Hsbc mortgage & countrywide nightmare warning

Wow888

If you are considering an HSBC mortgage beware. It has been a total nightmare.

As a result of the incompetence and appalling lack of customer service from HSBC and Countrywide we have ended up having to break our chain of sale and purchase rather than lose the sale. !This means we are essentially making ourselves homeless as we have to move out next Friday but still don't know if we can buy the new place or even when we might know if we can buy the new place.

Background: !
We decided to move house, to a house not a flat, because I am 29 weeks pregnant and not relishing 2 flights of stairs with baby & buggy.

Got a buyer end November, found a house early December, applied for mortgage and instructed solicitor straight away.

HSBC approved the mortgage mid Jan, following the valuation survey. Ready to exchange, we planned to move mid Feb.

Because we are borrowing over £500k (we live in London) HSBC said that the solicitors we had instructed were not good enough to act on their behalf as they only had 2 qualified principles not 4. !When we applied for the mortgage the woman on the phone had checked out our solicitor and said they were fine but it turned out she'd been looking at the standard list not the higher lending list.

THEN HSBC have this new policy to insist countrywide do all their conveyancing. So despite our solicitor having done everything for the purchase we have to pay countrywide to do it again. Then we wait. And wait. 3 weeks later (around the time we had expected to exchange) Countrywide sent a long list (44 items) of mostly unnecessary stuff. Things like insisting on a chancery survey at £17 plus an expensive premium if it comes back positive, instead of a £10 indemnity.

We aren't allowed to contact Countrywide only HSBC. But HSBC won't tell us anything, promise to call back but don't. !Again and again and again.

We repeatedly get to a point where it seems we are lose to an answer and they come back with more questions. !Yesterday our buyer issued an ultimatum that they would walk unless we exchanged. !We made the leap as we are too far down the line for it to fall through and too close to my due date to start from scratch.

We exchanged at 4pm thinking that maybe we had finally answered all Countrywide's questions and we were close to getting the go ahead from them anyway. !Then at 5pm Countrywide sent through a request that the solicitor re-do the bankruptcy search on me because it did not include my middle name. !They had been sitting on the bankruptcy search for 6 weeks! !Fine, if an error had been made we need to fix it, but could they not have pointed this out weeks ago.

So now we will be homeless from next Friday but do not know even if it will be for a few days or weeks – do we book into a hotel or a rented flat? !We can’t even arrange the basics like that. !HSBC just say ‘it is in the system’ and Countrywide won’t talk to us and don’t tell our solicitor anything.

Our solicitor’s firm has made a policy decision not to take on any more clients wanting a mortgage through HSBC as it is too much work and stress. !They are also professionally insulted as the work appears to be being done at Countrywide by unqualified junior secretaries and this is what is causing the incompetence. !They are repeatedly asking for documents they already have or making bad decisions. !Our solicitor is cataloguing the errors for the law society so if you would like a copy I am sure they would be glad to provide it.

If it wasn't for this random HSBC policy we would have moved as planned 2 weeks ago and be happy in our new house.

Apologies for the length, I very much hope we are not typical.

betmunch

I'm sorry to hear what you are going through, sadly I think your case is more likely to be the norm than the exception.

When this policy was anounced quite a few people in related industries including myself foresaw this happening.

I really hope people read your story and realise the problems they are likely to encounter, lets be clear on this, its not just the extra £192 you have to pay, your risking losing your dream home by taking an HSBC mortgage now.

I already made the decision to not recommend them for purchases, with stories like yours I know I am justified in that decision.

GMS

Unfortunately lenders are increasingly operating with restricted panels fo solicitors who can be poor to say the least.

I had a recent closed panel mortgage for a client whereby the solcitor failed to acknowledge receipt of or return his bank statements, passport or proof of address but did find the time to post him a 'team tree' showing exactly how far down the pecking order his case manager was despite the extortionate fees they charged. He even agreed to a £200 indemnity policy in the end despite it being 100% unneccessary as he could not be doing with any more delays.

HSBC are offering the rates and for those who qualify this is something which will lead to issues. Their response would probably be along the lines of 'If you dont want the rate then look elsewhere'

thomasdown

If you instructed your solicitor before the beginning of January, I'm pretty sure you are exempt from the new rules with the conveyancing with HSBC. I believe these only came in at the beginning of the year and were for new applicants only? I may be wrong, I'm pretty sure though because as I had a mortgage with them from early last year and had no problems I told my brother to go see them last November and where he instructed solicitors before Xmas the mortgage guy in branch said it doesn't count for his application because he was worried about this aswell? If this is the case then you should have been told by them to instruct a solictor as per normal mortgage deals and go with who you want? As I said I might be wrong, I'm sure someone will tell me if I am? If I ain't though I would be seeking compensation?

Dave_Ham

Hi - this really is tragic and I can only emphasise what you are going through.

I was late on spotting this trend as had not had any chains including HSBC this year, but Betmunch did flag this up 6 weeks ago as being a disaster.

The solicitors I use too are now not taking on HSBC purchase clients although they will talk through with clients why..

When you do complain, look up their TCF policy on the website and use these claims back at them. It appears to be the only way to get banks to think about listening currently.

Fingers crossed for you...

opinions4u

I've just sold a property for cash.

The buyers also used Countrywide Legal Services.

Our solicitor (local small partnership) said that he'd never dealt with such a bunch of incompetents before.

Lots of duplicate information requests. Failure to respond. No email service. Added 6 weeks to the process.

So greatest sympathy. While I can understand a desire to control costs, forcing the customer to use a bunch of incompetents doesn't seem like the way forwards.

whizzkid_3

HSBC are using yourconveyancer here in Scotland . I'm hoping they have a better reputation than Countrywide !

kingstreet

I can't believe I'm going to say this but I think any HSBC prospective borrower should use one of the HSBC panel firms to represent them, as well as HSBC. There are 42 to choose from, if you exclude Countrywide.

Using your own firm seems to automatically see HSBC appoint Countrywide (or Countrywide appoints itself, as it is panel manager) and that has to be avoided at all costs...

ABC - anyone but Countrywide.

betmunch

kingstreet wrote: »

I can't believe I'm going to say this but I think any HSBC prospective borrower should use one of the HSBC panel firms to represent them, as well as HSBC. There are 42 to choose from, if you exclude Countrywide.

Using your own firm seems to automatically see HSBC appoint Countrywide (or Countrywide appoints itself, as it is panel manager) and that has to be avoided at all costs...

ABC - anyone but Countrywide.

Sadly, in my experience the people Countrywide refer on to when they are too busy are no better. The problem is they pay peanuts, and what do you get when you pay peanuts?

kingstreet

I'd love a look at this list of 43.

AFAIK the borrower gets to choose, so you don't get who Countrywide chooses for you.

It's the default to Countrywide for HSBC when you use your own which seems to be causing the early problems.

betmunch

timmyt or richard webster might know who they are. I expect its the usual suspects they paneled out to. Would be interesting to do a search on a few of them though!