Mortage application taking over 3 months to be approved

Confusedandfrustrated

Please share your advice and thoughts.
My husband and I filed a mortgage application with Santander in mid July via a mortgage broker and still no offer. I was told by my broker that it would be a fairly straightforward process due to the big deposit which represents about 40% of the house price ( our LTV is 59%). Now, a part of that deposit is a gift with money that comes from abroad, so I completely understand that the lender needs to do some extra checks to comply with money laundering regulations. But I have provided every single document they have asked, always on the same day or the day after they requested it. According to the broker, the lender always takes 3 working days to review our answers, which means the file progresses very slowly. So far, I've accepted this and waited paitently.
But... the last time I was asked to provide further documentation was over 2 weeks ago (12 working days ago) and the lender has not provided any further updates since then. The broker is telling me they are calling the bank almost daily but that the application is "with the underwriters". Meanwhile, the deal to buy the house is about to fall through as the vendor was under pressure to exchange on her new house yesterday and she didn't have the funds to complete the sale. She keeps asking what is happening with our mortage application and I have absolutely no answers. I'm afraid she'll decide not to sell at this point as she probably thinks we are unreliable buyers. A letter was written by the solicitor and sent to the lender last week to say that the only thing holding up the sale is the mortgage offer.
This morning I called the bank directly but was unable to get any information myself as they said everything needs to go through the broker. I keep asking the broker for answers and they said they don't know what's happening. Is it normal for a lender to take this long and to provide no updates? Am I really expected to sit and wait for months on end without an idea of where my application has gone wrong? Is it true offers are taking longer to come in because of Covid-19? Should I fire the broker and try to do chase the case myself?
It's really frustrating not knowing what's going on and I don't know what to do. Any advice and thoughts much appreciated!

haras_n0sirrah

Santander currently are working on docs that went to the underwriting queue on the 16th sept. Do you know when it went into the queue? The broker ringing every day won't help - If it is within advertised timescales there are no escalations

All residential and BTL applications in progress

We're setting up applications received on	8 October
We're checking supporting documents received on	8 October
We're responding to broker messages received on	8 October
We're reviewing applications sent to our underwriters on	16 September

A

Confusedandfrustrated

Thank you for your reply!
The application was filed on 29 July, which is when we got an email from the broker saying that underwritters would start reviewing the case... I think it must have gone to the underwriting queue before 16 September as that was 1.5 months later. If you don't think ringing every day would help, is there anything else you could recommend? At this point I just want to know if it'll be approved or not, at least then I'll know I should be applying somewhere else!

haras_n0sirrah

29th july? Wow something has gone wrong there.
I have just had an approval for one that was submitted 2 weeks ago.
Are you self employed or is there something really tricky with your case?

[Deleted User]

I applied for a mortgage BTL with Santander on 17th July, same day I had offer accepted on house. 

We completed 18th Sep. I found Santander unbelievably fast.
This deposit from abroad sounds like it is perplexing them big time.