Need help with bad practices from Abbey

BubbaBee

Hi guys,

I'm fairly new so forgive me any newbie errors. My partner (who is British) owns her home and it is mortgaged with Abbey. She has a deal where if she leaves before 2 years she has to pay £5,000 to get out unless she transfers the mortgage to another home. We got married (I'm American) and we wanted to buy a new house together so we contacted Abbey to find out if my income would qualify to be on our new mortgage. We gave full disclosure regarding my visa status. They said yes, there would be no problem, go ahead and move forward without worry. We did this twice, just to make sure that there wasn't any mistake about this. We noted the name of everyone we spoke to. We felt reassured and so we moved forward.

We spent money putting our house on the market, we sold our home, we found a new home and have spent money ensuring that this one is worthy of purchasing. We put in an offer, got accepted, went to Abbey to start business rolling and they said that my income could not be put on the mortgage. My partner could not buy this home on her own and we're neck deep in the home buying process along with other people who we did not want to let down. We found another lender who would work with my income (Halifax).

Now I'm trying to get Abbey to waive the early leaving fee (or whatever it's called). I've spoken to the manager of the department who reassured us that me being on the mortgage would be no problem. He's found most of the calls but is refusing to admit that his employees are culpable for giving out bad information. I'm escalating this to Abbey's complaint department but I could use some advice if anyone's got any.

Your thoughts are very much appreciated.

Kind regards,

Brandie

jill2002

What does your visa say? Do you have unlimited leave to remain in the country? or are there restrictions on it?

Obviously if you have to leave the country in say, 12 months time, how are you going to continue to pay the mortgage? How can the company ensure that they will get their money back? If your partner is the only one guaranteed to be able to stay in the country, how will the mortgage be paid if she is unable to afford it on just her income?

Alot will depend on what your visa says.

VIGILANT22

BubbaBee wrote: »

Hi guys,

I'm fairly new so forgive me any newbie errors. My partner (who is British) owns her home and it is mortgaged with Abbey. She has a deal where if she leaves before 2 years she has to pay £5,000 to get out unless she transfers the mortgage to another home. We got married (I'm American) and we wanted to buy a new house together so we contacted Abbey to find out if my income would qualify to be on our new mortgage. We gave full disclosure regarding my visa status. They said yes, there would be no problem, go ahead and move forward without worry. We did this twice, just to make sure that there wasn't any mistake about this. We noted the name of everyone we spoke to. We felt reassured and so we moved forward.

We spent money putting our house on the market, we sold our home, we found a new home and have spent money ensuring that this one is worthy of purchasing. We put in an offer, got accepted, went to Abbey to start business rolling and they said that my income could not be put on the mortgage. My partner could not buy this home on her own and we're neck deep in the home buying process along with other people who we did not want to let down. We found another lender who would work with my income (Halifax).

Now I'm trying to get Abbey to waive the early leaving fee (or whatever it's called). I've spoken to the manager of the department who reassured us that me being on the mortgage would be no problem. He's found most of the calls but is refusing to admit that his employees are culpable for giving out bad information. I'm escalating this to Abbey's complaint department but I could use some advice if anyone's got any.

Your thoughts are very much appreciated.

Kind regards,

Brandie

First it is good the Halifax are prepared to offer you a mortgage.

As for proving anything against Abbey, I somehow feel you're going to have a struggle here as you did not receive anything in writing...and those tapes will never be found!!

BubbaBee

jill2002 wrote: »

What does your visa say? Do you have unlimited leave to remain in the country? or are there restrictions on it?

Obviously if you have to leave the country in say, 12 months time, how are you going to continue to pay the mortgage? How can the company ensure that they will get their money back? If your partner is the only one guaranteed to be able to stay in the country, how will the mortgage be paid if she is unable to afford it on just her income?

Alot will depend on what your visa says.

My visa is a spouse visa. The only restriction is that I cannot receive benefits. At the end of two years on my spousal visa (January 2011), I'll have indefinite leave to remain. However, this isn't really the issue. We disclosed all of this to Abbey before we put on our house on the market. They reassured us that because we are married and have a large deposit (35%), this would be no problem. They even double-checked it with their underwriters. Only when we started to do the mortgage application did they tell us there would be a problem.

It seems unfair that they reassured us to move forward and we did in good faith and now they want £5,000 because they aren't upholding the reassurances they gave us. Halifax knows my visa situation and are perfectly satisfied that we are a good investment. It isn't a matter of being a fiscal risk.

I just thought I'd check in here to see if anyone knew any way to help a mortgage company see the light in regards to unfair practices. We've started the process of going through their complaints department but I feel very insecure that they're going to admit they made a mistake which is essentially what we're relying on them to do. Is there a higher power? Is there some magic words I can say to show them I mean business? Should I be getting a lawyer?

Thanks again,

Brandie

[Deleted User]

I'm afraid this really doesn't surprise me at all. Abbey have repeatedly told me things over the past month and then reneged on what they've said - and accused me of lying despite me providing them with a paper trail.

If you know names/dates then you're in a good position - just get them to escalate the complaint ASAP - I think they have three levels of complaint so ask to go direct to the final stage.

happybroker

Unfortunately you are going to have to exhaust the bank's complaints procedure before you can move on to the "higher power", that being the Financial Ombudsman Service (FOS).

Make it clear to Abbey that this is what you intend to do should your complaint not be satisfactorily resolved. The FOS will listen to the recordings of the calls and if you were told that you would be ok I would be amazed if they would find against you. If, however, Abbey changed their lending policy between your initial call and when you applied to them I doubt very much you will get anywhere.
Keep records of who you speak to and when and also copies of all letters which you should send by recorded delivery.

[Deleted User]

And don't assume that Abbey record all of their telephone conversations...

samba

BubbaBee wrote: »

My visa is a spouse visa. The only restriction is that I cannot receive benefits. At the end of two years on my spousal visa (January 2011), I'll have indefinite leave to remain. However, this isn't really the issue.

Back in 2005 my wife was unable to be included on the mortgage because she only had Further Leave to Remain, just as you have. Once she got Indefinite Leave to Remain, all was fine and dandy. As you probably know, FLR is like probation in case your marriage doesn't work out. I would be surprised if you could get a mortgage with only FLR (at least at decent rates), especially after my own experience and the current tightening of mortgage lending, but I may be wrong. I would definitely want to check Halifax again in case they have made the same mistake as Abbey.

Sorry I can't help with your problem with Abbey tho.

BubbaBee

I should be receiving the letter describing the situation from Abbey's point of view which will hold my complaint reference number today. As soon as that's received, I'll be on the phone with their complaints department. I did finally get the manager of the represenatives we spoke to to admit that he does have it recorded that someone gave us wrong information. However, he still believes that nothing is set in stone until the loan application has begun. In other words, no matter what their phone reps say, he believes they are not culpable for either upholding their promises or at least releasing us from any obligation to pay fees when we've acted on their promises and they've reneged.

I will definitely be mentioning the Financial Ombudsman Service in my next calls. I've also got friends who work for news media. I wonder if it's worth mentioning... seems slimy but I suppose no more slimy than a bank making a mistake and then charging you £5,000 for it.

Just a note: their policy in regards to people with my kinds of visa had not changed in between the times we spoke to them initially to when we were ready to begin the new mortgage process.

Thanks to everyone who has replied.

BubbaBee

samba wrote: »

I would be surprised if you could get a mortgage with only FLR (at least at decent rates), especially after my own experience and the current tightening of mortgage lending, but I may be wrong.

The good news is we're moving on Thursday :T (yes, the day after tomorrow). Halifax did allow my income to be on the mortgage. It's amazing how a great big down payment and a fantastic financial advisor can make things move forward. However, looking back on this, I would never recommend anyone ever do this. It's a fantasticly big pain in the !!!. If only Abbey had given us a clue there was going to be a problem from the beginning. We would have just waited until next year when I have indefinite leave to remain.