Mortgage Advice from London & Country

jamesfulford

Are mortgage advisors obliged to give the best possible advice?

I've given the same background info to two brokers.

The Intelligtent Finance (IF) mortgage that was recommended to me by London & Country would have cost me over £4k more than the Portman mortgage which was recommended by Taylor's Countrywide - an estate agent based broker. The situation was slightly complicated but even if it had been entirely straightforward I could have easily got better than the London & Country / IF 5.2%.

IF would have paid L&C £920 whereas Portman are paying Taylor's only £500. SoI can't help feeling that I've been deliberategly misadvised by L&C so that they can get a better payout.

Is this likely or am I just failing to understand a complex market?

Thanks

stanmoresaver

jamesfulford wrote:

Are mortgage advisors obliged to give the best possible advice?


I've given the same background info to two brokers.

The Intelligtent Finance (IF) mortgage that was recommended to me by London & Country would have cost me over £4k more than the Portman mortgage which was recommended by Taylor's Countrywide - an estate agent based broker. The situation was slightly complicated but even if it had been entirely straightforward I could have easily got better than the London & Country / IF 5.2%.

IF would have paid L&C £920 whereas Portman are paying Taylor's only £500. SoI can't help feeling that I've been deliberategly misadvised by L&C so that they can get a better payout.

Is this likely or am I just failing to understand a complex market?

Thanks

Firstly, Yes brokers are. However, the subject and conclusion is never that simple. If you have concerns about the advice given, i suggest you write to L&C's "customer relations" department asking the questions.

Personally, i feel it likely to be a case of an inexperienced broker recommending a product/ lender that is more in his face than bias towards a lender that will pay a higher proc fee. If indeed the Portman product is superior.

HTH

SS

dunstonh

L&C have an advisor who contributes here and he will no doubt be along shortly to look into this.

Joannaclaire

Don't think it's necessarily the money where L&C are concerned. They suggested a mortgage to us which only netted them £300 or so.

What does the countrywide mortgage broker charge to do the mortgage for you? All the mortgage brokers we saw in Estate agents (including ones at a cuontrywide branch or two) conveniently forgot to mention how much we'd pay them, and eventually said that they got their money through compulsory insurances that they pretty much forced you to sign up to.

jamesfulford

Thanks for replies. We're not paying Countrywide anything and are not buying any insurance. The Portmann mortgage is definitely cheaper looking not only at interest rate but at all the other bits and pieces as well.

And funnily enough looking at the IF website I can't find a mortgage with as high a rate as the one offered to me by L&C. But I'm sure you're right - these things happen - people make mistakes. And I've calmed down now and feel less like someone was trying to stitch us up...

Just proves it's worth shopping around.

luckyfool

Brokers get used to using particular lenders, sometimes due to good service, good relationship with business development managers, maybe good products. It is likely to be nothing more than this. The London and Country broker interpreted your requirements differently. Perhaps you said you would like flexibility, Intelligent Finance mortgages tend to be extremely flexible and there is a rate premium attached to that. Perhaps h/she felt service would be an issue and had bad experiences in the past with Portman . .. really who knows!!

Generally in the past when I've used IF, its been because of specific circumstances that made them appropriate. They offer high joint multiples and will lend 95% without a HLC. They can be flexible where there is another residential mortgage in the background.

Probably a decent case study in why its a good idea to speak to 2 or 3 brokers!

sashacat

we have used L&C a number of times and have always been given good advice...and yes I have shopped around. On one occassion they reccommended a company that did not pay them and they explained that we would be better going direct as it was a more suitable product for us. I can't fault them and ,no I do not work for them.

Mortgageman

We pride ourselves on giving best advice (as any mortgage broker should).

I suspect what has happened here is that you have given us some information that has narrowed us down to the IF product, and that you either have not given this info to the Countrywide advisor, or they haven't picked it up, or we have misunderstood your intentions.

I'm made more certain of this by the choice of lender involved, IF generally aren't the sharpest for rate, but would come in to the calculation if:

You have a large amount of cash savings to offset.
You have a high LTV (loan to Value)
You have an "unusual" income.

I'd be delighted to have a look at your case if you are concerned - pop me a pm if you want me to tell you, in detail, why you have been reccomended what you have.

***ADDED***
Actually, I've managed to find you on our system.
I think you have the IF rate wrong - on our system it's showing as 5.04%
****IMPORTANT BIT****
Looking at your details on our system I think you are above the Higher Lending Charge limit that Portman set (90% LTV) - YOU SHOULD CHECK THIS WITH COUNTRYWIDE ASAP - YOU DON'T WANT TO HAVE TO PAY THIS!

pingu

i left my details last week for L&C to call back no one did?

off to nationwide tomorrow for a remortgage quote!

Mortgageman

Pingu, it's no excuse, but we're really busy right now.

if you still want to talk to someone here drop me a message and I will sort it out.

Good luck with the Nationwide.

jamesfulford

>You have a large amount of cash savings to offset.

Funnily we weren't recommended an offset mortgage although we already bank with IF.

>You have a high LTV (loan to Value)

I wanted to consider the cost of both 90% and 95% mortgages so that we have as much money left over as possible for house improvements. Countrywide indicated that we could take a 90% mortgage and later borrow the difference when we need to. I guess this is where they did well for us. I did give all the same info to your chap at L&C.

>You have an "unusual" income.

No

>I think you have the IF rate wrong - on our system it's showing as 5.04%

I've dug the key facts illustration out of the recycling and you're right and I'm wrong. Although I'd swear he told me 5.2%. Anyway, that's not good enough, I had the illustration and I didn't read it thoroughly enough. So I've changed the title of the thread so it no longer suggests the information given was "bad" and hopefully the thread itself gives a fair picture of what happened.

Apologies to L&C