Hi

We accepted an offer on our house 12 weeks ago, they are first time buyers borrowing 17.5% of the government in one of these government lending scheme things, meaning they are gettin a mortgage for 82.5%. On application their offer was refused, however I am told their broker then spoke to Abbey National and explained whatever it was that made them say no and Abbey have now apparently said yes, they have their mortgage and they will send the offer out in writing.....however this was 4 weeks ago! Everytime I ring my estate agents I am told that everythings fine its just Abbey national have a huge back log of mortgage applications to get through and that it will be sent out 'anyday now'

Is anyone else experiencing problems like this? I feel like Im being fobbed off and they havent got their mortgage sorted at all!

If you are desperate for things to move along, send a message via your solicitor to their solicitor to say that, if you can't complete by the end of May, you will be putting the property back on the market.

To answer your question, yes, dalays are quite common, particularly if there is a chain of several properties.

I have asked my solicitor what do and she basically said all we can do is wait and she reckons there are huge delays with lenders getting offers out at the mo.... don't know if this is true??

The chain is only the first time buyers, me and then the house we're moving to is empty, everything else is ready, all paperwork is done and we're literally ready to exchange as soon as the supposed mortgage offer comes thru

On the other hand I don't want to start making threats as we got the price we wanted for our house, have found the perfect house to move to and dont want to jeopardise either losing a buyer or losing our new house!

Has anyone else been waiting ages for a mortgage offer?

Yes. Delays happen. You may have to decide at some point how long you are willing to wait. Mortgages are indeed harder to get these days.

Hi....4 weeks is actually a long time to get a promised offer out if has been agreed. There could be hold ups if the offer is based on certain documentation getting through and these have proven difficult to obtain. There is about a 7-10 day turnaround with Abbey at the moment so a little too long in this case. I think all you can do is wait for a while longer and hopefully the offer will be issued, the estate agent is responsible for the chasing..they love it!!!

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Regards

Ian

I think I may be in a similar situation as you. We received an offer on our property end of Jan which we accepted and the buyer then had their survey done mid Feb, but since then nothing has happened. We keep chasing up via the estate agents and initially we were told Abbey have a huge backlog of applications due to some great offer they had at the time and had been flooded with applications and they were experiencing 3 week backlogs. 3 weeks have come and past and still no offer and the other party's brokers now keep saying its with the bank and an offer is imminent and should be received any day. They've been saying this now for the past month or more and say they can not do anymore as they're waiting for the bank. We're really frustrated as we've found our new home, had our offer accepted and have done all the legal work and are just waiting to exchange. We asked our solicitors to chase up which they did but the reply was they are waiting on instructions from their client and our solicitor also said everybody is experiencing delays. We're trying to reassure the people we're buying from and our estate agent believes it should be ok and the delay is just indicative of the current market conditions. We're keeping our fingers crossed but we need to decide sooner or later if we are going to continue with our buyer or put the property back on the market. Let us know how you are getting on.

Its nice to know somebody else is in the same position, keep me posted!

I'm a purchase (first time buyer) and my application was sent to Natwest 5/6 weeks ago - I'M STILL WAITING!! My IFA is speaking with Natwest everyday however unfortunately it is the case that there is a backlog especially with this particular lender as apparently they were one of the last ones to offer 100% mortgages! I'm concerned that the vendor (who wanted a 10 week completion window) will put the house back on the market, it is so frustrating! I really don't want to lose the property but there isn't much I can do!

Hi

I too am having problems with the Abbey regarding my mortgage.

It took my financial advisor over 2 wks to even get to speak to a human and not a computer!!!

My application was submitted in Feb and we haven't even got a date for the surveys from them (this apparently should take no more than 2 wks from application).

Their first excuse was they hadn't received the application, but a 'confirmation of receipt' fax from them proved otherwise!

Their second excuse was that they had a backlog of over 600 applications and they were aiming for the 9th of May, aiming for what I don't know? I may be aiming for my solicitor beyond that !

To make matters worse the family who are buying our house are also having the same problems with ABBEY !!!

The only consolation is that apparently several other banks are having/causing the same problems!

Well they say that moving house is one of the most stressful things in life, its definately not for the faint hearted.

Good luck I'm sure you'll be choosing paint and curtains before you know it :)

So it seems like as if the problem is indeed widespread. Obviously First Direct have pulled out of offering to new customers, so all those people who would have been applying to 1st direct are now applying else where and also all the people who were with the Rock or were going to apply there are now either moving elsewhere or applying elsewehere, not to mention there's less mortgage products available than there were before, something like 4000 compared to 10000 this time last year, so it means less choice and more applications which does sound like as if it can create a backlog. The broker for our buyer said its taking him up to 15 days just to get a response back from Abbey, and that's usually just an acknowledgement that they have received a fax or a document or email, let alone action it. The problem though is it might take the bank 3 months to come back and then say "Sorry, can't give the mortgage", which means all that time has been wasted that's why its so stressful and why one needs to make a decision early on to stick or twist! Its all very stressful, we don't want to lose the property we've found but there's nothing we can do, only consolation is if the market is so bad and taking so long to arrange a mortgage that the other party may not be able to sell their quickly either even if they put it back on the market, unless there's a cash buyer which is rare at the moment with the way the market is!

Hi

We sold our property at the beginning of March and were issued with a mortgage certificate on the 4th March from Abbey which basically means they have agrred in principle to give the mortgage.

We had offer accepted on a property and started the full mortgage application on the 15th March, we had not heard anything after couple of weeks so broker called them they said yes we got it its with the underwriters, now we are 7 weeks down the line and they keep requesting information that they could of asked for weeks ago we still havent had the valuation survey done yet as their principle is they have to be happy with everything else before they ask for the valuation to be done.

We have an abbey mortgage and we are looking to keep our current deal we actually want to borrow less but they still keep wanting more information, it takes them 5 days to key in any new information that you send them.

Our solicitors are ready to exchange and cant go any further now without our mortgage offer, again we are worried that we will lose our buyer or the one we want will go back on the market.

The broker says he calls them daily i have suggested that i call them but he said that really wont help and will prob put their backs up and we will end up on the bottom of the pile again!!

Hi....same problem for everyone at the moment with Abbey, we sent a purchase up on the 8th and it hasn't been looked at yet :( We expected a 15 day turn round but even this could be extended, so long as the vendor and the buyer know that this is the experience that most lenders are having they will hopefully understand. Lenders should be aware though that we brokers have long memories and we will be selective where we place business when everything settles down ;) One point if you are porting your current rate there will be a penalty for reducing the loan amount and why on earth are you using a broker when you are an existing client? This should not be taking this long as an existing customer and I would advise you to call Abbey yourself and play merry hell!!!

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Regards

Ian

Hi,

We applied via phone to the abbey 10th march and have returned all the paperwork and had it referred to u/writers. Finally on monday the survey was done and i called abbey today who say surveyors report has been passed back to mortgage centre and appears in order. Therefore, he mortgage offer will be sent out within 3-4 working days. having read all of the posts above i'd be surprised but we will see. will kyp

Well we spoke to our buyer's broker today and he said Abbey are waiting on some more documentation which our buyer is to produce through his accountant, seems like banks are being extra extra careful at the moment, but he said when they'll submit the document that an offer should be out within a few days! not sue what to make of it really, we've heard the same thing for so long that I don't know what to believe, I guess we'll give it a few more days possibly till end of the month and if nothign still then make a decision. Interestingly our estate agent said another of their deals has just gone through to exchange and that deal had been waiting for far longer than ours, so maybe there is some hope yet...!

We sold our house through an estate agent that said come in and see our morgage advisor he can go through everything see if there are any offers available, when he knew we were tied into our deal for another 3 years he suggested porting our mortgage and said he would do all the leg work basically, so we left it with him.

I called Abbey last week to find out what was going on to be told you have to go through yr mortgage advisor i called again and got through to another dept who said there was nothing on their computers to say we had applied for a mortgage even though the paperwork was sent 4 weeks ago and we had been issued with mortgage certficate!!!

I was straight on phone to Mortgage Advisor who called them immedialtely and ws told everything was going through and was with underwriters, he calls them every day or so he says and they just keep requesting further information, they said they were going to do employers references as partner has changed his job since we took original mortgage out but these havent been done yet.

Spoke to solicitiors yesterday they are ready to exchange all the hold up is the mortgage offer from Abbey, but they said their hands are tied and they cant not do anything to hurry them along, our buyer has also got an Abbey mortgage but theres is all in place.