UK Landlord Forum / Life

How do I cut this short?
The mortgage advisor I was seeing for my BTL mortgage was the only advisor in the main branch. She left in the middle of my mortgage and they did not replace her! After about 4 weeks they put a different temp in her role every day. After 6 weeks they now have a new guy. My mortgage was due 2 months ago and I still dont have the money. I am told I dont really have grounds to complain because I do not have an account with them and have not had the money and am therefore not yet a customer!!!!! I have sat in that branch 4 times in the last 10 days. On friday I went in at 11am, came out,went for a walk, back again, left at 5.01 pm. The money should drop into my solicitors on Friday but am I really helpless? I have had to negotiate very hard and piss people off just to get the deal I had been promised originally. No more than that. I have been fined on an overdraught that some of this money was going to clear and I have had to use my credit card to draw cash. I dont expect I will see a penny back. What is the point in shopping around if you dont save anything?

Hey Jeffo,

Sounds awful! Have you made an official complaint to them? They should compensate! Talk to the branch manager!!

I have told them on the help line (help, thats a laugh!) that I want it registered as an official complaint. I have talked to the branch manager infact he stood with his head bowed infront of me as I told him calmly but firmly that this was a result of shoddy management and I should not be suffering because they cant get their act together. He had the Northwest regional mortgage manager telephone me to sort things out. I was on for over half an hour. She dug her heels in. Told me in a round about way that I should be grateful for what I was getting. I am free to go elsewhere if I have another month to spare. They know when you are not just over a barrel but also have your pants round your ankles.
Friday came and went. Here we are at Wednesday. When the money comes I will sort out my banking with HSBC then take the time to write a long and blunt letter to the Halifax. HSBC have been excellent except they will not do buy to let mortgages unless you earn 100kpa!

My mortgage finally completed today. I rang my solicitor. Sorry, I have just recieved a letter from the Halifax. Your mortgage has been passed to some dumb ass assessment team to prick about with and they are going to make you wait even longer!!!
Solicitor faxes me a copy and I ring the help no.
I played merry hell down the phone. I am now told monday. Like I was told last monday and the friday before that and oh bollocks. Ignore the offers, dont go to the halifax for a mortgage. I went in on 15th of May. Officially went ahead on the 19th. Was told 4 weeks wait. It is now 3 whole months.
What is a fair compensatory gesture? What can I demand? Will I realistically get more than a voucher off contents insurance which I dont need?

Well, its Tuesday morning, yes folks, thats right Monday came and went without any hint of stinking cash! My solicitor rang me and said that Fridays offer only arrived on Monday and they were unable to act on it by the time it arrived.
They have the offer, (hurrah!) surely I will get my mortgage today?

Any progress on this Jeffo?

Well I have the money. I should be pleased but I am so stressed over it, even now, that I just dont give a toss.
Halifax say they can only apologise, which they have done. I didnt even get a lousy voucher for something I dont want. I moaned for half an hour to the mortgage manager, bypassing the complaints department to go to the top.
The 5 day complaint procedure was dealt with in 9 days!

That woman had a forked tongue. I realised at one point that I was losing the argument. She pointed out that it had been a complicated mortgage to raise. She was very firm with me. I got to a point where, realising I had my money and they could not take it back, I just blew steam. I said 'dont you try any of that with me. There was nothing complicated about this mortgage, infact my solicitor said that as I already owned the property unencumbered, it was particularly easy'. I have never been in a position to speak to anybody in this manner before today but I went on to say 'look, let me tell you just who you are dealing with here, I have raised 5 mortgages in the last three years. I have had them go catastrophically wrong and also had them in less than 4 weeks. I have had a house blacklisted, I have had a surveyer view the wrong house! You name it I have had it go wrong and also sorted it out quicker than this and yet you think you can pull the wool over my eyes. You may get away with these excuses with somebody else but not with me'.
She went on to say there had been a confusion over the freehold of the property. I pointed out that the confusion was at their end and not mine. The problem had arisen months into the mortgage and was sorted out with a phone call. All I got from them was excuses and we are sorry. I would have appreciated honesty rather than a cover up and apology.
Sorry doesnt put food on the table!

Halifax failed to take the 1st mortgage payment from my account. They cannot tell me why this happened but now they want me to go pay cash over the counter.
I really urge anybody out there not to use the halifax as they are a bunch of idiots.
Because my money did not come through I had to leave my new hsbc account unused. I could not activate it without adding cash and after 28 days unused it freezes. I now have to get new security access which takes 5 days. My hbos account has now frozen despite having had a huge chunk of money put into it because it was being closed and moved to hsbc but couldnt go until halifax paid up. I now have 5 days of blind banking. Why cant we just go back to the days of old and carry cash, bankers draughts and postal orders?!!!

Sorry to hear of your aggro Jeffo, Ive just finished posting a reply to the Mortgage specialists thread that you started.

I think your story illustrates why people should go to see a self-employed mortgage broker with their mortgage enquiries and not a bank mortgage 'advisor'.    Yes, you'll probably have to pay a broker fee but as I said in your other thread.  You get what you pay for.  However, I do appreciate that some people are against paying broker fees, I see a few of them who have just given up trying to go direct, they are happy to pay at that point.

Do I assume that you no longer want to become a mortgage broker, I'll be happy to give you my experiences from the inside as it were?