Mortgage broker - ask me anything

mattyboy7110

Hi,

We have a 5 year fixed rate mortgage offer from HSBC on a house but after 4 months of waiting we still don't have the chain completed so nothing has happened. We've seen a house we like that has no chain. Do you think it is possible to transfer the mortgage offer to a new property? The property is more expensive but we could just about pay the difference so that we borrowed the same amount.

Thanks

K_S

mattyboy7110 said:

Hi,

We have a 5 year fixed rate mortgage offer from HSBC on a house but after 4 months of waiting we still don't have the chain completed so nothing has happened. We've seen a house we like that has no chain. Do you think it is possible to transfer the mortgage offer to a new property? The property is more expensive but we could just about pay the difference so that we borrowed the same amount.

Thanks

@mattyboy7110 Yes, HSBC will allow that, do a free valuation and reset the validity to 6 months from reissue of the offer. One of the better lenders out there when a purchase falls through post offer. Just to be clear, this is correct for intermediary applications. I've not idea what it is direct but hopefully it's no different.

vlou

K_S said:

vlou said:

I currently have a mortgage offer that's due to expire on the 30th Nov and I'm hoping to complete on a new build on the 11th Nov. There have been several delays thus far and the last email from the developers state that they're awaiting confirmation from builders but the date given isn't "set in stone" currently.

My current offer is a fixed 5 year at 2.68%, what's the likely hood of Halifax offering to extend this an extra 30 days? I applied through their own mortgage advisor and not a broker.

I've searched the forum and I can find old posts where people have succeeded and had offers extended with Halifax an additional month but it's also regularly stated that they do not do this and the interest rate will be refreshed.

What are my chances at getting it extended? I've sent my adviser an email asking if it's possible and am hoping for a response over the next few days. Should I await their response (as they might no exactly what to say to proceed) or contact Halifax direct?

The only thing that gave me a little bit of hope is I tried to get a new offer through a broker yesterday (5.15% Fixed 5 Year) and explained my current situation, they said I shouldn't have an issue getting the extension but I don't know how worried I need to be.

@vlou Halifax new-build products rarely need an extension as they're valid for around 12 months. For example if you applied for a Halifax new-build mortgage today for the right product, it would be valid to 30/09/2023. When did you apply for the mortgage?

Generally speaking, Halifax products have a set 'complete-by' date (which looks like it's 30/11/2022 in your case) and to extend the offer usually requires having to select a current product/rate.

You are correct, the only complete date I can find is 30/11/2022 however this was arranged in May 2022 so it's left me a little confused. Selecting a new product/rate is going to incur a massive additional cost if the build is delayed further.

K_S

vlou said:

K_S said:

vlou said:

I currently have a mortgage offer that's due to expire on the 30th Nov and I'm hoping to complete on a new build on the 11th Nov. There have been several delays thus far and the last email from the developers state that they're awaiting confirmation from builders but the date given isn't "set in stone" currently.

My current offer is a fixed 5 year at 2.68%, what's the likely hood of Halifax offering to extend this an extra 30 days? I applied through their own mortgage advisor and not a broker.

I've searched the forum and I can find old posts where people have succeeded and had offers extended with Halifax an additional month but it's also regularly stated that they do not do this and the interest rate will be refreshed.

What are my chances at getting it extended? I've sent my adviser an email asking if it's possible and am hoping for a response over the next few days. Should I await their response (as they might no exactly what to say to proceed) or contact Halifax direct?

The only thing that gave me a little bit of hope is I tried to get a new offer through a broker yesterday (5.15% Fixed 5 Year) and explained my current situation, they said I shouldn't have an issue getting the extension but I don't know how worried I need to be.

@vlou Halifax new-build products rarely need an extension as they're valid for around 12 months. For example if you applied for a Halifax new-build mortgage today for the right product, it would be valid to 30/09/2023. When did you apply for the mortgage?

Generally speaking, Halifax products have a set 'complete-by' date (which looks like it's 30/11/2022 in your case) and to extend the offer usually requires having to select a current product/rate.

You are correct, the only complete date I can find is 30/11/2022 however this was arranged in May 2022 so it's left me a little confused. Selecting a new product/rate is going to incur a massive additional cost if the build is delayed further.

@vlou Well, if you're sure that the offer has a complete-by date of 30/11/2022, it looks like bad-luck on your part and tick-box advice on Halifax's part. As a broker, unless the new-build client specifies a rock-solid completion date, you expect delays to new-builds and advise accordingly. In this instance, you may likely have been better off paying a slight premium and applying for a Halifax new-build product which would have had a complete-by date about 11-12 months away when you applied back in May.

Just to be clear, the above applies to intermediary products. It might well be that Halifax direct products are different, they don't offer long-validity new-build specific offers, or their offers can be extended or something else which allows for delays in the build completion date. I've no idea about how similar/different they are.

I hope your build completes before 30-Nov or the offer can indeed be extended at the same rate, good luck!

Rural_Life

Hi, do you know what Atom/Digital are like come remortgages? Do they offer direct or do you have to go through a broker again to access their products.
Will finish a 5yr fix with them next year

K_S

Rural_Life said:

Hi, do you know what Atom/Digital are like come remortgages? Do they offer direct or do you have to go through a broker again to access their products.
Will finish a 5yr fix with them next year

@rural_life Assuming that you're talking about a product-switch / product-transfer / rate-switch (staying with Atom) and not a remortgage (changing lenders), as per their website it looks like it can only be done through a broker.

Unless you're limited to Atom for whatever reason (eg: won't meet affordability/criteria for a remortgage to another lender), I would advise against putting all your eggs in the Atom basket. For existing clients, they currently only offer two PT products - a 2 yr fix and a 5 yr fix, both at 6.5%+.

Rural_Life

K_S said:

Rural_Life said:

Hi, do you know what Atom/Digital are like come remortgages? Do they offer direct or do you have to go through a broker again to access their products.
Will finish a 5yr fix with them next year

@rural_life Assuming that you're talking about a product-switch / product-transfer / rate-switch (staying with Atom) and not a remortgage (changing lenders), as per their website it looks like it can only be done through a broker.

Unless you're limited to Atom for whatever reason (eg: won't meet affordability/criteria for a remortgage to another lender), I would advise against putting all your eggs in the Atom basket. For existing clients, they currently only offer two PT products - a 2 yr fix and a 5 yr fix, both at 6.5%+.

Yes product transfer, my mistake,. No not limited just was curious 👍 

vlou

Spent the afternoon digging through emails and I've been left scratching my head.

I applied on the 27th on February initially for a mortgage on a £330,000 new build flat. I have £190,000 deposit and the initial rate quoted for a fixed 5 year was 1.68%. Looking through the paperwork the mortgage starts with "GRC" which is presumably the code for a green home, a £250 bonus/reduction was mentioned but I had no idea that this was actually the product itself. What appears to have happened is instead of informing us that for an approx 0.2% increase in interest I could have been offered one of their new build mortgages and this product has a 1 year expiry.

I would have certainly chosen this option as we did not know the exact completion date and our solicitor who is a close friend advised us that they're generally expected to over run. In May we were informed of a delay so we told Halifax, who got us a new rate of 2.48% which also shared the "GRC" prefix. Again, we were not informed that we did not have a "New Build Homebuyer" mortgage.

Were these products available at the time we sat down with our mortgage provider and should they have mentioned this at the time? What appears to have happened is that in an attempt to save us £15 a month we've had to renew out mortgage offer once, with the real possibility of having to do the same after 30th November if there's any further delays. Over the first 5 year period this is likely to leave us £18,660 worse off due to having to pay over £315 more a month.

I'm not sure if we did anything wrong, if this should have been explained at the time but the fact we're clearly buying a new build flat and their own mortgage product for new build homes wasn't offered has left us extremely bitter. Do they have an obligation to explain why they offered us what they did?

If it something we have a right to complain about?

IAMIAM

NatWest Mortgage Offers

My current deal elsewhere ends 16 July 2023

Can I apply 16th November to NatWest, meaning about a month to secure an offer after valuation and documents then 6 months offer validity and then potentially extend another month to 16th July and then complete then? 

K_S

@vlou I have no idea how Halifax works direct or how their products differ from the intermediary ones. I know that the products do differ as the 'complete-by' dates for current Halifax non-new-build products is 28/02/2023 for direct and 31/03/2023 for intermediary.

You may have cause to complain but that'll depend on what the bank adviser was told about your requirements, what was recommended/chosen, what products they offer direct, etc.

I just looked up a 60% LTV new-build Halifax mortgage that I'd taken out in Feb for an FTB client buying a new-build flat in London, it was a 5yr fix at 1.88 percent under their New Build Green range with a complete by date of 31/03/2023. Like you they've had delay after delay and hopefully expect to finally complete latest in January.

vlou said:

Spent the afternoon digging through emails and I've been left scratching my head.

I applied on the 27th on February initially for a mortgage on a £330,000 new build flat. I have £190,000 deposit and the initial rate quoted for a fixed 5 year was 1.68%. Looking through the paperwork the mortgage starts with "GRC" which is presumably the code for a green home, a £250 bonus/reduction was mentioned but I had no idea that this was actually the product itself. What appears to have happened is instead of informing us that for an approx 0.2% increase in interest I could have been offered one of their new build mortgages and this product has a 1 year expiry.

I would have certainly chosen this option as we did not know the exact completion date and our solicitor who is a close friend advised us that they're generally expected to over run. In May we were informed of a delay so we told Halifax, who got us a new rate of 2.48% which also shared the "GRC" prefix. Again, we were not informed that we did not have a "New Build Homebuyer" mortgage.

Were these products available at the time we sat down with our mortgage provider and should they have mentioned this at the time? What appears to have happened is that in an attempt to save us £15 a month we've had to renew out mortgage offer once, with the real possibility of having to do the same after 30th November if there's any further delays. Over the first 5 year period this is likely to leave us £18,660 worse off due to having to pay over £315 more a month.

I'm not sure if we did anything wrong, if this should have been explained at the time but the fact we're clearly buying a new build flat and their own mortgage product for new build homes wasn't offered has left us extremely bitter. Do they have an obligation to explain why they offered us what they did?

If it something we have a right to complain about?