Mortgage Disaster

max_sand1

Hi,

I organised a mortgage to buy my first property and it was all approved and ready to go about a month ago. Everything was fine, deeds were fine, had the deposit, signed all the solicitor documents etc... then yesterday, 2 days before purchase day (tomorrow) my solicitor informs me that the mortgage company sent through the wrong paperwork.

They sent the right paperwork to me and my mortgage broker, but they sent through re-mortgage paperwork to my solicitor when its just a standard mortgage, not a re-mortgage, so he went to my mortgage broker and my mortgage broker said he is getting it sorted as a matter or urgency, ive told him the paperwork has to be there tomorrow morning or else! He just keeps saying he has asked for it to be sorted as a matter of urgency.

I dont know why it is so hard for them to say... yes we have sent out new paperwork via recorded next day special delivery... or no there is a problem, but he doesnt seem to be telling me anything. Ive spoken to him twice today and im about to lose my temper, im normally pretty calm.

So i just want to know what my options are and what will happen if i dont have this paperwork in time. Im also pretty annoyed at my solicitor for not noticing earlier, ill be calling him in a minute, ive sent him my deposit any his fees already.

Not happy!

minimike2

To be fair its hardly your brokers fault. Its in thier interests to get it through as much as yours, the fault lies with the lender.

Unfortunately lenders seems to not care about service at the moment. They are all too busy pulling and repricing prodcuts.

After having three cases of mine recently where the application has been submitted and the paperwork "mysteriously dissapears" and a new porduct needs to be chosen, or there hasnt even been a new product available, the cynic in me thinks they are doing it on purpose to delay / avoid lending / lending at a higher rate.

This doesnt look like the case for you, but in teh current climate no one should expect any mortgage application to go smoothly.

max_sand1

OK fair enough, so what are the consequences in that situation where the owner of the property is relying on you to pay her in order for them to pay for their new property and then probably a while raft of people after that...

minimike2

The chain is held up...

Im not saying its acceptable, im saying that with the way lenders are operating at the moment we are all at thier mercy...

Gailk

I don't know if this is relevant to you, but we have recently had to change our mortgage offer. They requested it in writing and got the letter from us on Monday. We had the new offer yesterday morning. That was the Nationwide - I have been pretty impressed by their service generally so far.
Hope you get it sorted.

max_sand1

Thanks for the replies, I think ofcourse its definatley the mortgage companies error, as all our documentation said it was a standard mortgage. Illl just keep pestering them to ensure they get it sent out in time.

Im not too stressed and i can handle these things but im buying the house from my mum and she doesnt cope so well, i know it will be fine in the end but i just dont like it.

I do think tho that solicitors should check these things earlier... rather than 2 days prior to the move, isnt that what they are there to do. I could probably do a better job myself if I was allowed to, what walifications do you need to be able to buy a house...

Conrad

Max, I sympathise but you should recognise the fact the remaining lenders are inundadted as never before, so they simply cant focus on a single client and make promises. You'll just have to bare with it.

In my 20 years experience I have honestly found the clients who just let things take thier course really do get there quicker. Those that fret, stress and get too involved invariably cause the process to muck up as people are forecd to work outside of the normal process and too mank cooks and all that.

Certain personality types get ever so stressed yet given the exact same situation (many deals involve deadlines with kids starting new schools / new jobs etc) other people do not get stressed. In other words the stress is'nt real, its just a manifestation of certain peoples mind.

Good luck

max_sand1

Thanks for that conrad, ill butt out and just let them deal with it, but I wouldnt have thought it would be that hard to let me know one way or the other if the new letter offer has been posted or not.

In a normal purchase i would be stress free, its just because its my mums im buying and she hates living in a flat and cant wait to move to her new house with a garden etc.

We will just have to wait and see what happens.

HelpWhereIcan

I would say that your broker may be working by the "under promise, over deliver" principle. In other words they will not commit themselves to something they do not know to be true but secretly know that all is in hand as Conrad suggests.

Especially with current lender servicing issues it will be hard for him to get a commitment from the lender to someone actually doing something.

I once had the an argument with a lender's member of staff about them having someone free to look at some paperwork on someone's desk two feet away so you can imagine how hard it may be for your broker to get someone to commit to printing something let alone posting or faxing it!!!

I would also not forget the part your solicitor has had to play in all of this. From the sounds of it they did the typical solicitor thing and neglected to look at the offer until the last minute.

The paperwork for a remortgage and a purchase has a lot of similarities, but also enough differences for them to notice if they bother to look at the offer (which they are supposed to do in the process of making sure you understand it).

Your broker deals with underwriting, your solicitor deals with completions. Getting your solicitor to liase with completions about the new paperwork may get a result quicker.

Good Luck

selectcase

I would not panic too much - our buyers mortgage people got the paperwork wrong twice but it was sorted quickly