EWS1 form covering letter

mbugsy18

Hi, I am in the middle of a remortgage using The Mortgage works (Nationwide’s BTL arm). It’s been with the valuer since end of January, I have been prompt in sending the valuer the EWS1 form and covering letter from the surveyor who did the work. The valuer has said the form is fine it has a A1 rating but want more from the cover letter. The underwriters are chasing the valuer for more information as the management company has stated that the letter has not been in question from other lenders and has the relevant information required using the current guidelines. I contacted RICS and they say there is no template for the cover letter.
Has anyone had any experience of this where the cover letter is in question, surely a search of the RICS register should have the information about the firm and surveyor doing the work. I need to get this resolved ASAP. If my application is refused is there any lenders that can make an offer more quickly than The Mortgage Works.

Galux

Hi, I am currently having issues with my covering letter also. Barclays have said they want the covering letter to state the purchase property's address (the individual flat). The covering letter states the address of the building which, by definition should cover the flat we are purchasing. It's infuriating. Wondering where you got to with yours?

K_S

Galux said:

Hi, I am currently having issues with my covering letter also. Barclays have said they want the covering letter to state the purchase property's address (the individual flat). The covering letter states the address of the building which, by definition should cover the flat we are purchasing. It's infuriating. Wondering where you got to with yours?

@galux Sorry to hear about the trouble you've been having. For the cover letters that I've seen, it usually says something like "Flats 1-40" in addition to the building address.

If the address on the EWS1 itself is complete, perhaps it might be worth asking your broker to escalate it to their BDM or (if direct) escalate it yourself?

I highly doubt the man co is going to do anything to update the cover letter.

Galux

@K_S thank you for your response. I'v told my advisor that we are struggling to get an updated covering letter, and the building safety company that issued the letter & EWS1 has informed us that it covers our flat. I don't think Barclays would accept an email stating this but let's see how it goes.

K_S

Galux said:

@K_S thank you for your response. I'v told my advisor that we are struggling to get an updated covering letter, and the building safety company that issued the letter & EWS1 has informed us that it covers our flat. I don't think Barclays would accept an email stating this but let's see how it goes.

@galux Good luck, I hope you can come back and update the thread at some point to let us (and others who may come across the thread in the future) know how you got on.

Galux

Hi, just want to update this thread with my progress - we pushed back with the lender (Barclays) with emails attached from the building management company plus the safety company that did the EWS review stating that they won't issue a new cover letter, and that it covers the whole building and hence our flat, and also that no other lenders have had a problem with this. We asked for it to be escalated as the seller was going to pull out of the sale, and got our mortgage offer in two days. Was incredibly stressful and infuriating that the valuer even asked for such an illogical thing (surely they would know that the address on the cover letter is the whole building and by definition, covers the flat), but our offer came after escalating. Advice to anyone else reading this thread, push back on silly requests like this! It prolonged our mortgage application unnecessarily. 13+ weeks.

K_S

@galux Thanks for updating the thread. Really happy that you've had a result and well done on seeing it through!