Let’s be honest, no one likes not knowing when it comes to their finances. With mortgages it can be hard to know exactly how long the whole process will take, but in the meantime, you’re on a deadline before the next payment goes out, or your current mortgage automatically updates to a new rate.

We hope this article helps you to work out just how long remortgaging your property could take, and highlight the potential delays, so you can plan…

Previously we would contact our clients around 4 months before the current deal would be ending but over the last few years that’s changed. We moved the arranged review to 6 or 7 months prior to the end of your current mortgage deal as it enables us to discuss the impact of COVID on your earnings, spending and the big topic of cost of living, and allow us enough time to source the right options.

We’ve now moved mortgage reviews to 9 months! But WHY?

Although it’s too early to really start a remortgage application it does give us the time to discuss the future with you. With the cost of living on everyone’s minds and the increase in mortgage rates we think it’s important to forewarn our clients as to the impact that may have.

The actual application and legal work may only take a matter of weeks but with the majority of lenders offering a 6-month mortgage offer it means we can try and beat any future rate rises.

So, let’s say your current mortgage rate is due to end on the 28th February 2023. We would be having a conversation now with a view to submitting an application around September, so that we have a few weeks in underwriting and processing and then have an offer that will be valid until the 1st March 2023.

This is a great option but does have one drawback

Let’s say you opt for a two-year fixed rate mortgage, these in fact very often have specific end dates rather than a date two years from completion of the mortgage offer. So the rate I would select in September 2022 may fix you at a rate until December 2024, but as it’s not going to start until 1st March 2023, you’ll actually get less than 2 years at that rate. But this isn’t such a problem if you opt for a five-year agreement as you still get a decent length of time to benefit from it.

This might sound complicated, so if you need to talk it over, you can do so with the confidence that we don’t charge fees for our advice and guidance, because the lender commission covers it all for you.

What can cause delays to my remortgage going through?

We all hate delays but sometimes they are simply unavoidable. The most common examples for your remortgage being delayed that we experience are:

• Lenders getting busy and having very slow processing times – this can be by as much as 17 working days
• Valuations and having to review the case if the property is down valued.
• Solicitors/conveyancer delays – communication and processing documents and signatures
• Clients not providing us with documents required to process the case. It may seem a lot but we try to gather as much information as possible to help build a clear picture of the case and if required send the lender an overview of your specific situation.

All of the above are out of anyone’s control really but what the MK Mortgages team does is to help minimise these as much as we can. We do this by offering a ‘hand-holding’ style of service to help clients with how to obtain what we need from their various sources, and then in a nutshell, picking up the phone to check that things are moving in the right direction with the involved parties.

With luck your next remortgage will go smoothly and seamlessly as many often do, but if there’s a bump in the road, we’re always here to provide advice and updates on how things are moving and if it does seem to be going quiet, we’re here to get things moving again.