Mortgage deal - broker fees? Help needed

lbp_2

Hello
Thank you in advance to anyone who offers their opinion on this.
I’m new to posting.
I’ve been looking to remortgage my house. I was in a 5 year fixed deal with Santander. It is now on a variable rate at 4.99%. Our mortgage is £110000 and our house is valued at £130000.
After doing some comparisons on this website, I was offered a free and no obligation visit from a LWF mortgage advisor. She has been and taken all the information she needed and has come back with a mortgage with Nationwide at 3.99% over 16 years. We are happy with this, but what we are concerned with is that she has added £1500 broker fee onto our mortgage. The solicitors fees (£495) have also been added onto our mortgage. So our mortgage is now going to be £112000. What we are worried about is: are we being ‘ripped’ off (so to speak) with the broker fee. The illustration also shows us that Nationwide will pay LWF a fee of £392.70. So in effect, LWF are receiving almost £2000 for the advice and preparation of the mortgage.
I need urgent advice about this. Nothing has gone through as yet, so I could cancel the service with them if it is advisable to do so.
Many thanks

Senior_Paper_Monitor

From their IDD (on the website) ...

A fee of 2.95% of the mortgage amount, subject to a minimum £995 and up to a maximum of £3995 payable at completion. For Example, on a mortgage of £80000 we would charge a maximum fee of £2360, and on a mortgage of £400000 we would charge a maximum fee of £3995. We will also retain any commissions we receive from the lender.

... while I firmly believe that fees are necessary to make the job possible, these are pretty eye watering ! At £1,500 (£1.36%) she has given you a discount - but still pretty excessive for what appears to be a fairly simple mortgage !!!

Probably of most concern is that the adviser left an initial appointment with you without your being clearly aware of their charges.

dunstonh

Those fees are a complete disgrace. They are higher than you would pay on independent basis (where commission is rebated) let alone whole of market.

kingstreet

You found this firm via this forum? When/How?

Nationwide offers free legals through a panel solicitor or a cashback if you wish to use your own. I suggest the broker is introducing to a solicitor who is also paying them a kickback.

reapz69

Another rip off

lbp_2

Thank you for your replies.
In reply to how I found this firm: I think I may be mistaken, It might have been on the ‘moneysupermarket’ website? Sorry If I am mistaken. I did an ‘online comparison’ and when it brought up all of the options, a popup came on the screen saying that free advice is available. It sounded genuine (but I suppose it always does?) and as it seemed to be part of the money supermarket service, I put my email address in. I was then contacted with them and booked in. They didn’t mention fees at all until last night when they seemed to brush over the matter. Then once we looked through the paperwork we realised that they want to be paid by us AND receive payment from Nationwide.
I have just emailed the adviser from LWF asking her to waive the fee as we are not agreeing to it being added on to our mortgage.

bluekp

If I was you I would cancel immediately.

Is there anything stopping you from going to Nationwide directly? It appears to me that you could get the 3.89% fixed for 3 years deal from them for just the £99 booking fee.

Also Nationwide are offering a free valuation and free standard legal fees for remortgaging.

HTH

amnblog

The broker is entitled to levy fees as they see fit for their own business but they are legally bound to make you aware of them at outset.

Then if you don't not feel you are getting value for money you need not proceed.

If you have not yet drawn down the Nationwide funds you do not have to.

(incidentally, comments about excessive fees and rip offs are not constructive as none of us know what service you were provided with and how much it cost this broker to provide that service.

We would not look to levy those type of fees but the fee level set is between any adviser and their client provided it is discussed and agreed at outset)

Wh05apk

Completely taking the **** find another broker, or even go direct, Nationwide tend to offer better deals direct anyway!

lbp_2

Thanks everyone.
Get this: 2 hours after I had sent 2 texts and an email telling her not to do anything with our application, the broker registered our application with nationwide & charged £99 to my visa (my fault I suppose for giving her that info). I spoke to nationwide directly and they have closed the application, but won't credit the £99 back.. So that is gone
However they actually confirmed we would not have to pay any solicitor fees and we could get a better deal directly with them than the one she was advising us to take.
The broker has now offered to reduce the fee to £500! But no way are we going to use them again. Lesson learned the hard way!

Conrad

lbp wrote: »

Thanks everyone.
Get this: 2 hours after I had sent 2 texts and an email telling her not to do anything with our application, the broker registered our application with nationwide & charged £99 to my visa (my fault I suppose for giving her that info). I spoke to nationwide directly and they have closed the application, but won't credit the £99 back.. So that is gone
However they actually confirmed we would not have to pay any solicitor fees and we could get a better deal directly with them than the one she was advising us to take.
The broker has now offered to reduce the fee to £500! But no way are we going to use them again. Lesson learned the hard way!

You should complain to the broker about the loss of £99, and say you will go to the Ombudsman and let the regulator know about this brokers conduct unless the broker covers this cost. I'll bet you'll get the £99 back.

I see this all the time - they imply it's fees free and then slip it in somewhere down the line. They hide behind lines like 'fees are stated on our website' but you need to say things like you never had cause to look at their website as no fee was mentioned in the meeting.

Complain otherwise this firm will ensnare other unsuspecting customers.