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AIBU?

Share your dilemmas and get honest opinions from other Mumsnetters.

Original poster

to be furious with this mortgage company

43 replies

mortgagefury · 11/09/2011 07:19

I'll try and be brief! We're buying a house in UK. We live abroad. I have a British passport. DH has Irish passport but was born in UK so is a British Citizen and is entitled to a UK passport (but won't get one cos it's all political etc. He's from N. Ireland)
Mortgage company, after faffing around and dragging us along for 6 weeks proving way way more than they needed for their money laundering checks, have just announced that they have decided they don't lend to expats who don't have a British passport. Ok - DH is the main earner but he is a British and Irish citizen and they have known this right from the beginning when they saw our passports.
AIBU to suggest that this is discriminatory? I thought all EU passports were supposed to be equal for one thing and they are basically saying that being a British citizen means nothing unless you hold a passport!!
Apart from us living abroad (which they don't have a problem with) and now this passport thing, everything else (massive deposit, earnings affordability, good valuation on the house) is A* so it can't be that they are making excuses.
Also, AIBU to think that they must have known this when we paid for their guy to do a valuation and therefore they really should refund that money as we're now going to have to start again, potentially losing the house because other buyers are now interested and we've already taken so long!!
Am fully prepared to be told that mortgage company can do what they like but is there anything I can do to make them reconsider??
thanks for reading

OP posts:
Original poster
mortgagefury · 11/09/2011 11:34

forgot to say - he actually gave up the principle for a much better reason a few months ago (but didn't get around to applying despite me getting him the forms!!) - which kind of irritates me more since I'd already won the principle argument and yet we still have this problem now.
clappyhands - ds has a British passport (because I filled out both Irish and British forms and DH didn't get around to taking ds in to get the Irish one ..... DS is now 2!) He absolutely can have both - just never saw the need and I've been working on him for 8 years and have only just won the battle!!
House is in N.Ireland - in same city he was born in so if anything, the fact that we're buying a house shows that we have ties to the UK!

Adrew.. I like your way of putting it! He is a UK citizen whether he likes it or not! I also suggested that he should have it and then he can put visas for countries he doesn't like in there rather than use up his Irish one! .... I think that might have been the argument that finally won him over!

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clappyhands · 11/09/2011 11:49

is the mortgage broker you are dealing with in NI?
i would have imagined they would be well used to dealing with both passports issue?
do you want names of some good mortgage brokers in NI who might be worth a ring on monday?

feeling your pain - we went through the wringer to get the house we are in now, but that was due to both being self employed and not being able to sell a house (but we got there :) )

clappyhands · 11/09/2011 11:50

oh, and depending where house is, the majority of sellers are finding it tough

clappyhands · 11/09/2011 11:52

lol about the irish passport for the child

DH wanted irish for ours (we both have british, so go figure)

but having to ask the parish priest to sign it put him off as he hasn't darkened the door of a chapel in years (unless wedding or christening!)

Milsean · 11/09/2011 12:13

if its in NI, they absolutely cannot require only British passport holders, thats completely illegal. I'd mention that to you, as well as the BIG trouble they could get into for trying it on.

Original poster
mortgagefury · 11/09/2011 12:29

Milsean - is that true? cos it kind of sounds like they shouldn't be allowed to but - as other people have said - they can choose who they do business with..... am going around in circles! House is in NI. It's a building society that is in mainland and N.Ireland.

Clappyhands - you're so sweet! we tried first with a broker in NI (actually more than one) and they couldn't do anything for us because of the overseas thing so we ended up going with a specialist expat broker as apparently they are the only ones who can deal with expats. But then again this broker ignored my phone calls on Saturday then sent me an email telling me what the mortgage company said and that he was going on holiday for a week!! (and didn't answer when I phoned the second I got the email!! grrrr! He has left me someone to deal with.

I think tyler80 might be right - each issue would be ok on its own but altogether is making them jittery! sigh - oh for a simple life!

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Milsean · 11/09/2011 13:09

they can only choose up to a point though, they can't say only Catholics, or only white people. And they can't say only UK citizens that hold a British passport not an Irish one, since legally in NI an Irish passport is equal in all ways to a British one, making no difference to your citizenship.

Original poster
mortgagefury · 11/09/2011 13:19

well now that is interesting - because this is the only reason they are giving us. I don't suppose you know any statute etc that I could quote at them?? You just seem very knowledgeable on the subject! thanks for your help!! It certainly doesn't feel like it should be allowed!

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clappyhands · 11/09/2011 13:43

just sent you a pm mortgagefury

i think the problem might lie with underwriters. i recently re purchased an annual policy and some strange things that i now have to agree with due to underwriters. one being that i won't spend more than 180 days out of the UK (this is for a policy for a house that i don't even live in, so don't see the releavance of where i live)

trixie123 · 11/09/2011 15:33

I do think its outrageous for them to refuse you on grounds that they knew about from the start but only AFTER you've paid the valuation fee. In fact, I have no legal expertise but is there no way to recover that money through small claims on the basis of misrepresentation or something? We have just gone through a mortgage app. and were approved BEFORE we agreed to release the £600 (!!) valuation fee. There is no way I would have paid it prior to be being approved - especially as they raised issues about my recent maternity leave and required extra documentation (despite already having all the relevant info via payslips they wanted it all on one letter on headed paper from my employer). You may or not be being foolish about not getting the British passport but that seems rather beside the point. They should never have strung you along and taken money if the grounds for refusal were known about from the outset.

eurochick · 11/09/2011 20:24

bemybebe, it's called negotiating. Mortgage companies are businesses. If they want your interest payments they might be willing to negotiate over a particular requirement. It's certainly worth a try.

bemybebe · 11/09/2011 20:32

eurochick - i know what you are saying but how can you negotiate with someone who said "we do not want your business"? threatening to take the business from the company that does not want it anyway will not achieve much

you are very sweet, but I agree with trixie. it may be effective to threaten them with legal action for wasting time and money (valuation fee) if the bank knew from the start that there will be no UK passport from the main mortgage holder...

Original poster
mortgagefury · 11/09/2011 23:58

Sorry - in a different time zone so have just got up!

trixie - we had an agreement in principle before valuation but i think they usually don't give the actual mortgage offer until they have everything (including valuation) and this is where we fell down.... of course they knew about the non-UK passport when they gave us an agreement in principle and nothing has actually changed!! I've been doing it all through a broker so I'm going to phone them myself today (when UK wakes up!) If nothing else it's bloomin unfair!

Clappyhands - thanks for that, I'll give them a try. what's even more infuriating is that these people are supposed to be one of the few who are good at giving mortgages to expats! I wonder if I'm just really out of touch with the banking world not having been in UK for 4 years! I knew things were bad but this is ridiculous!

will report back if my negotiation comes to anything!

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Original poster
mortgagefury · 12/09/2011 13:04

In case anyone wanted to know - I phoned the broker and the mortgage company have changed their minds!! the broker said the words "the good friday agreement" and they said "whoops! we'll get the formal offer over to you later! So in case anyone was wondering..... they were in the wrong! yeah!! Fingers crossed that they'll be good to their word and get it all sorted today... and if not I'll be giving Clappyhands' guy a call!

thanks for convincing me I wasn't being crazy!

(and DH is still getting a UK passport!! I've filled in the forms and I will hold him down and make him sign the damn thing!!)

OP posts:
bemybebe · 12/09/2011 13:46

good for you! Grin

Andrewofgg · 12/09/2011 13:53

Win, win, win :o

Milsean · 12/09/2011 14:10

I knew it.

I don't get your need for him to have a british passport though. Whats wrong with the Irish one?

Original poster
mortgagefury · 12/09/2011 14:32

I know! I was rather surprised (and dare I say a little disappointed?) that they caved so easily! I was rather looking forward to my rant about discrimination!

Milsean - I totally take your point but there are other (much more important!) reasons - if there weren't I wouldn't bother bugging him about it but this is the second time in a few months that it's been a problem for various reasons so he is sucking it up and getting a UK one - but he'll be keeping his irish one and I've agreed that if he does this for me, I'll re-do the forms for our son's irish passport so really it's a win win!

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