Problem with Mortgage Broker - Advice Required

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Etamagents

Registered User
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23
Hi there,

Last September, my girlfriend and I decided to put the initial deposit of 5k on an apartment off plan. Subsequent to the 20k final deposit, we were advised by our solicitor to get loan approval in principle to cover our bases. As first home buyers, we were admittantly a little naive but what followed has left a bitter taste in the mouth.

We decided to process our mortgage through a broker as we thought that their advice and expertise would be most appropriate for us. We thought we would approach a number of brokers and decide who was the best for us after a consultation. We scheduled meetings with all of them and brought the relevant documentation that they requested to each meeting.

Ultimately, we decided to go with a broker "in the country" who assured us that she could get us a better mortgage through the mortgage provider than our broker in Dublin who had already processed our application as she had a really good contact. She asked us to address a letter to the mortgage provider giving her permission to process our mortgage application. Unfortunately, she came back with an offer which was exactly the same as our original broker in Dublin. This was a concern as the main reason we went with her was because she assured us a better rate than our Dublin broker.

Nonetheless, we decided to get the offer in principle and the broker in the country arranged a valuation of the property (even though at that stage it hadn't been built). The offer was never signed as our solicitor was happy that we would get approval closer to the time of moving in.

A year later, our apartment was almost complete and we decided to process our mortgage through the original Dublin broker as we thought he gave better advice and that it would be easier to deal with someone locally. We have now signed the new loan offer and should close at the end of the month.

A week ago, my girlfriend received a very angry call from the broker based in the country explaining that she was insulted that we didn't go with her and that she would send us an invoice for the services rendered.

Yesterday, we received an invoice charging us for the valuation of Euro 127 (which I have no problem with), a 1 and 1/2 hour initial mortgage consultancy fee of Euro 75, administration costs such as calls, emails, and postage for Euro 50, and a mortgage processing fee of Euro 100. The total was Euro 357. In my opinion these costs are very excessive as apart from the initial meeting we had with her daughter for about an hour which was not very helpful, there were only 2 or 3 calls (clarifying issues created by her daughters inexperience at the meeting) and 1 or 2 letters (loan offers) and we never got the offer she assured we would get at the outset.

Can anyone please give me some advice as we to what we should pay????
 
I would offer to settle with her like this.
1. Her out-of-pocket cost for the valuation if she can give you the valuer's invoice.
2. Payment of other reasonable out of pocket costs she incurred for phone and post.
3. A nominal good will payment for her time - say €25. She can claim that you messed her around, but you can equally say in your defence that she lured you out to the country on a false promise, and that this cost you time and money too.
Bottom line: she did not deliver, but you are still prepared to act reasonably to get closure.
 
Thanks a million, I was thinking along those lines. Do you think I should write her a letter in this regard or call her? She has been very rude over the phone and is quite unpleasant to deal with.
 
Life is short. If she is getting on your wick, I would keep it to letters. I would keep them short, businesslike but polite.
 
Perhaps you could provide some helpful advice on where to go from here... I sent the mortgage broker in the country a cheque for Euro 177 (127 for valuation, 25 for reasonable out of pocket expenses, and 25 as a gesture of goodwill to get closure on the issue).

I subsequently received a letter back from them explaining that they donated the Euro 25 goodwill payment to charity and that they will be pursuing legal action on the grounds of my damaging claim that they falsely lured us into doing business with them.

Any advice as to where to turn?
 
She can claim that you messed her around.
Click to expand...
How can she claim this,your not under any obligitation to proceed with a mortgage broker, and if there are charges for not proceeding, then these should be outlined in writing to you from the start.

they will be pursuing legal action on the grounds of my damaging claim that they falsely lured us into doing business with them.
Click to expand...
.. honestly , I would tell them to shove it,. highly unprofessional of them to pursue you like this. bring the letter received from the broker to your solicitor and respond VIA your solicitor.



For the record I am a broker.
 
As far as I can see you now have little option but to pay their bill in full. You have needlessly undermined your own position by accusing them of falsely luring you into doing business with them. If they proceed to send you a solicitors letter for defamation, I would imagine that your problems will multiply. In any defamation action, the burden of proof is on the defendant (ie you) to justify the statement at issue. In this scenario it appears you would have extreme difficulty proving this, as it seems to be a case of your word against theirs.

You are unlikely to get much legal advice from your solicitor for less than the €180 at issue.
 
I would go will Mollys reply. You have none more than enough to cover their costs. Writing to a company telling them what you think of there service is not defamation. They did not supply the products as promised. Your just doing business and changing your supplier. It is not as if you were on the JD show telling the nation how bad they are.....!!!

Towger.
 
In what manner did you make this claim? I.e. did you write this broker a letter saying ' you falsely lured us into doing this' or did you say this to someone else- or did you say in your letter that you have told another party that she falsely lured you into doing business with her?

Ubiquitous is right in 1 & 2 above but there has to also be a number 3- that the accusation was somehow disseminated to a third party.
 
I mentioned in the letter that it was worth noting that the reason we decided to meet with them in the first place was that they assured us that they would secure us a better deal than that was originally offered by our broker in Dublin. I went on to say that this was an inaccurate claim which cost us time and money but was willing to make a nominal goodwill payment for their time to get closure on the issue.

They dispute that they made the claim in the first place. The claim was made verbally over the phone and at the meeting but we have no written documents asserting this.

As far as I am concerned, they failed to disclose the fact that there would be any charges at the outset and as we were dissatisfied with their service, we decided to go with someone else but would cover their out of pocket as well as other reasonable expenses.
 
The letter would not be actionable for defamation as there needs to be a 3rd party involved. It seems this is turning into a game of chicken seeing who will flinch first, you or her.

As said before any futher replies should be via a solicitor. Sounds like a case of the wolf and the 3 pigs, "I'll huff and I'll puff etc!
 
I could write a similar post, it would be interesting to know how this problem was solved - did you have to go through a solicitor ?
 
Etamagents,

I do think that in this instance you need to make a formal complaint to The Irish Financial Regulatory Services Agency [broken link removed] They govern all mortgage brokers and have advice on how to make complaints. It does sound like this broker is chancing her arm and has been most unprofessional.

Good luck
 
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