Mortgage broker - ask me anything

haras_n0sirrah

EU nationals are treated the same as british nationals so if your partner is eu that should be fine as long as the non uk address isnt an issue (I cant remember nationwide's stance on foreign addresses off the top of my head)
In terms of timescales lenders will not escalate unless they are outside of their published timescales. Nationwide published timescale was 19 working days the last time I looked.
Nationwide will want to see a payslip with no furlow on it at all 

mrdiscostu

I'm a first time buyer, and I've stumbled across a deal on MoneySuperMarket with The Melton Building Society, the deal is 25 year lifetime discounted 2% mortgage. Now I've heard of 5/10 year fixes, but lifetime is completely new to me, it also seems, to a newbie, to be an unbelievable offer. Now I'd imagine, the criteria for getting that mortgage are strict, so I guess I'd speak to them to see if my situation is acceptable; 65k down, 150k property, 19.5k salary plus 6k commission yearly, only a student loan type 1. 
Am I missing something? Surely interest rates over that term will go upwards of 2%, if not a good bit higher. If there's a catch I can't see one. Even the little bit of info I know about the legacy mortgages where companies have gone bump shouldn't be too much of a concern because its only 2%, right?
Thanks for any advice

haras_n0sirrah

mrdiscostu said:

I'm a first time buyer, and I've stumbled across a deal on MoneySuperMarket with The Melton Building Society, the deal is 25 year lifetime discounted 2% mortgage. Now I've heard of 5/10 year fixes, but lifetime is completely new to me, it also seems, to a newbie, to be an unbelievable offer. Now I'd imagine, the criteria for getting that mortgage are strict, so I guess I'd speak to them to see if my situation is acceptable; 65k down, 150k property, 19.5k salary plus 6k commission yearly, only a student loan type 1. 
Am I missing something? Surely interest rates over that term will go upwards of 2%, if not a good bit higher. If there's a catch I can't see one. Even the little bit of info I know about the legacy mortgages where companies have gone bump shouldn't be too much of a concern because its only 2%, right?
Thanks for any advice

A discounted 2% would be 2% off their svr so if svr is 5% you would pay 3%. It is not a 2% fixed rate for 25 years.
I have just had two cases offer with melton, no issues with underwriting or even any questions. Started early june so nearly 3 months for an offer  

winogronek

Thank you. We had a little issue with her payslip as her last day on furlough was 23rd of June and she returned to work on 24th. Unfortunately her payslip runs from 23 to 22nd each month so the payslip we submitted has shown *1* day being paid by furlough and the payslip was refused as a result. Fortunately she received her next payslip soon after so we were able to provide 1 payslip without furlough pay on it.

Today is 44th working day since we submitted our application and we are still waiting for them to check the documents we submitted. I understand banks are really busy right now due to stamp duty relief but is it normal for the application to take this long nowadays?

ChasingtheWelshdream

haras_n0sirrah said:

ChasingtheWelshdream said:

We are 12 weeks into a re-mortgage with Natwest, which I understand is due to partial income through self-employment (established business, not Covid affected and a side-hustle alongside permanent day jobs). We were supposed to be progressing to 'offer stage' this week but everything has gone silent and no explanation forthcoming to our broker (who are equally frustrated).  I am now really concerned we will be declined due to the blackout. Is this usual for the final stages with Natwest? I am conscious of becoming a pain asking our broker for too many 
updates if there is nothing they can do.

If we are declined, do lenders give specific reasons as to why, so we can decide if its worth pursuing an alternative lender?  Is this timescale usual should we decide to try again elsewhere? (No adverse credit, just modest incomes requesting a minimal mortgage amount to fund some home improvements).

Thanking you anxiously in advance.....

From our side of the desk this is probably the most frustrating time ever I have been a broker in 14 years. Wheras before the lenders used to take 2-3 days, you could call them and get through in 10 mins, you could speak to your bdm, you knew the criteria and whether something would go through (self employed especially) it is now a situation where it takes 3-4 weeks to hear something, you can spend 2 hours on hold and the criteria is whatever the underwriter makes up on the day 
Natwest and self employed are not great together if you have been affected by covid. Probably the worst. They will want 3 months bank statements showing you are back to normal and if you got an seiss grant they will only base your income off of that regardless if you are back to normal or not. It will depend on affordability but I am swerving natwest now for anyone self employed after some frankly baffling decisions they have made.
If you have not been affected by covid and they said it has been passed to offer stage then you should be ok but ask the broker to contact the bdm to get an update if they can.

Thank you so much for taking the time to respond. 4 months statements and everything else were supplied weeks ago, with further questions answered. We did not take any grants as the business, ironically, has benefitted from covid and people spending more time at home. Profits are up on from this time last year so we're hoping that is all fine.

I will ask our broker if they can speak to the BDM. The frustration is not knowing whether we are just 'in the system' or whether they've decided they don't like us! And whether it's worth trying somewhere else if we're unsuccessful. We were expecting a longer processing time but are really surprised how long.

Once again, I appreciate you are busy, so thank you for this thread and responses. :-)

haras_n0sirrah

winogronek said:

Thank you. We had a little issue with her payslip as her last day on furlough was 23rd of June and she returned to work on 24th. Unfortunately her payslip runs from 23 to 22nd each month so the payslip we submitted has shown *1* day being paid by furlough and the payslip was refused as a result. Fortunately she received her next payslip soon after so we were able to provide 1 payslip without furlough pay on it.

Today is 44th working day since we submitted our application and we are still waiting for them to check the documents we submitted. I understand banks are really busy right now due to stamp duty relief but is it normal for the application to take this long nowadays?

It isnt normal however it is normal for now. At the moment people just have to be patient as escalations are non existent. The best we as brokers can do is pre empt (so I had a client with a bit of furlow on a payslip so submitted both the payslip and a letter confirming he was back and his salary) as I knew having even the slightest bit of furlow on the payslip would raise a question 

winogronek

Thank you, have a good day

zobo1993

haras_n0sirrah said:

zobo1993 said:

Do you know how harsh HSBC will be with late payments? They are over 50 months old. I had a 1, 2 and 3 on a vodafone contract in 2016 and a '1' and a '1' on a mail order in 2014. Everything has been perfect since. No defaults, no CCJS, no IVAS etc. Score is 999 on Experian, although I know this doesn't matter. We have a phonecall with them at 5.30 pm tonight for 90% LTV. 

At 90% they will be strict however that long ago they may well be ok. Missed payments tend to make less of an impact after 3 years

Thank you for your response, we had a hard credit check last night with HSBC and all was ok! It has now gone to underwriters. What do underwriters normally check for? 

haras_n0sirrah

zobo1993 said:

haras_n0sirrah said:

zobo1993 said:

Do you know how harsh HSBC will be with late payments? They are over 50 months old. I had a 1, 2 and 3 on a vodafone contract in 2016 and a '1' and a '1' on a mail order in 2014. Everything has been perfect since. No defaults, no CCJS, no IVAS etc. Score is 999 on Experian, although I know this doesn't matter. We have a phonecall with them at 5.30 pm tonight for 90% LTV. 

At 90% they will be strict however that long ago they may well be ok. Missed payments tend to make less of an impact after 3 years

Thank you for your response, we had a hard credit check last night with HSBC and all was ok! It has now gone to underwriters. What do underwriters normally check for? 

The main thing will be to see if your income and commitments match what has been declared

ACG

vimto456 said:

I have a mortgage broker however am receiving quite slow replies. 
I am just wondering which lenders have the quickest average timeframes from application to offer?
Are First Direct a good option? the interest rates and fees are much lower with First Direct than Natwest who my broker has recommended. Ideally I would like to follow my brokers advice however I am part of a chain and the estate agents have rang quite a few times to see whether my mortgage application has been submitted so I feel under pressure to get things moving. 

Also thanks to all the brokers for taking the time to answer the questions on this thread

Brokers do not have access to first direct, so it is difficult for us to compare.
Natwest are more or less back to normal now (about 3-4 working days to assess applications) for employed applicants. If self employed, Natwest are still a bit slow.