New home loan hit by furlough

S.A. writes: My daughter is buying a new-build house and asked Nationwide to ‘port’ her current mortgage to the new property. However, as she is currently on flexible furlough, Nationwide has refused her request.

YOUR daughter is no longer on furlough, but even when she was not working normally, her job as an air traffic controller was safe. Nationwide told me that when she applied for the new mortgage, her existing home loan stood at £224,000 and she needed a further £35,000. However, she was incorrectly told that she could port her mortgage online, and that Nationwide would accept furlough income. In fact, Nationwide did not take furlough income into account in considering a fresh mortgage application. It has offered her £100 as an apology for this mistake.

Nationwide did reconsider after I contacted the society, and it indicated it would approve your daughter’s loan after all and let her have the full £259,000.

By then though, you had provided your daughter with some of the funds she needed, and she had received a mortgage offer from Santander for the full amount.