Mortgage broker not communicating - lender rejecting evidence of savings for deposit

kerchingbinnacle

I'm unfortunately in a slightly sticky situation.

I've applied for a mortgage through a recommended broker. All was going well and they were very helpful with good response times to my enquiries.. until they stopped communicating around 3 weeks ago.

During this time the lender has conducted the mortgage valuation on the house and have reached out to the lender with an issue regarding my savings - the broker hasn't replied to the lender and hasn't communicated this with me. I found this out from calling the lender directly.

I am self employed and have been for several years now. My earnings have been as follows:

2020/21: £118k
2021/22: £180k
2022/23: £115k

The lender is therefore using £115k for the basis of my application. This doesn't reflect my current income though, which is projected to be around £300k+ for 2023/24. I receive regular, monthly payments and have already exceeded 2023/23's earnings since this April.

The issue is that part of my savings for the deposit have been from payments that I've received this tax year (2023/24). I took on additional contracts specifically with this house purchase in mind and agreed to a lump sum with the idea of using that towards my deposit.

I have communicated this with the lender and they have recommended that I email my broker with these details for them to pass on to the underwriters... except my broker isn't replying to my emails and their phone lines are going to voicemail.

I have told the lender that I'm able to demonstrate that I've been receiving regular, monthly payments since the 2020/21 tax year and that I can show that the additional funds for my deposit have been received on top of my regular income. I am hoping that this will be enough to prove affordability - they're just going to have to sift through a lot of bank statements.

Feeling a bit stuck. Everything else with the house purchase has been going great so far - "dream house", surveys have come back great and no issues have cropped up thus far. I'm pretty much only waiting on getting this mortgage offer.

Any recommendations or advice? Thanks.

kerchingbinnacle

Also, to clarify, the amount that I am borrowing falls within the expected range for the £115k declared income excluding the additional income that I am putting towards the savings - so from my side affordability isn't an issue. It's just that I've received the additional income this tax year - which I imagine wouldn't have been an issue had it been just a couple of months earlier.

I'm hoping that the lender is also able to agree with this. The issue I have now is actually communicating this to them through my lender as the underwriting team don't deal with customers directly.

simon_or

Did you try and speak/email your broker yet?

If your broker goes incommunicado for more than a few days then submit a formal complaint or if it's a large company, leave a zero or 1 star review wherever you can - Trustpilot, Google reviews, reviews.co.uk, that usually gets their attention and someone should get in touch.

As for the issue in question, big banks underwriters don't really have a lot of discretion in how they look at income, for self employed it's usually the lower of average or latest year and in your case the latest year has the lower figure. I doubt you'll be able to convince the likes of Halifax or HSBC to ignore that. Which bank is it?

Think of a backup plan in case this doesn't work out, and use a solid broker for that.

kerchingbinnacle

simon_or said:

Did you try and speak/email your broker yet?

If your broker goes incommunicado for more than a few days then submit a formal complaint or if it's a large company, leave a zero or 1 star review wherever you can - Trustpilot, Google reviews, reviews.co.uk, that usually gets their attention and someone should get in touch.

As for the issue in question, big banks underwriters don't really have a lot of discretion in how they look at income, for self employed it's usually the lower of average or latest year and in your case the latest year has the lower figure. I doubt you'll be able to convince the likes of Halifax or HSBC to ignore that. Which bank is it?

Think of a backup plan in case this doesn't work out, and use a solid broker for that.

I have sent them a few emails since the 27th and also tried calling multiple times but no luck unfortunately. If I don't hear back next week then I'm going to submit a formal complaint.

I've applied for the mortgage with Westbrom which from what I understand have been a bit more willing to work on individual cases like this. Unfortunately the only other option if this doesn't work out is to wait until next tax year.

Hopefully bank statements of regular income should be able to prove the additional income for my deposit needn't be classified as part of my regular income.

simon_or

27th June?!

If they've been ignoring you since then, then it's well past time for a complaint or a bit of noise to get their attention.

I wouldn't delay until after next week, at some point the bank can cancel the application if it's been dormant with no updates from the broker.

🤞 Westbrom accepts the explanation but I would be surprised if they did. This is what they're saying on their website - "Income used will be the lower of the latest finalised years or an average of the last 2 years' share of net profit". So if your broker put you with them, he must have checked with them if they would make an exception, otherwise it's just a wasted application isn't it.

kerchingbinnacle

simon_or said:

27th June?!

If they've been ignoring you since then, then it's well past time for a complaint or a bit of noise to get their attention.

I wouldn't delay until after next week, at some point the bank can cancel the application if it's been dormant with no updates from the broker.

🤞 Westbrom accepts the explanation but I would be surprised if they did. This is what they're saying on their website - "Income used will be the lower of the latest finalised years or an average of the last 2 years' share of net profit". So if your broker put you with them, he must have checked with them if they would make an exception, otherwise it's just a wasted application isn't it.

That's what I figured.. the broker has seen my bank statements and I have made them aware that I'm earning additional income so you'd think that they would have noticed this glaring issues and notified me quite a while ago.

What would be the correct avenue for escalating a complaint? They're part of PRIMS Mortgage Network which have their own complaint line or would it be advisable to go directly to a regulated body?

Thank you for the advice.

simon_or

Their sign up information should have the contact email for the initial complaint. If you can't see anything there, look up the firm on the FCA register, there should be an email for complaints there. I don't know what PRIMS is but if there's nothing there either then speak to PRIMS I guess.

No point going above that without having complained to the firm first. I think you can escalate it only after 8 weeks.

kerchingbinnacle

simon_or said:

Their sign up information should have the contact email for the initial complaint. If you can't see anything there, look up the firm on the FCA register, there should be an email for complaints there. I don't know what PRIMS is but if there's nothing there either then speak to PRIMS I guess.

No point going above that without having complained to the firm first. I think you can escalate it only after 8 weeks.

Thank you, I’ll look into doing this. 

kingstreet

PRIMIS not PRIMS. It's a network and your broker's firm is an Appointed Representative. Call PRIMIS and make sure the broker is alright before you complain.

kerchingbinnacle

kingstreet said:

PRIMIS not PRIMS. It's a network and your broker's firm is an Appointed Representative. Call PRIMIS and make sure the broker is alright before you complain.

My apologies. I have contacted PRIMIS to let them know my broker isn’t communicating with me.

kerchingbinnacle

Something that my parents have discussed with me (I’m young, first time buyer, early 20’s):

They’re able to take equity out of their mortgage and are aware of my financial situation. Would they be able to gift me the necessary amount to cover the part of the deposit that I was planning on using from my additional earnings this tax year?

I’m really hoping that Westbrom will accept proof of past income history for me to show I have regular income on top of this bonus that I’ve received.. but just trying to think of backup options.