Santander Help to Buy House not Flat complaint.

afcnick85

Hi Guys,

New to forums and after some advice on how to further a complaint against Santander after a complete Mortgage offer FAIL on their behalf.

I applied for a Help to Buy 5% deposit mortgage in April with Santander. The house we initially were going to buy fell through due to a problem uncovered during the searches. The Branch Mortgage adviser was made aware of this, and after a few weeks we found another property to buy. The new place we liked was a FLAT and not a HOUSE.

The Mortgage Adviser was contacted prior to us submitting an offer, in order to clarify if the remaining lease length on the flat would be acceptable for the mortgage. It was confirmed the lease length was not an issue and an appointment to meet her and amend the details of the mortgage. At this stage she knew the new place was a FLAT.

Happy with this, we made an offer on the flat, which was accepted, notice of sale completed, a solicitor instructed, and annual leave booked for the pair of us to attend the mortgage appointment.

To our disappointment, as soon as we sat down for the appointment, the mortgage adviser had a sudden epiphany and said that the product could not be offered on a flat, and we'd in fact need a 15% deposit. No alternative was offered, and although apologetic, we have now had an offer accepted on a property we can not get a mortgage for with Santander. Obviously upset by this, we left the appointment.

We have been left humiliated by Santander, who stated initially the change of Mortgage would not being issue, despite being fully made aware prior to an offer being made the property was a flat. A solicitor was instructed by ourselves and the vendor. Moreover, we have both had to book Annual Leave to take the day off to meet a pointless mortgage appointment.

We now have over £20,000 saved with Santander in a current account and we are now seriously questioning the ability of Santander to manage our money.

Had the mortgage adviser made us aware when she initially knew the property was a flat and we could not receive the 5% Help to Buy product, we would not have made an offer on the flat!!

Surely if the sceme is to encourage 'First time buying', the ambition of most should be a flat and not a house anyway in terms of affordability.

As I write this all down for help and guidance, maybe I am over reacting and shouldn't have sought advice from someone expected to know so much about mortgages, but I have scoured the forums for anyone in a similar circumstance and I cannot find anything.

Our next step was to find another mortgage with another company, which has happened, but we found much better rates ignoring the help to buy scheme altogether, but if we did want a house we would need to use the scheme. It just seems another level of corporate corruption to push house prices further up and price first time buyers out of the market.

Any advice on this matter is hugely appreciated to two jaded first time buyers.


Cheers and all the best,


Nick

kingstreet

It's right there in the HTB - MG criteria on their site, so you must be victim of a bit of local ignorance;-

Eligibility criteria
To apply for a mortgage with us under the Help to Buy: mortgage guarantee scheme your client needs to meet the following eligibility criteria:

The mortgage is for a pre-owned house; new build houses and flats and pre-owned flats are not eligible.

http://www.santanderforintermediaries.co.uk/content/mortgages/help-to-buy/help-to-buy-mortgage-guarantee

You appear to have used another lender and that's about the only advice anyone could give.

amnblog

It sounds like you have secured a property and a mortgage and Santander missed a major complication in your dealings with them.

Not sure what advice you want from here Nick?

anselld

The lesson in future is to use an independent mortgage advisor, not anyone's "in-house" advisor.

There is no entitlement to be offered a mortgage and you have not experienced and material loss through incorrect advice. So I doubt there is any way you can make a meaningful complaint.

kingstreet

afcnick85 wrote: »

Had the mortgage adviser made us aware when she initially knew the property was a flat and we could not receive the 5% Help to Buy product, we would not have made an offer on the flat

So, your Santander mortgage was more important than your chosen new home?

Really?

afcnick85

Cheers for replies guys.

The benefits of the Santander mortgage were the term, which was longer than the other banks for the Help to Buy, which is besides the point now anyway.

The real issue is what could have happened had I been unable to find another mortgage. IMO poor advice lead us to put the offer in and expose us, the seller and the agent to loss. If someone has been told it's merely a case of changing the details of the mortgage application and it transpires it isn't so, do any banks have an obligation to fulfil the mortgage product? Otherwise, people who aren't lucky enough to find another mortgage deal are left with the embarrassment of pulling out, losing the trust of the agents and the vendors.

Maybe, i'm making a mountain of a molehill. I'm not experienced with mortgages or complaining about banks. It was a bit of guidance with regards to any grounds for complaint, which aside from the ill-advice maybe there are none.

I will let you know what they say.


Cheers,


Nick

afcnick85

Kingstreet, the mortgage isn't more important than the home, but at that stage we had no reason to seek an alternative mortgage provider and because we were ready to go the vendor accepted our offer over another offer. Hopefully that clarifies things a little better. :-)

anselld

afcnick85 wrote: »

The real issue is what could have happened had I been unable to find another mortgage. IMO poor advice lead us to put the offer in and expose us, the seller and the agent to loss.

Hypothetical. Nobody has actually incurred any loss.

afcnick85 wrote: »

Otherwise, people who aren't lucky enough to find another mortgage deal are left with the embarrassment of pulling out, losing the trust of the agents and the vendors.

ie nothing. People pull out all the time for various reasons. There is no firm commitment until exchange of contracts. Vendors and agents would be foolish to place any trust in a particular buyer for all sorts of reasons.

afcnick85 wrote: »

Maybe, i'm making a mountain of a molehill. I'm not experienced with mortgages or complaining about banks. It was a bit of guidance with regards to any grounds for complaint, which aside from the ill-advice maybe there are none.

Yes, mountain. No firm grounds for complaint based on actual material loss but you might get a token gesture if you make enough fuss.

kingstreet

afcnick85 wrote: »

Kingstreet, the mortgage isn't more important than the home, but at that stage we had no reason to seek an alternative mortgage provider and because we were ready to go the vendor accepted our offer over another offer. Hopefully that clarifies things a little better. :-)

Ah, ok.

It sounded like the opposite.

Never mind.

Lioness_Twinkletoes

afcnick85 wrote: »

Maybe, i'm making a mountain of a molehill.

Yes, you are. You and Santander made the same mistake. Interesting that you've overlooked that fact!

Keekles

anselld wrote: »

The lesson in future is to use an independent mortgage advisor, not anyone's "in-house" advisor

Because clearly every in-house advisor is too thick to know Santander don't offer HTB on flats? :rotfl: Behave.

Unfortunately Nick I would say the error is with the broker in question as opposed to Santander. Without observing the call made, if the question to Santander was simply "Are you OK to lend against X lease term remaining?", they haven't provided any inaccurate information. If however the broker did give them the case details, mentioned HTB and then asked them to consider a flat, then you'd be right.

Even then, the broker should have known better and sourced an alternative for you regardless.

Best of luck with your purchase.