How long does it take for mortgage applications to be approved?

[IlanaK]

Bank told us 4-8 weeks which seems sooooo long! What has everyone else experienced?

[ilove]

Ours was submitted by email Fri night, approved 11am Sat morning.

[IlanaK]

My god! WHo was that with? Is it because you currently have a mortgage with the same people? We don't have a mortgage at all at the moment (though have before) as we own our flat outright.

[duckyfuzz]

approval quite quick, actual processing is usually around a month

[ilove]

It was/is with the Halifax/RBOS and no we didn't have a mortgage with them at the time.

[IlanaK]

Oh, I see. Perhaps that is what they meant by 4-8 weeks. DH is actually on the phone with First Direct at the moment going through the application process so maybe they will say yes or no at the end of it. Fingers crossed!

[Lubyloo]

I work for a mortgage lender. We average about 6 weeks from application to offer.

[IlanaK]

We got preliminary approval over the phone - yea! So now I can at least be honest when we put in an offer on a place this week that we have approval.

[WomanInTheMoon]

• Lubylou, can I ask...apart from credit checks what happens during this process? Why does it take so long? Are the lenders turning down more applications? Oh I'm nervous...I put in our mortgage application on Monday and told me it could take up to two weeks.

IlanaK- Congratulations!

[Lubyloo]

Sorry - only just seen your question. I'm afraid I don't work in the processing dept so not sure exactly what all the checks are that they do!

I can tell you that most of the time seems to be taken chasing up outstanding info. As well as credit checks they will need proof of income and sometimes need to chase up employer references. They also need the results of the valuation and may attach certain conditions to the offer as a result of that. They also need to check the certificate of title.

I wouldn't say that we are turning down more applications but we do have stricter criteria than we did. Good luck with your application.

[WomanInTheMoon]

..Thanks for getting back. Still haven't heard anything but don't expect to for another week at least. We have all that we can do to hurry things along i.e. the bank received the proof of income, the survey & valuation along with the signed/completed application.

Thanks again Lubyloo!

[snuffy60]

would like to know how long it takes to get a Remortgage...Have already got a mortgage but want to go with another company.

[juneybean]

My boss just remortgaged and with the new mortgage market review it took months as they wanted to know about every outgoing.

[Juno213]

We went with a broker. We got a mortgage in principle on the Thursday, made an offer on friday that was accepted on monday. Gave all of our pay slips and statements to the broker on the tuesday and got a written offer after a survey had been done within 2 weeks. Not sure if having a broker sped it up? It was definetly reassuring to know what was happening along the way.

[sleepdodger]

If you're with Barclays the in principle but was instant. The actually effing doing it about 9 weeks for top up bit full most gage only...

[nothappymummy2014]

We are currently doing a remortgage with nationwide. Our application was submitted a week ago, they came back to request additional documents and now hopefully a valuation will be done soon. I think the length of time depends on the lender and your particular application.

[cappy123]

Buyer approved for mortgage Sep, offer accepted Oct. All legals, survey etc completed by mid Dec. Buyer's lender Santander has been awful. Now almost Feb and no approval to exchange. Should have completed before Xmas. Buyer had to email Santander's CEO personal email to complain. Despite this still slow. Have told buyer am renting out from mid Feb if we don't complete by then.

[HermioneGrangerHair]

We started our mortgage-transfer to nationwide at the end of November. Completed last week. 'in principle' offer was done after a phone call, but that was because I'd already done a load of prep, and had every detail to hand: pay-slips, pension contributions, bills, debts, breakdown of existing mortgage including exit fees and early repayment charges, estimate of house value etc. It was passed to thesolicitors, who needed more info, proof of identity, certificates on windows, details of land registry etc. They organised valuation survey, then nationwide confirmed the offer. We gave the go-ahead, then... They all did whatever they do until we started getting notification at the beginning of this month that completion was imminent.

[kittentwo]

Virgin money three weeks with Christmas thrown in for good measure. They were fantastic so was our broker.

[OnceUponATimeAgain]

i remortgaged using London & Country - they do all the running around (which is great) and also helped a lot, because when we got our mortgage orginally, DH was working, now hes SAHD so i couldnt get the amount i need to bring my payments down by £250 a month, because i didnt earn enough!! I wanted to stay where i was (less hassle) but Nationwide were rubbish

[OnceUponATimeAgain]

so far we have been wating a week.... ish not done yet though