Which lenders should I avoid for new mortgage?

[chicaguapa]

We're about to buy a new house and I've seen some horrendous stories on here about crap lenders, shoddy service etc. I'm a firm believer in voting with your feet so please could you let me know who to avoid and who's been great?

We have a mortgage at the moment with Skipton and I have to say they've been brilliant. The house they've mortgaged has been rented out for 4 years now as we can't sell it and they've not levied any onerous charges and have been really understanding of the situation.

We're going to flip that into a BTL and get a second mortgage. We have a good deposit for both and good credit history/ grasp of our financials so I'm hoping we have a choice of lenders. Though we will look also look at Skipton as existing borrowers.

But would be interested in people's experiences.

Get a good mortgage advisor. Don't do it yourself.

We are with Coventry bs and they have always treated us fairly 14 years

Natwest has been good for us for 5 years. Currently applying through a broker and Skipton was recommended to us but Principality ended up being the better choice. They take FOREVER to process the paperwork though, they always come back asking for 'one more thing'! That might be my broker's fault though...

I've found Santander and Nationwide to be fine. Avoid Halifax.

Who is good for one is not good for another, as Crutchlow says get a good independent mortgage advisor, they will know who would meet your needs and be most likely to lend you what you require. Santander were best for us as they are not too picky (we have numerous mortgages which some lenders find a problem) but rates are slightly higher. We both have a great credit rating but our situation makes us somewhat unique.

I don't know much about BTL and in your circumstances you might want to consult a broker. However, we have used Natwest for our mortgage (straight forward repayment mortgage but for a hearty amount!) and they have been great. Really good fixed term deal and they turned around our application in just a couple of days!

Our arrangement fee was also refundable which was a relief we our first mortgage offer expired due to problems with our chain - in the end we pulled out of our purchase and are now buying another property and again we approached natwest so they used the same arrangement fee.

Our last mortgage was with Santander and we had no problems arranging through a broker. But that was when every man and his dog could get a mortgage.
We have recently had a mortgage approved using Leeds BS and it has been such hard work. 8 weeks of sending one document after another over to them, sometimes sending the same document a couple of times. Then, just when we were ready to exchange it transpired they hadn't taken the BTL into account (we decided to rent instead of sell) and broker swears this was clear bin the application. So another flurry of documents to Leeds, then waiting ages on them sending a letter of amendment to our solicitor. Four inaccurate letters later and we were finally good to go. We missed so many provisional exchange dates, and ended up moving out of our house and moving round various family houses with a rucksack and two kids in tow. It's been horrendous. We sale agreed in May and hope to move this month, all delays have been as the result of our mortgage.
I reckon the broker needs to take some of the blame though, and if the number of applications dropped and Leeds were responding quicker, it could be a very different experience.

Thanks all.

Will go through a broker anyway (so they can do most of the work), but wanted to know which lenders to avoid based on bad customer service or stressful application process due to ineptitude.