Damo

How far are you through the process? My take on most of the bad reviews seem to be related to getting stage payments done on time potentially putting builds at risk. I’m nervous about going with them because of that so looking for contrary examples (I know people rush to the internet to complain but not to praise so cant always judge by bad reviews).

We’re just in the process of applying for a self build ourselves. We found there are quite a few that allow you to approach directly. Currently we are looking at the Hanley BS. One thing that Buildstore didn’t mention to us when we looked through them is that the Hanley will waive the ERC if you switch to one of their regular mortgages after the build is complete. ( see http://www.thehanley.co.uk/intermediaries/self-build-guide/completion-of-the-project/ ) I’m not blaming Buildstore as they obviously go by what their systems say, but the systems aren’t always right (eg they recommended us a Loughborough BS mortgage as they didn’t have any ERC at all and gave us a KFI with that on. However when we spoke directly to LBS they said there was an ERC but waived if we went to another of their mortgages). Unfortunately I can’t tell you whether the Hanley requires BC up front as we are hoping to have ours sorted shortly (we are doing a demolition and rebuild of our existing and bc provisionally approved with a few minor things to cover off). My point is, with a bit of internet searching there seem to be plenty of BC who you can approach directly.