Halifax mortgage- advice urgently needed.

Piclesarcar

Thank you.

Logically I know it's the sensible thing to do, which almost makes this post pointless, bit I think frustration and anger have got the better of me in the last few weeks.

We are FTB and this process has been a nightmare!! I think it's all because of the broker we chose. It's taken us 8 weeks to get a mortgage. Our broker is always too busy to return calls or emails. Yet my sister in law has found a house, mortgage sorted and completed in 6 weeks!! Yet, we didn't.

We were given one mortgage choice, that was pulled, 2 new options, and then it turns out the mortgage we end up with is not even one of the two we could have chosen from.

Annoyingly our broker had the mortgage offer from last week, and 'didn't have time to look at it'. We assumed at that point it was fine. Then the offer comes through and it's wrong, and we chase the MB and she tells us it's fine and she told us about it.

I genuinely think she doesn't remember sending me the email with the new rates to chose from. And from my point of view, what we have isn't competitive and costs us £90 a month more than we agreed to.

At this point, if she held her hands up and said 'look, I made a mistake, I'm sorry', then fine. I can accept that. But refusing to believe we were never given the rates of 4.69 and 5.09 is plain annoying!!

Sorry, I'm ranting now!!

Thank you all for your help!!

marsman802

Just to prove how quickly you can do this my IFA is my brother-in-law.

In one evening we completed an application and online it was pre-approved subject to final confirmation...which we got a day later.

You should not be getting messed about like this.

Piclesarcar

Wow, that is fast!!

At first I thought it was Halifax, but now I'm sure it's her...

My sister in law got hers in 7 days, as a FTB, and looking at a lot of posts in here, they are all much quicker than what we experienced.

Does anyone think it might be worth talking to another broker? An independent one this time? Logically I do know it's late in the game and don't want to jeopardise the offer we have, but I know I've said it a thousand times, we don't want it!!

Mortgage_Mark_2

Halifax are one of the quickest in terms of processing/approval at present, certainly post-MMR they appear to have recovered better than most, in my experience.

I've never heard of the 4.69% rate with Halifax in the last six months, and I use them a LOT. Admittedly I don't work for Countrywide (thankfully!) so wouldn't have access to a Countrywide-special if there are any (which I'm not sure there are), but we'd probably know about it.

I'd suggest a call to Halifax to ask if that rate ever existed - if it didn't then you know your broker has made a mistake and you can challenge him/her on it.

Either way, as kingstreet says, you should have a KFI prior to making any sort of decision, and then your broker is obliged to talk you through the KFI explaining each section, so for this not to have happened at all is absolutely against all mortgage conduct regulations, so you have an awful lot of 'ammunition' for a complaint to go to the ombudsman if necessary.

Piclesarcar

Brilliant. Thank you Mark.

We did have a bit of a google ourselves and can't find any 4.69 with £999 product fee.

When she called us after the first rate was pulled, she gave me the wrong rates, she then told me she was getting confused and would call back in two minutes once she had sorted herself out and has the right rates to hand. She called back, I asked her to email the rates to me, so I can forward to the Mr, and she emailed the exact rates she gave me on the phone. She then told me we have about 5 minutes to make the decision. Of course we would go for the cheaper one!! Called her to say we had chosen the 4.69 and I also replied to her email stating we want to go for the 4.69.

Slightly alarmed that the biggest financial decision we have made has been on wrong/non existent information.

Slightly fed up of this house buying malarkey!!

amnblog

marsman802 wrote: »

Just to prove how quickly you can do this my IFA is my brother-in-law.

In one evening we completed an application and online it was pre-approved subject to final confirmation...which we got a day later.

You should not be getting messed about like this.

each case on its own merits

amnblog

It looks like the Countrywide Broker has made a simple mistake on quoting the rates by email and then compounded the problem and left herself exposed by not providing you with an illustration.

You can of course complain which is bad news for her and not much use to you

A more practical solution is to ask why you cannot get onto product FAF218 or FAF479 which are available now and price at 4.69% and £4.99%.

It may be that the new refund of valuation offer conflicts with your previous application.

Perhaps Halifax wont let you switch.

Don't change lenders 'mid race' and take what is available would be my view.

Mortgage_Mark_2

amnblog wrote: »

It looks like the Countrywide Broker has made a simple mistake on quoting the rates by email and then compounded the problem and left herself exposed by not providing you with an illustration.

You can of course complain which is bad news for her and not much use to you

A more practical solution is to ask why you cannot get onto product FAF218 or FAF479 which are available now and price at 4.69% and £4.99%.

It may be that the new refund of valuation offer conflicts with your previous application.

Perhaps Halifax wont let you switch.

Don't change lenders 'mid race' and take what is available would be my view.

FAF218 is not the product mentioned in the OP - that product has a £1499 fee; the exclusive product through the Sesame Bankhall Group (of which I believe Countrywide are not members, but were looking to purchase at the back end of 2013) reduces the fee to £999.

Piclesarcar

Thank you everyone.

She's not yet spoken to us today, but we have fired off another email asking her to call so we can get some answers. If we haven't heard from her, the Mr is going to start a complaint.