Money being taken without Authorisation

jts321835

I am not sure if this is the correct place to stick this in fact I’m pretty sure it isn't but couldn't find anywhere more appropriate.

In summary myself and my GF are in the process of buying our first home, then agents were with fox and Sons, after viewing it we were advised to see their mortgage advisor, we went and saw him, he seemed a nice chap, we had a mortgage agreed in principal, we were also told we would be entitled to a £1000 buyers incentive for using their services, the mortgage advisor told us generally we would need to use there conveyancing services to get this.
It was only when we received the paper work with prices outlaid, which were 3 times the ball park figure originally shown alarm bells started to ring.

This however was only the start we signed paper work and gave authorisation for the mortgage advisor to debit our account for the survey fee and his professional services fee, which was then done only to have Northern rock take out a second lot of money for the survey.

Once we realised this my GF went into the office and asked why this money had been taken out, the mortgage advisor then said that, he had explained it would missing the point completely practically accusing her of being stupid until the penny dropped and he was then slightly apologetic.

Northern Rock have since refunded the money however I don't understand how they can legally take money from our account without authorisation is this legal?

Sorry for the long ranting and thanks in advance for any advice.

MarkyMarkD

More than likely, you actually authorised both NR and the advisor to take the valuation fee from your account.

The advisor should have passed the money on to NR, but didn't.

So NR collected it to get the valuation process started.

If all of that is the case, then the mistake is the advisor's, not NR's.

jts321835

Hi Mark, thanks for that swift response, I just feel the whole thing is a bit of a joke, we paid the mortgage advisor nearly £400 thinking it would make the whole process easier, not create a huge headache, having looked at the paper work it clearly states that we are granting Fox and Sons permission to take said amount, as far as we were concerned Northern Rock shouldn't even have the bank account details.

Furthermore we have incurred over draft feas as a result of not expecting this money to come out.

Thank you for your time

James

MFSaver

If it is clear from your papers that NR should not have taken the money, I would ask NR to compensate you for an amount equal to the overdraft fees you incurred.