re claiming mis sold mortgages and fees

brownie63

hi this is my first post. i have been approached by a company called essential claims management who tell me that they are investigating my mortgage advice company is respect of being mis sold several mortgages by them. they noe want £299+ VAT for doing a mortgage audit is this real or is it a scam they have said it could take 18 months to sort. they quote the FSA and CML and talk about when my mortgage was through subprime lenders and that my mortgage adviser should have informed me of this. i am very dubiuos about this can anyone shed some light on this for me please
thanks

dunstonh

who tell me that they are investigating my mortgage advice company is respect of being mis sold several mortgages by them.

That is not correct. What they really mean is that they want you to pay £299 plus VAT to put in a speculative complaint to see if they get lucky. in most cases they wont get lucky but they still get £299 off you for doing nothing other than sending in a template complaint letter with all sorts of allegations (most of which unlikely to be true).

is this real or is it a scam

Almost certainly a scam. Your data is not in the public domain. They have none of your files or records and nothing to do with the advising company. They are fishing.

they have said it could take 18 months to sort.

That is to stop you chasing them when you hear nothing. A lot of the dodgy companies that have gone down this route before go into administration with no assets leaving you £299 out of pocket.

they quote the FSA and CML and talk about when my mortgage was through subprime lenders and that my mortgage adviser should have informed me of this.

If you only qualified for sub prime mortgages then that is fine. If you could have got a prime mortgage but were recommended sub prime then you have grounds for complaint. That complaint could be made to the advising firm without costing you a penny as the FSA complaints process is required to be free of charge.

Most people know if they were likely to qualify for prime or sub prime. (defaults, CCJs, arrears etc). Are you on a sub prime mortgage? do you think you should be on a prime mortgage?

kingstreet

If you used a broker, chances are the service you received was "advice and recommendation." The broker may well have issued you with a suitability letter explaining why the lender and product best suited your needs and why other, better, products were not available.

Do you have such a letter?

brownie63

one mortgage was a subprime mortgage with no explanation from my mortgage advisor infact we were never givenany options for mortgages just when they came back to us we were told this one is the best we have never not paid our mortgage, been in arrears or had ccj's so maybe we were mis advised?

dunstonh

infact we were never givenany options for mortgages just when they came back to us we were told this one is the best we have

You pay a mortgage adviser to do that. So, that is not a surprise.

we have never not paid our mortgage, been in arrears or had ccj's so maybe we were mis advised?

Possibly. However, are you actually on a sub prime mortgage? You can usually tell by looking at the rates you pay. Sub prime typically pay a higher interest rate.

Were you pushing lending criteria or had a small deposit?

If you have concerns you can contact that broker at first point. This doesnt stop you complaining later but its probably fair to give the broker a chance to verify their advice before putting in a formal complaint.