Broker made a mistake with mortgage, what are my options?

tomstickland

I specified a fixed rate 2 year mortgage.

The broker, London and Country, made a mistake in the application and Halifax arranged a discount BOE tracker.

Both have the same initial rate (4.39%).

I've spoken to both L&C and Hfax. Sadly, the 4.39% fixed rate mortgage is no longer available. However, L&C think that they might be able to negotiate a 4.39% fix for me. I'll know by Monday night.

The thing is, I could probably live with a discount tracker mortgage. If L&C can't arrange the fixed rate and I decide to take the tracker, do you think I could expect some sort of deal from them? Something like a bit of cash. I don't want to be greedy, but then again, they've made a mistake and acknowledged it, and I've not got what I requested.

littlejaffa

If the mortgage has gone through already you must've signed confirmation of the t&c's and i'm assuming didn't read them through or you would have realised it was the wrong mortgage, if that's the case there's little you can do.
re the broker, make sure they don't charge you any broker fee (they'll get a cut from the lender so they will get something but not from your pocket for their mistakes) and make extra sure their fee's haven't been added to the mortgage. You can also ask the broker for a 'goodwill' payment, you should get about £100+ depending on the sixe etc of the mortgage arranged cause they'll only give you a cut of what they get from the lender. Threaten to go directly to the lender if they won't budge, they may tell you the mortgage is only available via a broker, bluff it and say you've spoke to the lender who understand the broker screwed up and rather than loose the business they'll make and exception, get and e-mail/fax from the broker right away confirming amounts, you can get free e-fax facilities to your e-mail if they try to play funny and you need a quick fax no to receive to.
good luck!

tomstickland

No, I haven't signed anything yet. The Halifax have sent me the documents and it was during the checking that the mistake came to light.

The broker have been very good to me, plus they are fees free.

homer_j_3

If it hasnt completed, then they will need to resource something for you.

Are you out of pocket in anyway? Paid for valuation etc? Maybe you can try and claim the fees back or get a free one for the next deal they source.

If the delay causes you additional payments on your mortgage, you may want to try and argue the difference in payments as a form of
compensation?

Other losses maybe time and phonecalls but be sensible about this, you cannot claim you earn £70 an hour if you have stated you earn 25k on your mortgage app..

To be honest, I cant see how you could really claim for anything further but as long as they ensure you are not at a financial loss for what they have done then I am sure that is all you are concerned about, as you say you are not greedy.

tomstickland

If they can negotiate what I orginally wanted from the Halifax then I'll leave it - I'm very happy with their approach and efficiency.
If it comes to me having to accept the variable rather than fixed then I'd like some sort of cash - say they offered me £50 out of the £265 payment they receive from the Halifax. For example.

dunstonh

I'm very happy with their approach and efficiency.

hmm, very efficient

MortgageMamma

I know DunstonH, so much for being the best of the bunch if they cant even submit and online app with the right product code on it.

One option is to get L & C to pay any difference on a monthly basis between what you would have been paying on the fixed rate and the current rate payable on your tracker. I'd also want compensation for your inconvenience and any additional fee's you had to pay.

And please don't tell me you'll use them again because they were efficient, they might have got you a mortgage and been good on the phone, but at the end of the day they got you on the wrong deal and thats appalling attention to detail in my book! If they did that to me I wouldnt trust them to arrange a bunch of flowers let alone a mortgage!

brannyrhino_2

MortgageMamma wrote:

I know DunstonH, so much for being the best of the bunch if they cant even submit and online app with the right product code on it.

One option is to get L & C to pay any difference on a monthly basis between what you would have been paying on the fixed rate and the current rate payable on your tracker. I'd also want compensation for your inconvenience and any additional fee's you had to pay.

And please don't tell me you'll use them again because they were efficient, they might have got you a mortgage and been good on the phone, but at the end of the day they got you on the wrong deal and thats appalling attention to detail in my book! If they did that to me I wouldnt trust them to arrange a bunch of flowers let alone a mortgage!

Funny that cos its not L&C that make the mistakes in my book its the Independents that make the most mistakes in all the mortgages submitted to us.
If we deducted a proportion of the procuration fees from the mortgage based on mistakes many brokers would owe us so come down off your pedastal.

dunstonh

Funny that cos its not L&C that make the mistakes in my book its the Independents that make the most mistakes in all the mortgages submitted to us.
If we deducted a proportion of the procuration fees from the mortgage based on mistakes many brokers would owe us so come down off your pedastal.

So, what you are saying is that independents, like L&C, make the most mistakes

Best not bite the hand that feeds you. Many lenders wouldnt be in business if it wasnt for the independents.

Everyone makes clerical mistakes from time to time. Its how they are sorted that is important and in fairness to Tom, he is willing to wait and see what they do and how well they do it.

tomstickland

They made a simple mistake, but I can understand that; they've been very good in my onion (aka opinion).

MortgageMamma

A small clerical mistake is acceptable i.e. missing a question on the app, but putting a client on completely the wrong deal is nothing short of negligent.