Letter of Offer

katief101

Is it possible to receive some information as to the process of accepting a letter of offer with BOI? As far as we were aware (and has been explained by our solicitor and other banks) when we have an offer accepted on a property and a valuation done the letter (which includes the correct amount and property address) is then to be signed ? This will also be sent to the solicitor and is valid for 3 months.

Unfortunately we have received both confusing and conflicting information from our mortgage advisor. As explained during our meeting we have just started the process of looking for a home and don't have a particular house in mind at all at this point. However we received 2 phonecalls this week asking that we sign the current letter (with the dummy property and incorrect amount). Although it says this should be returned within 30 days I don't understand why it would need to be signed at this point? Also we had previously been told not to worry about this and there was no need to sign within the 30 days. To add to the confusion our solicitor received a copy of this and I had to call and explain that the details were incorrect and please ignore.

I'm aware you cannot discuss applications but would really appreciate some solid information as to the normal process for this. We have not had this confusion with other banks we spoke with.

Many thanks

Bank of Ireland: Billy

Hi katief101, 

Thanks for your post. 

Sorry about the delay in coming back to you. 

We referred your query to the Mortgage Team and they have advised:

The process generally is as follows:

Once we issue a mortgage letter of offer, you have 30 days to accept the offer (this can be extended this if needed). Once accepted, the offer is valid for 6 months from the date of the offer letter. It is normal practice to issue the offer letter pack to both the customer and the customer’s solicitor.
 
Mortgage finance is in place when you are house-hunting so that you can move quickly when you need to. At the same time, returning the signed offer letter does not constitute a legal agreement. The mortgage is not in place until sale closing / mortgage drawdown, which would be subject to final property details and required documentation etc. being in place. 

I hope this helps

Thanks

Billy

katief101

Bank of Ireland: Billy wrote: »

Hi katief101, 

Thanks for your post. 

Sorry about the delay in coming back to you. 

We referred your query to the Mortgage Team and they have advised:

The process generally is as follows:

Once we issue a mortgage letter of offer, you have 30 days to accept the offer (this can be extended this if needed). Once accepted, the offer is valid for 6 months from the date of the offer letter. It is normal practice to issue the offer letter pack to both the customer and the customer’s solicitor.
 
Mortgage finance is in place when you are house-hunting so that you can move quickly when you need to. At the same time, returning the signed offer letter does not constitute a legal agreement. The mortgage is not in place until sale closing / mortgage drawdown, which would be subject to final property details and required documentation etc. being in place. 

I hope this helps

Thanks

Billy

Hi Billy,

Thanks for your reply and for clarifying the matter. What is confusing though is that the customer has to sign a letter of offer with incorrect information, then when they go sale agreed on a house another letter has to then be issued with the correct details and then this needs to be signed. For us our solicitor told us not to sign until all the details were correct so you can see where the confusion is. We were also advised that the offer was valid for 3 months so thanks for clarifying that this is in fact 6 months.