BTL Broker and Survey paid but no deal - am I entitled to refund?

Joe_Nirei

Please if any of you could help me with this I would be very grateful.
A couple of years ago I wanted to get a BTL mortgage and I hired a mortgage broker.
It was a face to face verbal contract, all inclusive: mortgage deal, conveyancing, survey, stamp duty, contingency. Nothing was signed, just verbal agreement
I found 1st property but I missed it because the Broker got the surveyor too late, when the property was already STC. In my opinion he didn’t get the surveyor at all. He blamed it on the estate agent that they are not fair traders (!!)
I found the 2nd property, the survey was done by the lender (it wasn’t optional, it was compulsory) and it cost me £400. Before that, the broker asked me to pay him £500 and another £500 made payable to his mortgage club. I never knew what or who was this mortgage club and its role in this business, I agreed though. During the whole process the broker was abroad on holiday twice and I found very frustrating because he wasn’t there when I needed him the most.
Lender approved the BTL mortgage and I had to get through the T&C by myself and find things that I was not acknowledged previously by my broker such as:
Each time the property was let out I had to make a letting out application to the lender and of course to pay the fee, about £300+.
Approval of that application would have been £1250.
Plus checking tenants fees, etc.
I found that such a hassle and I was so frustrating that I can’t get his advice and so afraid of a wrong-doing as I declined the mortgage deal. When the broker was back from holiday he got tough on me saying: “I cannot assist you now or in the future”. And that was it. He put me off for quite a long time.
I need to know if I am entitled to a full refund £500 from the Broker, £500 from the mortgage club (I have no details of this mortgage club though) and also I need to know if the survey fee is refundable as I declined the deal.

Any thought would be very much appreciated as well as your time.
Thank you very much indeed.

dunstonh

I found 1st property but I missed it because the Broker got the surveyor too late, when the property was already STC.

Brokers dont do surveys.

I need to know if I am entitled to a full refund £500 from the Broker, £500 from the mortgage club (I have no details of this mortgage club though) and also I need to know if the survey fee is refundable as I declined the deal.

What did your contract say?

Joe_Nirei

I didn't say my broker was supposed to do the survey. He was supposed to get the lender's surveyor.

dimbo61

Had to laugh about the survey was compulsory bit !
Are you for real.
A Lender is going to lend you thousands if not hundreds of thousands of pounds and you think a survey is optional !
You need lots of money to set up a business and getting a BTL property is just that.
Do your homework and read the paperwork before you sign.

ACG

There are a lot of things that do not make sense on this post. I think you need to check through your paperwork.

A Mortgage club is a club that puts brokers together in order to obtain better rates/fees. They take a cut of the commission paid from the lender to the broker. They do not take fees from the client. What you are descrbing sounds like a packager, but £500 for a packager on a BTL sounds extreme - the packagers I use tend to charge £100 give or take.

Also, you would pay for the valuation, you would not normally pay the broker in order to pay the valuation. The broker is holding your money during the interim and I do not think any brokers are able to do that - I know I am not.

Also this:

Lender approved the BTL mortgage and I had to get through the T&C by myself and find things that I was not acknowledged previously by my broker such as:
Each time the property was let out I had to make a letting out application to the lender and of course to pay the fee, about £300+.
Approval of that application would have been £1250.
Plus checking tenants fees, etc.

does not make sense. A BTL mortgage does not require a "letting out application". Once the mortgage has been agreed you could let it out once or one hundred times over the next few years, no more fees are payable to the lender.

It sounds like either you are mistaken and over the years have merged a few things in to one OR possibly the broker has charged you one large fee and is paying out the money to the relevent parties - a broker can not or should not be doing that. The other option is that the broker was just a con man and took your money.

Either way, BTLs are not regulated in the same way as a residential mortgage, as has been mentioned they are a form of commercial finance. If you are not happy, you have to go through the courts rather than the financial ombudsman. If you intend to do that, I would ensure you have your facts correct as there is a lot here that sounds odd.

Im not here to judge if you are right or wrong, I can not work out from your post if you are mistaken or have been swindled but you need to be sure what you are saying is correct before you go any further.

minimike2

I detect a troll post.