Paid fees but NO mortgage!

zabema

Right we need a bit of advice please. We recently tried to re-mortgage through an advisor. He got us a mortgage promise and we sent all relevant paper work, payslips bank statements etc and a cheque for valuation and booking fees. To cut a long story short the company were dragging their feet processing our offer so our mortgage advisor decided to apply for a new mortgage with another company, without even asking us! So that meant we lost our fees from the orginal mortgage. We decided to pull out of both deals for obvious reasons. Our advisor then sent us a bill for his fees.
Now i understand he did all the work for our mortgage, even though we ended up with nothing! Does anyone know where we stand? Should we have paid his fee and is there anyway we can claim back booking fee etc from original mortgage?
Thanks

kingstreet

You're going to have to put a LOT more flesh on the bones of your opening post to get anything like decent advice.

Which lender? Who were fees payable to? What do you mean by "foot dragging?"

How did the adviser apply to another lender without a full app, signatures and fee payment?

You would only lose your fees from the first mortgage if you never got an offer. Is that the case?

Easter or Christmas, is all I can ask?

zabema

The lender was Accord and the fees were payable to them but the mortgage advisor fees were paid to him. Our current mortgage is with nationwide but we wanted to re-mortgage so we could lend some extra for an extension. But when the valuation came through it was valued lower than we expected so they would only lend us half of what we needed. What i mean by feet dragging is that they just kept requesting extra documents and then kept sitting on them without processing our offer, this went on for weeks! Our mortgage advisor said the reason they were taking their time was because they offered us a mortgage in principal on the understanding that the valuation came back within the 85% LTV. And thats what we paid the booking fee for? So why do we pay the booking fee before the valuation? And also, we were willing to still borrow the less amount so we were still in the 85% LTV.
Our advisor said he was able to proceeed with the full mortgage application with the 2nd lender (Nat west) Because he had all our up to date documents and info and they agreed our mortgage and promised a quick offer! We did actually see proof of this but nothing from accord.
Hope this all makes a bit more sense and you can offer some advice
Thanks

kingstreet

Right. So you've paid Accord and the property was downvalued. They requested additional documentation which took a while to be processed.

Normally, if the downvaluation affects the borrowing figure, you will have the choice of a reduced offer, or of cancelling the application. The maximum loan would have to be no more than 85% of the reduced valuation figure.

Did they receive everything they requested? Could they have offered you the reduced amount, or were there more hoops you were asked to jump through?

At this point, I would have asked you what you wanted to do - proceed with the lower offer, or find another lender. Was this missed out, or did no conversation take place between you and your adviser?

The booking fee and valuation fee you paid to Accord are likely to be non-refundable. The valuation fee has been spent on valuing the property and booking fees are charged to discourage applicants from changing deals if something better comes along during processing. Some lenders charge an arrangement fee on completion of the mortgage only, so you pay nothing upfront.

What was the anticipated value of the property, the surveyor's value and the mortgage rate and amount you wanted?

You mention a fee to the adviser, but it would be helpful if you could explain this fee. Is it an arrangement fee, an advice fee or a combination? What does the adviser's Initial Disclosure Document say about refunds of this fee in section five?

So, you got an agreement in principle with NatWest, but didn't proceed with a full application?

Senior_Paper_Monitor

I suspect the only item in question here is whether the brokers fee is refundable (as Kingstrett says - his IDD will tell you that).

In our case it isn't - but we will process subsequent applications without further charge (as he is apparently willing to do).

Incidentally Accord's processing is appallingly overloaded at the moment. I'm not sure you've taken your actions for your best interests "or understably".

zabema

I think you've answered my question thanks, we don't get our fee's back. Didn't really think we would but thought i'd ask anyway. Thanks for your replies