We're in a similar situation. We all signed contracts 2 weeks ago but were told we couldn't exchange as our buyers didn't have a mortgage offer (they are in rented and that was the only thing they had to do!). Since, we have been told that they did have an offer but their solicitor only has a fax copy of it and won't exchange until they have the hard copy. This still hasn't arrived after 2 weeks! Despite our buyers chasing it (apparently).

If our buyers did have an offer why won't the mortgage company send the original or maybe it has genuinely got lost in the post. I worry that our buyers are actually stalling and will later offer us a reduced price as all the local house prices are starting to drop (although apparently they also have signed a contract ready to exchange).

The worry is making me ill! Its the waiting that really gets to me. I now have another weekend of not knowing if we will move and I'm desperate for Monday morning to phone our estate agent and see if I can find out any more!

Hope it all works out for everyone!

Hi do you know which leader is the best to approach for shared equity the house that we want to buy is a 75% share the other os owned by the builders who built it 9 yrs ago, we are applying with Abbey as they are our current lenders they want to know all the ins and outs of the scheme and we are awaiting the documents from them i hear Nationwide are good with the equity shared its just so annoying that we are having to think about another lender as we are tied in to our current deal with Abbey for another 3 years and wanted to port the mortgage so we will have a penalty to pay and also its taken them 7 weeks to tell us this so we may have wasted all this time, the people in the house we want said they just went in to the estate agents when they brought it 5 years ago and got a mortgage and brought the 75%.

Our solicitors are ready to exchange but here we are 7 weeks down the line no further forward with mortgage.

Hi...it would be ideal if Abbey ported the original mortgage and there is no reason why they shouldn't. They can charge a penalty if you are borrowing less, but apart from that you should be legally allowed to do so as it would have stated that the original offer was portable. Let us hope that it is just the backlog that Abbey are suffering, as you say Nationwide have S/O products as do Halifax.

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Regards

Ian

It does say we can port our mortage they are just querying the shared equity as its not through a housing association and we have not been "nominated" for the scheme as i said it was advertised through a high street estate agents and we viewed and offered our mortgage advisor said that they change their criteria almost every day at the moment so hes not sure what they will say when they receive the info from the builders who own the 25% but certainly getting fed up waiting.

I called them on Friday but on the number i have they have nothing showing on their computers when i tell the mortgage advisor he says its because they go through different channels and they have certainley got all the details as they have requested this further information its just so frustrating.

Hi...I will call Abbey tomorrow and ask about the situation of S/O via an alternative route other than hosing association, I don't see there being a problem but I can understand the lender wanting to see the contract. What we have here is a lender being inundated with applications as many other lenders price themselves out of the market. Apparently Abbey have had staff in this weekend to try and clear the backlog, let's hope they have done so??

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Regards

Ian

Thanks that would be a help, i just wish they would talk to us the customers but aparantley it goes through another route through a mortgage advisor i can understand them wanting to see the contract although seems like we are having trouble now getting a hold of that!!

Also they said as we going to a shared equity house there would be no charge for having a lower mortgage not sure how that works either but thats what we were advised.

Applications to Abbey through a broker go through a different part of Abbey, called Abbey Intermediaries. I understand they're different to how Abbey deal with direct customers. Apparantly direct customers are dealt with much quicker.

Thanks for that info now wish thats what we did, bit late now i guess!!

Strangely, that's the exact situation we're in. I found this thread by googling about this apparent backlog that I keep being told that Abbey have. My fiance and I are first time buyers, getting 17.5% via the government via an organisation called Plumlife. In theory, that should be the most complicated bit, but we have been constantly delayed by Abbey - first with survey, and then the offer. We were also turned down initially, but our broker managed to talk them round!

We finally got the offer last week, and hopefully things are now moving but I'm constantly worried that they will put it back on the market. I know it would delay them to start over, but I'm sure they must be getting annoyed even though it's out of our control!

Well our buyers finally have their mortgage!! Woohoo!! Althou now it has to be run past the people providing the other 17.5% as the government scheme so I wonder how long thats going to take..... then they can go in and sign the contracts but they seem in no rush what so ever!!! After signing contracts can we then exchange straight away?!?!

mortgage offer recived today - pretty much 6 weeks after initial application. good luck everybody who still waiting

Hi well Abbey came back to us and said no to the shared equity of 75% they wanted it 85% owned because its a private building company and not a housing association or council.

I asked the developers if they would consider this and was greeted with a definate no, we applied to Nationwide who said they would do it but as we had missed a mortgage payment they would not consider us even though i tried to explain the payment was missed due to husband changing from a weekly paid job to a monthly paid job and missed the cut off point for pay day and had to go 5 weeks without being paid, Abbey accepted this and we pay bit extra every month.

So now we have to find another property and apply to Abbey again with the new details, our buyer is waiting to exchange but is quite happy at the moment so bit of a nightmare really!!

Hi,

We too accepted an offer on our house 12 weeks ago. They had the survey done 8 weeks ago. We found our house 6 weeks ago had the survey done 2 weeks ago and we received our valuation and offer from the Abbey 3 day offers later, but our first time buyers still haven't received thier offer which by coincidence is also with the Abbey. When i ring my Estate Agents they say the mortgage advisor is chasing it up but we still haven't heard anything. I must say at this stage it is quite worrying as how can it take us 3 weeks in total to obtain a valuation and offer but thiers is still ongoing.

We also feel like we have been taken for a ride. Is anyone else having trouble with the Abbey?

Hi again

Well after 16 weeks we have finally exchanged!! Woohoo!!! Abbey (who are providing our buyers mortgage) have been an absolute pain from the start, I don't know if they are just being extra precautious about first time buyers or what - even at the last minute as we were about to exchange they queried something else about out land!! The whole time I felt like I was being taken for a ride but its all turned out ok in the end... well we havent completed yet but Im sure it will be fine!!

Mac2006 - It does make you think that maybe your buyers didnt start getting things together until you had found a house - there wasnt such a delay in mortgage applications 12 weeks ago as there were still more products and lenders so maybe they did only apply recently?!

I remember when we first bought our current house there was only 6 weeks between us making an offer until completion! Things aren't going to be that simple anymore!

Help!!

We applied to Abbey to port our mortgage to a new property which was a shared equity to cut long story short they were not happy with the split so we pulled out of that and found a new property.

This took them 7 weeks to decide that we could not proceed on the s/e so yesterday given the new property details, the problem we have is that our buyer is ready to complete as he has been waiting for 7 weeks at the moment.

we are happy to exchange but not complete as part of the porting deal states that you have to complete and start new mortgage on the same day otherwise you are liable for early repayment charge which in our case in over 3,000 so what do you advise should we exchange and try to push completion date as far as we can or explain to Abbey but think this falls on deaf ears.

It would rather annoying to have to pay the ERC to then maybe 2 weeks later have a mortgage with Abbey again under the same deal ( tied in for 3 years)

I would appreciate some help with this

Many Thanks