Urgent mortgage offer question
Urgent mortgage offer question
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Discussion

aspender

Original Poster:

1,405 posts

294 months

Friday 10th June 2022
quotequote all
We are due to exchange on sale/purchase today.

Last night our solicitor dropped a bomb on us and said she wants written confirmation from our lender that they know we are paying more for the property than the mortgage valuation states.

Sale price is £X
Mortgage valuation is £X - 4.2%

LTV in the offer is 72.5%

We have a full 10% deposit. Equity in our sale more than covers the rest.

Her partner has said it's all fine. She's saying she wants written confirmation from the lender (HSBC)

This feels massively cautious and I don't see why the lender should care. If she wants written confirmation that will take days and put everything at risk.

Views?

Edited by aspender on Friday 10th June 09:57 to remove specifics


Edited by aspender on Friday 10th June 13:10

PaulW100

112 posts

97 months

Friday 10th June 2022
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Why is it that the solicitor is requesting this confirmation, to satisfy themselves or the request has come from elsewhere?

Possible it is centred around fraud prevention and the legislation around that.

55palfers

6,361 posts

193 months

Friday 10th June 2022
quotequote all
Amazing.

How long ago did she discover this?

alscar

9,627 posts

242 months

Friday 10th June 2022
quotequote all
I’m no legal expert but she’s your solicitor so I would expect you to be able to tell her it’s unnecessary and you are happy to continue. I’m a bit curious about the partner comment though?
To even let you know this close to exchange is also pretty bad form.
I guess you could always try and get an email today from HSBC but that would worry me about potential for creating a problem that doesn’t exist - I guess in reality you wouldn’t get said email today anyway.
If it were me I’d be instructing her to just continue and get exchange done given it’s not until completion that any mortgage is handed over and as you say that’s a modest LTV in the scheme of things.

aspender

Original Poster:

1,405 posts

294 months

Friday 10th June 2022
quotequote all
fesuvious said:
I'd contact your mortgage company and ask them if they care.
I phoned this first thing, and they simply asked for the solicitor to contact them.

It's purely coming from her, nothing else.

CharlesElliott

2,260 posts

311 months

Friday 10th June 2022
quotequote all
I am not sure I understand.

Surely the mortgage company is already aware of these things given the application form and the valuation survey that they would have instructed? And I would think they only 'care' if the LTV is affected (given they will calculate the LTV from their valuation and not the purchase price).

Doesn't your mortgage offer contain the purchase price?

Sarnie

8,366 posts

238 months

Friday 10th June 2022
quotequote all
alscar said:
I’m no legal expert but she’s your solicitor so I would expect you to be able to tell her it’s unnecessary and you are happy to continue. I’m a bit curious about the partner comment though?
To even let you know this close to exchange is also pretty bad form.
I guess you could always try and get an email today from HSBC but that would worry me about potential for creating a problem that doesn’t exist - I guess in reality you wouldn’t get said email today anyway.
If it were me I’d be instructing her to just continue and get exchange done given it’s not until completion that any mortgage is handed over and as you say that’s a modest LTV in the scheme of things.
The OP might be paying her, but she has a duty of care to protect the lenders interest so is just covering her backside.

It's normal to require this, just sloppy to request it at this late stage.......

aspender

Original Poster:

1,405 posts

294 months

Friday 10th June 2022
quotequote all
CharlesElliott said:
I am not sure I understand.

Surely the mortgage company is already aware of these things given the application form and the valuation survey that they would have instructed? And I would think they only 'care' if the LTV is affected (given they will calculate the LTV from their valuation and not the purchase price).
Correct - the purchase price was clear to them and for example is used in the illustration produced by them prior to the offer process.

CharlesElliott said:
Doesn't your mortgage offer contain the purchase price?
No.

alscar

9,627 posts

242 months

Friday 10th June 2022
quotequote all
Sarnie , yup I get that but HSBC know all those numbers prior to any offer so pedantic in the extreme from her - sloppy sounds generous !
OP , hope all sorted today and exchange goes ahead.

aspender

Original Poster:

1,405 posts

294 months

Friday 10th June 2022
quotequote all
Sarnie said:
The OP might be paying her, but she has a duty of care to protect the lenders interest so is just covering her backside.

It's normal to require this, just sloppy to request it at this late stage.......
Thanks Sarnie. That's useful.

Killer2005

20,586 posts

257 months

Friday 10th June 2022
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From the UK finance lenders handbook

6.3Purchase Price
6.3.1The purchase price for the property must be the same as set out in our instructions. If it is not, you must tell us (unless we say differently in part 2).

From a lenders point of view, it won't really matter as will already be aware but the solicitor will be following the above so have to report it.

As Sarnie said, really should have been picked up earlier but if lender is aware of how close to completion you are then will be dealt with beforehand.

Edited by Killer2005 on Friday 10th June 11:38

aspender

Original Poster:

1,405 posts

294 months

Friday 10th June 2022
quotequote all
She's now managed to speak with HSBC who've confirmed they know exactly what the purchase price is.

Thanks all for the replies. One less last minute issue to worry about...

CharlesElliott

2,260 posts

311 months

Friday 10th June 2022
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Glad you got it sorted. I understand why they should know, but also assumed that they would already know - which it sounds like they did.