Halifax Intermediaries

Barutd

I recently applied for a mortgage through a broker. The broker said that they do not charge a fee, they only charge what the banks charge them and they make their money though the commission they get form the bank. He said, there are 3 price bands depending on what type of lender is going to take your application, £295, £495 and £995.

As my partner and I don't have squeaky clean credit files, we paid the £495 to get the process started but the broker said we would get the difference back if we were accepted by a high street lender. We were accepted by Halifax Intermediaries and have received the mortgage documents which clearly state that the brokerage fee is £295.

The broker is still saying that the £495 we paid is correct and we are not due a refund because of a couple of reasons. At first he said that Halifax Intermediaries were not a high street lender but in fact a subsidiary that are more easy going with adverse credit. I have researched this however and it appears as though it is simply the arm of the business that deals with brokers or 'intermediaries' rather than the public.

The second reason is that the fees depend on the amount of work he has to do i.e. how many applications he has to submit. This is definitely not how it was explained to us during our initial meeting. Not only that but he only applied to 2 lenders and both of them came back with an agreement in principle, it's just one asked for a lot more deposit, which we don't have. He applied to both concurrently too, so I fail to see where the extra than usual work comes in.

So my question is; Is it just me or are we being over charged and misled by this broker and if we are, what options do we have for recourse?

[Deleted User]

have you signed an agreement to say you will pay £495? If yes then you have little comeback, if there are T&C attached then you have comeback

Halifax intermedairies are just Halifax for us. Not a different company or anything.

Threaten to raise a complaint and you'll get your money back quite quickly.

If nothing else, I would get a big slap on the wrist if i had an offer or illustration show a fee to be charged of £295 and then took more than that. The illustraiton should show all relevant fees, no caveats or ifs and buts. It must be accurate.

Check what you signed first

Barutd

Thanks, i'll find the documents and check them.

As a broker yourself, do these price bands for the differant kinds of lenders ring true?

ACG

That sounds like a very complicated explanation.

Halifax intermediaries are just the intermediary arm of Halifax, no real difference to Halifax and certainly not an adverse lender.

There is an argument here that you discussed and agreed to £495, so even if the broker has made a mistake on the paperwork, you are not worse off because of it.

The extra work came in by making 2 applications... If you sit on the lenders systems, it can take an hour or 2 to submit a full application. It does not matter whether they were made at the same time or a week apart, there were 2 applications still submitted.

I have no idea whether the broker is in the right or not, but it does not sounds like you are worse off, although it does sound like his explanation is a bit iffy.

haras_nosirrah

the bit that concerns me is this

'I recently applied for a mortgage through a broker. The broker said that they do not charge a fee, they only charge what the banks charge them and they make their money though the commission they get form the bank. He said, there are 3 price bands depending on what type of lender is going to take your application, £295, £495 and £995'

how can they say they don't charge a fee - they are charging a fee. If they said they are a fee charging broker that is fine (most are) but they have to be upfront about it

Barutd

It may seem complicated but it is word for word what has happened.

If we had just paid the £295 the broker would have started the process of applying to high street lenders. We were convinced by him to pay the £495 so there was no delay in the application process if and when he needed to apply to the adverse credit lenders. We accepted this because we knew there was a small amount of adverse credit and he assured us that if we were accepted by a high street lender then we'd get the difference back.

So, we could and should have only paid £295 and we would have got exactly the same service, therefore I believe we are out of pocket.

Barutd

haras_nosirrah wrote: »

the bit that concerns me is this

'I recently applied for a mortgage through a broker. The broker said that they do not charge a fee, they only charge what the banks charge them and they make their money though the commission they get form the bank. He said, there are 3 price bands depending on what type of lender is going to take your application, £295, £495 and £995'

how can they say they don't charge a fee - they are charging a fee. If they said they are a fee charging broker that is fine (most are) but they have to be upfront about it

That's word for word what he said, 'they don't charge a fee themselves, they only ask us to cover what the banks charge them'.

haras_nosirrah

I would put in a complaint. Treating customers fairly means that brokers must be clear and not misleading. This doesn't sound like it meets that stance

Barutd

haras_nosirrah wrote: »

I would put in a complaint. Treating customers fairly means that brokers must be clear and not misleading. This doesn't sound like it meets that stance

So do the different level of charges not ring true because he 100% definitely explained it to us in this way?

I think I will complain but probably wait until the sale has gone through so as not to rock the boat, would this affect my rights?

ACG wrote: »

There is an argument here that you discussed and agreed to £495, so even if the broker has made a mistake on the paperwork, you are not worse off because of it.

The extra work came in by making 2 applications... If you sit on the lenders systems, it can take an hour or 2 to submit a full application. It does not matter whether they were made at the same time or a week apart, there were 2 applications still submitted.

I have no idea whether the broker is in the right or not, but it does not sounds like you are worse off, although it does sound like his explanation is a bit iffy.

We paid the increased fee because he advised us to pay the increased fee so as not to hold up proceedings if he had to go to adverse credit lenders. He assured us that, if a high street lender accepted out application, we would receive the difference back.

We were accepted by a high street lender at the 1st attempt and this is the point I was making about the concurrent applications. It wasn't that one was rejected and he then applied to another. He applied to 2 at the same time and we were accepted by both so I can only assume that is what he usually does, hence no extra work than usual was completed.

If we had only paid £295 for the 'high street application level', then we would have been accepted and that is all we would have paid. So we most certainly are worse off by £200.

haras_nosirrah

The lender pays a commission. The broker is charging you a fee in addition of £295, £495 or £995 depending on the complexity of the case. That is fine to do that as long as they are upfront about it

They can't say they are not charging a fee when they are. That is the problem

ACG

It all sounds very messy and overly complicated.
I am with the others, if you think it has been miss sold to you, put a complaint in.