Broker and Halifax, who is to blame?

cazzashirley

Hello there, I have been going through my broker for my mortgage, my 2 year deal was up and my broker advised that the Halifax who i was with anyway were offering the best deal. I was wanting to switch onto an interest only, and assumed this had happened. When the papers came through it showed it was an interest and repayment mortgage. I immediately rang the broker, he called me back and apparantly it emerges that an employee in the Call Centre of the Halifax, had fraudently made up another application which cancelled my brokers out, this resulting in the extra payments being taken. When they looked at the application it had been cancelled out and was being investigated. 2 months on I was still having payments taken for the mortgage I didi not want, and this was causing me distress as I am on extended unpaid maternity leave.:eek: I called several times to the broker who has not returned my calls, so decided to call the Halifax, time and time again, it has now been referred to the Complaints Dept and again is being investigated, and finally my mortgage has been switched over. I received a letter from Customer Services telling me they were looking into my complaint, I am so annoyed that they know it was a fraudulent application made through one of their employees and carried on taking extra money out of my account, can I claim compensation???

dunstonh

can I claim compensation???

No.

You can only claim if you have been made financially worse off and the amount you are worse off by and maybe a very small goodwill gesture on top.

To me, it seems quite clear the Halifax are at fault. A switch between deals with the same lender doesnt earn the broker a penny. The broker has probably just passed the paperwork on your behalf and thats it. The lack of contact could be down to holidays. However, if you have put a complaint in and the broker's compliance department have been notified, they may have instructed the broker not to contact you. That is a very common requirement when a complaint is in process.

Banks will sack staff who act fraudulently and those that do will find it hard enough to get another job let alone one in financial services. It doesnt happen often but an accusation of fraud has to be taken seriously and dealt with correctly. They cannot just accept everything you say at face value.

There are some strange things here. Why someone at the Halifax would want to change a broker application doesnt make any sense. The brokers deal with different arms to the branch of telephone/internet side. There is no financial gain to the Halifax individual for changing it. So, why would they do something fraudulent if there is no gain for them?

It could be an error, a mistype, a misunderstanding by a new employee. These are the things the complaint should sort out.

knowledgeman

I have to question the genuity of the information given by your broker

How could he know this? how could halifax know this immediatly

Tbh I think someone is miscommunicating or recreating facts here

Yes its possible someone has deliberatly set up other applications but its far more likely to be an error of some sort

Id wait for an official response from halifax as to the issue and see if they agree with what your broker told you

As for claiming compensation, whilst legally you may not be entitled if you can find out halifax caused the problem or it was their staff complain and ask and you will get a fair sum I reckon

Id be wary though to make sure your broker isnt the screw up merchant and passing the buck before pushing for compo

cazzashirley

Thank you for your advice, I shall await for their response.

Leon_W

There are a couple of issues here.

The broker WILL get paid by Halifax for the product transfer (which is fair enough in my view and other lenders should take note !)

Now I've done a few of these and from memory there is an issue with actually converting the repayment type (from repayment to interest only in this case). The broker can only key the application on the exact same terms as the original loan to get the application in, once this is done then it requires a call and human intervention to change the repayment type (this is where I guess it went wrong). So I would advise caution before apportioning blame.

Regards

dunstonh

The broker WILL get paid by Halifax for the product transfer (which is fair enough in my view and other lenders should take note !)

I didnt realise that. Is that something new or something specific to Halifax (or limited number of providers?).

regularsaver1

Yes Halifax do pay brokers for retaining business (the same as a new customer)

Anyhow, my guess is that the KFI expired and so someone went into it and had to create a new KFI. I would not neccesarily call this fraud, . I don;t understand the way they say a different application as the systems only allow one to be live for each mortgage roll number (which does not change on a product transfer). To key a new application, the only one must be what Halifax called NPR'd (not proceeding), but they could have created more KFI's and the incorrect one been selected

but to the original, what Key Facts Illustration and offer document say from the broker? full interest only?
Usually Halifax do want proof of repayment vehicle though

luckyfool

dunstonh wrote: »

I didnt realise that. Is that something new or something specific to Halifax (or limited number of providers?).

A few of the HBOS lenders offer this now, Halifax and BM Solutions definitely do, Bank of Scotland have it on the way. all pay full proc fees on product transfers.

Its still the exception in the market though. A couple of other lenders who pay for "product transfers" are Accord (a full proc fee) and Woolwich (about 0.20% from memory).

The downside is that all the regulatory work still needs to be done, and often the transfer products are not quite as sharp as new client deals. But if you do the full research and offer clients the option some will just go for it as they feel it avoids the hassle of a full remortgage.

cazzashirley

Hello Again,

I received a letter on Sat, from the Service Recovery Dept, telling me that they were investigating into my complaint, and the £700 ish that was taken by mistake over the last 2 months payments will be refunded within 3 - 5 days and I have been switched onto the correct product transfer, so payments will be correct from 1st September, I called them and they assured me this was correct and the right money would be coming out date of 4 Sept. I checked online banking and they have taken the mortgage payment and another £350 again, this is so damn frustrating, they now owe me over £1000 and are in no hurry to refund this back, surely after the million phonecalls and every bloody department I have been put through to someone could get it right.....

cazzashirley

It was the Key Facts that alerted me that I was on the wrong product, so I rang the Broker who said he would ring the Halifax, this went on for 4 weeks, and in the end I decided to go to them myself.

regularsaver1

ah well the broker should have issued you the correct key facts illustration

if this is what was given to you, i'd guess this was what was selected

i would have said it was too short notice to change this months payment collection, so they would have had to process a refund. if you want the money quicker you can do a direct debit indemnity with your bank, but it will be for the full amount, and not the additional £350