Property/DIY
Calling the lender directly when applying for a mortgage through a broker
CrispyFB · 03/04/2015 17:30
To cut a long story short (I did write it all out but then imagined a sea of tldr;s in reply!) is it considered a massive no-no to call a lender directly to see how the application is going?
My sanity is right on the edge and I am a mess and hardly eating. This is not an over-reaction as we are facing homelessness with four young DC including a baby, and have to leave our local community if this fails as there are no other options as no rentals at all, family etc.
Our broker has been great, but he's on holiday until Tuesday. We need to know the results of the house valuation for the place we are buying that took place last Tuesday asap. If the valuation is okay, we've apparently already passed the worst of the financial checks so we would hopefully get our mortgage offer and we would be saved. He did say he would chase up on Tuesday but has also said it's possible they may know something by Thursday (yesterday) too.
The bank (NatWest) is open on a Saturday morning for calls. I really want to find out if they've looked at it or not yet. Would this prejudice our application? Would the broker find out? I'm sure it would piss him off and I would hate to do that as he's been lovely. But on the other hand we really need some good news or to start preparing for the worst as soon as we can but I don't want to tread on his toes or mess things up.
For the record we've done nothing wrong - we're currently in rented and been model tenants but the landlord has decided to sell up this house he's basically inherited, and is completely lacking in compassion as to how he's going about it. Not that we've asked to stay longer than the two months notice we're about to get, we're decent people and will leave when we're supposed to, but in other ways he's being completely unethical and twatty and inflexible and frankly downright rude. Clearly our usefulness as a financial income is at an end, not that he was ever that nice to begin with. Luckily we know our legal rights and are having to dig our heels in - sadly I don't think he does. Really did not need this confrontation on top of the rest of the house buying worry, and my recent bereavement and DS (3) starting the assessment for SN etc.
STILL an essay. Sigh. Sorry!! Guess I needed a bit of a vent too.
MsSampson · 03/04/2015 18:52
Ha! I wrote an identical post in money about a month ago, although mine was because of a useless broker. The upshot is, yes, it's fine and totally normal. The bank (building society in our case) will just deal with you as they would any other customer. And it's common enough that your broker won't be funny about it. Hope it all works out!
CrispyFB · 03/04/2015 20:00
Thanks!! I must have missed that, and I lurk on both boards.. although perhaps as it didn't seem as relevant at the time I must have missed it.
That's good to know. I have to admit I was a bit put off because I also lurk on the MSE boards where there are a lot of brokers and the subject came up and they seemed to not like it. But then a) they're brokers and b) I think the people concerned were trying to interfere in some way rather than just ask questions so I don't blame them entirely.
I hope yours worked itself out! This is the third time I have bought a house and it never gets any easier and seems to be completely different every time!
CrispyFB · 04/04/2015 07:13
They claim to be open on Saturdays but as you say, they may well have all gone away with just a skeleton staff left.
They may not even talk to me as I don't have any account numbers or anything (never had any paperwork) - I am just hoping knowing all the details would be enough but I could be wrong.
CrispyFB · 04/04/2015 12:07
Rang them - they had an answer too! It's all good and should get our offer next week 
and we can be out of here well within our notice period. Yay!
Now we can relax a little.. still got arsehole arrogant landlord to deal with but we can with a lot more confidence now! Just hope we don't have to change the locks.
MsSampson · 04/04/2015 18:37
yay! Great you got a good answer. We found everything started moving much more quickly once we could speak directly to the lender. The whole process is ridiculously like Chinese whispers anyway with estate agents and solicitors so there were times when the broker just felt like an unnecessary link in a complicated communication chain.
Urgh to the landlord though. It sounds like you know the relevant law but you'd get plenty of good advice (and encouragement to stand up for your rights) on here too. I think we're about to do battle with our ex landlord over our deposit. He has no legal legs to stand on (transpires our deposit isn't protected), but nonetheless it's just a pain to deal with.
CrispyFB · 04/04/2015 20:52
We're lucky in that our broker has been pretty good, which is why I felt guilty about calling! He's done all he said he would at the times he said he would i.e. promptly, and responded to emails within half an hour most times. If it wasn't for the thought of spending the entire bank holiday weekend in an anxious funk, I'd never have done it. But now we know we're going to be okay I've now got the motivation back to carry on with the decluttering instead of sitting around fretting and envisioning worst case scenarios!
It is like Chinese Whispers I completely agree. Half the time something would happen (e.g. when the valuation was booked) and I'd get phone calls or emails from three different sources at once, often with a slight variation. It gets very silly.
I know exactly what you mean about them not having a legal leg to stand on but it's the hassle of it anyway. If some people would just take the time to look up online and see what the tenant is telling them is right, they could save so much hassle and aggravation. But no. Frankly we'd have been a lot more flexible with ours if they hadn't been so entitled and arrogant before now and perhaps actually getting round to the repairs too..
Hope you get your deposit situation resolved quickly! As you say, you're bang to rights if it's not protected (hurray for that newish law) it's just, well, the inconvenience.
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