Just how many mortgage offers/products are being withdrawn?

sarah_elton

My b/f had an offer accepted on a house a couple of weeks ago. However, we found out a couple of days later that the seller never got building regs approval for his conservatory (required because he knocked the dining room external wall out to make it an open plan one). The seller is now applying for this retrospectively - the forms went in last week and my local district council claim 3-5 weeks to grant it.

My b/f had a mortgage agreed in principle before making his offer. He doesn't want to actually apply until building regs is granted, just in case there is a problem with it, due to then losing any booking fee and the survey cost. We don't foresee any problem with building regs, but still don't want to risk wasting money.

Normally this would all be fine but I'm concerned about all the products being withdrawn etc.

His position is that he is putting down a 27% deposit and then borrowing exactly 4 times his salary (we've done all the maths - it's affordable for him at that level even if interest rates go up, and will become even more affordable when I move in next year since we earn the same ). The only quirk is that he's a contractor rather than a permanent employee, but the mortgage advisor still found him plenty of deals (a few weeks ago now) due to the size of his deposit. In fact despite being a contractor the advisor even had some high street deals he could use due to the deposit.
[Originally posted on House Buying forum, now moved here...]


There's also a good chance he'll be told in the next 1-2 weeks that he's being made permanent at his current contract place, although he'd still need the advisor's help since he'd be in his probation period. Luckily, unlike me, b/f doesn't work in the financial services sector. :rolleyes:

So to all the mortgage advisors etc out there - what do you think? Given the state of the mortgage market, is it the right thing to wait another few weeks for the building regs approval before actually applying? He's not so fussed about potential interest rate changes in that time, but I am about how much harder it's getting to actually find deals. He spoke to his advisor last week who said he could understand why he was waiting to apply, and didn't seem to think it was a serious problem. I just love the house though and don't want anything to go wrong.