Mismanagement of remortgage

woodpecker

I'm looking for feedback from anyone who has experienced similar problems to us.
We agreed a mortgage application with our broker in early October 2007. Our existing mortgage deal was due to run out by beginning of Jan 08, so we thought this was plenty of time.
However as of today we have still not completed!
I have lodged a complaint with the broker and new lender, for them to investigate where the delay occurred.
The brokers say they submitted our application immediately; the lender says they did not receive until November 19!
I'm happy to let this investigation run its course at the moment - as long as we get a refund, obviously, because this month's payment has cost us over £300 more than last month because we are no longer on our original tracker deal.
It gets worse.
We bought with a key worker loan, so we have a second charge on the property. When we applied to remortgage, it became apparent we needed a Deed of Postponement in order to proceed.
The solicitor handling the remortgage on behalf of our new lender offered to provide this service for a fee - we accepted.
The second charge is held by a housing association and they agreed the remortgage & signed the Deed. When we were ready to complete, the solicitors assumed (wrongly) that the actual redemption figure did not need to match that which had been agreed with the HA, and tried to complete using a higher figure.
Naturally the HA refused, the redemption cash had to be sent back to the lender and the correct amount applied for. So far this has taken an extra week - we won't complete until next week at the earliest.
I have written a letter of complaint to the solicitors saying they have been negligent & should have checked with the HA what the terms would be. I have also asked for compensation for losses incurred due to this delay.

Sorry for the very long post but as you can see it is a complicated story! I wondered if anyone else had experienced similar problems, either with their lender, broker or solicitor?

StaceyAKelly

cant say i have i'm afraid although I dont think its unreasonable that you wish to recoup the addidional expenses!

If you do not receive a response from the Solicitor within 21 days, write to them advising that if you dont receive a response within 7 days you will report the matter to the Law Society. Also do phone the law society because they will tell you whether or not you are actually entitled to the money back!

Hope this helps x

HelpWhereIcan

To me, some of this depends on the timescales discussed with your broker. October should have been enough to get a remortgage in place by the start of Jan but would still have been tight.

I normally tell my clients to allow 8 weeks and anything quicker than that is possible but not guaranteed.

I would have to guess that I would have told you to allow more as deeds of postponement can seriously delay things (currently stand at 2 months for one of my client's solicitors to get one from GE money) but you will have to recall what timescales were discussed.

As far as when the application was submitted I would have to add that some lenders have horrendous service issues and I have known a lender to take 2 weeks to put an application on their system so it could be six of one and half a dozen of the other when looking at whether the broker or lender is 'to blame'.

Who is the lender? Someone may be able to comment on their service in Oct/Nov. When was the offer produced? It may be that the timescale involved was not as horrendous as it may seem.

It sounds like a complaint to all 3 is worthwhile, but I would bear in mind that many advisers would warn you to account for at least one month on SVR when you are trying to remortgage a scheme like yours in 12 weeks. Should not happen as you should have had enough time, but your case shows why it is important to start looking for a new deal 3 months (as you did) before the end of your current one.

As an aside, I would say that the broker's biggest sin was lack of communication. I will show this thread to my admin staff who !!!!! and moan that I insist that every customer is called at least once a week with an update until their mortgage completes.

woodpecker

We spoke to broker on 5 October - is this not allowing enough time to complete by 1st Jan?!!

He said nothing at all about the Deed issue at the time - no mention that having a second charge would cause any particular delays.
Indeed, the HA turned our Deed signing round within a week - the delay there comes purely from the solicitors as I've explained above.

The new lender is Woolwich - understand there are delays because of their takeover by Barclays, but i agree broker's communication is the main issue.

My concern is the 6 week discrepancy between the dates given to us - if Woolwich had our application sitting around for that length of time then I think they owe us something! We didn't get an offer from them until 3 Jan.

Also, now this is being investigated, the complaints dept say the broker claims to have been to see us on 9th Nov (not true) and that at that stage he did advise it would be tight to get completion before expiry of our existing deal.
Since this is a lie (and I've told them so) it leads me to think he's trying to cover his back re. compensation.

HelpWhereIcan

woodpecker wrote: »

We spoke to broker on 5 October - is this not allowing enough time to complete by 1st Jan?!!.

As I said before, it should have been but there were some issues with your remortgage that made it more likley than some to run over. Assuming that the broker had all the paperwork he needed from you on 5/10 and you sent everything he asked for afterwards in good time, there is no reason why it should take till the 19th Nov for the lender to get the application.

woodpecker wrote: »

He said nothing at all about the Deed issue at the time - no mention that having a second charge would cause any particular delays.

Again more that it could cause delays than will.

woodpecker wrote: »

Indeed, the HA turned our Deed signing round within a week .

Which is a reasonable timescale.

woodpecker wrote: »

the delay there comes purely from the solicitors as I've explained above.

As long as you are able to prove you sent all the documentation they needed back by return you should have a case.

Solicitors always complain to us that the customer has taken 2 or 3 weeks to return the signed deed etc and then expected them to turn the rest around in 48 hours.

How long did your current lender take to provide an up to date settlement figure?

woodpecker wrote: »

The new lender is Woolwich - understand there are delays because of their takeover by Barclays, but i agree broker's communication is the main issue..

Woolwich can be horrendous especially if you are looking to do something slightly out of the ordinary, do not qualify for fast track, change the amount or deal applied for, have to submit any further documentation or need a higher than 4x income multiple.

Their general service is horrendous (unless your application is submitted online and qualifies for the fast track process which can be lightning). I use Woolwich a fair bit but always warn people about their service.

woodpecker wrote: »

My concern is the 6 week discrepancy between the dates given to us - if Woolwich had our application sitting around for that length of time then I think they owe us something! We didn't get an offer from them until 3 Jan..

Easy way to check. If the application was submitted online using Woolwich's MAX system the broker will be able to show you the Agreement in principle certficate and copy of the online application both of which have the date they were submitted printed on them.

If he submitted a paper based application the guy is a numpty for even trying the Woolwich without warning it would take ages.

woodpecker wrote: »

Also, now this is being investigated, the complaints dept say the broker claims to have been to see us on 9th Nov (not true) and that at that stage he did advise it would be tight to get completion before expiry of our existing deal.
Since this is a lie (and I've told them so) it leads me to think he's trying to cover his back re. compensation.

What date does your illustration have on it? - the quote he gave you for the mortgage. This is your evidence that you saw him in October. What date does the application have next to your signature?

If you don't have copies ask for them. The paper trail should be good enough to either defend the complaint or expose the cover up.

Good Luck

payless

Not much to add to HWIC full reply...

brave broker using that lender at end of last year especially for a non-standard case....

Is it possible he had to wait to get advise on how to submit case ?

Did you get a quote in Oct.. was it the product they completed on as had a few rate changes around then..

I have emails from woolwich confirming 2 week backlog on returning calls in Nov

Leon_W

The Woolwich were taking nearly two weeks just to open the post at that time so if it was a paper based application it generally does take a long time just to get it logged on to their systems.

On checking a broker only chat forum, Woolwich service levels only came to our attention mid October, so looking at it from your brokers point of view, he would have been unaware of any service issues at that time.



Just one other thing. Were you taking the "free" remortgage legals ? I think you will find if that is the case, the solicitors don't have to answer to you at all and can take as long as they like. They act solely for the lender.

Regards

woodpecker

Quote: Solicitors always complain to us that the customer has taken 2 or 3 weeks to return the signed deed etc and then expected them to turn the rest around in 48 hours.

We couldn't return the mortgage deed until we got a copy of our offer, which as I said didn't arrive until January. Also the HA needed to see a copy of the offer before they would sign the DOP.

Quote:How long did your current lender take to provide an up to date settlement figure?

Our redemption statement says "requested 18 Jan for redemption on 18 Jan" so that doesn't seem to have been a problem.


Quote:Woolwich can be horrendous especially if you are looking to do something slightly out of the ordinary, do not qualify for fast track, change the amount or deal applied for, have to submit any further documentation or need a higher than 4x income multiple.

We did have a delay when their credit check raised a problem, but our broker's website said "credit issue raised 26 Nov, credit issue resolved 6 Dec" so even that doesn't seem to have added a massive amount of time.
Problem is we then waited from that date until Jan to get our offer, which I guess is where their bureaucracy comes in...

Quote:What date does your illustration have on it? - the quote he gave you for the mortgage. This is your evidence that you saw him in October. What date does the application have next to your signature?

All the paperwork is dated 5 October. There was nothing outstanding to be sent to them until the credit issue I mentioned above.

W

woodpecker

What does free remortgage legals mean? We paid them for the DOP and their terms and conditions state they are working for us and the lender.

woodpecker

Sorry for the confused posts above - still figuring out how to quote from previous posts!

Just to clarify, the deal we applied for didn't change in any way, until the problem with DOP and redemption figure not matching.
Should I now expect a massive wait for Woolwich to reissue the correct funds? The solicitors said it shouldn't be, as the revised figure is actually less than Woolwich initially released for us, but having read you replies, I'm really worried..

It seems outrageous that our monthly payment leapt from £850 to £1170 this month because of this mess!!

silvercar

I don't understand why your solicitor didn't just pay the amount required to clear the previous mortgage and return the rest. The other option would have been to overpay ie pass the whole of the new mortgage amount across and wait for a refund of the excess.

When we changed mortgages, the new mortgage amount given was slightly higher as a mortgage payment had just gone out. Within a few days the old mortgage company refunded the excess.