Is my buyers mortgage taking too long?

MovingSiren

We're 6 weeks out and still waiting for a mortgage offer. This is a first - we've usually had an offer within a week. Valuation was only done last week even though the full application went in first week of March!

Rossim1985

Thank you to all contributers for the further replies. It's made me think perhaps I should be a bit more patient.  Clearly some are seeing delays at the moment without any intention to cause them. 

HannahEL84

I’m in a similar position, accepted buyers offer 1/03, their survey was done on the 29/03 and a month on still waiting for their offer! It seems depending on the lender you chose wait times at the moment can be very long! I feel your pain it’s very stressful!

Dusk1983

Also a buyer in this situation. The EA started to complain but I'm not sure why, they must see it's affecting many people right now.

I also arranged a private building survey; the fact that a third party had at least contacted them to arrange access I'm sure calmed them down, and I assume the vendor too. It costs a grand which proves we're serious. Without that, I think they would have started kicking off.

Redwino222

My concern is my buyer hasn’t started any of the other conveyancing work while waiting for the mortgage offer.  So they have no skin in the game at this stage, and it feels like all this time is just wasted. 

My mortgage offer came in within a week.  So I may have unrealistic expectations😊

laura_lau

I'm also from the other side... I'm buying chain-free (both ways) so I expected it to be quick. How wrong I was! Although I have no affordability problems, there have been no problems highlighted by the lender about my application, this Thursday (29th April) it will be 12 weeks since I submitted my mortgage application. Simply, my lender would look at the documents I submitted one by one, not quicker than once every two weeks, before requesting an additional document or piece of info, which I always provided on the same day, if possible, or as soon as possible (the latest was to see my deposit all in a single account, which I provided as soon as my account statement was produced, which was an entirely different source of stress, as apparently my bank takes 24 working hours - so 3 working days - to upload the statement on the cloud for me to download). I provided this latest document on the 30th March. I still haven't received an offer. I've been chasing my mortgage broker to chase the lender every week, often twice a week, and 2 weeks ago I was told the lender said they are still progressing through the queues of cases to examine, and I was still in the middle of it, and they were estimating 11 more working days before examining my case to agree to it. Last Friday I furiously chased the broker for an update, as the EA informed me that the vendor was getting impatient (quite rightly, I am very impatient myself by now!). He managed to get the case escalated and was informed that they agreed to my case (finally) but still need to carry out the valuation.... The valuation was instructed on the day, but the surveyor hasn't contacted the agent yet, just spoke with her a couple of hours ago. So, extreme slowness on the lender processing my application for whatever reason internal to them to be blamed here. 

Redwino222

Laura what lender is that?  Horrendous customer service 

laura_lau

Redwino222 said:

Laura what lender is that?  Horrendous customer service 

It's Saffron Building society. I went through L&C mortgages as mortgage broker, and they have been helpful, although I have the feeling they don't actively chase the lender for me unless I actively chase them, and even there no escalation was done until I told them my vendor was getting very impatient and I was risking to lose on my purchase. 

nakiwala123

I was the seller in this position last year with our buyers losing their patience with us. Our mortgage offer came 52 working days after application. It was porting, borrowing a very small amount extra; basically all very straight forward. But our bank had a huge backlog. I later learnt that they seemed to process new applications within a very reasonable timescale but existing customers were put in a very long queue as if you couldn't wait, you would have pay the ERC to leave. A win for the bank either way. We did however, instruct our solicitor to continue with the conveyancing so it was a gamble on our part but it did show that we were committed to the process. 

I think several banks have a backlog like this. 

laura_lau

nakiwala123 said:

I was the seller in this position last year with our buyers losing their patience with us. Our mortgage offer came 52 working days after application. It was porting, borrowing a very small amount extra; basically all very straight forward. But our bank had a huge backlog. I later learnt that they seemed to process new applications within a very reasonable timescale but existing customers were put in a very long queue as if you couldn't wait, you would have pay the ERC to leave. A win for the bank either way. We did however, instruct our solicitor to continue with the conveyancing so it was a gamble on our part but it did show that we were committed to the process. 

I think several banks have a backlog like this. 

I'm starting to think that was my case too, although no one could confirm this to me. It's hard to believe they have a 3 months long queue, so what you are saying would explain lots of things. Today is 56 working days since I applied.