Vent at House Builder, Advisor and Bank

podwin

I feel totally let down by all parties involved when trying to buy a new house and would like to VENT against the Builder, Financial Advisor and the Nationwide.

I put down a £500 deposit for a new build in March, but the sale advisor actually said "Don't apply for your mortgage yet". (This is very bad advice).

It turns out she said that because she was not sure of the plans, the plans did not seem to match and I think maybe she was covering herself against a customer (like us) saying something like "That isn't like the plans we signed for".

I was happy to be guided by her advice though, and time ticked on without a mortgage. Even though I had paid £500 she didn't put the sale through, so it wasn't even officially reserved, odd.

Finally, she decided it was time to put the sale though in late May so met their recommended mortgage advisor, who was also a let down in the service stakes, mainly because he wanted to go on holiday and relied on text messages to contact me. Having heard nothing from him after our initial meeting I phoned him one Saturday morning and he shouted at me down the phone as if I was a naughty child that I had not replied to his text messages! Well (a) He shouldn't be relying on text messages and should have actually called me (b) If he had called me he'd realise HE had taken my number down wrong.

He did explain how he got it wrong at a later meeting but didn't apologise.

Our mortgage was then declined.

This was strange because the financial advisor hadn't seen a problem (he had our Experian credit reports). This now opened my eyes to how bad, terrible and awful the Nationwide are at customer service. To have a mortgage declined for a reason they would not say was extremely irritating due to the facts (1) We were an existing mortgage customer with them (2) we were not increasing or decreasing our borrowing, or changing the term (3) never missed a payment on our current mortgage with them (or any mortgage ever) (4) Putting a deposit of £100k on a purchase of £240k making a decent LTV. (5) Our credit reports were 996 and 915, I know the is Experians own rating but every advisor says to check it, well it was of no help this time.

When talking to Nationwide they were the most uncooperative, obstructive bunch of people I have ever had the misfortune to talk to. If I wasn't being fobbed off by being told "You'll have to go into brand", and then branch telling we to phone the mortgage new business centre, the person on the phone would just say "NO".

I would ask why has it been declined, they refused to say. When I asked, "Someone has looked at our credit status and made a decision, what is it that they have seen?" I was told the computer would have done it, and if it says NO then that is it. At that point I really felt like I was in Little Britain.

So when asked to complain I was told I could not.

When I asked for the reason, they said they would not tell me.

The reason for porting our current mortgage was to avoid the £5,000 exit fee, so I felt really screwed now. Even the financial advisor didn't know why.

The house was now at the stage were it needed customising, we did not have a mortgage in place so daren't pay the £3.5k of the extras we wanted so pulled out.

If we'd had a mortgage in place earlier this could have been sorted, but builders don't wait for anyone.

After telling me "Don't apply for a mortgage yet" while taking my £500 reservation fee for a house I would obviously need a mortgage for, they will not give that £500 back.

So, thanks builder, thanks advisor and thanks Nationwide for all the wrong advice, rudeness and stress, and a missing £500. Have a good Christmas party with it!

wealdroam

You seem to have accepted that the builder/developer is not going to return your deposit. Why is that?

Have you read: Is a deposit ever refundable?

Have you thought about posting on The House Buying, Renting & Selling Board?

podwin

Yes, that was after complaining to the builder, they said no, what more can I do?

I will read that link thanks.

I did think that I could go to the Financial Ombudsman and complain about the poor financial advice I got (Don't apply for your mortgage yet) from a none financial qualified person (aka the builder's sales advisor).

But, realistically that is a long shot that wouldn't stick.

wealdroam

A lot of that stuff in your original post is just a repeat of your earlier thread. Why did you abandon that thread?

Have you checked your Equifax report?