Developer insisting we use their mortgage brokers?

sc120826

Me and my partner are looking to buy a new-build property using the deposit unlock scheme. My credit isn't the best and we don't have a big deposit at the moment so thought we wouldn't have any options but a friend put me in contact with a mortgage broker they used before and he was fantastic. He explained everything to us clearly, he explained what would hold us back at the present time based on my credit history and introduced us to 'Deposit Unlock' and that now there was a lender called Bluestone offering this for clients like myself as they can ignore certain adverse credit. 

He explained the scheme to us and got us a decision in principle for our maximum budget if we wanted to go that high. We found a property we really like, wanted to reserve it and the developer said we need to speak to their advisors to get approved. Our broker said this isn't out of place the developer just want to check things as well. Now they're saying if we want to use this scheme we have to use their broker because the developer offers an insurance of sorts to the lender. Which makes no sense because if the insurance goes to the lender then it's nothing to do with the broker.

Basically the developers brokers have got us the same decision in principle we already had, they don't respond to emails and they haven't even gone through any details of the mortgage with us whereas as soon as we found the property we liked our broker got us a mortgage illustration and explained it all step by step and answered any questions we have. 

Does anyone know if the developer can actually force this? Our broker has been fantastic and he's self-employed so he's already put in a lot of work so far as he will get paid commission on completion if we go with him which he absolutely deserves whereas the thought of the developers brokers getting that kind of annoys me given how poor their service has been in comparison but then we do really like the house.

Ultimately our broker has said to us if we really like the house and they do insist we have to use their advisors then we should go for it and ideally if they can give us something on paper saying we couldn't use him and had to use the developers brokers he will take it up with the developer separately as he's done lots of transactions in the past on new builds where the developer has contributed to the transaction by way of financial incentives without issue.

Anyone been in a similar situation?

JamieJ89

I'm buying a new build, I had to go through some financials with their recommended broker to ensure I could afford the house, but advised that I was using my own broker and was absolutely fine. Who is the developer?

They cant force you to use their own broker, so push back on it. They obviously get a commission kick back from recommending you to their broker, but it's not imperative.

sc120826

Bellway. Our broker said it's common for them to try this because obviously he gets a commission from the lender and they will as well if they do the mortgage so they want it for themselves. We did push back and our broker rang them because he said usually when you ask them for it in writing they'll back down because they know they can't legally force it but this time they didn't back down. The other annoying this is the rates are changing and so our broker wants to get it all sorted before then but the developers brokers seem to just work a 9-5 so aren't back until Tuesday so even if we do have to use them it probably won't get done in time.

GDB2222

sc120826 said:

Bellway. Our broker said it's common for them to try this because obviously he gets a commission from the lender and they will as well if they do the mortgage so they want it for themselves. We did push back and our broker rang them because he said usually when you ask them for it in writing they'll back down because they know they can't legally force it but this time they didn't back down. The other annoying this is the rates are changing and so our broker wants to get it all sorted before then but the developers brokers seem to just work a 9-5 so aren't back until Tuesday so even if we do have to use them it probably won't get done in time.

According to a press release from January, Bluestone interest rates start at 7.94%. You are saying that they are going up still higher?! 

chanz4

remind them of the FCA rules

chanz4

sc120826 said:

Bellway. Our broker said it's common for them to try this because obviously he gets a commission from the lender and they will as well if they do the mortgage so they want it for themselves. We did push back and our broker rang them because he said usually when you ask them for it in writing they'll back down because they know they can't legally force it but this time they didn't back down. The other annoying this is the rates are changing and so our broker wants to get it all sorted before then but the developers brokers seem to just work a 9-5 so aren't back until Tuesday so even if we do have to use them it probably won't get done in time.

ask their broker for the fca complaints person