mis sold mortgage

[jamied]

hey all i believe i have been mis sold my mortgage but dont know if i can do any thing about it.

i believe this because even though i was fully employed the broker i went through got me £116000 on a self cert basis which at the time was nearly 8 times my income as i was only on around £16000 a year.

at the time i didnt really understand what self certify ment and was told by the broker that by going down that route would assist in getting me the mortgage.

i also had very bad credit at this time and was really surprised that they even gave me a mortgage at all. has anyone had any similar experiences with mortgages and the mis selling of them.

[honeybee13]

Hello there.

 

I'm sorry you've sat on this forum with no replies. I'll move your thread to the mortgages forum and hopefully someone will be able to help you.

 

My best, HB

[Lea_HTH]

Did you sign the mortgage application? Did you read it? What makes you think it is miss-sold? Are you currently in arrears?

[jamied]

Did you sign the mortgage application? Did you read it? What makes you think it is miss-sold? Are you currently in arrears?

 

I'm in bad areas and I have a suspended repossesion hanging over my head. I feel I was mis sold the mortgage as my best interests were not thought of in the process as they got me the mortgage knowing full well I didn't earn enough to keep up with the payments but they got around it any way just to get their commision.

[Lea_HTH]

Did you think the mortgage had been miss-sold when you took it out? Or once you got into arrears?

[Dotty50]

Hi Jamied

 

Did you not read the paperwork (mortgage illustration) showing what your repayments would be?

 

Did you consider how you were going to make those repayments on the income you were getting at the time?

 

Whilst you may not have understood the 'self cert' concept, I would have thought you would have been able to see what the repayments were going to be, well before completing your house purchase.

[jamied]

the repayments at the start were £550 a month on a 2 year fixed basis which was fine i had that coming in but when the two years were up my payments went from £550 to £800 over night, the mortgage company wouldnt put me back on a fixed term they told me i would have to remortgage but due to my bad credit history i couldnt get a remortgage.

[Lea_HTH]

I sincerely doubt that your mortgage was miss-sold. Even if it was, the most likely outcome would be rescission, which would mean that you would need to pay the sum borrowed back. However, this is an extremely unlikely scenario, as in order to prove that the contract was miss-sold, you'd have to show that you had absolutely no knowledge about what you were getting into at all - which would mean that you effectively signed paperwork not knowing what you were signing. I think you'll agree that the likelihood of that is next to none - you knew how much you were borrowing, you knew how much you had to repay, and you got to buy the property that you wanted.

 

There is such a thing as equity in the law - and it includes various maxims, one of which is that he who comes to equity must do so with clean hands. Your hands aren't clean because you were aware of the elements of the contract and what it ultimately involved...not to mention the fact that you were undoubtedly aware that your own income was not likely to be able to support the mortgage. The fact that you refer to your own bad credit and the idea that you didn't think you'd get a mortgage on that basis, implies that you were complicit with what occurred.

 

That may not be what you were hoping to hear, but I doubt any other lawyer will tell you anything different.

[jamied]

ok thank you. but as a broker are they not obliged to act in the best interests of the people they are serving instead of their pockets.

[Dotty50]

The broker is there to give you the best advice and find the products that suit their client. If you had a bad credit history this would have been a big stumbling block and self cert would also have restricted the lenders available.

 

I wonder if you would have found the mortgage yourself, without the aid of an experienced broker?

 

I have to agree with LeaHTH on this and that it does not appear to have been missold IMO.

[Lea_HTH]

ok thank you. but as a broker are they not obliged to act in the best interests of the people they are serving instead of their pockets.

 

Their interest is in finding you a product that you can actually have - and by your own admission you had a poor credit history, which as Dotty states would have made it harder to find you something competitive.

 

You also have a responsibility not to put yourself in a position that you cannot afford - so whilst the broker did what you asked (found you a mortgagee that would actually lend to you), you also complied with that in accepting it.

 

If you are having difficulties with your mortgage you could contact your local authority and ask them about the mortgage rescue scheme and/or the mortgage protection fund - these both have criteria to be met before they assist, but if you meet those criteria they can be a great source of help.

[Slatted]

I used to work on mortgage endowment misselling and it was certainly implied that the advisors had to show that they had been clear in showing all the options and why the others were not applicable..and if it were not adviseable for any to be taken out, given the attitude to risk etc held by that person...it would certainly have been required to see that the facts had all been provided and discussed and a good reason for going ahead on that basis found.

 

...but I only looked at what was sold by insurance salesmen to repay an interest only mortgage that had already been recommended/sold by an mortgage broker...I did see a lot of cases where the sale of he mortgage was questionable but not something we were allowed to look at unfortunately......

 

Do the Financial Ombudsman Service have any guidance on this type of matter? They may be able to suggest if you may have grounds to complain to the original sales person/company.