Halifax and Employer reference Woes!

Bexm

Hi

I'm just wondering if anyone else has experienced this.. I'm going slightly insane

Halifax has offered us a mortgage in principle and are ready to give us an offer but need to get my employers reference first.

The problem is my employer is a partnership and the name that appears on my payslip is different to name it goes into my bank account under. (example Payslip says, "Fancy Company Name", bank statement says "J&JSmith something somthingthing.." - if the whole name was there it would also say "..trading as Fancy Company Name")

Halifax has written to my employer asking them to fill a form with my salary and work details, which she filled in and sent back. It asked for a company stamp. My company doesn't have a stamp so she just wrote the full name in there as it didn't ask for otherwise.

They rejected this saying they needed a copy of my employers companies headed paper, which I suppose is fair enough.

My employer sent this but it got lost due to a mixed up references. I chased it and found out and she sent it again..
They've now got it but now they are saying this isn't acceptable as they want the original form sent at the same time as the headed paper.

My employer is now on holiday abroad for 3 weeks but she's been nice enough to send the details across with a copy of the headed paper. She's not been able to attach a copy of the original form because she's on holiday!

I am now just keeping my fingers crossed that they accept this!
They are being so awkward and it's driving me nuts.. this has been going on well over a month!

Anyone else had to go through this much palava?

daisyfrau

Amazing! I went through the same thing (palava over employers reference) myself! Been going on since early July.

see my original post below (i need to find and post the thread link!)

Eventually I think Halifax themselves finally accepted the incompetence of the payroll guy (Mr. F) and finally agreed to send the reference paperwork to HR. Although that sets us back I have every confidence that it will be done correctly and quickly now - I called HR yesterday who couldn't believe I was still waiting on my mortgage, and they promised to prioritise the forms once they arrive.

I called today to complain about the fact that Halifax's stubbornness on this issue had delayed our mortgage application by exactly 4 weeks and they paid me £115 to compensate for distress and time spent on the phone. Money arrived in my lloyds account instantly.

Thought that was a fair outcome seeing as technically mortgage hasn't been processed so there is an outside chance I will never give them any business, although I hope not, as it has been approved pending reference.

Bexm

Well at least I'm not the only one lol!
So annoying!! I just hope its accepted this time as I don't think my employer will be willing to send it all again especially as she's on holiday for 3 weeks!

daisyfrau

Here's my original post: http://forums.moneysavingexpert.com/showthread.php?t=5295549&highlight=

I would recommend calling to complain. Everything got resolved in that phone call but there is also the option of requesting a Halifax mortgage advisor to call you back.

I didn't actually expect financial compensation, I called today because HR hadn't yet received the reference forms, so I wanted to check they had been sent to the correct address. (HR and payroll are at separate sites). They weren't able to confirm this on the phone, which was the final straw so I asked to make a complaint. As part of the complaint they asked what would resolve the complaint and I said 'making sure the reference form has been sent to HR at the CORRECT address'. So the guy on the phone reissued the forms and checked the address with me on the phone, and is putting them in the post today.That then made me feel the matter has now been addressed.

They are the ones who added the financial compensation, which was just a bonus, but I'll take it because I have been stressed out by this, and they had agreed that the delay was needless.

kingstreet

Attaching a blank letterhead to the reference pro-forma when you have no company stamp is the accepted way to deal with that issue.