Useless Mortgage Broker

Graciepie88

Wondering if anyone can advise me on the situation my partner and I find ourselves currently in.

First time buyers, using Help to Buy to buy a New Build property.

We instructed a broker through a company and they submitted our application to Virgin Money.

Long story short, Virgin Money will lend us £x amount but it came in under the full amount we needed to borrow. Broker explains this to us and asks if we wish to proceed, making up the difference ourselves.

We tell him, yes we will put in difference and to go ahead please. This all happened last Thursday (30th June)

Valuation takes place last Thursday and comes back fine.

Im an impatient so and so and call Virgin Money directly today as our broker hasn't responded to my last email nor contacted us since Thursday afternoon.

Virgin tell me they are sat waiting to know if we want to go ahead and how the shortfall should be made up (answers to which were given to the broker on thursday). So I tell them please go ahead via email.

This is not the first instance of our broker appearing useless. When we were told our mortgage amount would be different I asked if we would need to resubmit help to buy authority to proceed. His response was 'No, because the equity loan you're requesting is the same'

Help to buy say complete opposite, form must be re-submitted or they will reject the whole application. So we do this off our own backs on Friday.

Also, broker incorrectly put on our application we were receiving £1,000 towards legal fees from the developer, we are not it is towards upgrades. I have also had to inform Virgin of this.

Question is, are we just going to have to stick it out with them? I think Virgin are sat waiting to give a formal offer on our say so (which they have now got in writing) but we are both seriously questioning the ability of this mortgage advisor and wondering how many more dealings we will have with them once we have our paperwork?

Obviously we will be putting in a formal complaint. Their service is not acceptable in our opinion.:mad::mad::mad:

ACG

If you are as close to obtaining an offer as you make out, I would stick it out. Its not ideal obviously but it would just take you longer to get to the same place you are now.

Once the offer is issued, the broker will have very little input and it will be down to the solicitors so you should be fine.

cahillg81

To be fair to the advisor you haven't really given them much time to get back to the lender. I don't know who the advisor is but given you got back to them on Thursday I think expecting everything turned around by today is unrealistic.

Remembering that lenders don't work at the weekend and most often neither do advisors.

Graciepie88

cahillg81 wrote: »

To be fair to the advisor you haven't really given them much time to get back to the lender. I don't know who the advisor is but given you got back to them on Thursday I think expecting everything turned around by today is unrealistic.

Remembering that lenders don't work at the weekend and most often neither do advisors.

I am fully aware they don't work weekends etc.


I think that perhaps, if we didn't keep finding errors in his work or he wasn't misinforming us about important things such as our HTB application we would probably feel more relaxed that we hadn't heard anything from them but essentially our application was just sitting there waiting for someone to tell Virgin, yes they want to go ahead please proceed.


I just feel that we keep being held up by his inefficiencies. Also, if you call the woman we have been given as a contact in the office, or him they very rarely answer their phones. If you leave a voicemail, it very rarely gets returned. We have been very prompt in returning any information requested of us and have paid for their services at the end of the day (Yes, I also know you don't always pay for a broker's service).


Though obviously I realise it's probably too far on to go elsewhere and we will have to sit this out now.

ACG

I dont think the OP is wanting everything to happen within a day, just within a couple of days and correctly. Its not an unreasonable request.

If the broker is making 2-3 mistakes on a single application, its not great is it? We are not talking about a weekly shop. We all make mistakes, but they should not be making so many.

If the broker has emailed the updated information over, it may just not have been picked up by Virgin and so the delays may not necessarily be the brokers fault... Did Virgin advise they had checked their inbox?

Thrugelmir

Graciepie88 wrote: »

Obviously we will be putting in a formal complaint. Their service is not acceptable in our opinion.:mad::mad::mad:

You are entirely within your rights to complain. Though unsure what you expect to gain. You've barely started the property buying process and appear highly stressed already. Doing everybody's jobs for them may make you feel better but probably won't speed the process up. As you aren't the only person in the queue so to speak. Best advice is to chill a little. You'll get there in the end.

nkkingston

You mention a developer. By any chance, was the broker recommended by the developer? It might explain why you're getting poor service, if they've already got their kickback from being the in house adviser anyway.

cahillg81

Who are the brokers? I find the best advice is you do have to chill a little though, appreciate that you are excited/impatient about buying a house but there are processes to follow and imo talking about formal complaints for not getting a call back in 2 working days is silly.


I really do hate this complaints culture we have generated in the UK. I like to complain when there is something gone wrong and it's genuine but it seems everyone wants to complain now which believe it or not just clogs the wheel!!

Thrugelmir

cahillg81 wrote: »

I really do hate this complaints culture we have generated in the UK. I like to complain when there is something gone wrong and it's genuine but it seems everyone wants to complain now which believe it or not just clogs the wheel!!

In daily life I find those who complain the loudest often aren't so great at their own jobs either. When the situation gets turned around. Far better to have reasonable expectations and cordial relationships. Then people will pull all the stops out when it really matters.

GipsyHillClimber

Thrugelmir wrote: »

In daily life I find those who complain the loudest often aren't so great at their own jobs either. When the situation gets turned around. Far better to have reasonable expectations and cordial relationships. Then people will pull all the stops out when it really matters.

I think a complaint is wholly justified in this scenario. OP has most likely used the services of a broker to relieve some stress from needing to chase lenders, check forms completed by the broker for mistakes etc. yet he's now needing to do both. As long as the OP has made the broker aware previously that he wasn't happy with the service, it the poor service continues then it should definitely be highlighted to their management otherwise the broker will probably continue to be dire at their job because people are too "polite" to complain.

Graciepie88

Just by way of reference, I work in a firm of solicitors so I am fully aware how the house buying process works.

I probably wouldn't care that I still haven't heard from my broker if I hadn't picked up on other mistakes. Bearing in mind it's now the third working day with no response or peep out of them.

As it happens in my last email to him I also asked a question, which isn't a complicated one but remains unanswered.

I realise that people have more than one client but a quick email update isn't hard to do.