Mortgage broker - ask me anything

ramansridhar

Why can’t we get mortgages at BoE rates especially where LTV is 60% or less?

silvercar

ramansridhar said:

Why can’t we get mortgages at BoE rates especially where LTV is 60% or less?

Banks make a profit by lending out at a higher rate than they pay in savings.

K_S

ramansridhar said:

Why can’t we get mortgages at BoE rates especially where LTV is 60% or less?

@ramansridhar Can't speak for your particular circumstances but generally speaking, from a whole of market point of view, as of today, there are plenty of lenders offering 60% LTV fixed rate products that are slightly below (and just above) the BOE rate of 4% and even more if you expand the field to include discount variable products.
https://www.moneysavingexpert.com/mortgages/best-buys/

femster82

I have a fixed rate with West Brom ending on 31st May. Switching to Natwest and taking some money as equity out. 
Got another property due to complete on June 2nd.

1. When do I set the remortgage completion date to make sure I get the money before June 2nd but to avoid ERC?

2. Do they give me the released equity money on the same day I complete, for example June 1st?

Equalee

Apartment falling through as NatWest requiring a deed of variation on the ground rent. Believe is an issue as it could in the future rise to £250pa. 

Do landlord usually stump up for this or does this bring down a lot of mortgages. 

Suppose main question.. how common is it for lenders to highlight this as an issue? TIA

K_S

femster82 said:

I have a fixed rate with West Brom ending on 31st May. Switching to Natwest and taking some money as equity out. 
Got another property due to complete on June 2nd.

1. When do I set the remortgage completion date to make sure I get the money before June 2nd but to avoid ERC?

2. Do they give me the released equity money on the same day I complete, for example June 1st?

@femster82 It's something you'll have to speak to your sols about. Ordinarily, where clients are releasing equity from property 1 to but property 2 and need simultaneous completion for whatever reason, they use the same sols for both transactions so it's pretty seamless.

K_S

Equalee said:

Apartment falling through as NatWest requiring a deed of variation on the ground rent. Believe is an issue as it could in the future rise to £250pa. 

Do landlord usually stump up for this or does this bring down a lot of mortgages. 

Suppose main question.. how common is it for lenders to highlight this as an issue? TIA

@equalee The policy towards escalating ground rents (GR) differs across lenders so there's no one single approach. They will usually have criteria based on the starting value of the GR, how often it is reviewed, what is the basis for review (RPI,CPI, doubling, change in property value, etc.), location of the property, value of the property, etc.

It's a common issue with flats, so as a broker, ideally this is something I would like to factor in before recommending a lender but unfortunately this information isn't always available until conveyancing takes place.

Outside of a statutory lease extension (which sets the GR at zero) freeholders aren't obliged to agree to a deed of variation. If the freeholder agrees, at the very minimum, the vendor will most likely need to shoulder all the freeholder's costs involved getting a deed a variation done. So how likely it is that you'll get a deed of variation will depend on the freeholder and how motivated your vendor is to get the property sold. 

csswiift

I have an application with Platform (Co-Op) at the moment. We've been underwritten with no further questions asked at the moment. Valuation has taken place and received with the lender. Application has now been passed to a senior underwriter. Does anyone know why this would be?

We've provided all our documents and answered any basic questions they've asked. Home report has been reduced from £425k to £410k which luckily matches our offer.

Timeframe given for a decision is 29th March (1 week away still).

Any insight would be great.

Thanks

K_S

csswiift said:

I have an application with Platform (Co-Op) at the moment. We've been underwritten with no further questions asked at the moment. Valuation has taken place and received with the lender. Application has now been passed to a senior underwriter. Does anyone know why this would be?

We've provided all our documents and answered any basic questions they've asked. Home report has been reduced from £425k to £410k which luckily matches our offer.

Timeframe given for a decision is 29th March (1 week away still).

Any insight would be great.

Thanks

@csswiift Platform are a p-i-t-a lender at the best of times so congratulations on getting this far!

I can't recall any of my Platform cases having gone to a 'senior underwriter' so not really sure what that might mean. If it has indeed gone for further review (and it's not just the broker saying that to manage expectations, as Platform can be very slow to process applications), it could be due to any number of things like non-standard income (eg: contractors, ltd.co.self-employed) or visa status or any flags raised on the system or high background debt levels or simply a routine random audit or anything else that is potentially out of the ordinary.

On a positive note, their service levels have rapidly improved in the past week, I had a case with some outstanding queries which was supposed to take 10 working days to process but it went to offer in 4-5 days, which was a pleasant surprise.

Good luck, hope your offer comes through soon!

stevat

Hello all, quick question: can a one-off sizeable £25k bank transfer between spouses somehow affect mortgage application? Whether that's for a joint application or individual one? What if the transfer is split into daily chunks of, say, £5k to stick to the daily limit?

Just thinking of moving funds around to stay under the £85k protection limit.

thanks!