Mortgage Broker unexpected fee

MattTriaxis

Scoured the web trying to find anyone who may of had a similar thing to no avail, hoping someone here may be able to put my mind at rest!

FTB 3 years ago, used a mortgage broker, who were brilliant, and as i recall i paid no fee, they took commission from the lender...

This year selling up and buying another, decided to use them again for the above reasons, got in touch with the person i dealt with before who started things rolling, then whilst finding the new property, she let me know she was moving on and had passed my details onto her colleague.

All required docs and such were sent over, got a mortgage approved in principal, had offer accepted on a property, then when we spoke on the phone to go through the details to apply for the mortgage, i was then asked for payment of the Mortgage valuation (expected) and then £495 for their 'fee's', which was out of the blue and unexpected, but caught in the moment i just thought perhaps things have changed and they no longer get commission, so i paid it and thought no more, till i received the Mortgage Offer, which stated in there, the broker would receive commission of £450 from the lender.

This didn't sound right to me! So i called the broker up and asked to explain what was going on, and was told that their fee was to cover the extra work involved in porting my mortgage (was sticking with halifax to avoid early repayment charge) and that they definitely wouldn't of proceeded with my case without making me aware of this fee, and apologies if it wasn't clear when they did.

I have no recollection of any conversation of the type before the point where they were asking for it to be paid. I feel like had i known this, it would of possibly changed my mind over using them again this time, but as things were so far along, i felt i was backed into a corner and just had to go along with it, as i couldn't risk or afford any spanners in the works!

My question is, i feel like i can't do anything till everything is completed, but i feel a letter of complaint is in order afterwards, or have they done everything above board and correctly?

Thanks for any advice, £495 is a lot to have to pay out of nowhere when you're already on a tight budget!

ACG

So you would have paid their fee had they not received commission?

The fee should have been disclosed before anything happened.As it has moved from one advisor to another, it could be that it slipped through and each advisor thought the other had told you. If you are unhappy, then you need to fire in an official complaint to the firm and wait for the outcome of that.

dunstonh

Did you sign a fee agreement? If yes, then you are liable. If no, they dont have a leg to stand on.

With mortgage commissions lower than in the past and the work load increased, most brokers now charge a small fee to make up the difference. Especially in areas of low property values (and therefore low mortgages). £250-£500 is common.

Before firing off an official complaint, give them a call and say that you are not happy and if they go ahead and charge you will make a complaint. No firm wants to have complaints on their hands and if common sense prevails, they will waive it unless you signed the agreement.

MattTriaxis

thanks for the quick replies!

I never had any paperwork or emails stating anything about the fee's and had not signed anything of the sort.

It had crossed my mind, as you said, that because of the change of advisor near the start it could of been overlooked, but also thought it odd that i'd not had anything in writing outlining the fee's. Perhaps it was discussed earlier on the phone, and with everything else going on it just went over my head at the time, but i'm pretty sure i would of picked up on that bit of information!

I obviously know broker's need paying for their work, the previous time they had taken commission from the lender, i just thought this time that had changed and i'd lucked out, so i paid it when they asked for it, as i thought it is what it is, and only questioned it when i saw they were also getting commission.

i did phone them to query it, and was given a load of spiel, and asked if i wasn't happy they could put things on hold until it had been sorted. Obviously with everything else, i couldn't risk jeopardising everything that was riding on the mortgage offer!

I'm guessing now i have had the offer from Halifax, it's now out of the brokers hands, so i could go ahead and write a letter of complaint, without the worry of them pulling the plug on my mortgage?

ACG

Im not sure they should be threatening your application. They could still pull the application, but that would be a complaint in the waiting.