Intelligent Finance - timescales

totally_confused_3

Hi,

I think pple have probably been following my progress at the FD thread and would know that I have gotten a FD mortgage approved on the property that I am buying. However, due to unforseen work circumstances, we have to give up the FD mortgage and have taken up an Intelligent Finance (IF) tracker offset mortgage.

I was advised to take up this tracker by London and Country (L&C) as we are "foreign nationals" (i.e no permanent residency) and thus many lenders would not lend to us. In addition, we are working on very tight timescales here with us exchanging today and completion in 4 weeks, so IF was recommended as being the most efficient in responding.

L&C put in the application on Wed to lock in the rate before it increased on Thurs. IF have confirmed that in principal approval and the welcome pack is in the post to reach us tomorrow.

Now I have the following questions:

1. L&C have said that IF will be instructing the valuation today and said that this is standard practice by most lenders to have valuation and credit searches done at the same time before the mortgage offer was given. But from my experience at FD, we will given an offer subject to valuation BEFORE the valuation was instructed and the offer became valid upon the successful completion of the valuation. So is it true that IF works differently?

2. Does anyone have any idea of approximate timescales and if completion is 4 weeks is do-able? I am currently trying to negotiate a later completion date before exchange today so any prompt responses would be greatly appreciated.

Leon_W

NEVER EXCHANGE WITHOUT A MORTGAGE OFFER ! Rule No 1 !!

You could be setting yourself up for one hell of a fall.

IF usually issue the offer once all checks have been completed, valuation, income etc etc. Therefore I think your timescales are wholly unreasonable. Once they have sent out the pack you have to return it with wage slips, proof of ID etc etc and allowing for weekends, post etc I reckon you'll not get an offer for 2-3 weeks AT THE EARLIEST. Anyway, that is not the most important thing, the exchange is. Don't do it.

Regards

totally_confused_3

Tks for your advise but we do have other arrangements in place if the mortgage offer from IF does not come through in time. We can either borrow from our families or use the FD offer (in the worst case scenario) which is why we are prepared to go ahead with the exchange.

We just wanted to know when is the quickest timeframe we can get the offer in case we will need to arrange for other financial means for completion.

We will be sending all the relevant docs back to them tomorrow once we receive the info pack so hopefully, they can start processing it on Mon/Tues. :rolleyes:

Leon_W

Thank godness for that !

I hope you realise the reason for my concern though.


Timescales are always a "how long is a piece of string" question. In my experience IF are no worse and no better than other lenders. They are good with foreign nationals as you say ,but you would expect them to make more checks than normal so you would expect a longer turnaround than normal.

It's all speculation really and whatever I say will not make the offer arrive any quicker so, if it were me, I'd make sure that other finances were inplace just in case.

Best of luck.

totally_confused_3

I have heard back from London & Country today saying that IF has accepted all the paperwork which we sent back last week and valuation has been done and approved. They now need us to sign some document relating to a savings account being opened before they will proceed with the offer. Is this right? Is it due to the fact that I am opening an offset account with them? Just wanted to know which stage we were at. Tks!!!

Anne3333

Also be aware of the small print on your Offer. If anything relevant comes to light, that you failed to notify the lender of...or answered incorrectly, they can withdraw their offer AT ANY STAGE!
Be warned!