Cheltenham & Gloucester - WARNING!

AA89647

I have had a bad experience remortgageing with Cheltenham & Gloucester that I would like to share as a warning to others.

We went to our mortgage broker in April as our fixed rate was due to run out in June. We applied for a two year fixed with C&G, filled out all the application forms & received written approval. We contacted our mortgage advisor on the 2nd July to check that the new mortgage had gone through ok. The broker was told by C&G that the mortgage had not gone through because C&G's OWN SOLICITOR had not given the instruction to draw down the money. C&G said therefore the offer we had signed up for had expired (5.8%) but they would allow us to have a mortgage at 6.2%. How generous!
I can't believe C&G can get away with this as it was their own solicitor's fault! To be honest I think the soliciotor story is a red herring and they just wanted to get out of the good rate we'd signed up for 3 months earlier.
We have decided to go with C&G's revised offer despite wanting to tell them to shove it, as ultmately, starting the application process all over again with someone else would take too long. Also our mortgage broker said we wouldn't get our £99 admin fee back!
Has anyone else been stitched up like this?

Dan_Collins_2

Its not C&G's own solicitor, it is a panel of legal companies they use. C&G have one the worst panels in my opinion. You could try and complain as you will be out of pocket. However I dont doubt that they will get away with it.

If its down to service the law society will do dibbly.

happybroker

did you ever get any paperwork through from the solicitor?

I have never heard of this happening, some of the solicitors used by banks are truly awful but it's usually being slow that's the main problem rather than them just not doing anything.

DaftMule

In a way this doesn't surprise me. Shafting the customer seems to be something a lot of companies lose little sleep over.

In my experience, you can't assume that something is going to happen just because you are paying someone to do a job for you. It doesn't matter whether it's solicitors, mortgage brokers, builders or whatever....the only time anything ever gets done is if you call them at least once a week to make sure things are progressing. It's a pain in the ar*e to have to do it but unfortunately it seems to be the only way anything ever gets done.

Conrad

We use C & G a lot. I have a nervous disposition which causes me to treble check and diarise everything, which helps to ensure such deadlines are met.
I would never assume for example a Solicitor will discharge thier duty, so I make detailed notes on the application to try and achieve certain outcomes.

Your broker may have done all this, but as with chefs, there are those that treble check everything and are always thinking ahead as to problems that may arise, and those that do the basics only and 'expect' everything to fall into place, and when it doesn't, hay ho - it's just one of those things.

Clients also have a role in this though. There are cleints that enable speedier outcomes, those that for example dont dilly dally pondering which deal to take, and that provide everything first time correct (for example the correct post code and account number for that loan they took out years ago and a contact number for the surveyor that is answered first time).
On the other hand there are clients that make a meal of everything and trying to get correct info is a slow painful process as they are by nature quite disorganised and dont have everything in one place all written down. For example they would give a Doctors address without a postcode.

AA89647

happybroker wrote: »

did you ever get any paperwork through from the solicitor?

I have never heard of this happening, some of the solicitors used by banks are truly awful but it's usually being slow that's the main problem rather than them just not doing anything.

We did get the written mortgage offer from C&G. We had a questionaire from C&Gs solicitor asking for the completion date & other details. The solicitor did try to draw down the money 24 hours after the offer had ended. We had tried to speak to C&G prior to the completion date but they refused to speak to us, saying they would only speak to our broker. Throughout the whole process our broker assured us they were keeping on top of everything - of course we can only take their word for it.
I shared our experience because I've never heard of anyone else having this problem & you would think a written contract from a major lender would be worth the paper it's written on... I now know otherwise.