Moving existing mortgage

[Dr_Gonzo]

I'm looking at buying a property that is a reposession. Currently I'm the highest bidder and so I'm hoping my offer will be accepted. As it's a repo the bank sitpulates that exchanged must take place within 28 days of acceptance, so finance and legal work has to be sorted fairly quickly.

When I sold my previous property the T&Cs clearly state that I could move the mortgage to another property. However, the mortgage company, through my IFA, are now saying that they changed their T&Cs recently and are stating that mortgages taken out after November 2008 must be moved (ported) within 8 weeks of the previous redemption. This change has only been made recently and at no point was I informed of it. The documents I signed and the T&Cs with it simply state it can be moved and do not mention a time limit. Even though I originally took the mortgage out in 2006, I moved in Decemeber 2008 and this is the date they now class the mortgage as starting. I actually should have moved in September 2008 however the mortgage company took over four months to sort everything out and showed a staggering level of incompetence throughout the whole process. I actually almost lost the property I was buying due to their delays, but that's another story.

The account managers at the mortgage company refuse to put in writing that they wont offer me the mortgage and will only say things like 'it's unlikely' or 'may not go though'. My IFA believes that I have solid grounds for a complaint and, going on what the account managers at the mortgage company have said to him, they probably would offer me the mortgage were a complaint to go through, however this could several months.

So the position that I'm now in is that I need a quick mortgage. I feel that I should accept that I'm not going to be able to use my previous mortgage for this property and just apply for a new one.

Given that, I've heard people mention that applying with your own bank is normally the best bet in terms of speed. I'm with Barclays so it would be a Woolwich mortgage. Does anyone have any experience with them and how easy they are to deal with? Or, does anyone have any other advice they could give me in this situation?

Any help and advice would be much appreciated!

Thanks,

The Doctor

[scotal]

Apart from recommending you make a complaint , what else is your IFA saying?

[Dr_Gonzo]

He's trying to push the mortgage company to accept the porting application but it doesn't seem as if he has any clout with them. I've seen some of the correspondance between him and the mortgage company and it boils down to him putting my case forward and them replying with "sorry but no".

[scotal]

He wants to stop wasting his time (and yours).

I'd be looking at getting the new morrtgage sorted.
If he knows who you bank with certainly he should already be speaking to them. (Particularly in your case, if he doesnt know why that is, you're using the wrong guy)

BTW is your old mortgage lender Northern Rock?

[Dr_Gonzo]

scotal said:

He wants to stop wasting his time (and yours).

I'd be looking at getting the new morrtgage sorted.
If he knows who you bank with certainly he should already be speaking to them. (Particularly in your case, if he doesnt know why that is, you're using the wrong guy)

BTW is your old mortgage lender Northern Rock?

The mortgage company has offices in Gloucester and I some in a Cheltenham.

[scotal]

Ah, well they have recently stopped talking to intermediaries.
I'm not massively surprised they are limiting non-simulteaneous ports, particularly if you'd be going back onto their SVR.

[Ungarsee]

If you need to do your mortgage through the woolwich feel free to PM me as I work for Barclays and work along side some very good mortgage advisors. Happy to assist if you just want to chat through initially.

[Sarnie]

When you port the mortgage, with the majority of lenders, it's deemed as a brand new loan where they honour the rate of the original mortgage. They will normally re-credit score the application and re-check affordability etc hence you would have unwittingly signed up to their new T&C's as it was post November 2008....

[scotal]

Ungarsee said:

If you need to do your mortgage through the woolwich feel free to PM me as I work for Barclays and work along side some very good mortgage advisors. Happy to assist if you just want to chat through initially.

You have people that give advice on Mortgages? You sure you want to say that?

[Ungarsee]

scotal said:

You have people that give advice on Mortgages? You sure you want to say that?

Well I say it every day to my clients so not sure what the problem is? The OP asked about barclays/woolwich who I work for so i'm able to offer an insight. I personally do not give advice as my role was de-regulated back in Sept '07 but I hand off to a couple of extremely good woolwich mortgage advisors.

[Dr_Gonzo]

Sarnie said:

When you port the mortgage, with the majority of lenders, it's deemed as a brand new loan where they honour the rate of the original mortgage. They will normally re-credit score the application and re-check affordability etc hence you would have unwittingly signed up to their new T&C's as it was post November 2008....

I understood that when I signed in Nov 2008 it was under new/current T&Cs. However, in Novemeber 2008 the T&Cs didn't impose a time limit. The time limit for porting came in after I took out the mortgage and has be retrospectivaley applied without informing me. There's not mention of it in the mortgage offer I signed in Nov 2008 or the T&Cs.