L&C brokers

magali

I called L&C for some advice as 1st time buyer, the person on the phone was very friendly and helpfull.
I was told that I could look for a maximum mortgage of £145K and that our £12K saving was not much of a deposit and that we should get a 100% mortgage and use the saving for solicitor fees and stamp duty.
I would like to know if we should start looking for property and contact L&C to apply for a mortgage once we found a flat or shop around 1st for beeing sure to have our application accepted?

AndrewSmith

HI,

I dont know your situation in full and do not have all your details but I think it is outrageous that you were told that £12,000 savings was not much of a deposit. I cannot see why you should apply for a 100% mortgage.

Even a 5% deposit will potentially afford you better interest rates and mortgage products than are available at 100%.

I suggest you speak to a different broker for another point of view personally.

Andy

HelpWhereIcan

Would echo what Andrew has said - the stamp duty and solicitor's fees at the level you're buying at should come to no more than £2-3 k, mortgage related fees should be no more than £1000 and removal costs should only be a few hundred. This all totals much less than £12000 and, unless he is suggesting that you pay off some credit commitments you may have, I am not sure how he feels that you don't have a reasonable deposit (or did you mean to type £1200?)

I would post more info here or get a second opinion from another whole of market broker just tomake sure that the info you have been given is not duff.

Hope this helps

magali

I didn't make a mistake, it is £12000 saving I am speaking about.
I thought L&C were recomended on this web site as free of fees brokers with good advice!

I think we will ask someone else, maybe you could tell us what we could find for a joint mortgage with £33900 a year joint income.We do not have loans nor credits to pay.
Do we have to find a flat 1st and apply for a mortgage or apply for a mortgage and look for a flat?

HelpWhereIcan

Based on the figures you have posted, to get the 145kyou have been quoted, you would need a lender that will do 3.6 + times joint income. This is above what most lenders will do.

That is not to say that what you have been offered is the only option, rather to point out that you will not have the choice of every lender. Having said that, there is a very well known lender with some good adverts that do not charge a Higher Lending Charge even on a 95% mortgage whose 'affordability calculator' suggests you may be able to get up to 162,000. Their rates are pretty good (better than what I suspect you have been offered), fees are lower end of the scale and most importantly, they do not charge a Higher Lending Charge. I would definately say that you should seek a second opinion, just to make sure that neither myself or L&C haven't missed anything.

FAO other brokers out there - could this be an example of someone being tempted by the fact that a well known scheme pays 0.5% plus a bonus at moment, or have they just been a little lazy when looking for a high multiple scheme? I can sort of see the thinking - this scheme is the best one for them so they may as well borrow 100% as it won't make a difference to the rate or HLC, but surely they must have thought of others. Shows being able to use a sourcing system is not enough to do this job properly!! However, if there is some information we are not privvy to I will apologise to L&C and their adviser in advance!!

magali

Many thanks for your advice, is there any chance to know the mortgage lender you talk about if you are allowed?

AndrewSmith

HelpwhereIcan

You are correct that a 100% mortgage is not appropriate in this case. The fact that there is a potential deposit of up to £9,000 increases Magali's buying power to in excess of £150,000 thus making the Loan to Value lower and making the 3.6x income more do-able.

Magali,

As stated in my original post I would strongly suggest you contacting another broker for a second opinion.
I am sure that HelpIfICan will agree with me that it is impossible to offer a full solution or recommend a specific lender in such a case where we are not privvy to all the information.

Contact a local broker and arrange a face to face meeting where he can go through your situation in detail and show you exactly what is available to you and with whom the mortgage is.

Personal recommendation or local pages is a good place to start.

Hope this helps

Andy

luckyfool

magali wrote:

Many thanks for your advice, is there any chance to know the mortgage lender you talk about if you are allowed?

Magali, I would second what Andrewsmith and Helpwhereican are saying, you are really going to be better off getting a second opinion from another broker, though being biased I feel that another telephone based broker would be equally good. The lender HelpwhereIcan is subtly hinting about currently has a high profile ( and incidentally quite funny ) advertising campaign with the tagline "proud to be different", based on a rude stocky bank manager who seems to be modelled on the "computer says no" character from Little Britain. In common with some other lenders I can think of they would lend enough, but do have a reputation for being very tight on underwriting.

Martin does mention London and Country in a few of his articles and did link up with them to sponsor his remortgage guide. He mentions them as part of a strategy (one which I don't necessarily agree with fully) of approaching a number of fee charging brokers to see who they recommend, and then going back to L&C to process the mortgage free of charge. Working for a competitor, against my better judgement I will offer a small defence for L&C. Firstly while the advice you have given does appear at first glance to be very poor, (your deposit is much better than most First Time Buyers are able to put together and generally you would normally be much better off putting down the 5%) it should be recognised that this advisor presumably went through a full factfind with you, which none of us have done, so there may have been other factors at play behind his or her advice. Secondly, even assuming based on a full factfind that this was poor advice I don't think this necessarily makes L&C a bad company or broker to deal with. They are a national firm with many different employees, if one of many advisors gives out bad advice on one occassion it isnt really enough to call into question the whole company! This just re-emphasises the importance of always speaking to at least 2 brokers before making your decision, then you can compare proposals and also take into account your level of confidence in the relevant companies and brokers. Even the best brokers have bad days, perhaps missing out on interesting products or solutions that are not obvious.

Mortgageman

Luckfool, thank you for your measured response - it's appreciated.

Magali - I work at L&C and echo what the other brokers here have been saying - that, given the circumstances you have outlined here, there is no need for you to automatically consider a 100% mortgage.

Having said that, I'd be astounded and disappointed if the advise it's self is bad - what often happens is there is a breakdown in communication somewhere - and something that is important is not explained very well.

As ever, if you want me to look at your individual case I'd be delighted to - drop me a PM with either your L&C reference number, or your postcode - so I can track you down on the system.

I'll also echo the other brokers advice - it's always wise to shop around a bit - I genuinely believe, given a level playing field we are able to give the best advice available, but you should always try a couple of advisers.

Anyway - if I can help drop me a message.

MM

<edited for spelling>

AndrewSmith

My own opinion:

I think that if there is an issue where a client is taking another opinion to do with the advice given by L&C (not the first post to this effect I have seen recently) then it should be discussed by L&C with the client directly when they are officially notified of their dis-satisfaction.

In this case the client has clearly asked for another opinion and has chosen to do this via an 'independant' discussion forum where he/she is hoping to get an unbiased opinion of what he/she has been told and will then make up their own mind as to the suitability of that advice for their situation.

Whilst I fully appreciate, and have posted above to this effect, that we do not have all the information on the case it has to be understood that L & C will have completed a full fact find. The recommendation will have been made on the basis of the information within.

As such I feel that the client should be left to decide for themselves without the intervention of L&C at this point, and that L&C should have confidence in the advice they have given being correct without having to request details from a chat forum to verify that advice. Does not reflect a very professional image for the company.

We are all fully aware that there is some kind of obvious financial benefit for L&C being recommended on this site, and I suspect that the financial benefit is not a one way thing. L&C do well enough from this site without rubbing that into the faces of the brokers on this site who are happy to offer guidance and advice without reciprocation of any kind.

However if a client of L&C has a point of view, positive or otherwise, that they wish to express they should be allowed the courtesy of doing so without the intervention of an employee of that company unless they specifically ask for it.

How would we all feel if a representative from every lending organisation we mention on here suddenly started requesting account numbers and promising to look into individual cases? The site would lose credibility immediately.

Having said that I want it noted that I have no critisism of L&C as a company, nor do I see them as competition as we both work in completely different ways. I offer traditional non charging face to face meetings with clients whether they have found a house or not, and offer bidding and purchase services to help them from day one to the day they get the keys. L&C work mainly for people who have actually already found a property on a non- face to face system. Each has it's place in the market but also one will never replace the other.

Allow the client to make up their own mind, if they have a genuine concern with the advice given to the point of complaint, I am sure they will be in touch.

Mortgageman:

I fully appreciate your desire to defend your employer and the advice given by the company, however the client has not shown dis-satisfaction with that advice given, but has merely asked for another opinion. All the experienced brokers on here have statd that it does depend of the full case details and that L&C have those details, as such there may be some underlying reason for the recommendation.

Allow the client to ask for another opinion without pressure. You are more likely to retain the business by doing so.

Andy

Mortgageman

Andrew, thanks for your post detailing your feelings on this - I'm anxious about hijacking this thread, so if you want to talk more about this (which I'd be delighted to do) let me know and we can start a new one.

I felt, and continue to feel, that the client in this case has suffered not from bad advice, but from a misinterperation, either on their part, or on their advisers part. Surely if that is the case, then I should be here trying to help clear up any misunderstandings - or to try and improve our process so such misunderstandings are minimised?

Knowing the way that we at L&C work (or should work), what has happened to this client should be impossible - so I'm in a much better position to say that there is something odd here which I would like to take the opportunity to investigate

Equally, anyone can make a choice as to whether they wish to take up my offer of help - or not - all I'm seeking to do is to help someone who I think needs help.

The last thing I want to do is to make anyone feel like they can't discusss L&C, but I maintain that it is my place to try and deal with any misunderstandings or misconceptions in the forum they are placed.