Lost mortgage through broker

Sterich

First time poster hoping someone can help or offer some advice on my family's issue.

We decided that we wanted to move house back in the summer so put ours up for sale and began looking. Due to the market, we were outbid on a lot of properties but managed to sell ours. We eventually found one and had an offer accepted. The couple that bought our property were pregnant, so we didn't want to hold up our sale as we knew how keen they were to get in and get settled. 

We used LandC to broker a mortgage deal for our purchase and uploaded the documents that they asked for. We completed on our sale on the 30th of September and moved in with my wife's mother until our purchase could be completed. Not ideal as we have 2 young children, but we thought this was a means to an end to secure our dream family home. 

On the 6th of October we noticed £999 had been refunded back into our bank account from the lender so called the broker who was unaware why this had happened. The then got back to us that evening and said it was an automatic system thing that if they don't receive the documents in 30 days, the application is closed down and any fees are refunded. We were never made aware of a 30-day window, nor were we prompted when the deadline was approaching. However, we still uploaded the documents ahead of time. 

The broker spoke with the lender to see if they would still honour the original agreement but were told no and if we wanted a mortgage it would need to be on the new, much higher rates, something we simply can't afford. I have lodged a formal complaint with L and C which can take up to 56 days to investigate. I have also tried contacting the lender but seem to be hitting a brick wall and have been told there isn't even anything on their systems to show we had an application.

We really don't know where to turn or what to do now as we are effectively without a mortgage deal and therefore a home to move into. We did everything we could to secure the mortgage but feel we have been hugely let down, by a 3rd party that don't seem interested in helping us. 

Is there any help or advice you can give us as this has left our family devastated. 

[Deleted User]

There seems to be huge differences in length of time here with timescales of you completing, moving out etc. When did you apply for the mortgage? It seems strange that nothing was checked on by either you or the broker within 30 days.

What's the difference in interest rate?

DullGreyGuy

Presumably you uploaded the documents to the broker? Get any confirmation of receipt? Any reason for not double checking with them that they had what they needed and it was all ok?

Whats the broker saying about why they didnt act on the uploaded docs?

Sterich

Deleted_User said:

There seems to be huge differences in length of time here with timescales of you completing, moving out etc. When did you apply for the mortgage? It seems strange that nothing was checked on by either you or the broker within 30 days.

What's the difference in interest rate?

We applied at the back end of August. The product fee was paid on the 1st September and that's when the mortgage was processed.

The difference is approx. 3%.

[Deleted User]

DullGreyGuy said:

Presumably you uploaded the documents to the broker? Get any confirmation of receipt? Any reason for not double checking with them that they had what they needed and it was all ok?

Whats the broker saying about why they didnt act on the uploaded docs?

Following on from what @DullGreyGuy has said as well, if this is a broker error then I believe they have to restore you to the financial place you would have been without that error .e.g. if it was a 3% fixed for 2 years and now you can only get a 5.5% fix for 2 years then they have to pay the interest difference. However, I'm not sure if this applies as you were only at application stage so no guarantee it would have gone to offer?

[Deleted User]

Sterich said:

Deleted_User said:

There seems to be huge differences in length of time here with timescales of you completing, moving out etc. When did you apply for the mortgage? It seems strange that nothing was checked on by either you or the broker within 30 days.

What's the difference in interest rate?

We applied at the back end of August. The product fee was paid on the 1st September and that's when the mortgage was processed.

The difference is approx. 3%.

Is it a broker error that the documents weren't uploaded their side? Regardless 6 weeks is a long time to just leave the application as is without checking (from both you and broker). Especially when rates are shooting up everywhere.

Sterich

DullGreyGuy said:

Presumably you uploaded the documents to the broker? Get any confirmation of receipt? Any reason for not double checking with them that they had what they needed and it was all ok?

Whats the broker saying about why they didnt act on the uploaded docs?

Yeah they were uploaded to the broker and I have documented proof of this. The last message I received was on the 29th September saying all documents had been procesed to the lender.

Tey aren't really saying much except the lender didn't get them within 30 days which if was true why did I get a message sying they were being processed. Something seriously doesn't add up.

The broker isn't really taking responsibility and only seem interested in searching the market for a new deal for me. I have lodged a formal complaint however this can take weeks to investigate.

[Deleted User]

Sterich said:

DullGreyGuy said:

Presumably you uploaded the documents to the broker? Get any confirmation of receipt? Any reason for not double checking with them that they had what they needed and it was all ok?

Whats the broker saying about why they didnt act on the uploaded docs?

Yeah they were uploaded to the broker and I have documented proof of this. The last message I received was on the 29th September saying all documents had been procesed to the lender.

Tey aren't really saying much except the lender didn't get them within 30 days which if was true why did I get a message sying they were being processed. Something seriously doesn't add up.

The broker isn't really taking responsibility and only seem interested in searching the market for a new deal for me. I have lodged a formal complaint however this can take weeks to investigate.

I think that's probably all you can do at this stage is to escalate it through formal complaints procedure. If you popped this on the Mortgage Board one of the very knowledgable mortgage advisors over there may be able to let you know what the outcome might be on this (@K_S, @ACG)

DullGreyGuy

Deleted_User said:

DullGreyGuy said:

Presumably you uploaded the documents to the broker? Get any confirmation of receipt? Any reason for not double checking with them that they had what they needed and it was all ok?

Whats the broker saying about why they didnt act on the uploaded docs?

Following on from what @DullGreyGuy has said as well, if this is a broker error then I believe they have to restore you to the financial place you would have been without that error .e.g. if it was a 3% fixed for 2 years and now you can only get a 5.5% fix for 2 years then they have to pay the interest difference. However, I'm not sure if this applies as you were only at application stage so no guarantee it would have gone to offer?

I'd say "one for the courts to decide" but really it would be the FOS.

Civil law works on the "balance of probability" rather than the higher hurdle of "beyond reasonable doubt" of criminal law. If you take your numbers, if the OP is accepted on the 5.5% fixed with the same lender it is probable they'd have been accepted for the 3%... its not like they have switched from a prime to sub-prime product with softer acceptance criteria just the markets have moved and rates have gone up in response. 

Sterich

Deleted_User said:

Sterich said:

Deleted_User said:

There seems to be huge differences in length of time here with timescales of you completing, moving out etc. When did you apply for the mortgage? It seems strange that nothing was checked on by either you or the broker within 30 days.

What's the difference in interest rate?

We applied at the back end of August. The product fee was paid on the 1st September and that's when the mortgage was processed.

The difference is approx. 3%.

Is it a broker error that the documents weren't uploaded their side? Regardless 6 weeks is a long time to just leave the application as is without checking (from both you and broker). Especially when rates are shooting up everywhere.

I agree it did seem a long time looking back but I thought with the market being the way it was it was in hand as things were just taking longer than normal.

TheJP

Sterich said:

DullGreyGuy said:

Presumably you uploaded the documents to the broker? Get any confirmation of receipt? Any reason for not double checking with them that they had what they needed and it was all ok?

Whats the broker saying about why they didnt act on the uploaded docs?

Yeah they were uploaded to the broker and I have documented proof of this. The last message I received was on the 29th September saying all documents had been procesed to the lender.

Tey aren't really saying much except the lender didn't get them within 30 days which if was true why did I get a message sying they were being processed. Something seriously doesn't add up.

The broker isn't really taking responsibility and only seem interested in searching the market for a new deal for me. I have lodged a formal complaint however this can take weeks to investigate.

From application to you submitting the documents to the broker was it over 30 days? As others say 6 weeks is a long time for your broker to not do anything with the documents unless you didn't submit them within the timeframe that appears you didn't know existed.