Independent adviser / broker

buffy500

dunstonh wrote: »

You are correct. However, I was going by the complaint response which stated they had to offer that option to be classed as independent. That suggests they were doing the transaction on that method. Otherwise their response is not consistent with the complaint.

If they are claiming the fee is because they are independent, then they should have rebated or offset the commission against the fee.

Having read both keyfact properly now, in the cold light of day, they both mention brokers fees.
When you know what you are looking at it is pretty clear.
At the time I'd never dealt with anyone who took a fee, so did not know to look for it.
We were talked through the documents line by line (as the yellow highlighter is supposed to show), but it was absolutely not explained to us.

(It might have been explained, but not in words that made it clear to me, a 40 year old fairly intelligent person.)
Our recollection of this point goes something like "We get £x, 'he' gets half of it, I get half of it" ('he' being the business I guess).

It is fairly conclusive to me, if I'd understood there was a fee of over £600 I would have considered going back to a previously used broker who did not charge.
We never had this conversation, so it was not made clear enough for us to grasp.

It is hard to discuss this further without making it sound like we're just moaning.
Our opinion at the time, was that it was deliberately hidden from us, and the actions of the company since have only strengthened this suspicion.
There were other elements to the complaint, including a mistake made by the advisor in relation to our previous property. This fact was known at the time because we were basically following his suggestion in relation to letting our old house out, this was not disclosed on the application form filled in by the advisor.
This has not been responded to in any way. Basically once the company had the money, (which was threatened out of us with threat of legal action), the rest of the complaint was closed, supporting the view that all they wanted was the money and no interest in anything else at all.

We accept that the fees were on the forms, and we simply missed them when reading it (probably not reading it anywhere near enough).

But it thier view is that 'our' mistake costs us money, and the 'advisors' mistake also costs us money. This seems just a little unfair.
We have paid a significant amount for a service, and its not been entirely suitably supplied. The complaint has resulted in no suitable explanation or appology.

The key facts, (well the IDD), actually makes it look like they were not acting as independant advisors.
It mentions "whole market" and no mention of paying a fee and rebating the commission.
The only options its got are :

"No Fee. We will be paid by commission from the lender"

"A fee of £xxxx payable on completion of the mortgage, We will also be paid commission"

(I also realise that the wording above is fairly clear and I'm not sure how we missed it, but we did)

I'm not sure what a reasonable fee is for a mortgage of approx £180,000. One explanation we were given was that the lender was hard work to deal with. This is the lender that they recommended, so surely that's self inflicted ?

The letter from the advisors financial company has the line which suggests they acted as independent which would appear to be either not true or means they did not act properly.

I'm not entirely sure what the next step is, I am losing the will to fight anymore, the fee was paid months ago.
Its just that I do still feel somewhat aggrieved, mostly due to the less that suitable way our issues were dealt with when we complained.

feisty1

Quote: "Our recollection of this point goes something like "We get £x, 'he' gets half of it, I get half of it"

If you can recall, this would suggest the fee was covered off.
If it wasn't clear, did you ask for a further explanation?

When did you raise the complaint?

buffy500

feisty1 wrote: »

Quote: "Our recollection of this point goes something like "We get £x, 'he' gets half of it, I get half of it"

If you can recall, this would suggest the fee was covered off.
If it wasn't clear, did you ask for a further explanation?

When did you raise the complaint?

My 'understanding' was that this money was the money coming from the mortgage company.

As I said ,I suspect we've been somewhat naive and did not ask the right questions, or even think that we needed to ask these questions. We did kind of trust the advisor to be honest and open.

We rose the complaint as soon we got the letter demanding the money, just under 6 months ago now.

feisty1

Have you paid?

Ian_Griffiths_Halifax

Did you sign any fee agreement? Do the company advertise through and Directories or their Website as 'Independent' or 'Whole of Market'?

One explanation we were given was that the lender was hard work to deal with. This is the lender that they recommended, so surely that's self inflicted ?

This wouldn't have been know at the time the IDD was produced, unless it were particular lenders, and I'm sure they would have pointed out to you from the start that the lender is going to be a pain to deal with.

dunstonh

It seems the complaint response is not consistent with the Key facts doc they issued. If they are claiming independent status, why isnt the fee option ticked? The two commission options (non independent) options are selected.

buffy500

Have you paid?

We have paid.
They threatened legal action via the local court if we did not pay in 7 days.
They sent us a filled in summons to attempt to scare us. Which if I'm honest it clearly did.
We paid, clearly stating at the time that we were paying purely because they threatened legal action against us.

Did you sign any fee agreement? Do the company advertise through and Directories or their Website as 'Independent' or 'Whole of Market'?

We only signed the IDD and the Key Facts for the Mortgage. We did not specifically sign a fee agreement.
They are suggesting that signatures on the key facts are binding enough. The signatures are just on the bottom of the front page in white space, not in any kind of box which state we agree to conditions in this document blah blah blah etc

I've looked at their website again and it does not state "independent" or "whole of Market"
Life would be far simpler to name them, but you don't know who's listening..

We were trying to move with fairly short notice, if they'd warned us that the lender would be hard work, we would have gone with the second choice.

It seems the complaint response is not consistent with the Key facts doc they issued. If they are claiming independent status, why isnt the fee option ticked? The two commission options (non independent) options are selected.

Is this something worth carrying on with ?

Ian_Griffiths_Halifax

buffy500 wrote: »

I've looked at their website again and it does not state "independent" or "whole of Market"

Their website should state something regarding their status. Could you PM me their website address?

dunstonh

We only signed the IDD and the Key Facts for the Mortgage.

The FSA dont like it when people sign the IDD. Indeed, the actively advise against it. It has no standing.

I have heard some claim they do it as proof of issue and put a copy on file but it doesnt mean a thing.

feisty1

Buffy500.....have they arranged life insurance for you? I am increasingly hearing of practices as you describe accompanied by "agreements" whereby if you discontinue the insurance they come back for more money, saying they had partially waivered the fee & threaten legal action as what has happened to you..............