Barclays Mortgage Nightmare **RESOLVED** after complaint to CEO Office

[audioslim]

Following separation from my Partner

I approached my mortgage company Barclays about either

A) Buying her out or

B) Seeing how much they would lend me.

 

 

I had an agreement in principle and could choose either option.

I decided that we would sell the house and move on.

 

 

I duly put the house up for sale (unfortunately with an agent/contract with 'Able Willing etc clause')

 

 

a few months later (after the initial DIP had expired) we agreed a sale and I found a property I wished to buy.

Again for a second time I went through the decision in principle process and again was accepted.

Completed/Signed all the forms and returned them to Barclays.

Barclays then passed application through to the underwriters and the application was declined.

 

 

The application was declined citing a problem with missed payments on a credit card some 3 years earlier (during a dispute with MBNA, note no defaults took place).

 

 

Financially I am easily able to pass the affordability tests

and it is purely the dispute with MBNA which has caused this decline at full application time

 

 

I have been with Barclays for the present mortgage for 17 years (never missed a single payment etc),

and other than the MBNA episode have an exemplary credit history.

 

 

I have cleared quite a lot of outstanding debt (car loans etc) prior to the second decision in principle being granted,

so am in an even better position than I was at the first application

 

 

I'm now potentially left with a bill for £3500 for failed sale of my property (not to mention a battle with ex partner)

and solicitors costs if I pull the plug on my house sale (not to mention the purchasers loosing their survey money etc)

or having to move out/effectively be homeless with a 15 year old son, and potentially into rented accommodation

if other mortgage lenders follow the same track as Barclays did.

 

 

To say that I currently despise Barclays for this decision would be an understatement.

They were fully aware about my credit history (as I disclosed this dispute with MBNA to them at both DIP applications)

and their actions in all of this is nothing short of negligent.

 

 

I will be fighting this all the way to the Ombudsman and beyond.

 

 

Mortgage lenders should not be able to change their mind from a DIP to full application due to these reasons.

 

 

They have not shown due diligence at the various stages of the application.

 

 

I hope this post acts as a warning to others thinking of applying to Barclays for a mortgage.

There are other lenders who also failed to show due diligence at the DIP stage.

I would never have put my property up for sale had I know at the initial DIP that I would be declined.

[slick132]

Hi Audio,

 

Your experience sounds utterly shocking but I suspect it's happening to folk all too often these days.

 

Lenders seem to often ignore the fact that their borrower may have a decade or two of perfect mortgage repayments.

 

They also refuse to arrange a new loan, even when an existing good payer wants to downsize and/or remortgage and borrow a smaller amount. This can effectively trap folk in their existing house and stop their attempt to downsize.

 

A huge part of this problem is banks having no human with independent jurisdiction in the lending decision-making process. Branch managers can't influence decisions despite knowing their customer personally for many years. It's all computerised and handled away from local branch level.

 

[audioslim]

Thanks for your reply slick32.

 

Its a shocking situation without a doubt. Everybody needs a DIP to go looking/offering on a house yet a DIP seemingly isn't worth anything at all. People go for a DIP to see what mortgage deals they can get/can get a mortgage and then put the house up for sale like me.

 

With my situation, I do wonder what would have happened if I had approached Barclays for an equity transfer, as in my case we have a large reserve linked to the mortgage (big overdraft) which had to be transferred into a mortgage loan for the equity transfer to take place.

 

Would they have refused that also (even though it wouldn't be for any more than is already borrowed on the reserve) and thus stopped my ability to buy out my exe, thus leaving me paying for a mortgage and she pushing for house sale etc. .

 

I'm kicking up a fuss over this. Complaints left right and centre. This thread shows second hit on google under 'Barclays Mortgage Nightmare' and on page 6 under 'Barclays Mortgage'.

 

I've also tweeted Barclays twitter account with a link to it and also emailed their CEO. If me kicking up a fuss causes just 1 person to stay clear of Barclays and go to a lender whose DIP process is worth the effort and whose DIP process actually worth anything then it will be worthwhile.

Edited February 13, 2015 by slick132
added para spacing !

[tony3x]

I am a mortgage broker and are coming up against this sort of thing all the time. I have had 3 cases this week that have met lender criteria, I have discussed with the lender to confirm all ok and then when tried a DIP, 1 has been declined as outside of criteria, 1 as not affordable (even though it is on lender affordability calculator) and 1 has been accepted at a higher rate even though it meets criteria of lower rate.

 

Lenders are a rule unto themselves at the moment.

 

As for your case. Woolwich do not offer the best rates and are quite strict on credit history. There are many other lenders that will accept you.

 

Advice would be to try a broker as they will do all the work. Apart from being time consuming to do it yourself, nearly every lender will want to carry out a credit search and every search reduces your score.

[audioslim]

Thanks Tony. Yes I have a broker on the job now. I only wanted to stay with Barclays as I can transfer my existing loans (rates for life etc) over and they are base rate trackers + 1% (golden rates etc). DIP decisions should without a doubt take into account credit history and not just numbers given over a phone. Its a disgrace and one I will not just lie down and accept without making sure I've made a fuss.

[tony3x]

I know where you are coming from. The problem is you are costing Barclays money with a rate that low ( I am the same) so they will do everything they can to get rid you. I applaud you in trying to take them on but, without putting too much of a dampener on it, don't get your hopes up. Remember the ombudsman is funded by the banks.

 

When the rules changed last April the FCA said that lenders should look at existing clients that are porting products differently than new clients so as not to penalise them too much, unfortunately these are only guidelines and most lenders have ignored them.

[audioslim]

Hi Tony. I believe your 100% correct about the low rates but Barclays encouraged me to switch things around some years ago to those low trackers (probably wanting to be seen to be lending during the start of the financial crisis!). Interesting what you say about the FCA as that does seem to be entirely what has happened with me. Anyway, I've had a call from their Exec Team on behalf of Andy Gray the CEO and they are taking up my case and speaking to senior underwriters etc. Its a sad situation that you have to rattle the CEO of a major multinational corporation and publically tell your story but that is unfortunately the way it is these days. I'm not sure if anything will come of this but as said I wont let this lie and I will post an update when I have one.

[audioslim]

I think its only fair to put an update on this post.

 

 

Following my contact with the CEO , or rather the exec team on his behalf

 

 

I've now had the mortgage application re-reviewed and accepted which is of course fantastic news.

 

 

Of course it shouldn't have been necessary to rattle the CEO of a company to get this however such is life and sometimes you do need to fight for things.

 

 

Whether I could have got the same sort of response without firing off an email to the CEO is unknown though.

 

 

Its nice to know that it is still possible to for these companies to make a decision

based on common sense and personal intervention rather than a computer and a script.

 

 

So Barclays have now redeemed themselves in this to a certain extent for which I'm thankful.

 

 

The lesson is still though that a DIP isn't worth the paper its written on though.

[tony3x]

Glad you got it sorted. You are right in saying that you shouldn't have to do what you had to do when it was within their remit all along.

[slick132]

Hi Audio,

 

I'm very pleased you have resolved this and thread title has been amended to reflect your great result !!

 

Of course, it's wrong that you should have to contact the CEO's office to get your result but well done for getting this turned around.