Advice needed on mortgage fees

ucaninanissan

Hi All,

I am a newbie to the forum. :j

I recently reserved a new build flat that were exclusively sold via a well known high street estate agent. I was also told that if I took out a mortgage with them I will be prioritised when viewing the flats (something I was not happy about).
Upon reservation, I was encouraged to take out a mortgage lifetime membership with the agents at a price of £600. I didn't want to lose out as the agents were saying that time was not on my side and they had everything in place.
To cut a long story short, the agent applied for a my mortgage on my behalf (15% LTV), however, it got rejected and the panic kicked in! The estate agent offered an alternative at 25% LTV which is much more than I can afford. I had to quickly seek an alternative.

Luckily I have a friend who is an independent broker and she got me a mortgage with another lender, so it's happy days. I wished I stuck with her in the first place but was scared that the estate agents would cause issues as a friend of mine was given the cold shoulder when he tried to purchase a flat using his own broker.

I enquired about a refund I have just been informed that the £600 fee is non-refundable and I can use their services in the future for free, which I don't want to to. If I had pulled out, I would understand but this broker didnt have a suitable alternative so I don't see why I have to pay for a service they could not provide.

Any advice or assistance would be greatly appreciated

U_can_in_a_nissan

Senior_Paper_Monitor

Name and shame ?

amnblog

You took the terms.

We can argue about how 'fair' they are but you took them and then decided to do business elsewhere.

You can complain but I am not sure if they will refund to get you off of their back as legally they are most likely well positioned.

Malmo

Connells group?

Senior_Paper_Monitor

There's a surprise !!


As amnblog indicates provided they (the mortgage advisory side) have probably conducted the paperwork properly - and you accepted their (ridiculous in my opinion) offer. While it probably deserves a complaint - I am not confident that one will be successful.


However taking your description of the estate agency side as verbatim, they would certainly appear to have written roughshod over the following ...




Extract from The Property Ombudsman Code of Practice for Residential Sales (as of 22.02.10)

• as recognized by the National Association of Estate Agents (NAEA)
• as approved by the Office of Fair Trading under its Consumer Codes and Approval Scheme
  
  6. Submission of Offers
  
  6a By law, you must tellsellers as soon as it is reasonablypossible about all offers that you receive at any time until contracts have been exchanged (in Scotland, missives have been concluded) unless the offer is an amount or type which the seller has specifically instructed you, in writing, not to pass on. You must confirm each offer in writing to the seller, and to the buyer who made it, within two working days.
  
  6b You must keep written or computerised record of all offers your receive – including the date and time of such offers – and the seller’s response. Such records should be made promptly.
  
  Discrimination
  
  6c By law you must not discriminate, or threaten to discriminate, against a prospective buyer of the seller’s property because that person declines to accept that you will (directly or indirectly) provide services to them. Discrimination includes – but is not limited to – the following:

• Failing to tell the seller of an offer to buy the property.
• Telling the seller of an offer less quickly than other offers you have received.
• Misrepresenting the nature of the offer or that of rival offers.
• Giving details of properties for sale first to those who have indicated they are prepared to let you provide services to them.
• Making it a condition that the person wanting to buy the property must use any other service provided byyou or anyone else.

ucaninanissan

Thanks for the replies.

Yes, it's the Connells group.

Malmo

My advice is to issue a formal complaint to Connells and then report them to the Property Ombudsman, irrespective of whether there is anything in writing from Connells that proves contravention of the law. The more they are reported to the Property Ombudsman, the more exposure their questionable sales practice will get.

You might be interested in the thread linked to below about them, as they were featured in a BBC 3 Counties Radio show earlier this year:

https://forums.moneysavingexpert.com/discussion/5196062

-taff

Bloody Connells, they tried to get me to take out a 'premium' membership because "all their houses were going first to premium customers"....followed by a quick look through their properites,
"Oh we have one here you might be interested in....Oh, sorry, no, it's gone to a premium customer"
Then followed by a phone call a week later telling me that they were phoning to dicuss 'our' conversation about me signing up to their premium service....

Told them where to go.

ucaninanissan

Malmo - Thanks for the link, it makes an interesting read.

-taff - Connells regarded me as a VIP member and (apparently) gave me priority on the viewings. I was the 4th person on the list but when we arrived to the viewing there were about 25 people in line and I vividly remember the estate agents constantly shouting "We have a buyer from aboard!" and "I'm expected a call from an investor in Dubai".


From a mortgage point of view, It was my understanding that most lenders require a minimum of a 15% deposit on new builds and when I queried this I was assured that 10% would suffice from Connells. A few days later their advisor phoned me and told me that I need a 15% deposit (an extra £11k in this case). I was furious and demanded an explanation on why she told me 10% would do and she said "I thought you wanted to use the Government Help to Buy scheme". I have no idea how she assumed this.

it's been an utter mess, but I stuck with them as I don't want to miss out on having my own place. I'm just glad I have a good contact who happens to be an experienced broker.

stator

Start off with a letter of complaint and ask for a refund.
Complain about them to the property ombudsmen too.

Personally I'm boycotting Connells and would encourage everyone else to do so too.

Sedge123

I won't deal with them at all. Their agents are very aggressive and continue to beat you down on the phone in an attempt to get you to agree to what they want. I'm a strong person but they talked over me and made me an appointment I didn't want. I did cancel it but their tactics were awful.