What is your experience with Nationwide Mortgages? Worried

[User210903]

So I put an offer on a house. I applied for a mortgage through a broker with Halifax and it got declined (they didnt give a reason but I think it's because I applied half-heartedly). I am now applying with Nationwide I am applying for a mortgage on solo income on my primary job. No financial commitments and no debts. I had some debts which was a condition in my agreement in principle to pay off and my family helped clear all those debts off (my credit score was fair but after paying off debts I don't know if the score gets better or worse?)

I have submitted the application and waiting for their response but it's absolutely agonizing! It's painful and I can't stop thinking about all the potential loopholes etc. It is consuming my energy and I can't do anything else. What has been your experience with getting a mortgage? Is is easy or hard?

Part of the purchase price is a gifted deposit from my sisters. I have worked so hard in gathering all the forms/documents/evidence when applying for this mortgage and it is literally consuming my mental and emotional energy.

The valuation has been done and came back fine, just waiting for the mortgage offer to come through.

I am just worried about a couple of potential loopholes, I don't know if I am overthinking it:

• I recently moved to a new address and I sent a copy of my HMRC letter as evidence of address but my broker said it might be a problem if they dont accept that letter. Will they reject the mortgage offer outright or give me a chance to amend the proof of address?
• My bank statement has the total amount of my savings..which I am putting down as a deposit. E.g. £30,000 deposit and my bank account has £30,100 in my account. Is that going to be a problem? I am worrried that nationwide might say I dont have enough money to cover my current expenses/solicitor payments etc but my parents are helping with that as I am living with family/friends.
• The gift deposit is from a joint account from my sister with her husband. I rang nationwide and they did say they accept that and consider it as '1' applicant.
• The fact that I got rejected by Halifax, will that be an issue?

I am just panicking but apart from the above points, I can't think of any reason why they would reject the application. I have been working at my job for a good 15 years now and I am putting in a 18% deposit.

Please help!

You can usually pay for insurance on a monthly instalment basis - you will be asked to have it in place at the time of exchange rather than completion.

I got a nationwide mortgage a few months ago and like you was a bit worried and had an agonisingly long wait. I too had no other savings except the deposit and to make it worse had only just started a new job. Also during the middle of it my solicitor changed companies so we had to resubmit some details. And I have two surnames. There was more but I’ve forgotten. I had to jump some through some hoops - wait for proof of my first month’s salary going in, send marriage certificates to prove my name issue (I am separated and was buying alone) and THEN just as it all looked ok they pulled the mortgage out for an apparently random audit. The good news is through it all went through. Gosh it was stressful though.

Hi, I’m a mortgage broker and I don’t see anything in your post that would concern me.
if the proof of address isn’t suitable they will ask for something else.
the gifted deposit is absolutely fine. The broker should get the donor to give written confirmation that it is a non refundable gift and they will hold no interest in the property.
the fact that you only have £100 over your deposit available is fine. We do mortgages for people in their overdraft. As long as people aren’t spending beyond their means on a consistent basis then it’s not a problem.
m the broker should have carried out a fact find with you to confirm expected outgoings and ensure that everything fits.
i can’t comment on the Halifax decline but if it was anything bad such as defaults then nationwide would have picked it up on the agreement in principle. It may be it is a too high loan to value for Halifax to take the debts as being repaid, over a certain loan to value they will still include them in affordability, whereas nationwide don’t if they are being cleared prior to completion

@Chevvi This gives me alot of confidence! Thank you!

TBH, I would be more worried about the solvency of Nationwide Bank! They do have a lot of exposure to BTL leverage...😅

It is so stressful waiting, I was a wreck and mentally exhausted responding to all the document requests which they seemed to ask for one at a time and take a week to examine each one! It was excruciating.

We had a lot issues which could be problematic, issues with my previous property, different addresses for banking, not on electoral roll, and I was still waiting for my contract to be made permanent. But, mortgage was agreed in 6 weeks.. which felt like an eternity. We have still been on edge due to issues with the seller, but things are moving again and we should get a date for exchange/completion pretty soon. Exciting times.
Good luck and🤞

Was the Halifax one declined at the AIP stage, or after you had been given an AIP and given them all of your financial information?

If you were just turned down for an AIP, I wouldn’t worry - they probably just have different affordability criteria (I think Halifax are a bit harsh - we could have borrowed about 10% more from Barclays). If you had an AIP and were then turned down on the credit check, I’d be concerned there is something in there that raised red flags.

Anyway, fingers crossed for you. They are usually pretty quick - we got our approval within 24hrs of paying the fee.

No problem. I would also ask you to check that your solicitor is ok with nationwide. I have had 2 solicitors in the last week tell clients they are not dealing with them. So they are now at offer stage and need to instruct a new one.
im away on holiday so haven’t had a chance to ask why yet.

(Just to add they are both flats with cladding so that may well be the issue)

Your mortgage adviser is the best person to advise you
It is quite unusual to be turned down by the Halifax
Do you know exactly why that was
Good luck🤞

I bought a house a few months ago and got a mortgage with Nationwide without any issues.

We had our deposit in LISA accounts , including a gifted deposit from our parents. We also had no extra money except enough to cover solicitor fees. We also had debt (car finance etc) and I was really concerned that we would be declined but it went through without an issue.

I will keep my fingers crossed for you, it took about 6 weeks from us viewing the house to moving in - Nationwide had everything done within a 2 week period.

@LadyKryze I wish you an exciting move-in! Im very happy for you

@Saschka It got declined after AIP stage, maybe because I had a couple of loans? When Nationwide offered an AIP, they made it a condition to pay off loans before completion. Could that have been an issue?

@SolemnlySwear2010 I really hope that's the case with me

Just wanted to say I got the mortgage!

Yay! Thanks for the update @User210903

Fantastic! I remember what a relief that was for me a few months ago. I also got turned down from the Halifax after my AIP.

out of interest @Chevvi why do you think solicitors won’t work with nationwide?