Halifax inconsistency with policy on valuation and home report

Ursie

I am looking for help with this please - I'm in Scotland and recently my partner and i split up, we then owned a house jointly which sold very quickly given current recession. We had a Home Report done as required, and both applied for exactly the same mortgage product from the Halifax. We used London & Country as the intermediary, i was astounded to find that during the process within 24 hours Halifax had decided i needed another valuation for the mortage application out with the home report (3mths old)and charged me £315 for the privilage (and had paid nearly 600 for home report)!

I was surprised because my partner had been granted a retype from his Home Report which cost him nothing and was 6 months old, whereas mine was only 3 months old, and i had to pay for a brand new one!

When i spoke to the Halifax initially they said that 3 mths was their policy, but have now fudged round that! And that it was the case manager at London & Country that had completed the request to them that asked for the valuation. I have been bounced back and forward between the 2 of them, no one wanting to admit what i feel is an organisation policy that should be in place! You either have a 3 or 6 mth policy, one of us should have paid for a valuation possibly or neither should it be 6 mths.

However, most recently when i demanded that London & Country follow this up as it was unfair, they have informed me that Halifax have stated that this type of decision is based upon the individual evaluators judgement!

As said, i dont think, so surely an organisation like the Halifax should have a policy on this, not down to individuals judgement! and i believe i should be due my money back as this seems incredibly discrimatory!

Not to mention that the valuation they done in comparison to the Home Report valuation was one page done from an impossible distance within 24hrs, so quite clearly came from the home report!

Has this happened to anyone else? I'm aware the Home Reports are relatively new, and there is no legal obligation on them to accept, and indeed some finance providers refuse to use them, however, this is about consistency of your products and the fair equal requirements to customers using, a policy/criterea on how these decisons are made upon, not an individuals own judgement.

Would welcome advice on how to proceed? Is there an ombudsman for this type of case?