Nationwide - why is it taking so long?

winter02

Hi everyone - We are selling our flat and accepted an offer around 3 months ago. 
The valuation was done in person around 10 weeks ago and we submitted all of the relevant documents (EWS1 form, developer confirmation that all costs are covered, Fire Risk Assessment etc). The cladding remediation on our building is around 75% complete.
About 5 weeks ago, they came back to us as the EWS1 had the wrong postcode (we have 5 postcodes here), so we sent a revised one. Two weeks after they asked for a covering letter for the EWS1 which we got and sent and then two weeks after that they wanted a letter to say the interim fire risks had been assessed which we have sent.
Everything seems piecemeal with them rather than ask for everything up front.
I don't think it helps that out buyer is using a broker (L&C), but we are getting quite desperate now as the people we are buying from (the house is empty), are expressing their concerns.
Do you think our buyer should contact Nationwide direct? Anyone had any experiences similar?
Thanks

Hoenir

Leasehold flats aren't as straightforward as freehold houses. 3 months isn't long in terms of processing a transaction. 

annetheman

Skipping the broker doesn't help 99.9% of the time; in fact, if they've applied through the intermediary, they will almost certainly be told by the lender to get updates from them if they try (I have tried before).

The buyer cannot predict what the lender is going to ask for, but the broker should have advised from their experience so that they can get what they need in place. Leasehold flats have additional layers of governance especially around fire safety and as long as you are reacting quickly, then just get them what they need.

Even better would be for you to send the entirety of the mangement pack to them - do they not have this already? This has the EWS1, the FRA, the management questionnaires i.e. LPE1 etc etc. It won't stop the lender being piecemeal in their requests (which, again, isn't your buyer's fault or in their power to rectify), but it will stop YOU being an additional bottleneck to get things back to the lender from.

WellKnownSid

Sounds like it's definitely the leasehold which is causing issues.

My daughter went from application (freehold property, via a broker), survey + valuation, offer (with a typo), solicitor writing to them to correct the mistake, revised offer (correct this time) and solicitor writing to confirm all was present and correct in 19 calendar days.  The broker has been super efficient, keeping on top of everything.

winter02

annetheman said:

Skipping the broker doesn't help 99.9% of the time; in fact, if they've applied through the intermediary, they will almost certainly be told by the lender to get updates from them if they try (I have tried before).

The buyer cannot predict what the lender is going to ask for, but the broker should have advised from their experience so that they can get what they need in place. Leasehold flats have additional layers of governance especially around fire safety and as long as you are reacting quickly, then just get them what they need.

Even better would be for you to send the entirety of the mangement pack to them - do they not have this already? This has the EWS1, the FRA, the management questionnaires i.e. LPE1 etc etc. It won't stop the lender being piecemeal in their requests (which, again, isn't your buyer's fault or in their power to rectify), but it will stop YOU being an additional bottleneck to get things back to the lender from.

They have all the management packs as this was sent at the start of the process. 

I was under no illusion that this was going to be easy but it’s worrying that we are 3 months in and we don’t even know if the buyer has a mortgage yet. 

Tiglet2

winter02 said:

annetheman said:

Skipping the broker doesn't help 99.9% of the time; in fact, if they've applied through the intermediary, they will almost certainly be told by the lender to get updates from them if they try (I have tried before).

The buyer cannot predict what the lender is going to ask for, but the broker should have advised from their experience so that they can get what they need in place. Leasehold flats have additional layers of governance especially around fire safety and as long as you are reacting quickly, then just get them what they need.

Even better would be for you to send the entirety of the mangement pack to them - do they not have this already? This has the EWS1, the FRA, the management questionnaires i.e. LPE1 etc etc. It won't stop the lender being piecemeal in their requests (which, again, isn't your buyer's fault or in their power to rectify), but it will stop YOU being an additional bottleneck to get things back to the lender from.

They have all the management packs as this was sent at the start of the process. 

I was under no illusion that this was going to be easy but it’s worrying that we are 3 months in and we don’t even know if the buyer has a mortgage yet. 

No-one is going to advise you that the buyer has or doesn't have a mortgage offer yet.  It's possible that the EA might say, but otherwise you won't know.  Mortgage offers tend to have an expiry date of about six months after the offer was issued.  As leasehold transactions take quite a long time, the buyer/broker may not be in a hurry since they won't want a mortgage offer to expire before exchange takes place.