Mortgage offer pulled 3 days before completion

pinkteapot

macman said:

Why would there be over 8 weeks gap between exchange and completion on a new build?  There's no chain, so why would it not be a maximum of one month, or even same day?

That's just the new-build process. 

You say you want to buy a particular house. You pay a small reservation fee (usually), then the developer expects you to exchange contracts within 4 weeks. In reality it's usually a bit longer, as conveyancing takes longer than that, but you do tend to exchange pretty fast, say up to 8 weeks. There isn't a fixed completion date - it's "completion on notice" (i.e. when the developer later provides a date).

The house might not then be finished for months - sometimes even longer. When it's ready, the developer issues "notice to complete", which sets a completion date in 10 days' time.

The buyer bears the risk of being unable to complete for all the intervening time.

DullGreyGuy

theartfullodger said:

Lender CAN tell OP why the change, they just choose not to 

Depends on the reason for the change... if the OP was under investigation for fraud or money laundering then they shouldnt be informed of that. 

If its just a commercial decision then its a decision for the lender on if they share or not. Certainly for unsecured lending the vast majority dont and just tell you to look at your CRA records. Namely because it leads to pointless debates with staff who arent empowered to change the decision. 

SadieO

Gavin83 said:

Bit late for the OP now but it's a terrible idea to do anything that'll make changes to your credit record before completion. I wouldn't even arrange for broadband before completion as it involved a hard search and I have a great credit record and was well within their affordability range. It's also not a good idea to push yourself to the absolute limits of affordability either.

Would this also apply to asking your existing provider to change to the new address? We were gonna contact them when we exchange to see if we could get booked in, in case there was a wait. 

user1977

SadieO said:

Gavin83 said:

Bit late for the OP now but it's a terrible idea to do anything that'll make changes to your credit record before completion. I wouldn't even arrange for broadband before completion as it involved a hard search and I have a great credit record and was well within their affordability range. It's also not a good idea to push yourself to the absolute limits of affordability either.

Would this also apply to asking your existing provider to change to the new address? We were gonna contact them when we exchange to see if we could get booked in, in case there was a wait. 

I would doubt your existing provider would need to carry out another credit search, but in any event I think it's probably a bit paranoid to avoid taking out new utilities accounts - your mortgage lender isn't likely to be spooked by borrowers doing something which is perfectly normal and benign for house-movers to do. But something like a new credit card, or getting furniture on a credit account (even if you intend to pay it off before any interest kicks in), are probably best avoided.

Gavin83

user1977 said:

SadieO said:

Gavin83 said:

Bit late for the OP now but it's a terrible idea to do anything that'll make changes to your credit record before completion. I wouldn't even arrange for broadband before completion as it involved a hard search and I have a great credit record and was well within their affordability range. It's also not a good idea to push yourself to the absolute limits of affordability either.

Would this also apply to asking your existing provider to change to the new address? We were gonna contact them when we exchange to see if we could get booked in, in case there was a wait. 

I would doubt your existing provider would need to carry out another credit search, but in any event I think it's probably a bit paranoid to avoid taking out new utilities accounts - your mortgage lender isn't likely to be spooked by borrowers doing something which is perfectly normal and benign for house-movers to do. But something like a new credit card, or getting furniture on a credit account (even if you intend to pay it off before any interest kicks in), are probably best avoided.

I agree it's a bit paranoid but none the less I didn't want to do anything that might have affected my mortgage application. That's my decision, others are of course free to take whatever action they wish. It was no great hardship for us to wait until we completed before arranging broadband.

SadieO said:

Gavin83 said:

Bit late for the OP now but it's a terrible idea to do anything that'll make changes to your credit record before completion. I wouldn't even arrange for broadband before completion as it involved a hard search and I have a great credit record and was well within their affordability range. It's also not a good idea to push yourself to the absolute limits of affordability either.

Would this also apply to asking your existing provider to change to the new address? We were gonna contact them when we exchange to see if we could get booked in, in case there was a wait. 

I suspect not but in our case we didn't want the same provider nor the same product.

[Deleted User]

The consequences of exchange but failure to complete verge on catastrophe. The risk may be remote and you can mitigate by not taking out credit. Still it is a risk. We exchanged and completed same day. Will do the same next time.

TheJP

Having looked at the OPs previous threads about buying this house i don't think the offer being withdrawn was anything to do with a phone contract, looks more like affordability as the OP wanted to add her daughter to the mortgage so her salary would be taken into consideration. I also think we will never find out as the OP has gone radio silent.

Sarah1Mitty2

p00hsticks said:

Gavin83 said:

pinkteapot said:

First thing to do is find out if your broker can get you a new mortgage. If so, approach the developer and beg for an extension to completion while your application goes through.

I see no incentive for the developer to agree to this. This way they get to keep the exchange deposit from the OP and sell the house to someone else, so they'll make an extra £22.5K profit on this sale. It's certainly worth asking mind but I expect the answer will be no.

Surely it depends on how confident the developer is that they'll be able to re-sell it quickly at the same price ?

Round here we have a new estate being built and each week they seem to be offering more and more incentives to try to get them off their hands (e,g a years mortage paid, all flooring / carpeting included etc...)

Help to buy ending won`t be helping them either.