What happens when my agreement in principle expires?

Nothing happens automatically and there is no penalty. The certificate simply stops being current evidence, so an estate agent may ask for an updated one before progressing your offer. If you have already submitted your full mortgage application, expiry is irrelevant, because the formal mortgage offer has replaced it as the document that matters.

Can I extend an agreement in principle rather than reapply?

Most lenders do not extend the original document. They re-run your case against current criteria and issue a fresh certificate with a new date, which usually takes minutes if nothing has changed. Practically this feels like an extension, but it is a new assessment, so a change in your income or credit commitments can change the result.

How many times can I renew an agreement in principle?

There is no fixed limit, and buyers who search for six months or more often renew two or three times without difficulty. Each renewal is a fresh assessment, so ask each time whether it involves a soft or a hard credit search. Repeated renewals with one lender are generally viewed very differently from applications spread across many.

Does my agreement in principle need to be valid on completion day?

No. By completion you are relying on a formal mortgage offer, which is issued after full underwriting and typically lasts around three to six months. The agreement in principle only needs to be current while you are making offers and while an estate agent is assessing whether you are a proceedable buyer.

Will renewing my agreement in principle hurt my credit score?

It depends on whether that lender uses a soft or a hard search, so ask before you proceed. A soft search leaves no mark other lenders can see. A repeat hard search with the same lender you have been dealing with is usually low impact. Scattering hard searches across many lenders in a short period is the pattern to avoid.

← All articles

5 min read · Updated 30 August 2026

How long does a mortgage agreement in principle last?

How long agreements in principle stay valid, how to check your expiry date, what happens if yours lapses mid-purchase, and whether renewing triggers another credit search.

Written and reviewed by the MortgageMatch editorial team. How we research and review our guides.

Most mortgage agreements in principle last between 30 and 90 days, and the exact period is set by the lender rather than by any rule. Some issue 30 days, some 60, some 90. When it expires, nothing bad happens automatically: the document simply stops being current evidence for an estate agent, and you ask for a new one. Renewal is usually straightforward and can often be done in minutes if your circumstances have not changed.

Why the period varies so much

The validity window exists because the information behind the agreement goes stale. Your credit file changes, your income may change, and the lender's own criteria and stress rates change too. A lender that reviews its lending policy frequently has more reason to keep the window short.

There is no industry standard and no regulator-set duration. That means you cannot assume the length. Two lenders looking at the same applicant on the same day can issue 30 days and 90 days respectively.

If you are early in your search and expect to be viewing for several months, the length of the window is worth asking about before you apply. It is not a reason to choose a poor product, but where two lenders suit you equally, the longer window saves you an administrative task later.

Where to find your expiry date

The date is normally printed on the certificate itself, near the reference number. If you were given a PDF, open it and look for wording such as valid until, expires on, or valid for a period of days from the date of issue.

If you cannot find a date, do not assume. Call the lender or your broker with the reference number and ask for the expiry date in writing. Estate agents sometimes reject certificates simply because they cannot see a date on them.

Put the expiry in your calendar with a reminder two weeks before. That gives you time to renew before an agent chases you, rather than after.

What happens if it lapses

An expired agreement in principle has no legal consequences. You have not defaulted on anything and no lender is annoyed with you. What you lose is practical:

Estate agents may ask for updated evidence before progressing your offer, particularly if the chain has stalled and they are reassessing everyone in it
A seller who is nervous about a long chain may read a lapsed agreement as a sign you are not proceedable
You lose your own reference point for what you can afford, which matters if rates or your circumstances have moved

Importantly, if you have already submitted a full mortgage application, the agreement in principle expiring is irrelevant. It has done its job and has been superseded. What matters at that point is the formal mortgage offer, which usually lasts around three to six months from issue and is a completely different document.

Renewing your agreement in principle

Renewal is usually a repeat of the original process rather than an extension of the old one. In practice that means the lender re-runs your figures against its current criteria and issues a fresh certificate with a new date.

The steps are short:

Confirm your income, employment and credit commitments are unchanged
Tell the lender or broker your current target purchase price, which may have moved since you started looking
Ask them to re-run the case and issue a new certificate
Check the new expiry date and diarise it

Where circumstances have changed, say so up front. A new job, a car on finance, a maternity leave period or a change from employed to self-employed will all affect the result. It is far better to find that out on a renewal than at full application.

Does renewing trigger another credit search

It might, and you should ask. Some lenders use a soft search at agreement in principle stage, in which case renewing leaves no footprint that other lenders can see. Others use a hard search, and repeating that on the same lender within a few weeks is generally low risk, because the pattern of one lender searching twice reads very differently from six lenders searching once each.

The behaviour that causes problems is scattering hard searches across many lenders in a short period. Renewing with the same lender you have been working with all along is not that.

Ask the question directly at renewal: will this be a soft or a hard search? Then decide. If you are three weeks from a full application anyway, it may be simpler to skip the renewal and go straight to the application.

Expiry while you are already in a chain

This is the situation that worries people most, and it is usually less serious than it feels. A purchase running roughly 12 to 16 weeks from offer accepted to completion will comfortably outlive a 30 day agreement in principle, and that is entirely normal.

The sequence that matters is this. The agreement in principle gets your offer accepted. Within a week or two you submit a full application. The lender underwrites and issues a formal mortgage offer. From that point, the agreement in principle is history and the offer validity is the clock you watch.

Problems only arise where the full application is delayed, for example because you were waiting on a probate sale or a leasehold pack, and the agent asks for refreshed evidence in the meantime. Renew, send the new certificate, move on.

A worked example

You get an agreement in principle on 5 March, valid 60 days, showing 245,000 pounds. You view for six weeks and have an offer accepted on 20 April at 260,000 pounds with a 40,000 pound deposit.

Two things need to happen. First, the borrowing figure of 245,000 pounds is more than the 220,000 pounds you now need, so the amount is fine. Second, your certificate expires on 4 May. You submit the full application on 28 April, which makes the expiry moot. The formal offer arrives on 22 May, valid until late November, and completion is targeted for early August.

Change one detail and the picture changes. If the seller had needed to wait for a probate grant and your application could not go in until July, you would have renewed the agreement in principle in early May and possibly again in July, and each renewal would have re-tested your figures against the lender's criteria at that time.

When to let it expire instead

Not every lapsed certificate needs replacing. If you have stepped back from the search, are waiting for a bonus to land, are about to change jobs, or want to spend three months improving your credit file, let it go and get a fresh one when you are genuinely ready. Renewing an agreement you are not going to use adds a search record for no benefit.

If your circumstances have changed enough that the old figure is no longer realistic, a renewal with the same lender may not be the right move either. That is the point to take advice rather than to re-run the same form.

If you want someone to manage the renewal timing around your chain, the MortgageMatch directory lists FCA-authorised brokers you can approach directly.

Frequently asked questions

What happens when my agreement in principle expires?: Nothing happens automatically and there is no penalty. The certificate simply stops being current evidence, so an estate agent may ask for an updated one before progressing your offer. If you have already submitted your full mortgage application, expiry is irrelevant, because the formal mortgage offer has replaced it as the document that matters.
Can I extend an agreement in principle rather than reapply?: Most lenders do not extend the original document. They re-run your case against current criteria and issue a fresh certificate with a new date, which usually takes minutes if nothing has changed. Practically this feels like an extension, but it is a new assessment, so a change in your income or credit commitments can change the result.
How many times can I renew an agreement in principle?: There is no fixed limit, and buyers who search for six months or more often renew two or three times without difficulty. Each renewal is a fresh assessment, so ask each time whether it involves a soft or a hard credit search. Repeated renewals with one lender are generally viewed very differently from applications spread across many.
Does my agreement in principle need to be valid on completion day?: No. By completion you are relying on a formal mortgage offer, which is issued after full underwriting and typically lasts around three to six months. The agreement in principle only needs to be current while you are making offers and while an estate agent is assessing whether you are a proceedable buyer.
Will renewing my agreement in principle hurt my credit score?: It depends on whether that lender uses a soft or a hard search, so ask before you proceed. A soft search leaves no mark other lenders can see. A repeat hard search with the same lender you have been dealing with is usually low impact. Scattering hard searches across many lenders in a short period is the pattern to avoid.

This guide is general information about how UK mortgages work, not a personal recommendation. Only an FCA-authorised adviser can recommend a product for your circumstances. Tax and scheme rules change, so check the relevant government source before you budget.

Mortgage application documents: the full checklistEvery document a UK lender is likely to ask for, covering employed, self-employed and contractor income, deposit evidence, identity, gifted deposits, buy to let and new build, plus how to avoid delays.
Joint mortgages: what to know before you signJoint tenants versus tenants in common, declarations of trust, protecting unequal deposits, how two incomes are assessed, removing someone from a mortgage later, and how JBSP arrangements work.
Mortgage Agreement in Principle: what it is and how to get oneWhat a mortgage agreement in principle is, what lenders check before issuing one, how to get one in about 15 minutes, and the limits of what it proves.