Shared Ownership Mortgage mis-sold?!! Financial Ombudsman case??

tinkerbell84

LondonSW5 wrote: »

Read the whole thread!

Wow. You're charming! :eek:

You don't actually say how in this thread. Are you confusing it with one of your others, perhaps?

LondonSW5

tinkerbell84 wrote: »

Wow. You're charming! :eek:

You don't actually say how in this thread. Are you confusing it with one of your others, perhaps?

Sorry Tink,

i dont think personal judgements on my personality are really helpful here..or appropriate. I am feeling too stressed right now and tired.
It was studio flat in Kensingtn and chelsea. The condition was pretty poor condition. Has really high celings. Beautiful original features though. I removed partition walls and upgraded everything with VERY high standard features. New kitchen, all integrated appliances granite worktops, expensive wooden floor ( quality is important in this area or it wont sell..) new bathroom. I also added a mezzanine level creating a bedroom...hence more sq ft..hence more equity.
This is central London...and is in the UK's most expensive borough. I knew there would definitely be a good uplift following renovations. However since i am not able to buy a property in this area outright because my salary is not around 60k to 100k a year..i had to buy through shared ownership. I had no choice else i would be renting forever. I have lived here for 12 years...and i work here so i was never going to leave.
Hope that answers your question.

LondonSW5

...i paid for the renovations from taking an unsecured loan ..with halifax funnily enough..for home improvements....and then borrowing from a friend a considerable sum. Also used my credit card. My broker knew what i was doing and how and still offerred the mortgage without mentioning any special clauses in shared ownership.

I think i VERY easy for someone in the mortgage business to say...you should have known..etc etc..but why would you if your and completely new to mortgages..to shared ownership mortgages..and after you read ALL the terms and conditions there is nothing anywhere to alert you that it has special clauses attached! Why would you know there was anything potentially problematic with it. If you have had experience of the industry then maybe yeah..you wuld know. Nobody i know is in the mortgage business and friends i have dont know what a shared ownership mortagage is compared to their mainstream one to discuss any pitfalls. So from the outside ...if its not in the terms and conditions..how would i know? I am not a mortgage adviser or a broker...and this stuff isnt discussed in any of my circles...how would you know?

tinkerbell84

I was 19 when I bought my shared ownership house, and I really really looked into it. It's a complex thing, not to mention a huge commitment, and I personally made sure that I understood every single aspect of it. This was in the days before I had internet access too

Hindsight is a wonderful thing. My friend is about to buy a shared ownership property in London and although it's a completely different scheme to the one I was on, I'm encouraging her to make sure she knows all the ins and outs before signing up.

You may have been better off doing as others by buying a property in a less expensive borough through a normal scheme and renovating that

HelpWhereIcan

OK, constructive as most have tried to be it does not help anyone for anyone to start throwing muck around.

As someone as knowledgable as Conrad should know full well, your choice of Mortgage Adviser would have been restricted to those who are Homebuy accredited so the fees free/fee charging point is a bit of a moot one in this case. Homebuy advisers are restricted to an extent on the level of fee they can charge.

The fact that they would have been Homebuy accredited is one of the strange things to me in all of this. By this I mean that they are meant to have demonstrated an above average understanding of the way the scheme works.

This means that I am surprised that any mention of unsecured borrowing needing future consolidation did not prompt the warning that this could occur. Extra borrowing for debt consolidation would very rarely be allowed (and I only refrained from saying never to cover my backside). Check your reasons why or suitability letter to see if this was mentioned by the adviser.

It may be that they were under the impression that you would need to borrow from the Halifax as part of the mortgage in future to carry out the improvements - which should be possible once you provide plans, estimates and they obtain a pre and post improvements valuation, a deed of postponement is obtained etc etc. Done that way you would not have committed to anything until the money was available.

What do the reasons why letter and factfind say? - if you don't know ask the broker for a copy. If you can prove that you mentioned your plans in detail to the adviser and that they should have been aware of your plans to consolidate unsecured borrowing you may have a reason for complaint as the adviser should have advised you to borrow only through the mortgage for home improvements as consolidation is unlikely to be allowed.

The choice of lender makes no difference as it all comes down to the security of the charge. This is where the deed of postponement comes in.

Essentially, if the Housing Association formally agrees to allow Halifax to claim their additional lending before the Housing Association take their share the problem should be solved.

The choice of whether they grant a deed of postponement is purely the Housing Association's choice and you may find their decision coloured by the current state of the housing market.

With regards to the Halifax, as long as you saw one of their advisers and not someone just giving you information about their range, you should be able to claim to get the val fee back - not least because it will cost them more to go to the Ombudsman than just to give you the money back.

As hard as it is, you really need to try and calm down. Do not forget that people are unable to discern tone or meaning in a forum. You run the risk of alienating people who are trying hard to understand your situation and help out where possible.

LondonSW5

Thanks...you have been very helpful. :T:T:T