Halifax mortgage decline - huh?!

phoenix9

The pain of buying and selling houses seems to get worse the longer it goes on for - here's the (long story short) so far:

Found a buyer for my house and entered into a chain to buy another.  Secured a mortgage with Halifax no problem, who were the lender on the house I was selling too.
Chain fell apart, so my onward purchase was in question
Tried to part exchange with the new build developer I was buying from, they took issue with the title and pulled out
M

phoenix9

Oops - clicked post too soon!

Mortgage offer expired

Moved into rented whilst waiting for the sale to complete
Sale completed, mortgage was paid off

Today I've applied for a decision in principle again with Halifax and they've declined on credit score.  No material change in my circumstances apart from paying off my old mortgage.

CheckMyFile shows 885/1000 with the only slight red flag being the number of applications made recently - almost all of them being Halifax repeatedly scoring me for mortgages....

Anyone got the slightest idea what's going on?!

[Deleted User]

Huh?          

phoenix9

Deleted_User said:

Huh?          

My bad - clicked post too soon and there doesn't appear to be an edit button!

[Deleted User]

When they say credit score, they don't mean your CRA credit score, but the score they give you in assessing your application.

You'll need to look at (or share) the detail of your circumstances for any insight as to why you were declined - credit history (look at the detail of your files, not the scores), affordability, valuation and so on.

phoenix9

I know that this question is a little bit "how long is a piece of string" but I'm absolutely at my wits end.  It must be quite common for people to have failed transactions that result in needing to apply again for a mortgage in a fairly short period of time? 

[Deleted User]

Yep - it happens.

phoenix9

Deleted_User said:

When they say credit score, they don't mean your CRA credit score, but the score they give you in assessing your application.

You'll need to look at (or share) the detail of your circumstances for any insight as to why you were declined - credit history (look at the detail of your files, not the scores), affordability, valuation and so on.

My credit/payment history is excellent - never missed a payment etc and whilst I do have residual debt, the debt:income ratio is low.  Affordability/valuation aren't even a concern right now when they're kicking me out at DIP despite issuing a full offer to me only a few months ago.

K_S

@phoenix9 On its own, the Halifax hard-check from a few months ago is very very unlikely to have caused you to move from an accept to a decline on the credit-score.

It could be due to a combination of the following -
- change in address
- change in status from homeowner to tenant
- change in the Halifax credit-scoring algorithm making it stricter at whatever LTV it is that you are applying at
- slight changes in your credit history (just a guess)

Unless there is some reason/need for wanting to stick with Halifax, you may as well look at the whole market and find a lender that will lend what you need, good luck! 

phoenix9

K_S said:

@phoenix9 On its own, the Halifax hard-check from a few months ago is very very unlikely to have caused you to move from an accept to a decline on the credit-score.

It could be due to a combination of the following -
- change in address
- change in status from homeowner to tenant
- change in the Halifax credit-scoring algorithm making it stricter at whatever LTV it is that you are applying at
- slight changes in your credit history (just a guess)

Unless there is some reason/need for wanting to stick with Halifax, you may as well look at the whole market and find a lender that will lend what you need, good luck! 

The possibility of recovering the ERCs I had to pay out when redeeming the old mortgage would be the biggest incentive to stick with them - so I

phoenix9

... did it again - I guess if it's a computer says no type scenario I'm left with little option, though.