London & Country Mortgage Brokers - Warning!

kingstreet

AFAIK L&C charge no fee, so there should be nothing in section 8 which mentions them. There should be nothing about solicitor's costs, other than the lender's legal expenses which I mentioned earlier.

The lender fees are the main reason for section 8. Valuation, valuation admin, product fee, booking fee, telegraphic transfer fee should all be listed and all be "penny accurate."

Were the fees you were asked to pay set out clearly and understandably?

On the subject of your income, the zero hours contract is a problem for some lenders, not for others. Was the advisor aware of this before submitting the application?

As mentioned, obtaining three years' SA302s from HMRC is a straightforward process requiring a phone call. In the last case I needed these it took just under two weeks for them to arrive, so it may have been sensible for the advisor to concentrate on this strand of your income with some lenders.

Finally, MSE suggests L&C because it has the capacity to handle the amount of business which could come from a site like this. It's fee-free status may also be a factor.

I hope you are able to resolve the issues you mention. Are you able to continue the application to this particular lender or are you having to go elsewhere?

JuicyJesus

dunstonh wrote: »

Also recommendations in many of the areas on this site do seem to focus on cheap rather than quality.

MSE specifically disregards product quality or quality of service and focuses solely on price/financial return when recommending products. That's why for many years Santander was the top recommended current account provider despite their service and administration being the wrong side of p*sspoor.

Moonraker71

I'm currently going through the mortgage application process with L&C. I went with them because I used them satisfactorily once before, but mainly because I could not get a recommendation for a local broker via anyone I trusted.

My experience has been mixed. My adviser is really efficient, calls back promptly, patiently answers my many questions and explains things very clearly. However, he has made some errors. The first mortgage he went for turned out not to be feasible as the lender does not accept declining self-employed profit under any circumstances (even when less than £100 yr on yr as in my case!). So that had to be abandoned.

With the next option - he advised me to apply for a particular product with a new lender. But I double checked and saw there was another product with an even better rate, which he had discounted. Why had he discounted it? Because it had a high product fee and he thought it made the monthly payments higher. It didn't. He'd got his sums wrong. It was only when I insisted he worked it out manually he agreed that my sums were right. So I'm now applying for that one.

When I was sent a copy of my mortgage application form to check, there were several errors in it, including the spelling of my name, the amount of my deposit and the figure for one of my year's earnings. Pretty shoddy really.

However, they were completely clear from the beginning about the documentation I'd need to provide for proof of income, ie SA302s (which took 6 days to arrive).

And that's where I'm up to now. Currently waiting to hear one way or the other.

If you use them, my advice is to be absolutely vigilant and triple-check everything they say and every piece of paperwork they send you. They offer a reasonable service for free, but in my experience they are just not absolutely scrupulous in checking everything.

gazter

jtcowie wrote: »

Thank you Holly and bigadaj. I have just written to the Sales Director and await his reply with interest! I tried to get an SA302 but was told it would take weeks to come through. Luckily I had some savings which persuaded the mortgage company to accept me as I wasn't asking for a big loan as a % of the property value.

HMRC will fax you through the sa302 same day. I used a freefaxtoemail service. I called them at 8am, received the sa302 fax as an emailed pdf by 10am.

jtcowie

I was obviously very unlucky with the HMRC person I spoke to then! The fees were set out with the exception of the 'you may also have to pay other taxes and costs' which is what I queried and he said it meant non-standard legal work. I queried that and he said adding or taking someone else to the mortgage. The adviser was fully aware of my financial situation and zero hours contract. I now have the mortgage and am happy with the repayments; it's just the fees and shoddy service which I am not happy with and have taken this up with L&C.

Mortgageman

Hi jtcowie,

I work for L&C - I used to post here quite a lot, but haven't done so for a long time. Perhaps some of the regulars will remember me ( I certainly remember talking to dunstonh in the past!).

Anyway, I'm keen to help, but I can't find your case on our system (really hard to figure out from user names) OR your email to our sales director.

If you would like to PM me your case ID (7 digit number, prefaced with the letter M) I will happily look in to it.

Alternatively, if you'd prefer not to send me this, then I can pm you some contact details where I know your email will be picked up and take it from there.

_Andy_

Hardly surprising a big company like L&C is 'recommended' given they have the capacity and income to make a huge affiliate marketing site like this worthwhile promoting them.

jtcowie

Thank you for your offer of help Mortgageman, but I have actually written to the sales director by post - very old-fashioned I know! I'm happy to await his reply and posted my experience as a warning to others, rather than to solicit help. But thank you for the offer.

Mortgageman

OK, well I'll make sure we keep an eye out for it - don't hesitate to contact me if there's anything I can do

amnblog

Morgage_Confused wrote: »

my sa302's took a couple of days to come through...in fact using the online tax return system you can now download your own in seconds.

Unless a new service went up this month you cannot access SA302s online.

You can get a copy of your tax return online, but that is not an SA302 and is not acceptable to lenders.