Mortgage in principle - how reliable?

[Loubylou79]

Just after a bit of advice about how reliable a mortgage in principle is. Bit of background. My husband had some bad credit which showed up on his credit file unexpectedly after a mortgage in principle with the woolwich. This was then declined for this reason. Just had another mortgage in principle agreed with TsB. They know about the adverse credit and still approved us in principle so how likely is it that we will actually get the full mortgage? Obviously very anxious as we have a property we want to buy? Thanks in advance.

As long as you were completely honest I'd have thought it was almost certain. Not an expert!

Very likely. I have no credit to the point where I can't get a phone contract, partner has medium good credit. We got an agreement in principal and are set to exchange on our purchase in two weeks. As long as you are completely honest it should be fine.

Thank you for your replies. Really appreciate it

I've been turned down with my existing provider after getting an agreement in principle. It was a daft decision. The mortgage was only about 1.5 times my income and about 30% of the value of the property, so not a stretch at all. I'd been with them for ten years and never been as much as a day late with any payment. It was because I was changing jobs and they absolutely refused to give a formal offer without seeing a payslip from the new job (I would have got a payslip a month and a half after our planned moving date). The ridiculous thing I'd that if I hadn't been able to move because of it they would still have had me as a customer, and I would still have changed jobs, and I wasn't trying to borrow any more.

Anyway, we were accepted very quickly by another provider.

I've had agreement in principle twice and subsequently refused. Completely ridiculous. Another company finally saw sense. I'd never rely on it ever again, sorry

Euro chick. So sorry you had such a rubbish time but glad it all worked out. Del girl don't apologise, I've prepared for the worst and now our buyers have pulled out too so it's all crumbling under my feet anyway. Its so stressful!

50/50 at the mo.

I wouldn't rely on it; we had one from Santander & made an offer on a house which was accepted with a 5 week entry date.

The main issue was that DP was self-employed & for less than 3 years, although we had income verification via an accountant.

We missed the initial entry date for the house & the formal offer from Santander only came through days before the subsequent date.

So the whole process took 6 weeks despite us providing all the information required within 24hours of the request.

It meant we could not serve notice on our rented property until we had a definitive answer & had to pay both the rent & mortgage for a month (1K each) which was a nightmare financially.

I will never move house again

Seems to be a similar story for a lot of people. Shouldn't be this stressful! What is the point of a mortgage of principle if its just declined when you have for your hopes up?!

We had one from Halifax, went through the full application and they then declined it. We then went to a broker who applied to Santander and the application went through straight away.

Similar story here - we have finally got a mortgage in place but it has taken a long time and a lot of stress. We also ended up using a broker after trying (and failing!) to do it ourselves.

It depends on the bank and how it was put through. For instance we got a mortgage with NatWest. Apparently there are two types of mortgage in principle with them - a regular sort, that consumers might do online and would have a "soft" credit search, and the sort a broker puts through which instigates a "hard" credit search. The hard one is a lot more reliable and pretty much a given so long as you have been totally upfront about everything else. The soft one, less so.

Halifax ones aren't worth much at all as they're a soft search but there is the bonus that you can get one without damaging your credit file.

Crispyfb. Thank you. We have gone through a broker with TSB who I think have only recently come into the mortgage market. Fingers crossed and thank you

Hi, sorry to start the thread again, I now am in exactly the same position you were in and I'm now waiting for a decision after getting one in principle from TSB. They have done hard credit check have bank statements + wage slips and survey was all in order. Should this go through? How did you get on?

Had a mortgage in principle for £153,000 and only just managed to get a mortgage for £71,000, completely stupid as our rent is twice as much as the mortgage payments so we obviously can afford it, hey ho we complete on friday so cant wait to start having more disposable income

When DH had temp contract, our bank gave us an agreement in principle based on joint income, but said they would almost certainly not take DHs salary into consideration when arranging mortgage. So I'm not sure they are worth the paper they're written on.
We used a broker too, well worth it.

I have a broker, he has done everything. He is very positive about us obtaining it. just can't stand the wait. It's so difficult now a days. Hope it comes through. The bank was going to offer us 95% LTV after credit checks had been done we got 89% LTV DIP

Not worth the paper they are written on, really. Have had two AIPs only to be turned down further down the road. We got there in the end but this just caused delay.

TSB have been around for ages, our mortgage used to be with RBS but they transferred their mortgages to TSB a few years ago. TSB are a good provider to go to if you have a blip on your credit history as they are quite lenient.

I used to work in mortgage processing.

As PP said, it's not worth the paper it's written on.

I say it's never 100% til you get the keys.

What's the reason you are later turned down?

Well I have everything and they have done a full credit check on me. TSB do seem to be easy and my mortgage adviser seems to be on the ball. So I'm quite hopeful.