Lost mortgage through broker

Sterich

Popping this in here following advice on another board. Hope that's allowed. 

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. 

Nailer99

This is a horrible situation. If I were you I’d put your equity in a high interest bank account, rent for a year and buy next year when house prices have corrected to a value compatible with current interest rates. 

You could end up a winner of this situation after all if house prices drop a lot. 

K_S

@sterich Based on the limited information in your post, and assuming a full application was indeed submitted by L&C on your behalf (which looks to be the case if the lender took the £999 product fee), it looks like the lender raised a query/documentation-request which fell through the cracks at L&C, stayed un-responded to for a while and exceeded the maximum turnaround time specified by the lender (usually 2 weeks to a month depending on the lender).

If that is indeed what happened, then it looks like it's L&C fault. Otoh if they did send you a follow-up query asking for xyz documentation/information and it got missed at your end, then that's less black and white.

You've done the right thing by submitting a formal complaint. While they deal with that, if you intend to continue with the home move, it would be prudent to look at how to proceed.

Sterich said:

Popping this in here following advice on another board. Hope that's allowed. 

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. 

ACG

You say you uploaded the documents ahead of time, but how many days ahead? 
If you provided them on the 29th day which was a Saturday for example, its unlikely to get dealt with until the Monday which would be the 31st day...

I did not know there was a 30 day time limit in fairness with any lender, but its fair to say there must be A cut off point. You cant just have an application sitting there indefinitely. 

I think the key question is how long you sat on it for. If you sat on it for 10 days and they did nothing for the other 20, its on them. 
If you sat on it for 29 days and they did nothing in 1 day, I would say thats on you. But thats just my opinion, its not to say I am right or wrong. 

kingstreet

This is on HBR&S as well so you may want to continue over there as there are more replies.

Sterich

K_S said:

@sterich Based on the limited information in your post, and assuming a full application was indeed submitted by L&C on your behalf (which looks to be the case if the lender took the £999 product fee), it looks like the lender raised a query/documentation-request which fell through the cracks at L&C, stayed un-responded to for a while and exceeded the maximum turnaround time specified by the lender (usually 2 weeks to a month depending on the lender).

If that is indeed what happened, then it looks like it's L&C fault. Otoh if they did send you a follow-up query asking for xyz documentation/information and it got missed at your end, then that's less black and white.

You've done the right thing by submitting a formal complaint. While they deal with that, if you intend to continue with the home move, it would be prudent to look at how to proceed.

Thanks for the reply. We weren't asked to supply any further documentation and actually received a message on the 29th September saying all documents had been given to the lender to be processed. 

We'd love to proceed with a new deal but when rates have jumped up around 3% it really does make it unaffordable for us.

Sterich

ACG said:

You say you uploaded the documents ahead of time, but how many days ahead? 
If you provided them on the 29th day which was a Saturday for example, its unlikely to get dealt with until the Monday which would be the 31st day...

I did not know there was a 30 day time limit in fairness with any lender, but its fair to say there must be A cut off point. You cant just have an application sitting there indefinitely. 

I think the key question is how long you sat on it for. If you sat on it for 10 days and they did nothing for the other 20, its on them. 
If you sat on it for 29 days and they did nothing in 1 day, I would say thats on you. But thats just my opinion, its not to say I am right or wrong. 

We were never told about a 30 day window and even if we were getting close to it (we weren't) then you'd think the broker would have given us a nudge since it's in their interest for the deal to go through. 

We uploaded them in plenty of time which is the sickening part as we know we did everything on our part but we're now the ones that are suffering.

ACG

Sterich said:

ACG said:

You say you uploaded the documents ahead of time, but how many days ahead? 
If you provided them on the 29th day which was a Saturday for example, its unlikely to get dealt with until the Monday which would be the 31st day...

I did not know there was a 30 day time limit in fairness with any lender, but its fair to say there must be A cut off point. You cant just have an application sitting there indefinitely. 

I think the key question is how long you sat on it for. If you sat on it for 10 days and they did nothing for the other 20, its on them. 
If you sat on it for 29 days and they did nothing in 1 day, I would say thats on you. But thats just my opinion, its not to say I am right or wrong. 

We were never told about a 30 day window and even if we were getting close to it (we weren't) then you'd think the broker would have given us a nudge since it's in their interest for the deal to go through. 

We uploaded them in plenty of time which is the sickening part as we know we did everything on our part but we're now the ones that are suffering.

If the broker was not aware, then they cant tell you... Thats still not your fault, but if you were my customer for me it would depend on the days. If you have provided me less than one working day, I would reject the complaint.
If you had given me 2 working days, I would probably cover half the difference. 
Anything more than 2 working days and I would take the hit. 

Appreciate what you are saying though re not knowing there was a cut off point, but at the same time its a mortgage application. You cant just sit on things for a month. My view has always been I tell customers (over the phone) what documents I need and follow up in an email if agreed. I do not then chase customers, I have told them what is needed so it is down to them. In 9 years it has always worked. But this has made me think maybe we need to change our email so that it says documents must be received within x number of days. 

This is why I come on this site in part, it helps me to learn about problems others have had which might help my business prevent the same problems arising. 

Let us know how you get on, but I think you will find it will be a case of taking out a deal now and they will end up covering the difference - assuming you gave them at least 2-3 working days to deal with the documents. 

Sterich

ACG said:

If the broker was not aware, then they cant tell you... Thats still not your fault, but if you were my customer for me it would depend on the days. If you have provided me less than one working day, I would reject the complaint.
If you had given me 2 working days, I would probably cover half the difference. 
Anything more than 2 working days and I would take the hit. 

Appreciate what you are saying though re not knowing there was a cut off point, but at the same time its a mortgage application. You cant just sit on things for a month. My view has always been I tell customers (over the phone) what documents I need and follow up in an email if agreed. I do not then chase customers, I have told them what is needed so it is down to them. In 9 years it has always worked. But this has made me think maybe we need to change our email so that it says documents must be received within x number of days. 

This is why I come on this site in part, it helps me to learn about problems others have had which might help my business prevent the same problems arising. 

Let us know how you get on, but I think you will find it will be a case of taking out a deal now and they will end up covering the difference - assuming you gave them at least 2-3 working days to deal with the documents. 

No problem, glad I could help

We're talking weeks, not days in terms of how long we gave them to deal with the documents. That's the frustration part.

Just out of interest, how would I get them to cover the difference? They asked if I wanted them to check the market again, but I said why would I trust them again since they monumentally messed up the first time.

ACG

You would take out a mortgage now at the best rate possible and show that this new mortgage will cost you £x per month more x however many months and ask them for that amount. 

It makes it less likely they will find a reason to try and not pay if you go through them as they cant then disagree with the advice/recommendation, but you are not required to go through them. But it would be best to go through a broker as they can then back you up should you need it with a list of products available on the day of application. 

Whether or not you will get the difference I have no idea, but brokers have to put you in the position you would have been had the mistake not been made. To me, thats how I would offer to put it right. They may think of a different way, they may not even agree they made a mistake. But your version of events makes it seem like they wont have a leg to stand on and will try to put it right.