Pay Mortgage Broker but invalid Offer

swonyx

As I am a contractor I recently embarked on buying a house using a mortgage broker. All went well, and found a place and proceeded to buy the property via shared ownership.

The sale of the property was put on hold and subsequently cancelled after it was found out the the company was not a registered provider of social housing,as such my mortgage offer was invalid as it can only be used against a property whose seller is a register provider of social housing. As the process to become registered would take much longer (6-12 months) the properties was taken off the market. My reservation fee along with mortgage costs and solicitor costs will be refunded however as I used an external broker this won't be. 

Please advise am i still obliged to pay my broker? I understand they have done the work (partially) but the reality is had they or the banks done they jobs correctly they would have known that I couldnt have got the offer and as such would have potentially gone elsewhere or told me a mortgage for this particular place is not possible. Any advice will appreciated.

diggingdude

This doesn't seem like the Brokers fault 

Retired_Mortgage_Adviser

Something like this is unlikely to come to light before conveyancing. I myself would not class it automatically as the broker's fault.

[Deleted User]

Depends. Some lenders have a list of shared ownership providers that the broker has to choose from.  If the lender wasn't on this list then what option was chosen??
If the lender doesn't have any option to choose a housing association then the broker wouldn't know until the legal work was underway

So no obvious answer. Could be unfortunate, could be broker error

swonyx

Is it not the brokers responsibility to dothe necessary due diligence?

I dont really begrudge the broker, but what exactly am I paying a broker for if not a "valid" mortgage offer?