Mortgage offer removed at the last minute

[andye30m3]

We seam to have hit a bit of an issue with our remortgage.

We agreed a good rate with a new provider a few month ago before the base rate increase, which was in place until the end of May.

The agreement in principal was done.
Valuation done, credits checks done and solicitors appointed.

Then the full offer was sent out to us and the solicitors.

With a few weeks to go they seam to re done the credit check and removed the mortgage offer, although not told the solicitors.

We spoke to them, got the details of the 3 credit rating agencies they use, joined all of them and have done our own check which all come back as excellent.

The cynic in me thinks they’ve simply pulled the offer as they don’t like the rate they offered anymore.

We’re in discussions with them at the moment but everything is very slow and I suspect they will shortly conclude that they will not honour the agreement.

I was really after any thoughts on how I can push things threw (if it even can be) and if it’s worth making complaints to the ombudsman if it all falls apart.

[Sarnie]

I've been warning clients about the potential for this to happen for years.

Lenders don't withdraw offers for no reason, what reason have they given you?

They wouldn't withdraw it simply because it's a low rate and now want to put you onto a new rate. If they've pulled the offer then it's because they now don't want to lend to you, no matter what the new or old rates were or are.

If they are referring you to your credit files, then something has changed. You've either taken something out, a loan, a credit account.......it could simply be a single search against you that has taken your "score" from an accept to a decline.......

[andye30m3]

They are saying we now fail the credit check

We have less credit that when we applied as we paid of a credit card each and I also paid off a small loan.

My ratings on the 3 sites they use are 999/999, 917/1000 and 885/1000 my partners are similar but still all coming back at excellent.

With that and a less that 50/50 ltv I can’t understand what the issue is and nobody at the lender is able to give any specifics

[Sarnie]

andye30m3 said:

They are saying we now fail the credit check

We have less credit that when we applied as we paid of a credit card each and I also paid off a small loan.

My ratings on the 3 sites they use are 999/999, 917/1000 and 885/1000 my partners are similar but still all coming back at excellent.

With that and a less that 50/50 ltv I can’t understand what the issue is and nobody at the lender is able to give any specifics

The scores issued by credit reference agencies are irrelevant, it's the lenders internal scorecard that you need to pass.

You shouldn't have paid off the accounts you have done, having less data on your file can lower your score..... If thats all you've done then your aren't going to be able to overturn a failed credit score if there isn't anything negative on your credit file.....

If you'd used a broker (too late now I appreciate) but they would have been able to speak directly to the underwriter to find out what the issue is.....

[cts1975]

OP was this with Barclays by any chance?
We had a mortgage completeion date recently and the Barclays tracking app seemed to pause for a few days leading upto completion. When we contacted our solicitor he said he'd spoken with Barclays who said they were carrying out some unexpected last minutes check. The funds did eventually transfer 3 days late. Similar to you we had agreed a fixed rate of for 5 years, I was convinced they were ready to pull the plug.

[andye30m3]

We did say we planned to pay the cards off as part of the original application as they both had small balances and we had been paying down.

It’s not Barclays but another of the high street lenders. We fixed for 5 years at 1.07 so I’m not surprised they’re no longer keen to progress it’s just such last minute change it’s causing a lot of stress when I’m on holiday

[Sarnie]

andye30m3 said:

We did say we planned to pay the cards off as part of the original application as they both had small balances and we had been paying down.

It’s not Barclays but another of the high street lenders. We fixed for 5 years at 1.07 so I’m not surprised they’re no longer keen to progress it’s just such last minute change it’s causing a lot of stress when I’m on holiday

Whatever has happened, the offer being pulled has nothing to do with the rate.

You've failed the credit score. This has nothing to do with the rate.

[Pit Pony]

It's mental, that paying off debt, reduces credit score. I couldn't believe that my daughter who has saved 40k in the 4 years since she graduated, is being told to get a credit card and use it for all her expenditure and pay it off every month.

[BoRED S2upid]

You need a solicitor for a remortgage? I thought you just filled in forms provided evidence of income and outgoings and job done

[p4cks]

Pit Pony said:

It's mental, that paying off debt, reduces credit score. I couldn't believe that my daughter who has saved 40k in the 4 years since she graduated, is being told to get a credit card and use it for all her expenditure and pay it off every month.

Saving money is different to paying someone back.

Imagine <you had a wad of cash and> two randoms asked to borrow some of it. Will you give it to the fella with absolutely no history whatsoever but has quite a bit in the bank, or the fella who has an excellent record of paying people back who he has borrowed from.

[andye30m3]

Fair enough I think the frustration and then suspicion is from the inability for anyone to actually tell us what the issue is, it feels very ‘computer say no’ which would have been fine 5 months ago.

They are looking at assigning an advisor who will hopefully be able to talk to the underwriters and get some clarity, and possibly keep the existing deal if we can resolve it.

[Sarnie]

Pit Pony said:

It's mental, that paying off debt, reduces credit score. I couldn't believe that my daughter who has saved 40k in the 4 years since she graduated, is being told to get a credit card and use it for all her expenditure and pay it off every month.

Saving money does not build up your credit file.

When you want to borrow money, you need to be able to evidence that you can and will pay it back.

[Sarnie]

BoRED S2upid said:

You need a solicitor for a remortgage? I thought you just filled in forms provided evidence of income and outgoings and job done

Yes you do.

[gangzoom]

Sarnie said:

BoRED S2upid said:

You need a solicitor for a remortgage? I thought you just filled in forms provided evidence of income and outgoings and job done

Yes you do.

I sorted out our remortgage over breakfast on the laptop via some PDF forms? Unless there was some internal solicitor at the bank who we had no direct contact with?

[Sarnie]

gangzoom said:

I sorted out our remortgage over breakfast on the laptop via some PDF forms? Unless there was some internal solicitor at the bank who we had no direct contact with?

You are talking about a Product Transfer, not a remortgage.

[Greshamst]

You could do a data subject access request with CIFAS to see if anyone has loaded a fraud flag against you.

Have you made any credit applications in the past few months other than the mortgage? And any possible inconsistencies between credit applications?
Do you have a second property that you rent out, or have you ever rented out your property?

[andye30m3]

Cheers I’ll have a look into the CIFAS thing as it’s worth checking

I do have a buy to let, it’s on a fixed interest mortgage for the next 2.5 - 3 years, and always rented out, again was on all of the original forms and nothings changed.

The bank seem to have lost the full mortgage offer, the solicitors do have it and have given us the reference number but as the bank is their client won’t send it back to us. We’re on holiday at the moment but hoping we have the hard copy of the document at home, not sure if this will help at all.

[Greshamst]

andye30m3 said:

Cheers I’ll have a look into the CIFAS thing as it’s worth checking

I do have a buy to let, it’s on a fixed interest mortgage for the next 2.5 - 3 years, and always rented out, again was on all of the original forms and nothings changed.

The bank seem to have lost the full mortgage offer, the solicitors do have it and have given us the reference number but as the bank is their client won’t send it back to us. We’re on holiday at the moment but hoping we have the hard copy of the document at home, not sure if this will help at all.

Ok, so sounds like you declared the buy to let on your form. And is it on a buy to let mortgage? Just trying to think of different things that could spook a bank after a first offer. If someone used a residential mortgage on a buy-to-let, or the opposite way round, this can be a big red flag.

[BoRED S2upid]

Sarnie said:

gangzoom said:

I sorted out our remortgage over breakfast on the laptop via some PDF forms? Unless there was some internal solicitor at the bank who we had no direct contact with?

You are talking about a Product Transfer, not a remortgage.

What’s the difference?

[gangzoom]

Sarnie said:

You are talking about a Product Transfer, not a remortgage.

We added £200k to loan amount as a separate product than changed in the product on the original mortgage. As far as I know no socilitors were involved, but it was all within Barcalys so I no idea what happens at the back end, for us as the customers anyways no mention of any socilitors though clearly plenty of documents to sign.