A condition on page nine
The mortgage offer arrives through the lender's portal or by email: a long PDF with the loan details, the property, the borrower and, on a later page, special conditions. A retention until some works are done. A requirement to confirm something about the property. A note that the offer expires on a specific date.
The case handler reads it, notes the key points on the file and moves on. Months later, the chain has slowed down and the expected completion date is creeping towards the expiry. Nobody spotted it until the buyer's broker mentioned it.
Why offer details slip
Offers are read at the point they arrive, which may be long before completion. Their content is noted in free text, if at all. There is no link between the expiry date and the file's expected completion date, and no list of conditions that must be met before the funds request.
Lenders also differ in format and in what they require, and case handlers handle offers from many different lenders. Remembering each lender's particular requirements, alongside the general handbook requirements, is a lot to hold in your head on a large caseload.
| Offer detail | Where it goes wrong |
|---|---|
| Offer expiry date | Not compared with expected completion |
| Special conditions | Noted in free text, not tracked to satisfaction |
| Retentions | Client not told early enough |
| Property or borrower details | Mismatch with the contract not noticed |
| Offer reissues | Old version's details still on the file |
What a missed condition or expiry costs
An offer that expires before completion means a new application or an extension, which can delay completion for the whole chain. A condition noticed late can hold up the funds request at the last moment. And a mismatch between the offer and the contract can mean reporting to the lender and waiting for their response when time is tightest.
Buyers and their brokers lose confidence in the firm quickly when this happens.
How we build offer tracking
- Read the offer: when an offer arrives, the tool extracts the lender, loan amount, property address, borrowers, offer date, expiry date, any retention and each special condition, quoting where each was found.
- Compare with the file: it checks the property address, purchase price and borrower names against the file and flags any mismatch for the case handler.
- Condition list: each special condition becomes an item on the file's pre-completion list, with a note of what is needed and who provides it. The case handler confirms how each is dealt with.
- Expiry watch: the expiry date is compared with the file's expected completion date, and the case handler and, if you choose, the broker are alerted when they get close.
- Reissued offers: when a revised offer arrives, the tool highlights what changed from the previous version.
- Before the funds request: the funds request step checks that every condition is marked as dealt with.
The tool reads and tracks. Deciding what a condition requires, and whether to report to the lender, stays with the case handler under the lender's instructions.
What case handlers get
Every offer's important details are on the file as data rather than a note. Conditions are worked through as a list, not rediscovered at the funds request. Expiry dates are watched against completion, with a warning while there is still time to act. Revised offers are compared automatically.
Brokers get fewer surprises, and so do buyers.
Could this be your firm?
- Offer details are noted on the file as free text.
- An offer has expired, or nearly expired, before completion.
- Special conditions are sometimes spotted late.
- Offer and contract details are not compared systematically.
- Revised offers are read from scratch to spot the changes.