Halifax now refusing to mortgage our property

NiseMya

Hi. I was wondering if anyone else has come across this problem before?

The short and sweet version of events is as follows:

April 2018 we got a mortgage with Halifax on our property. 

We are now selling the property to move into a bigger home and Halifax have refused our buyer a mortgage as the property is “unsuitable”

Nothing has changed in that time to Halifax’s policy on this property type. 

The property has not changed in the time between. 

So it seems something has gone wrong with either our application 3 years ago or they have made an error on the new application. 

Halifax have been useless and resolved our complaint due to data protection for the buyers application. And just said that “the property was suitable at the time of your application”

If it was suitable back then then surely it’s still suitable?

I have raised a file with the financial ombudsman today on the basis that out mortgage has potentially been mis-sold but was just looking for others who may have experienced this?

Thanks for reading!

emmajones1976

Is it a flat?

user1977

That's not really what "mis-selling" means.

If it was suitable for them when you bought, and now isn't, then obviously either something has changed in their criteria, or the valuers had different opinions about the property. Haven't your buyers investigated other lenders? 

NiseMya

emmajones1976 said:

Is it a flat?

It is yes. It’s a non-standard construction flat above garages. 

canaldumidi

NiseMya said:

Nothing has changed in that time to Halifax’s policy on this property type. 

How can you be sure of this? Lenders do change their lending criteria regularly.

What type of property is it? Is it located above/near a commercial business?

Are you sure of the reason given? 'Unsuitable'. Presumably this came from the buyer? They may have misunderstood, or, indeed, deliberately mis-advised you eg they've changed their minds or actually been turned down on affordability grounds but embarassed to say this.

NiseMya

user1977 said:

That's not really what "mis-selling" means.

If it was suitable for them when you bought, and now isn't, then obviously either something has changed in their criteria, or the valuers had different opinions about the property. Haven't your buyers investigated other lenders? 

Luckily we are using the same mortgage broker now as we did 3 years ago and she is the one who told us to raise the complaint as she has investigated herself and told us that something doesn’t add up. 

She potentially found one other lender to try but our buyer has now pulled out due to the hassle of all this. 

canaldumidi

NiseMya said:

emmajones1976 said:

Is it a flat?

It is yes. It’s a non-standard construction flat above garages. 

Well there you go. Two quite possible explanations.

charlotteo1988

The house we brought was classed as unsuitable or of £0 value until we had 6m2 flat roof checked. 

It might be something the valuer thinks needs investigating before they confirm. Turns out the flat roof was fine and didn’t need replacing and all we had to do was get a roofer out to survey it and write a report to say it was fine. Sent that to the mortgage company and next day it was valued at the price we brought it for. 

Have the buyers decided to get a homebuyer survey done? And has the mortgage company said exactly why they class it as unsuitable? 

emmajones1976

canaldumidi said:

NiseMya said:

emmajones1976 said:

Is it a flat?

It is yes. It’s a non-standard construction flat above garages. 

Well there you go. Two quite possible explanations.

Indeed, lenders very twitchy now about mortgaging flats with the whole cladding thing going on.

NiseMya

canaldumidi said:

NiseMya said:

Nothing has changed in that time to Halifax’s policy on this property type. 

How can you be sure of this? Lenders do change their lending criteria regularly.

What type of property is it? Is it located above/near a commercial business?

Are you sure of the reason given? 'Unsuitable'. Presumably this came from the buyer? They may have misunderstood, or, indeed, deliberately mis-advised you eg they've changed their minds or actually been turned down on affordability grounds but embarassed to say this.

Our mortgage broker who sourced the mortgage 3 years ago and is looking into our new mortgage told us the policy hasn’t changed. 

Our buyer was also using her for the mortgage as recommend through our estate agent and she is the one who told us to raise this as a complaint as it doesn’t add up. 

charlotteo1988

P.S I don’t think Halifax have missold you a mortgage as your house is still currently under mortgage and your still paying for it. I don’t think your complaint will go anywhere unfortunately. 

Also why are you doing all the chasing if it’s the buyer who is buying the property they should of been told why it is unsuitable and get the relevant surveys/reports etc done to reassure Halifax they can offer a mortgage.