Mortgage offer withdrawn and I have to reapply because it took too long survey issues assessed ??

BarbManc

I was given a mortgage offer in May which said was valid until December. The Lenders survey flagged issues to be assessed by structural engineers. That done and all ok with the house the Lender is now saying there was a timescale (neither I nor my broker knew about) so the offer is withdrawn and I have to reapply at today's interest rates. It just doesnt sound right. None of my circumstances have changed. How can they agree a deal until December and not stand by it?

K_S

@barbmanc Which lender is this as it doesn't sound right. I might be missing something obvious here but normally the rate is secured when a full application is submitted.

Are you saying the lender issued a full mortgage offer in May, which was valid until December (Halifax/Santander?) and they've now withdrawn the offer and asked you to put in a new fresh application? I don't see how a lender would issue an offer if the lender valuation raised structural issues that needed further investigation.

What may have happened is that, during underwriting, after the valuation, the lender raised a query (structural issues to be investigated) which had a deadline for response and since the deadline expired the lender cancelled the application. Normally, if the query is taking longer than expected to resolve, I just upload a memo to the case notifying the lender of the same so that they don't cancel the application.

BarbManc said:

I was given a mortgage offer in May which said was valid until December. The Lenders survey flagged issues to be assessed by structural engineers. That done and all ok with the house the Lender is now saying there was a timescale (neither I nor my broker knew about) so the offer is withdrawn and I have to reapply at today's interest rates. It just doesnt sound right. None of my circumstances have changed. How can they agree a deal until December and not stand by it?

ACG

How would you get a mortgage offer if there were requirements for a structural survey to be carried out? 
Why has it taken 4 months to have the report carried out? 

I have never been told in this situation there are time limits involved, but common sense would dictate there must be. Otherwise your application could just be open indefinitely. 

dunstonh

I was given a mortgage offer in May which said was valid until December. The Lenders survey flagged issues to be assessed by structural engineers.

That doesn't sound right.   You are given an offer letter after the issues are resolved.  Not before the issues are resolved.   Are you sure you received the offer letter and it wasnt just a key features illustration?

i.e.  if they said they would lend the money subject to a satisfactory structural engineeers report, they would wait until they have that  report before issuing the offer letter (and confirmation that any required work was also carried out).

If the deal expired prior the issue of the offer letter, then having to apply for a new deal would be normal.

BarbManc

Thanks everybody. I've omitted a fairly important piece of information in that the offer letter in May related to a different house which fell through, and it was the second prospective property which required structural investigations. That took so long because the sellers had to use their insurance company for this in case they needed to claim to get work done. they took an awful long time.  Is it the change of property that led to them withdrawing the first offer would you say?

K_S

@barbmanc The policy with a post -offer change of property depends on the specific lender. Who's your lender?

BarbManc

It's Accord Mortgages

dunstonh

I've omitted a fairly important piece of information in that the offer letter in May related to a different house which fell through

ahh yes. That is a major bit of info.

Is it the change of property that led to them withdrawing the first offer would you say?

The offer is voided once you pull out of buying the other property.  So, you never had an offer on the newer property.

K_S

BarbManc said:

It's Accord Mortgages

@barbmanc I haven't had to do an Accord post-offer change of property recently so don't know their policy off of the top of my head.

It just differs from lender to lender unfortunately. For example if you were with HSBC/NatWest/Leeds they would reissue the offer with the new property while allowing you to retain the old product/rate. Otoh, Nationwide would need you to apply from scratch if the original purchase fell through.

london21

BarbManc said:

It's Accord Mortgages

If you are still buying the property, try to get another offer with the same or another lender.

Some lenders do not allow you to switch the mortgage offer to another property once the product has been withdrawn.

So halifax for example, once the rate increases it will be the higher rate if one changes the property.