First Direct Porting Mortgage problems

GuruJC

Looks like we managed to miss all the clues that our mortgage wouldn't get ported, and FD are digging in their heels and not admitting that all the information was not available.
We got agreement in principal to port the mortgage to a new property, and started the assessment. We were told it was OK to have up to six months gap between properties/mortgages. The first property then sold before the assessment had completed and the porting dropped out of the system. But we were NOT told that selling the first property would do this, at any stage until it had happened.
Anyone else with this problem? 

kingstreet

For most lenders, porting requires the sale and purchase completions to be simultaneous. Where the sale and purchase will be staggered, you are usually permitted to pay the ERC, choose a new product from the current range and provided purchase completion takes place within six months, receive a refund of the ERC paid.

I can't speak for FD as it is a direct-only lender, but here, for example, is Halifax criteria on this;-

Where a customer sells their property and repays their existing mortgage before they complete on a new purchase, they will incur any ERCs that apply. However, if they apply for a new mortgage with us within three months of repaying their existing mortgage, while they cannot port and would choose a new product from the current range at that time, once the new mortgage has completed we will process a refund of the ERC.