Adventures of a Non-Binary Author – The mortgage application

Our application goes in about a week after our offer is accepted. The lender we’re going with has a nice little timeline for us to keep an eye on. It should only take us a couple of weeks to know if we’ve been accepted or not. The first stage clears when expected. The second stage should be completed before the Easter Weekend. But that comes and goes without any progress.

We contact our mortgage advisor, when the date we should have our decision passes. He contacts the lender. Apparently they’ve forgotten to send an email. My proof of address needs to show my first name and not just my first initial. It takes me a few moments to find something. We’re still new at this address. There aren’t a lot of viable options, other than bank statements. Two of my three banks contact me with an initial not a name. But I strike gold with the third.

I email it to our mortgage advisor, who passes it on. Now we go back to waiting. There are a few long days of nothing. No sign that the stage we were waiting on has begun. No way of knowing how much of a delay this will cause. Then, finally, we see a little progress. The stage has been started. Everything else follows at breakneck speed. Before we know it our application has been approved.

We spend some time reading through our mortgage terms and conditions. We let our families know the good news after. This is starting to get very real now. Our home buyer’s survey has also come back. There are a few things we will need to sort over the first couple of years. But nothing we’re overly concerned about. All the enquiries with the seller have also come back without any concerns. And the solicitors surveys have also started trickling in.

Things seem to be on track. It’s all just a waiting game now. We’d like to complete in July. Technically our six months in the temporary digs takes us into August. So we’ve spoken to the landlord with a plan for July. Obviously we’ve not done more than talk in theoreticals. We’ve no idea how much more there is to be done before we can talk completion dates. Without a completion date we can’t make any definite arrangements with our landlord. Things moving as smoothly so far. Too smoothly. So we just have to hope there’s a way of creeping the completion date into the start of July. If not, well it’s not like we wouldn’t both love to move sooner. We just need to know what the consequence of that would be.

To be continued…