Mortgage Protection - Delay contract signing??

Hi

My solicitor is telling me I can't sign contracts until I have my mortgage protection in place, I want to sign asap (will have loan offer letter in 2/3 days) but know the mortgage protection is going to take a couple of weeks at least. Not due to close until late August or early September because vendor is buying a new build.

Can I just tell my solicitor I want to sign?

Any advice would be appreciated.

Hi Saudi,

This was what nearly tripped us up. The solicitor won't let you sign until you have the cheque and the bank won't issue the cheque until you have mortgage protection in place.

However, it sounds like you're only talking about signing the contracts. This shouldn't be a problem - you are able to sign these without mortgage prot.

Just to say though, start organising mortgage protection NOW. It takes longer than you think to organise and can cause more stress than it warrants. However, it is only valid for 3 months, so double-check the closing date within the next month or two in case there are delays with the new build.

Cheers for that Sun Sparks, very helpful (particularly the 3 month issue).

Yeah I'm only talking about signing contracts, my solicitor is a bit annoying and not being very helpful about the whole thing. Bank is issuing loan offer without mortgage protection in place. I don't think the mortgage protection will be a problem, we are 28 and and 26 and in good health, so I'm happy to sign contracts before getting it.

Our broker organised the Mortgage protection for us, I just had to fill in forms and send them off. He was great!

Technically you should have the mortgage protection in place for signing because you are legally bound to close the purchase and this could be enforced even if one or both or you were to die before closing so your solicitor is correct. In reality however most people get the life cover in place for closing.

Sarah

www.rea.ie

Sun_sparks is right in saying that you don't need to have mortgage protction to sign contracts. Once you have your letter of offer from the bank you are free to sign contracts (although you can actually sign contracts without full loan approval but definitely not recommended). It sounds as though your solicitor is just being a bit over-cautious.

You should still go about arranging your life cover though. Although you are both young and in good health it wont do any harm to have it in place. You didn't say how much your mortgage is but life companies have underwriting limits and if you are above these they will request a report from your doctor and possibly even a medical examination. They also have the right to request for random proposers to undergo a medical examination - it is rare that they do this but why take the risk? You can put the policy on hold so that all the underwriting is complete by the time you want to draw down.

Cheers Hel_n, our mortgage is for €660k so I think they will definitely contact our doctor. You are right about the solicitor being over cautious but it is quite frustrating and could scupper the house purchase.

If we don't sign by next Friday we won't be able to sign for another 2 weeks as we'll be on holiday and I think that might drive the vendors to pulling out, that plus the fact the house next door has just gone up for sale for about 60k more than we've paid for ours.