Mortgage approval lapsed

Tartopher

Hi,
Can anyone advise me if this is possible:

We were mortgage approved 10 months ago but it has since lapsed.
Our financial position has since changed (for the better) and we have finally seen a house we really like, still within the range of our previous approval amount.

I was wondering if it is ok/ethical to bid on a property even though our approval has lapsed?
We know we'll will be approved for the same amount again and possibly more if we pushed it but we don't know if it's the done thing to bid on property with approval.

Many thanks

seamus

Ethical, shmethical. You won't find anyone else in the market being ethical. Trying to be nice about it will lead to frustration.

Apply for your mortgage approval and put in a bid at the same time.

When the bidding gets to a more advanced stage, some agents will ask for proof of funding. If your approval hasn't come through at that point (though it should only take a few days), send them on the lapsed approval and say that you're in the process of getting your approval renewed.

Worst case scenario, the agent will reject your bid and tell you to come back when you have full approval.

whiskeyman

Just get your application in ASAP.
If you have all in order / all docs, it should take around 2 weeks

Don't assume you will be approved for the same.
Did you get an exception(s) last time? These may be curtailed.

As Seamus said, the EA may look for proof. If I was a seller and found out you didn't really have AIP, I wouldn't consider you.
You're putting yourself right at the back of what could be a very long list...

Graham

seamus wrote: »

When the bidding gets to a more advanced stage, some agents will ask for proof of funding.

It's not unheard of for agents to ask for such proof before they will accept offers at all.

SarahMollie

Really depends on the agent - some will require proof of your approval in principal at which point you'd be rumbled.

Also, if your circumstances have improved because you've changed jobs, you need to be aware than a bank won't re-approve you until any probationary period has been completed. If you just got a raise in your existing job, then should be fine.

Tartopher

Thanks a million for all the replies.

The change of circumstance is down to securing a permanent position and the probationary period is complete.

Our mortgage advisor has been very clear with us insofar as we've had no special exceptions and she believes it should be as straight forward as last time - we just need to get the documents in.

The thing I don't understand is that when we were shopping around for mortgages I rang EBS, gave them a few scant details over the phone and within 3 days I had a letter sent out to me saying we'd been approved for a mortgage in principal.

We didn't go with them in the end and in order to secure our previous AIP we had to provide the statements, P60s etc.

Given the huge difference in requirements, does an AIP from different banks mean different things to the EA?

whiskeyman

Tartopher wrote: »

The thing I don't understand is that when we were shopping around for mortgages I rang EBS, gave them a few scant details over the phone and within 3 days I had a letter sent out to me saying we'd been approved for a mortgage in principal.

I guess that '3 day' AIP would have been subject to all the other checks - statements etc...
Best to get all that done in the first place so nothing gets held up.

Ayuntamiento

We had the same situation. Probation turning into permanent work increased our budget by 100k. In our situation the probation period wasn't even up (few month left but we threatened to leave the bank and they caved). Bank took 2wks to approve new amount but we just used the old blanked out amount to placate the estate agent. Didn't get the property in the end due to crazy prices! We've found our bank really really easy to deal with and get a mortgage from.