Connells broker fee - wont refund even though i have it in writing

thebrow2000

Connells estate agent offer a mortgage service, they charge a huge broker fee of £349, sold as a life time membership fee.

I told them i would only use them (instead of going direct) if they would refund the charge if the house price increased from my first offer. I have been outbid, so as i put a higher offer in.

They are now saying that as i have increased my bid, instead of walking away, i will still have to pay it even though I have a signed compliments slip saying "if the house price increased greater than £100 000 a full refund of the broker fee would be refunded"

Can i legally get my money back? How?

Cheers

dunstonh

Connells estate agent offer a mortgage service, they charge a huge broker fee of £349, sold as a life time membership fee.

£349 is not a huge fee. I get my mortgage adviser to charge £750. However, he is independent and not whole of market. So, its a little different.

Lifetime membership or whatever name these companies call it is a complete con. Its a flawed model. It should be avoided at all costs as many of these companies offer it for x number of years and then go into administration (and usually relaunch under a new name) and dont have to honour any past agreement.

Can i legally get my money back? How?

As it is in relation to an FSA regulated area, you can make a formal complaint that needs to be looked at using the FSA regulated complaints process. That means you get access to the FOS if they reject your complaint. FOS is a stickler for documentary evidence. So, that should work nicely for you if it ends up going that far. Also, if you take your complaint to the FOS, Connells agent will be charged £500 even if the FOS reject your complaint. So, it is not logical for them to reject the complaint to save £349 when it will cost them £500 to go the FOS who will probably tell them to pay £349, costing them a total of £849.

thebrow2000

dunstonh wrote: »

£349 is not a huge fee. I get my mortgage adviser to charge £750. However, he is independent and not whole of market. So, its a little different.

Lifetime membership or whatever name these companies call it is a complete con. Its a flawed model. It should be avoided at all costs as many of these companies offer it for x number of years and then go into administration (and usually relaunch under a new name) and dont have to honour any past agreement.



As it is in relation to an FSA regulated area, you can make a formal complaint that needs to be looked at using the FSA regulated complaints process. That means you get access to the FOS if they reject your complaint. FOS is a stickler for documentary evidence. So, that should work nicely for you if it ends up going that far. Also, if you take your complaint to the FOS, Connells agent will be charged £500 even if the FOS reject your complaint. So, it is not logical for them to reject the complaint to save £349 when it will cost them £500 to go the FOS who will probably tell them to pay £349, costing them a total of £849.

Thats interesting to know they will be charged £500, looks like a win win for me! Thanks

ACG

dunstonh wrote: »

Lifetime membership or whatever name these companies call it is a complete con. Its a flawed model. It should be avoided at all costs as many of these companies offer it for x number of years and then go into administration (and usually relaunch under a new name) and dont have to honour any past agreement.

I work with 2 advisors that charge a fee of £500 and never charge their clients again.
Theyve been in business for 10 years or so and even after they have changed networks or gone under a different company they still do not charge their clients...i think its probably more the larger companies who do that.

But i agree, write a letter of complaint with a copy of your letter saying you will be taking it further, if you dont receive a refund.

betmunch

I cant see them not backing down in the face of a potential FOS complaint.

If you make a big enough fuss at outset they have the ability to waive it, but of course that would look bad on their targets!

aspire2707

We had simillar situation.

We found the house that was advertised as under offer and we put our bin on it and our connels broker put our aplication trough.
They said it shouldn`t take more than 8 weeks to completion and after everything when a month gone i asked how it`s all going then i was told that they are still looking for another house - what?
I was so supprised as it was clear from them that 6-8 weeks to completion means the time when i get the keys.
I have paid their fee for lifetime membership but it seem to be wasted as they didn`t care much from the beggining.
The first time i went to see the place i was alone as the agent was busy.
Then i met the mortgage broker who helped me with everything.
After he said that halifax agreed our mortgage and what we need to do is wait for them to find the place.
As i was curious i asked what is vendor looking for so i was told - opinion of the morthage advisor - "[FONT=&quot]I think they are looking for something that realistically doesn’t exist in their price bracket."
So at the moment we are in trap and we are looking for another place but we don`t want to leave them free money.
I guess they knew it will be that way they only wanted to charge us.
Now they say they can still offer their mortgage for other house.

Should i ask them to pay it back?
How would the FOS compaint work in this situation?

Thank you
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dunstonh

I have paid their fee for lifetime membership but it seem to be wasted as they didn`t care much from the beggining.

You should never have paid that. It is such bad value for money and is a flawed business model (what happens when they are so busy servicing existing people that have paid and are earning nothing from it and cant bring in new clients)

Should i ask them to pay it back?
How would the FOS compaint work in this situation?

What exactly do you think the mortgage adviser has done wrong?

aspire2707

dunstonh wrote: »

You should never have paid that. It is such bad value for money and is a flawed business model (what happens when they are so busy servicing existing people that have paid and are earning nothing from it and cant bring in new clients)



What exactly do you think the mortgage adviser has done wrong?

He sais that he wasn`t aware about the situation with this house untill everything was done but when we started he said that it will all be done within 6-8 weeks.
I don`t mind even 3-4 months but it looks like they won`t move out so if we won`t use their service why to pay for it?

Mortgage adviser made me go trough with aplication for the house we won`t get - he says he didn`t know it.
But he knows that as they accepted our aplication it will be easier and quicker to go again to them than look for anyone new - even if we find any other house.

Is it all lost?

thank you

dunstonh

He sais that he wasn`t aware about the situation with this house untill everything was done but when we started he said that it will all be done within 6-8 weeks.

A mortgage adviser will only be aware of the situation of the house that you tell them.

But he knows that as they accepted our aplication it will be easier and quicker to go again to them than look for anyone new - even if we find any other house.

If you have chosen the mortgage broker to act on your behalf for your mortgage then why would you change mortgage broker if you failed to get this house?

Is it all lost?

As much as I dislike the fee method they put you on and think it shouldnt be allowed, the problem is that I dont see anything that they have actually done wrong.

kingstreet

If you were my client I would have advised you not to apply for a mortgage until the vendor had found a property and the chain had formed up.

There was no point risking fees applying for a mortgage when there was no guarantee it would ever be needed.

Corporates and their targets again, I suspect.

Poosbert

I was quoted and charged £349 2 years ago by Connells and this was sold as a Lifetime fee and was told I would not have to pay any more when I came to use them again for mortgage advice. They now have "introduced" a new admin fee of £99 - surely this is misleading and very sneaky?
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