Santander mortgages - your experiences please!

[ImMrsBrightside]

Hi.

Had a mortgage in principle from Santander. Formal application submitted this morning and received a text to confirm. We are using a broker so he is managing it all.

Am feeling really nervous about this (for a number of reasons) and wanted to get people's feedback - how long they tend to take, did they get asked for more info, how long to/from valuation etc?

Hopefully you will be alright!
Pray that you are.
We have every thing with the solicitor and waiting for exchange of contracts.
Apparently the searches are taking 4 to 6 weeks so have to wait for it.been to our home Monday and its finished first fix and walls plastered.

Two more stages stage 5 and 6 and hopefully will be completed on time.

Fingers crossed 🙏🙏🙏

Wish I knew Tokyo. If we lose this one we'll wait until next spring before going back on, which will be 2 years since we started! I hope your buyer gets their finger out soon.

I really hope so raoac. I've had enough now. All sounds good with the build progress. Is it November your estimated completion date? Does the builder still say its on schedule?

Yes they are pretty confident they will get it done. Its November/december.

The site manager said it might add an extra week to the process as we chose tiling in the kitchen and hallway and all the bathrooms against vinyl which was standard

Thats good. I like to think ours will be ready on time too, (Dec/Jan estimated) but this building survey could really bugger things up & it could be irrelevant now if we lose it & someone else ends up living there!

approval process via broker was easy for us. They approved it really fast, broker sent all relevant docs straight away (passport, last 3 months bank statements and wage slips) and they came back to us within a couple of days to say it was approved, they arranged the valuation really quickly and approved the mortgage the same day!

(we have had a mortgage with them for 4 years, but moving house so had to apply like anyone else would)

oh sorry ignore me I didn't realise it was an ongoing thread from ages ago!

It was resurrected a few weeks back flamingo & a few of us have been posting so you're fine.

Hi, sorry to revive this thread.
AIP from them today but now fretting.

Last month I spent £50 on lottery games online one night. Stupid! I have never done the lottery before but kept playing for about 2 hours. Never again!
It's in my statements for January 5 x£10 which they will obviously want to see.
Do you think this will affect my application?
I also went into my OD by about £100 for about 6 days. (which I also never do!)

TIA

I don't think it's about what you spend the money on and more about whether you have the money to spend...

I've just submitted my application. My case is very stressful as I've put £52K down already and risk losing it if I can't get a mortgage. Santander undersriter is the WORST
I'm self employed for 10 years very successfully
Taxes up to date
AIP and all ducments assessed then passed to underwriter who decided to ask me WHY I am moving to Manchester?! She asked for an ACCOUNTANT letter to PROVE what impact the move will have on my business and what my dormant ltd company (that I set up 2 years ago to secure the name) has in relation to my sole trader business.

Santander are AWFUL
Do not use them.
My broker said he found the underwriter unreasonable and unjust in her questions
I found her jealous and unreasonable.
Despite plausible answers to he unreasonable Qs, over 10 years worth of tax SA302s - Santander underwriter decided I'm unworthy of having a new life in Manchester.

AVOID LIKE THE PLAGUE

Easy approval when we were FTB. however when we come to move and wanted to remortgage with them they wouldn't as I was on maternity leave, hey wanted me to have saved my shortfall monthly for whilst I was on maternity leave and that would have been 8k (£1000 per month I lost being on maternity) hey wanted me to pull from no where, so we remortgage to Halifax who only needed a letter to confirm I was returning to work full time.

I'm a second home owner. I just think the underwriter googled me and hated me. My accountant told me her Qs are vindictive and unreasonabke and now both my broker and accountant are filing a complaint ahainst her to remove her from my case.

Truly, luck of the draw with underwriters as they are humans and have an agenda

Broker - really quick, fast and efficient.

Doing it myself - absolute nightmare - they constantly lost paperwork, kept getting tranferred and them picking up on things that someone else had been fine with.

I was scared when my broker said they were offering the best deal by far as I’d vowed never to touch them again. It’s worked out but I would only use a broker with them.

Broker Submitted application to Santander & I got a text to say it was received 2/4/18
Valuation has been instructed but hasn’t happened yet, broker estimates next week.
No response on documents submitted or request for anything new yet.
Anyone any idea of the normal order of events?

Service levels are saying 9.3 days from application to offer But saying that they’re reviewing cases sent to underwriters on 28th March (7 working days).

As the valuation hasn’t been done I expect it won’t have been sent to underwriters? Which means I have at least 7 working days wait until the underwriters review and then they could have questions/need more docs?

Now I know why they say it’s so stressful to move house! And I’m only a FTB so I have no chain!

It's always quicker process with a broker as most have good relationships with certain lenders and know what they want and when.

When I was FTB it went pretty smooth they did ask a lot regarding our bank statements. Why I lent £400 to my sister and then she returned it (deposit on her wedding dress before she had got paid )

Why I sent £12 over to my dad twice in 2 weeks (takeaway at his!)

Under writer was quite petty really but we were 19 and 20 so I guess they were being extra careful

Oh dear - might take awhile to get through my bank statements then! hopefully they don’t care what I’m spending on as long as I can pay the mortgage. Fingers crossed 🤞

We barely spent anything we just saved and could more than afford the mortgage they were very very picky.

When I was pregnant and looking to remortgage, they wouldn't let me unless I had £1000 saved for every month I was off on maternity so 9k at the time!!

They were pretty ridiculous as we could more than afford it on just my DH income. We moved to Halifax and they just needed a letter to say I was going back full time

Broker submitted out application on 15th March and I received email confirmation.
Valuation done quickly and is ok.
Last document to go to underwriters was on the 31st March.
Santander got back to broker yesterday asking for more info - sigh. I think I am actually going to go grey. How is your application going @ChefsWife89?

@WBWIFE that seems abit excessive but at least Halifax were better.

@sshk Agreed subject to valuation!! Afraid to get too excited incase I’m hit with more stumbling blocks. Assuming all ok so far as had already been through process with different bank who said no! So documentation all already provided I hope!

@sshk fingers crossed you don’t have too much longer to wait - it’s painful!!!

@Chefswife89 yes, that was the 'shortfall' from my full time job to statutory maternity pay, so that's why they wanted £1000 a month for every month I'm off in the savings. Bizarre. My broker said it was ridiculous!