Mortgage frustrations

firsttimesellerldn

Hello - me and my partner are having a really frustrating time trying to get a mortgage at the moment. I know from this forum that we’re not the only ones, but we’re trying to work out what to do next. I’ve only bought my flat before and that process was much easier and quicker, at least the mortgage bit was. 

We had our offer accepted on a house back in mid August and the house is empty (was a second home purchase and then the vendor had some financial difficulties so decided to sell rather than rent it out apparently). Our broker has always been really slow at getting back to us but he’d been recommended by friends so we persisted with him. I’m PAYE but my partners income is a mix of PAYE and self employed (has three years accounts) so we wanted a broker who could help us find a lender who was willing to take that income into account. Anyway, after an application to Platform in early September he’s just, after much chasing, told us they’ve refused us because of a short term dip in my salary (the whole company took an up to 20% cut for what ended up at four months and was never going to be more than six - my employer has confirmed in writing will end at the end of this month). I’ve been permanently employed at my company for nearly ten years and it’s the sort of company which will not be going bust anytime. But anyway, I understand banks are nervous at the moment. I’m also aware platform are very slow, but I don’t really understand why our broker recommended going with them or why he’s so persistently bad at calling us back when we ask for updates. Suspect he has more work than he can handle.. Our vendors estate agent is quite reasonably starting to chase with concerns. I would add that we’ve instructed solicitors and they’ve commenced the usual conveyancing work, which I know we’ll have to pay for even if we lose the house. So we’ve been trying to push all the elements of the process on. My sale isn’t ready for exchange yet but is progressing well (no further chain as selling to a FTB). 

Our broker has now recommended an application to Coventry, but yet again failed to call us back after saying he would do today. 

I’m minded just to say to him on Monday that he either confirms an application is in with them on that day or we dump him and go elsewhere. But how to to explain that to the estate agent in a way that doesn’t lead them to entirely lose confidence in us as buyers?! And then we have to find another broker and hope we can find a lender that can progress at a reasonable speed.

 Any advice welcomed...! 

MWT

Pick one of the brokers who post regularly on here, the one you have is clearly not going to get better at this point, so time to move on...

haras_n0sirrah

What percentage deposit do you have. Platform were one of the few doing 10% deposit at one time so was that the reason?

firsttimesellerldn

We applied for an 80% LTV mortgage with them but can go up to 75% if we need to (we want to hold back some money for some internal renovations to the property). The property is £500k. 

haras_n0sirrah

Platform is an odd choice then
 They aren't the cheapest and their criteria isnt the most flexible or exciting and they are currently struggling with the 90% backlog. Has the broker said why coventry?

Thrugelmir

firsttimesellerldn said:

 I’ve been permanently employed at my company for nearly ten years and it’s the sort of company which will not be going bust anytime. 

Companies don't ask their employees to take a 20% pay cut for 4 months without good reason. Were you furloughed? 

firsttimesellerldn

Thrugelmir said:

firsttimesellerldn said:

 I’ve been permanently employed at my company for nearly ten years and it’s the sort of company which will not be going bust anytime. 

Companies don't ask their employees to take a 20% pay cut for 4 months without good reason. Were you furloughed? 

No I wasn’t. And of course, I understand a lender will want to consider this factor when deciding whether to lend, although it’s frustrating when they take over a month to decide that. But I’m focusing on moving the situation on! 

firsttimesellerldn

(Difficult to fully explain re my company being incredibly unlikely to go bust without outing my employer, basically statutory type function but not actually government) 

haras_n0sirrah

I have had a few clients have a temporary covid paycut - usually for around 6 months and then back to normal.