until we have the mortgage offer. We also have a huge ERC and we have no options but to wait around. We only sold our house to make use of the stamp duty saving. 

 I would expect 15 weeks maybe 16 weeks from the date they put your application on the system (which is not necessarily the day they received it). Ours was a day later.  It’s totally out of your circle of control so you can’t do anything. I would let your solicitor and seller know that it’s the mortgage company (Lender) and they’ve signalled back logs. 

I’ve complained and it’s got me no where and it doesn’t have any influence on them. They don’t care. The amount of times I’ve been told someone will call me and they don’t. 

We do not have our offer but I can let you know when we do if that would help? Our form was in early October. 

Thank you for your post. I’m sorry you are having the same difficulties, it’s so incredibly frustrating for everyone effected. 15/16 weeks would mean we can expect our offer in early March, which is also when our baby is due! If this is the case I think we can expect to lose our onwards purchase as the seller is going to put the house back on the market in February. Thank you very much Platform 😞! 

Our solicitor is aware and we are trying to explain everything to the seller to get more time but they are getting pretty frustrated also.

15/16 weeks is beyond ridiculous though especially when we were initially told 10-12 weeks. Have you complained that it’s now past the initial 10-12 week timescale that they initially gave? I honestly think they should waive the ERC if that’s the case as it’s just not fair, and I cannot believe they are getting away with it. I thought 10-12 weeks was ridiculous from the onset especially when new customers are waiting 4-6 weeks, or even less than that as some of the posts on this thread may suggest. We have also complained, and my husband spoke to them again this morning. Apparently they reiterated the same old waffle about being overrun, it being a different team who deal with internal applications and so on. You would think internal applications are quicker as they already have the customer on file, but apparently not.. We’ve been told we are no 285 in the application queue, but I’ve no idea what that means as I’ve no idea how many applications they typically get through in a day. They did say, given our circumstances, that they will expedite our case but that they cannot give any guarantees that it will be completed by the end of a January. Judging by your own experience, I am not holding out much hope for my case. I do hope you get your offer soon, hopefully any day now. 

I’m so sorry. It’s really immoral and unethical. I don’t think legally there is any action that can taken but it feels like those with ERCs are just being held over a barrel. I’ve had so many conversations with people at Platform now and if I’m honest although the people have been friendly they don’t know anything and they can’t help. Their own applications team won’t even pick up the phone to them when they call to try and get updates. It’s pointless complaining (although we have) and it feels really unfair. I’ve begged on the phone to them and almost cried with frustration wanting to speak to someone with authority that can explain this. I mean how rubbish must that teams day be every single day because I doubt anyone calls up to thank them. 

They have separate teams but the application process is exactly the same. There’s no need for one team to be over staffed and one to be under staffed. They won’t answer why that’s the case. It’s just poorly run and an absolute shambles. We were actually told 6 to 8 weeks, then we were told 10 weeks, then 10 to 12 weeks, then we got to 12 weeks and they weren’t looking at our form yet so even timelines haven’t come true. I feel like we’ve been very unlucky though. We missed a few weeks not realising we couldn’t do the process via a broker (every other lender allows this apart from platform). 

My only thoughts are that your seller won’t be likely to get as good of an offer as they have now and they won’t get someone else through before the end of March to make benefit of early stamp duty - or it’s unlikely so they’re better off sticking with you. It’s still unknown if they’ll extend the stamp duty timeline and many don’t think they will so they could end up shooting themselves in the foot. 

It’s not very helpful advise but I would wait until you’re at the ten week mark and then call again and explain you were told it would be fast tracked. Calling them up will just irritate and stress you more than them and I don’t think they do anything. Honestly I’ve been told so many times it’ll be reviewed tomorrow or they’d call me blah blah never happened. The issue is they don’t seem to care about chains falling through or people, and the guys we speak to are middle men and don’t have sight or control on anything. They’re just messengers. 

claireyfairy83

Joiningtocomment said:

TT89 said:

Joiningtocomment said:

TT89 said:

We are porting. Platform received our formal application on the 14th of November. It took over a month of phone calls to get to the stage of submitting our formal application. We have sold our house and must vacate by the 29th of January, in hindsight we shouldn’t of concluded the sale prior to getting our mortgage offer but we were at risk of losing our buyers. We are still waiting for our mortgage offer, and we have just been told by the sellers of our onwards purchase that we have until the end of January or they are putting their house back on the market. We will lose our onward purchase and this will leave us with nowhere to go. Oh and I am 32 weeks pregnant, and we also have a dog and three cats which is an obstacle to finding a suitable rental/ temporary accommodation. I don’t know what to do. I have read this forum throughout and I can see that existing customers are also experiencing the same ridiculous timescales, while new customers are being prioritised. We tried launching a complaint but they just reiterate that they are busy, ect. We asked if they would waive the ERC to allow us to go elsewhere, and ofcourse they said no. 

Worst case scenario is slowly happening for us. If we have to start looking for a new onwards purchase, what seller is going to be patient enough to deal with these ridiculous timescales? We are set to lose thousands via the ERC, whilst losing our onwards purchase and finding ourselves homeless with a newborn. Send help! 

I’m in the same position as you and we’ve sold and vacated already (back in October). We’re experiencing pressure as the chain we are in can’t move forward until we have the mortgage offer. We also have a huge ERC and we have no options but to wait around. We only sold our house to make use of the stamp duty saving. 

 I would expect 15 weeks maybe 16 weeks from the date they put your application on the system (which is not necessarily the day they received it). Ours was a day later.  It’s totally out of your circle of control so you can’t do anything. I would let your solicitor and seller know that it’s the mortgage company (Lender) and they’ve signalled back logs. 

I’ve complained and it’s got me no where and it doesn’t have any influence on them. They don’t care. The amount of times I’ve been told someone will call me and they don’t. 

We do not have our offer but I can let you know when we do if that would help? Our form was in early October. 

Thank you for your post. I’m sorry you are having the same difficulties, it’s so incredibly frustrating for everyone effected. 15/16 weeks would mean we can expect our offer in early March, which is also when our baby is due! If this is the case I think we can expect to lose our onwards purchase as the seller is going to put the house back on the market in February. Thank you very much Platform 😞! 

Our solicitor is aware and we are trying to explain everything to the seller to get more time but they are getting pretty frustrated also.

15/16 weeks is beyond ridiculous though especially when we were initially told 10-12 weeks. Have you complained that it’s now past the initial 10-12 week timescale that they initially gave? I honestly think they should waive the ERC if that’s the case as it’s just not fair, and I cannot believe they are getting away with it. I thought 10-12 weeks was ridiculous from the onset especially when new customers are waiting 4-6 weeks, or even less than that as some of the posts on this thread may suggest. We have also complained, and my husband spoke to them again this morning. Apparently they reiterated the same old waffle about being overrun, it being a different team who deal with internal applications and so on. You would think internal applications are quicker as they already have the customer on file, but apparently not.. We’ve been told we are no 285 in the application queue, but I’ve no idea what that means as I’ve no idea how many applications they typically get through in a day. They did say, given our circumstances, that they will expedite our case but that they cannot give any guarantees that it will be completed by the end of a January. Judging by your own experience, I am not holding out much hope for my case. I do hope you get your offer soon, hopefully any day now. 

I’m so sorry. It’s really immoral and unethical. I don’t think legally there is any action that can taken but it feels like those with ERCs are just being held over a barrel. I’ve had so many conversations with people at Platform now and if I’m honest although the people have been friendly they don’t know anything and they can’t help. Their own applications team won’t even pick up the phone to them when they call to try and get updates. It’s pointless complaining (although we have) and it feels really unfair. I’ve begged on the phone to them and almost cried with frustration wanting to speak to someone with authority that can explain this. I mean how rubbish must that teams day be every single day because I doubt anyone calls up to thank them. 

They have separate teams but the application process is exactly the same. There’s no need for one team to be over staffed and one to be under staffed. They won’t answer why that’s the case. It’s just poorly run and an absolute shambles. We were actually told 6 to 8 weeks, then we were told 10 weeks, then 10 to 12 weeks, then we got to 12 weeks and they weren’t looking at our form yet so even timelines haven’t come true. I feel like we’ve been very unlucky though. We missed a few weeks not realising we couldn’t do the process via a broker (every other lender allows this apart from platform). 

My only thoughts are that your seller won’t be likely to get as good of an offer as they have now and they won’t get someone else through before the end of March to make benefit of early stamp duty - or it’s unlikely so they’re better off sticking with you. It’s still unknown if they’ll extend the stamp duty timeline and many don’t think they will so they could end up shooting themselves in the foot. 

It’s not very helpful advise but I would wait until you’re at the ten week mark and then call again and explain you were told it would be fast tracked. Calling them up will just irritate and stress you more than them and I don’t think they do anything. Honestly I’ve been told so many times it’ll be reviewed tomorrow or they’d call me blah blah never happened. The issue is they don’t seem to care about chains falling through or people, and the guys we speak to are middle men and don’t have sight or control on anything. They’re just messengers. 

In the same boat and I had to laugh the other day when Platform sent me a follow up letter after the initial complaint acknowledgement letter to apologise but reviewing my complaint was taking longer than usual! It is worth complaining because they will have to look into it, and then you can go to the Ombudsman if they don't resolve it satisfactorily. I can let people know the outcome of my complaint if it's of any use, although I expect they will just fob me off.

It'll be 10 weeks on Friday and I'm just waiting for our other application with the Leeds to (hopefully) be approved. They've been relatively quick so far even with Christmas and New Year so if anyone can borrow extra to cover the ERC and go elsewhere, I'd definitely recommend that. We are borrowing an extra £2k with the Leeds to cover our ERC with Platform. 

I'm still checking in weekly to see where we are in the queue as I'm reluctant to cancel our porting application til we get an offer with the Leeds!

I'm never going with Platform again even though this move will (hopefully) be our last, they're utterly useless.

jessaskew

Just thought I would update everyone on our case, Valuation was on the 6th Jan. Feedback on the 7th that it was all ok - but still needed to be assessed! Grr, they have put a 'chase' on our application, as of yesterday. I have spoken to them again today, they said today they are working on 128 chase applications from the 7th, so are 3 working days behind. Depending on how many they have for the 8th, and 11th then ours will get looked at after that. She said all being well should be 3 working days for that, should then go to the final offer checks and offer within 2 working days. I asked her if next week would be more realistic for offer, she said hmm next week would be worst case scenario. So fingers crossed it will be the end of this week, so my sleepless nights can end (i don't have much hope though)

Joiningtocomment

jessaskew said:

Just thought I would update everyone on our case, Valuation was on the 6th Jan. Feedback on the 7th that it was all ok - but still needed to be assessed! Grr, they have put a 'chase' on our application, as of yesterday. I have spoken to them again today, they said today they are working on 128 chase applications from the 7th, so are 3 working days behind. Depending on how many they have for the 8th, and 11th then ours will get looked at after that. She said all being well should be 3 working days for that, should then go to the final offer checks and offer within 2 working days. I asked her if next week would be more realistic for offer, she said hmm next week would be worst case scenario. So fingers crossed it will be the end of this week, so my sleepless nights can end (i don't have much hope though)

Thank you for this. Can you keep us posted? My valuation was on 18 November returned 19 November and I still don’t have an offer from platform.... We were also told once reviewed it takes c15 working days to get stamped and offer sent out. 

jessaskew

Joiningtocomment said:

jessaskew said:

Just thought I would update everyone on our case, Valuation was on the 6th Jan. Feedback on the 7th that it was all ok - but still needed to be assessed! Grr, they have put a 'chase' on our application, as of yesterday. I have spoken to them again today, they said today they are working on 128 chase applications from the 7th, so are 3 working days behind. Depending on how many they have for the 8th, and 11th then ours will get looked at after that. She said all being well should be 3 working days for that, should then go to the final offer checks and offer within 2 working days. I asked her if next week would be more realistic for offer, she said hmm next week would be worst case scenario. So fingers crossed it will be the end of this week, so my sleepless nights can end (i don't have much hope though)

Thank you for this. Can you keep us posted? My valuation was on 18 November returned 19 November and I still don’t have an offer from platform.... We were also told once reviewed it takes c15 working days to get stamped and offer sent out. 

Omg really! Have you tried ringing them up and getting your case escalated? It seems the only way of getting them to do it within a normal timescale. I would ring up 9am if you can, you get through straight away then! I literally just said someone needs to look at this ASAP and they said yes that’s fine we will get a chase on it. There wasn’t much of an argument to be fair. I still doubt we will have it by the end of this week but we’ll see. I’ll keep you updated! I have heard others say can take 10-15 days to come in the post, but our MA said she will be able to see on our portal, so she checks everyday 😊

Joiningtocomment

jessaskew said:

Joiningtocomment said:

jessaskew said:

Just thought I would update everyone on our case, Valuation was on the 6th Jan. Feedback on the 7th that it was all ok - but still needed to be assessed! Grr, they have put a 'chase' on our application, as of yesterday. I have spoken to them again today, they said today they are working on 128 chase applications from the 7th, so are 3 working days behind. Depending on how many they have for the 8th, and 11th then ours will get looked at after that. She said all being well should be 3 working days for that, should then go to the final offer checks and offer within 2 working days. I asked her if next week would be more realistic for offer, she said hmm next week would be worst case scenario. So fingers crossed it will be the end of this week, so my sleepless nights can end (i don't have much hope though)

Thank you for this. Can you keep us posted? My valuation was on 18 November returned 19 November and I still don’t have an offer from platform.... We were also told once reviewed it takes c15 working days to get stamped and offer sent out. 

Omg really! Have you tried ringing them up and getting your case escalated? It seems the only way of getting them to do it within a normal timescale. I would ring up 9am if you can, you get through straight away then! I literally just said someone needs to look at this ASAP and they said yes that’s fine we will get a chase on it. There wasn’t much of an argument to be fair. I still doubt we will have it by the end of this week but we’ll see. I’ll keep you updated! I have heard others say can take 10-15 days to come in the post, but our MA said she will be able to see on our portal, so she checks everyday 😊

Yes I’ve called them many times as I’ve been waiting 17 weeks now. However, I am a porting customer and Platform make us do it ourselves so we can’t use a broker to assist with this (unlike every other Lender where you can), they’re just not putting us first or giving any care in the world on porting customers from my experience. We don’t have a platform - we have access to no updates and based on what I have read/how I understand it nobody gets escalated in this scenario. It’s crazy town. 

claireyfairy83

We got our mortgage offer with the Leeds yesterday and our conveyancer sent us the mortgage deed so I called Platform to cancel our porting application today. The very nice lady has requested the application fees be refunded via bank transfer, otherwise they're sending a cheque, because it's still 1998 apparently. I'm a bit dubious as they just let the relevant department know to cancel the application with no apparent written confirmation or anything!

I hope everyone gets the resolution they need with Platform and if anyone applied after 6th November, I've bumped you 1 space up the queue by cancelling if that helps! 

Still waiting for feedback regarding my official complaint - I won't hold my breath...

benrichards0611

I sent a letter of complaint and it doesn't so much. Just had a call from the applications team (them phoning me!) to update me on timescales so they must have received my letter. They are currently working to 12 weeks and are processing applications received on 19th October for info. They received ours on the 3rd of Nov and my initial phone call to them was back in September! (MA appointment 20th October)
We actually started another application with Barclays yesterday and by yesterday afternoon they'd sorted an agreement in principle, completed a soft search for initial checks, had done a desktop valuation and instructed an underwriter (hard search now done)
Our MA expects an offer early next week at the latest.

xemmax

benrichards0611 said:

I sent a letter of complaint and it doesn't so much. Just had a call from the applications team (them phoning me!) to update me on timescales so they must have received my letter. They are currently working to 12 weeks and are processing applications received on 19th October for info. They received ours on the 3rd of Nov and my initial phone call to them was back in September! (MA appointment 20th October)
We actually started another application with Barclays yesterday and by yesterday afternoon they'd sorted an agreement in principle, completed a soft search for initial checks, had done a desktop valuation and instructed an underwriter (hard search now done)
Our MA expects an offer early next week at the latest.

I think this shows they talk utter rubbish as on Monday they told me they were working on applications from 23rd October!

I am so done with platform. Week 9 of porting now with no end in sight. I’ve told them our buyers mortgage offer runs out at the end of this month so we need to complete by then and they said they would let me know if they could ‘expedite’ our application and let us know by Tuesday. Of course they never phoned me back. Chased again today first thing (tip - call at 9am and you get through to someone straight away) but still no call back. Our application is 11th November, we’ll be lucky to complete before the stamp duty holiday at this rate. All of this is causing me a huge amount of stress and upset. The estate agents in our chain are pressuring us and constantly asking us why it’s taking so long and we don’t have an answer as we don’t know why it’s taking this long. It makes it look like we are holding up the chain on purpose and we are trying to convey to all parties that this is not the case but I feel like they don’t believe us or they think there must be issues with our application, thus casting doubt on whether our application will go through.