Wrong Advice?

jawa1

I recently went to see a Mortgage broker and he advised me on the Best mortgage to take.

He asked during all the conservations what my current rate was and I said it is currently 0.75% above the BOE base rate.

He never asked so see the details of my current mortgage and the fact that it is stepped tracker which drops to 0.25% above the BOE base rate later this year until 2010.

Should he not have asked and looked at the full details of this?

He as advised me on take new mortgage which we have went gone with.

Did he give me Wrong Advice?

absolutebounder

What you mean is you gave him wrong advice and was he negligent for not spotting you didnt know what you were talking about.

Leon_W

Stepped trackers usually step up, not down, are you sure you've got this right ?

jawa1

Yes the tracker does step down.

I had all the documents with me at the meeting but he never asked to see them.

KTF

Brokers are not mind readers. If you had the information then you should have offered it imo.

AndrewSmith

Did you purposely not tell the broker this?

You would have been asked something like 'tell me about your current mortgage', you chose to withold some of the information.

Why did you choose not to offer the information when asked about your current mortgage?

jawa1

He asked the rate and I said it was a tracker currently on .75 above base rate.

It was not a that fact that I was keeping anything from him, with trying to take everything in what was talking about and working out the best rate. I had not realised he had not checked to see if the deal I was currently on was better or not that the one he signed me up for.

I total understand that I should have been more forceful but with everything going on trying to understand what was the best mortgage.

AndrewSmith

But you would have had plenty of time after the meeting to give him all the information once you realised that it had been missed. A remortgage/lender switch doesn't happen overnight. It takes about 4-6 weeks!

Why did you still proceed with the mortgage knowing that you had not given him the full details of your mortgage? If he had been told by you it was a straight forward tracker he would most likely have recommended you take a fixed rate mortgage instead bearing in mind the impending rate rises forecast this year. You have witheld key information that would have potentially significantly changed the recommendation made.

Leon_W

Ok

Difficult one this. If it were me and I had been made aware of the documents then I would have probably asked for them and had a quick look as it has been known for clients not to know exactly what sort of deal they had.

On the other hand, if after asking a few questions about your existing mortgage, tie in period, rate, fixed or variable etc etc and nothing was mentioned of a stepped rate, then how was he to know if you didn't tell him ?

Rick62

The broker will rely on what you told him, so when he asked 'what your current rate was' and you answered '0.75% over base' he probably assumed that that is what it was. Had you said 'it is 0.75% over base, reducing to 0.25% over later this year' then he would have know this.

absolutebounder

Did you not check to see whether it said "clairvoyant" on his business card? Wasnt it strange when he got out a laptop instead of a crystal ball?