NatWest mortgage application taking FOREVER!

anonymouse2202

jesstt said:

Haha I’m not Johnny but good luck to you

Hilarious. That was literally our story word for word! Hope you guys get an answer soon- got my fingers crossed for you.

steve866

jesstt said:

Hi there, hoping someone can put me out of my misery. We are at the final hurdle of a chain that started the day before lockdown. Our buyers have applied for a NatWest mortgage and the valuation took place 4/5 weeks ago! What is going on?! They applied through a broker and had to send some additional paperwork as also do some self employed work on top of their normal work (medical). Why on Earth is it taking so long - does this mean bad news is imminent? What have your experiences been of delays caused by lockdown - hoping it’s a staffing thing...

When did they send the additional documents? It is a good sign that they are asking for more details, however for me they reviewed all the documents within 48 hours of submitting each time. If it has been a few weeks I would question whether you buyers have had an issue with Natwest and are in the middle of applying elsewhere..

jesstt

@steve866 it was about a month ago I think that they sent additional documentation- maybe longer! Have seen details from NatWest saying the case had.
 Not been picked up yet and it had been escalated the Friday before last. They keep saying they are expecting the offer imminently so I don’t think they have applied elsewhere, plus we have suggested they do so and so far they have declined to as their broker says that would take even longer. We are very worried at this point and not sure what on Earth to do! Their broker seems quite useless. Did check out the reply from NatWest and the person seems legit ie the name tallies up...

anonymouse2202

We are still waiting to hear about our application, (joint with one self-employed and one full time employed). The valuation report came through on the 9th July and they asked for more documents last week. Asked for an update today and it took them 2 days from receiving the files to send them over to the underwriter. Seems like the waiting times at every point of the process are really long. Our brokers told us that intermediaries have been told that they aren’t allowed to phone and ask for updates so we’ve had to do all the chasing ourselves. I wish we’d gone elsewhere too- we are the ones holding up our entire chain now and people are getting very tetchy! But there’s literally nothing we can do....

Windofchange

Ours was really fast - mortgage application in through broker, valuation instructed and mortgage offer produced in a little over a week. That was January however prior to all the COVID lockdown stuff. We are completing finally in a couple of weeks. Not really sure what anyone is going to tell you here other than be patient. Hard I know given the enormity of buying a house, but I've learned from bitter experience there is very little point in getting upset about it all - it's either meant to be or not...

SierraRomeo30

We’ve been waiting a while too - had the valuation done 3 weeks ago, we know it was all fine but still waiting for an offer. It’s so frustrating and we have been told our sellers are growing angry.

330d

We were also in a similar position, NatWest took 5 weeks to get us the offer.

One thing I found useful was the Cara online chat. I was doing this everyday for the final week and it seemed to work as they started to respond quicker when they asked and we submitted new documents.

KAP0365

We are in week 3 of waiting for NatWest however we applied on 18/7 and were told my 22/7 that we were approved subject to valuation which was instructed on same day. Valuation wasn’t actually booked for another 7 days and isn’t taking place until 7/8 so we probably won’t hear for another week, but we applied direct and bank with them, we are also both employed, not affected by CV19 and less than 70% LTV and not FTB.  I know people who are self employed where affordability is good but it’s taking weeks and they are having to go through multiple sets of underwriters. Think speed depends on how the bank sees you in terms of risk - if simple it goes pretty quick but otherwise it can be really delayed as they are going through everything with a
fine-toothed comb. And they are inundated as the market has spiked (been told this by both the bank and a surveyor, demand is unbelievable). Also the way the look at future risk has changed as they are concerned about the economic landscape in 6 months’ time and the huge amount of people that may be at risk of negative equity/defaulting. 

jesstt

@anonymouse2202 they haven’t told us at all that the broker isn’t allowed to chase but that might explain why their broker is being so rude! He never gives anything but a vague response and when we asked if they could just use another lender he said there’s no point. I will mention this to our estate agent as I do not believe our buyers are chasing - they have been very hard to get hold of at times. Would you consider applying with Halifax as we had a great experience with them and everything was approved 4 days after valuation! 

jesstt

@330d my husband reckons you can’t use that chat or chase if you have a broker who the application has gone through! This is a contrast to what another user has said that broker cannot chase though so I’ve no idea! Prob is I can’t make the buyer chase, just ask them to 😩😩😩