Feel Ripped Off by Mortgage

Mark_Lion

I think I signed the contracts in my solicitors office.
I will take MWT and Deleted_User's advice and agree, I can not make a complaint.
When I was emailing the Catalyst lady asking if I could remotgage my Nationwide and staircase Catalyst, the answers she gave were confusing to me. I did not understand her answers.

When I first got the Catalyst letter typed above, the numbered paragraphs giving examples about them 25% of £200,000 was totally confusing to me. I did not read past the first page, total confusion.
I thought to myself, yes Catalyst owns the amount they paid on my house, reducing as I pay it off.
Same as Nationwide own their share of my house until I pay them off.

I was embarressed to admit it before, but I am partly dyslexic. I can read something wrongly and not realise until it is shown to me.
I should have gotten someone to check, but I wasn't thinking about my dyslexic, I thought I was getting what I asked for.

I just can not understand how it is that I asked for the Low Interest NHS Mortgage, but am given Shared Ownership.

I am responsible for the situation I am in, so now I look for best soloution.
My house had a lower RICS valuation than I expected. Good for my situation now. I and the mortgage broker was expecting £260 - £270,000. RICS valuation is £240,000.
I thought that might allow me to buy back a little bit more than 20% from Catalyst, as has been discussed with my MB.
The current MB last email, he said I could buy back the 20% at a lower cost of £96,000.
Previously, with the £270,000 expected valuation, he said I can get buy back 20% for £103,000.
These include remortgage of Nationwide.

Also in the latest email, the MB asks me if I am willing to pay the Nationwide Early Repayment charge of £3368. Describing it as a significant cost to leaving Nationwide due to the 10 year fixed rate option that I have already. 
Previously, he said it was worthwhile to pay it, because I would save more in the long run.

I think it is best to reduce Catalyst ownership %, but given my history in real estate, I am not sure what is best option. 

MWT

Mark_Lion said:

I was embarressed to admit it before, but I am partly dyslexic. I can read something wrongly and not realise until it is shown to me.
I should have gotten someone to check, but I wasn't thinking about my dyslexic, I thought I was getting what I asked for.

I just can not understand how it is that I asked for the Low Interest NHS Mortgage, but am given Shared Ownership.

Don't be embarrassed, but do let your current broker know, so they will not assume that providing everything in writing is sufficient to ensure you have understood what they are proposing.

Can only guess about exactly what happened back then, but it is highly likely that even with a low interest NHS mortgage, you did not pass the affordability test for the house you wanted, but it was possible with the equity loan...

Mark_Lion said:

Also in the latest email, the MB asks me if I am willing to pay the Nationwide Early Repayment charge of £3368. Describing it as a significant cost to leaving Nationwide due to the 10 year fixed rate option that I have already. 
Previously, he said it was worthwhile to pay it, because I would save more in the long run.

Your broker has more information than we do so it is hard to comment, but how much longer is left on the 10 year fix at this point?

Mark_Lion

The 10 year fix has 8 years remaining.

When I saw the mortgage broker about getting mortgage, I had not chosen any house to buy. I went to him to see if I would get approved, and how much was available to me to spend.
When I got told the amount I had to buy with, then I looked for houses.

To start at the beginning, a patient at my work asked me why don't I buy a house. She said her son in law is a mortgage broker. I thought I was too old for a bank to lend to me, I am from New Zealand, and a bank worker in NZ laughed at me when I asked if I could get a mortgage.
So I agreed to see her son in law, not expecting to be approved. He told me I could get £85,000 mortgage.
I contacted real estate sellers, looked at flats and very small houses. The real estate told me about the NHS mortgage and where to find it.
I went on Catalyst web site. They had a list of approved MB's. I contacted one, made appointment to meet him. I told him I only wanted him to arrange the NHS mortgage because I had the son in law MB.
The Catalyst MB said he would only do it, if he did both Catalyst and Nationwide mortgage, so I reluctantly agreed.
He then told me I could get £185,000 mortgage. This made a huge difference to the house I could buy.
I asked the patient at work, why did her son in law not tell me about the other mortgage.
She asked him and he said he was going to tell me, but hadn't yet.

I now know I had a good opportunity to let the son in law MB check over my mortgage, but we lost contact, and I thought I had been given what I asked for and did not suspect anything was changed.   

MWT

Thanks for the more detailed time-line..

Mark_Lion said:

I now know I had a good opportunity to let the son in law MB check over my mortgage, but we lost contact, and I thought I had been given what I asked for and did not suspect anything was changed.   

This is probably the key moment, as talking to your first broker would have let him explain what was different and of course the key reason to expect that something fundamental had changed was the extra £100,000 on the price of the property you could consider, which could never have come just from a lower interest rate. You did obviously realise that there was a difference from the product the first broker offered to you, which is why you mentioned it to the first brokers mother...

Sadly nothing leaps out as a good foundation for a complaint though as the information you were being given does seem to be comprehensive and covered the key aspects of the product you were being sold, it is just that with your particular needs in terms of information delivery, it wasn't in a form that let you properly understand what had changed from the product the first broker offered to you.

Mark_Lion

Some of that extra £100,000 was my own money. I had a little over £20,000, but he put my deposit as £17500 because I said I needed to buy furniture.
So, I think Catalyst money was £72500. Sorry, should have clarified.

He should have just said how much I could have got with the NHS mortgage.
If it was £20,000, he should have said, £85,000 Nationwide, £17500 own and £20,000 NHS.
Then asked did I want more? I can if I get Equity, and told me the conditions of Equity. 

Mark_Lion

My mortgage broker has applied to Santander to remortgage.
If it is accepted, I will own 80% of my house.
I might try to buy more share later, or sell when the mortgage is paid.

My question is...how does Catalyst know how much share I am buying from them?
I have not had contact with Catalyst since they sent me the form for RICS valuation.
My mortgage broker said Santander has their own conveyancer, so I agreed to let them do it.
Remortgage was submitted on 6 July. Still waiting for an answer from Santander.
MB put on the application form, it was to start from 1st August. Nearly at that date and no approval yet.

I asked my MB how does Catalyst know how much % I will staircase.
His reply was..."I would expect that either you or the solicitor will confirm to Catalyst the amount of the property you are buying. It might be worth checking with your conveyancer about this."

The conveyancer will be Santander's which I have no contact with yet.
So I can only think to send email to the last person from Catalyst I had contact with.
Experience with Catalyst has been, my emails don't always get replied back to me, or take a few emails until I get a response.

This is email from my MB about remortgage with Santander...

My suggestion would be to purchase up to 80% of the property which then makes the numbers much easier on your percentage rather than owning 76.6%. This would require total borrowing of £104,460 which is made up of £48,000 current Nationwide mortgage and £56,640 to buy up to 80%.

 

I would suggest a 2 year fixed rate makes the most sense in your situation especially if you are thinking you might want to buy some more of the property in the near future. I have attached a Santander illustration to this email to show the exact costs of the mortgage.

 

I’ve calculated that by switching with this mortgage you would be saving £1,500 interest across the 2 years on the existing £48,000 mortgage. You will also be saving approximately £2,000 across the 2 years by paying a lower figure to Catalyst each month. These savings are pretty much equal to the ERC you will have to pay by leaving Nationwide. However, this option does mean that even if you don’t end up increasing your share again in the future you will own a larger proportion of the property at the end of the mortgage term than you would have without this remortgage.

 

Santander have confirmed that you don’t actually need to instruct your own solicitors and instead you can use their own option which should reduce the amount you would have to pay.

 

If you are happy for me to proceed all I will need to complete the mortgage application is a copy of a bank statement so I know which bank account you would like to pay the new mortgage from and a copy of your April payslip. I think we just need to get this moving for you to start the process and take advantage of the RICs valuation you already have received. There will be no cost to you until much closer to completion when there may be specific things solicitors require so if the lender is not happy with the mortgage then you won’t have any charges.

Mark_Lion

Can anyone advize on how to get co-operation from Catalyst?
Any other advice on what to do to get remortgage approved?

To get remortgage, had to get RICS house valuation, it expires on 12 August.
Mortgage broker did not reply to my emails for 3 weeks after I told him I got valuation.

Applied for remortgage with Santander on 2 July.

Last Wednesday, my mortgage broker emailed me saying Santander asked for a Memo of Sale.

MB suggested I ask Catalyst to send me the Memo of Sale.

To be fair, Santander asked for a MoS earlier in July. I repllied to mb, I did not know what that was, so emailed mb with Catalyst's Memorandum of Intent to Repay Equity Loan form and the RICS house valuation.

MB replied saying thank you for the attachments and he had sent them to Santander.

So last Wednesday, Santander email my mb, with more questions and said the attached forms were not the correct items. MB said to ask Catalyst for the MoS.

I immediately email Catalyst requesting a MoS and asking the questions from Santander. No reply from Catalyst, so I repeated the email to Catalyst Thursday and twice yesterday (Friday). 

I know emailing Catalyst constantly could anger them, but experience has shown, emailing them once results in no answer at all.

Being close to the end of the valuation time, I emailed RICS Crest Surveyors to ask them the procedure of getting extension. 

They reply straight away, I can get 3 month extension for £150 (desktop valuation). They say to check with Catalyst if the extension will be acceptable to Catalyst.

I include that question in my email to Catalyst.

I will pay Crest surveyors to do the desktop valuation this week and continue to email Catalyst daily. 
Also will email my mb to ask if we should apply at a different bank. Might be easier than Santander.
Been thinking, maybe just give up and remain on my 56.4%, then sell when mortgage is paid in 2034 and buy a tiny flat. Would hate that situation, but fed up.

MWT

I didn't want you to think that you were being ignored.

I don't have a lot to add that is helpful though, other than don't just rely on emailing... If you are not getting a prompt response you may need to add a few phone calls as well, but I do understand that can be difficult to do during working hours.

It has taken you a lot of effort to get this far so it would be a great shame to give up now if this is what you really want.

Mark_Lion

Just an update...

I have sent 10 emails since 4th August. Only on weekdays.
Asking for the information Santander wants. No reply.

I am off work today, so I phoned Catalyst.
A lady answers, tries to put me through to the ownership department.
No answer, so she came back on the line said there is only 2 staff in that department today, so she will make then aware of my email.
She confirms I am emailing to the correct address.
I thank her for helping.

I see Catalyst has a Facebook page.
Will be writing a few words on there if I get nothing from Catalyst this week.

Also checked out a web page for Housing Ombudsman.
Will make a complaint if Catalyst don't respond next week.

I am currently getting a desktop re-valuation from RICS Crest Surveyors.
Now hoping the valuation is the same as 3 months ago.

p3ncilsharpener

Mark_Lion said:

Just an update...

I have sent 10 emails since 4th August. Only on weekdays.
Asking for the information Santander wants. No reply.

I am off work today, so I phoned Catalyst.
A lady answers, tries to put me through to the ownership department.
No answer, so she came back on the line said there is only 2 staff in that department today, so she will make then aware of my email.
She confirms I am emailing to the correct address.
I thank her for helping.

I see Catalyst has a Facebook page.
Will be writing a few words on there if I get nothing from Catalyst this week.

Also checked out a web page for Housing Ombudsman.
Will make a complaint if Catalyst don't respond next week.

I am currently getting a desktop re-valuation from RICS Crest Surveyors.
Now hoping the valuation is the same as 3 months ago.

The Housing Ombudsman is for tenants.