Nationwide Retention

Gailk

We are remortgaging to the Nationwide and have have also added a small amount to cover some work we want to do in the house.
We've received the mortgage offer, but there is a condition that the additional amount will be retained until they have invoices for the work.
We are doing the work ourselves, so won't really have invoices - unless they want our b&q receipts for each tin of paint and piece of plasterboard.
Has anyone been in a similar position? Would they release the extra without the invoices? LTV is 88% and the extra is about 3% of the mortgage.
Thanks in advance.

texas_devil

tell them to whistle,

maninthestreet

texas_devil wrote: »

tell them to whistle,

Not a good idea when you want them to lend you money.

itsnever2lateisit?

Nationwide are the only lender that I have had a retention issue with,twice! The first time was my first mortgage 20 years ago. I rushed round got the work done, wrote to them and they just relased the money:mad:
Second time around I wasnt so desperate for the money so took my time, only when I wanted additional funds for an extention did they ask about the works they had requested be done, and why I hadnt asked them to release the retention. They sent a surveyor round (at their expense) he saw new sockets on the wall, ticked the box, asked about the woodworm treatment, "have you a guarantee?" he said, I picked up a notepad and said " how many years do you want it for?":p ah! you did it yourself, thats fine and low and behold they released the retention.

I would suggest you write to inform them that you will DIY, in my experience they should be ok with that

Gailk

Thanks for the advice.
It's not the end of the world if we don't get the extra, just means it'll be a lot slower to get the work done. Will see what they say!.

Dick_here

Doesn't this just amount to Nationwide not wanting to lend remortgage money unless they are sure it is going to be used on the property. In the current climate, isn't that reasonable to prevent people going into debt and blowing the money ?

Gailk

Perhaps, but it is difficult when you are doing the work yourselves (and hence saving money!). Unless we bill ourselves!!
If they aren't able to advance without invoices, they either get every B&q receipt or we forget about the extra and go ahead with the mortgage without it.

snarffie

I'm not sure, but I think there were two types of loan with Nationwide that could be secured on the house. One worked like an 'improvement' loan and one (the one we had) was called a flexible advance. I had a quick look at their website, and they seem to have a 'further advance' and a 'flexible advance', so this might be what I'm thinking of.

It might be worth asking for a flexible advance. They just check that you have enough equity, and offer you a maximum amount based on that. For example, They offered us a reserve of £15k, and we drew down about £5-6k. You don't have to use it all, of course. You don't have to provide receipts, and you can have the loan on the same terms as the mortgage if you want, or go for any of their fixed/tracker/svr products.

The fact that you told them that you were extending the house might have led them to offer the further advance product.

Worth checking.

tyllwyd

If you are doing a significant amount of work yourself, would it be worth going to a trade building centre and getting an account? I haven't done it myself, but a friend was having an extension done and she agreed with her builder that she would provide the materials, so she went to Travis & Perkins, showed them the plans, and they gave her a list of the materials she would need and negotiated a discount. (We had some building work done last year, and the builder left a couple of invoices hanging around, and I can tell you he was getting a bl**dy good discount from his supplier!) That might help cut down the paperwork to a sensible amount as well.

Gailk

Thanks for the replies.

Well I've spoken to them and they would need receipts to release the retention.

tyllwyd

It's not that much trouble to save the receipts though is it? Even if it is a few hundred B&Q till receipts, all you need to do is stick them in a file as you go along.