Process to complain about mortgage adviser?

Anitification

Good evening,

I am looking for some advice on what I consider a terrible level of service (I'm talking damaging my credit file, not just giving me bad news) from a mortgage adviser with all the accreditation you'd expect up on the wall.

I am currently moving house so used the mortgage adviser attached to my estate agency for getting a AIP to put my offer down on the next house. I'd used the agent's mortgage adviser before but had a different person and they were very good.

A bit of background on me to help you understand:
- I earn £41,000 basic and around £2000 overtime which I don't rely on, I have a solid employment history with permanent jobs without swapping around a lot.
- My deposit will be £12,000 odd moving forwards once my debts are paid off from the house sale
- I currently owe £14,000 odd on credit cards and a second charge mortgage for home improvements, all with proof they will be cleared on house sale as I had an offer and memo of sale from my current property showing £50,000 odd equity being released to me and my partner. The adviser said she'd make the banks aware of this debt not carrying forward.
- I've never missed a payment on any of my commitments and had a "good" score on Equifax. I have a good history of overpayments and clearing debts.
- I have a healthy amount of money leftover at the end of the month (between £600-£1000) after all bills, mortgage payments and lifestyle expenditure

So on my first meeting I took everything (up to date Equifax full report, six months of payslips, mortgage statement, bank statements 3 months) and she was confident she'd be able to get me a mortgage of £180,000 odd... I obviously trusted her and left it with her. She said she'd apply to Halifax, my current mortgage lender, as they like repeat custom and consider a portion of overtime in their calculations.

She was confident of everything and asked if I wanted to go ahead (by email), I said yes. She then got back saying it was a rejection and said the numbers were wrong for them so I had no chance. She then said she was confident another big bank would say yes, so I trusted her and she went ahead and tried... and another rejection.

She then sent me an email saying "I'm sorry but it looks like this is just a no go, perhaps come back in 6 months after clearing some debts and we'll try again". I was gutted and felt lost, considering the sale of the property is urgent due to a change of job to another area.

I checked my Equifax report out of interest and updated it, and my Equifax score had reduced by 50 odd and moved me into "Fair"! The history showed two hard searches on my file.

My partner convinced me to try another adviser and I went with no confidence considering I'd had rejection and a reduction in my credit score because of the previous adviser. However my new adviser was confident instantly, and told me the exact banks that would likely accept me and the ones that wouldn't (her screen showed the two the other person applied for were extremely unlikely to accept!). Long story short she said my maximum mortgage was likely to be £120,000 odd which isn't a problem, and she got me approval from Nationwide within 12 hours with an actual offer to lend the money. My new adviser couldn't believe how bad the previous one was, and has no idea where her figures or confidence in certain banks came from.

I know this is long-winded but I hope it conveys my points, I've never had a way with words!

So to summarise I basically feel cheated by a professional with "years in the trade" who somehow misevaluated my situation so badly that she ended up reducing my credit score and then abandoning me telling me I had no chance. Then within a few days I'd used another adviser who did a brilliant job and swiftly sorted me out.

I feel like I need to complain, in some official capacity, about her conduct as I'm sure I'm not the only one that has had a terrible experience. I'd lose my chartership if I conducted my duties as badly as she did! I don't believe she deserves to be working in the capacity she is, and I believe she needs to be investigated or my situation needs to be investigated so that nobody else goes through what I endured!

I hope somebody can advise on this and assist!

Many thanks and have a good night.

Thrugelmir

You are over valuing your "credit score". To a lender it has no bearing when your mortgage application is processed and underwritten. Lenders each have their own criteria. If you do not meet the hurdle then your application will be rejected.

There's good and bad in every industry. That's life.

Anitification

The bad in my industry are removed from the industry.

My point is that the mortgage adviser had some warped idea that with a £12,000 deposit and £41,000 salary she was going to effortlessly get me a mortgage of £180-200,000. She then proceeded to apply for those amounts and got rejected instantly, then proceeded to tell me I wasn't eligible for any mortgage at this time... I could have believed her and jacked in my new job opportunity and felt like I couldn't move house anymore.

The next adviser said straight away I had no chance of getting £180k, and that the previous gave me bad advice. Before proceeding to get me a new mortgage within 36 hours of the previous adviser telling me I couldn't move house.

Are you suggesting there is no method of reporting bad mortgage advisers?

[Deleted User]

Make a complaint as per the initial disclosure document. If it is upheld it will form part of the fit and proper persons test we have to do every year.

By the sounds of things the broker asked if they could apply, you said yes. Nothing wrong there.

Are you carrying any loans or commitments forward post conpletion?
If you are going to be debt free then 180k sounds reasonable based on that salary (4.5x salary with some going to 5x) . Obviously some more info that meant you couldn't get it.

When I worked estate agency, complaints about service were not viewed in same way as complaints about advice. You didn't move forward with them so no advice was confirmed.
Best you'll get is an apology

Leave a review if you feel strongly enough

Neutrinno

I don't think your going to get far in terms of a compliant due to a couple of mortgage AIP rejections resulting in no financial loss. Your credit score is a made up and pointless number/score that means nothing, so don't worry too much about it.

If you feel that strongly then make a compliant to the estate agent or leave reviews.

Mortgage_Adviser

OP, in your post yo do not specify whether the EA lady had gone ahead and made full blown mortgage applications with those two lenders or were those decisions in principle?


As a rule of a thumb the EA agency brokers are not the ones with the years of experience behind them.


The working conditions in estate agencies are some of the worst so many brokers as soon as they get their experience, would leave the EA field.

ACG

My money is on the broker applied to either/or Santander and Platform? 2 companies known for assuming debt wont be cleared. If so, the broker has done a poor job as it is fairly common knowledge to any experienced broker.

It would be interesting to know if it was just a DIP or the full applications went in. If it was just a DIP then many lenders now do a soft footprint credit checks which has no impact on your score anyway.

Personally, I think you would be best just knocking this on the head, not because I think you are wrong to complain, but I am not sure what you would get at the end of it. You have no quantifiable losses as you still have a mortgage at normal rates. At best it would be a goodwill gesture payment and you have to weigh up whether writing a letter or making the phone call, waiting weeks etc is worthwhile for what may be £50-100.

I am not making excuses, but you may have an inexperienced broker, passing the exams whilst a requirement is of no use to the job at all.

Retired_Mortgage_Adviser

Speaking as an ex-broker myself, I completely empathise with the way you feel. No doubt the first adviser did a very poor job, probably down to inexperience.

From experience, most brokers treat complaints seriously, are required to have a documented complaints process and you would most likely be offered an apology + a token compensation. The broker in question will also be pulled up on this if it goes to a complaint. She sounds like she might be new to the job and to be honest, it is very unlikely that any drastic action would be taken because of your complaint.

But if it makes you feel better and you want to ensure that this shoddy job is noticed, a formal written (email) complaint is probably a reasonable way to go about it.

And/or you can also leave reviews on Trustpilot/Google/etc name-checking the adviser (though I personally am not in favour of name-checking employees on public forums).

Anitification wrote: »

I feel like I need to complain, in some official capacity, about her conduct as I'm sure I'm not the only one that has had a terrible experience. I'd lose my chartership if I conducted my duties as badly as she did! I don't believe she deserves to be working in the capacity she is, and I believe she needs to be investigated or my situation needs to be investigated so that nobody else goes through what I endured!

csgohan4

OP, sadly using EA services is always going to be a hit and miss. A warning for future readers, don't do it.