Mortgage cash back > solicitor says we’ve received it.. but I’m unsure?

[Ginbutholdthetonic]

Just copy and pasting as I posted in money matters but feel this section may also help!

We took out a mortgage with TSB that offer a £500 incentive cashback.

we’ve enquired about this now we’re moved in and our mortgage advisor confirmed that TSB release the cashback at the same time as the funds. Our solicitor is saying we have received it in the mortgage funds. But we haven’t had anything?

solicitor said it’s because the mortgage amount was £98,885, but was sent £99375 by TSB - therefore it’s been paid into the house I’m assuming?

however on our paperwork and mortgage illustration it quotes the mortgage currency loan to be repaid is to the sum of £99375.

so if we’re repaying £99,375 .. that is not cashback, surely?

can anyone help clarify. Maths is not my strong point at all!

Was there an arrangement fee or legal fee with it that you added to tjr morrgage?

It is not cashback in terms of cash in your hand but if the mortgage should have been 98,885 and the incentives taken off the top then your repayment would be 98, 385. You appear to have been given an extra tenner!

@BeenThereBoughtTheTeeShirt but on our mortgage illustration, where it shows each payment per month over the years of the mortgage, it shows we’re repaying £99375 so I don’t understand why it’s called a cashback if we’re paying it back 🫣

Sorry, need a coffee, not read properly. So bank sent £490 more than the actual mortgage but it has been added onto it not taken off...
Makes no sense. Even if there was a 1000 pound lender's fee to add, they would not take off the 500. It is usually paid separately after your mortgage has begun?
Ring the lawyer back and find out why.

Our solicitor is says that the mortgage amount is £98,885. But I’ve got the mortgage illustration in front of me and I quote:

“Amount and Currency of the loan to be granted: £99,375.00”

We sent him this and he legitimately replied:

“it doesn’t. It says the loan amount is £98,885”

he’s gaslighting us right?! 😂

Without seeing the whole mortgage illustration, it is impossible to be sure.

We got a cashback incentive on our mortgage earlier in the year.

Our solicitor transferred the money to my partners account the day we exchanged and got the keys. It wasn’t added into the mortgage amount. It was actual cash in the bank.

Something isn’t right.

This ^^

But just to confirm that what your solicitor says sounds correct generally, having worked in conveyancing. Usually the cashback is added to the mortgage amount and you get this paid into the solicitors account and they'll account for this amount in their completion statement (no, you wouldn't ever get it as cash back physically in a purchase, it's just included in the maths of everything so it would be a credit where the solicitors fees and sdlt are a debit.

I suspect you've got a product fee included on the amount you're paying back as its usually, say, £1000 to take out the mortgage and thats added to your loan

The solicitors listed his fees in the paperwork we do have we sent him the deposit for the house + The nearly £2k his fees cost + stamps duty ect. Nowhere in our paperwork does it say about the £500 and it certainly doesn’t list it as a charge of any kind.

I don’t see how we can take out a mortgage with a £509 cash back incentive.. for our solicitor to then take that incentive as his own? Just everything seems so dodgey.

£500 sorry*

So if he’s taken the £500 to be included in his fee’s and coatings.. then the money we sent him before we sent him £500 too much and should be due a refund, no?

Call TSB to clarify? I would have thought it should be detailed on your mortgage completion letter from them.

Your solicitor is right.

If you have concerns you should ring the mortgage lender who will confirm it went to your solicitor.

Ultimately if you're solicitor has no money left for you then you've had the cash back with the mortgage advance that went to the solicitor.

That should say your* solicitor, not you're.

Suspect the solicitor factored it in when asking for funds from you to complete; otherwise they would've asked for £500 more 🤷‍♀️

@Peeeas but we had paid the full amount in fee’s that was listed in our statement before we even completed.

so are you saying he’s charged us £500 for a hidden cost that we weren’t aware of? How is that ok? What if we didn’t have a £500 cashback. Then how could we have just been surprised with an extra £500 cost after completeion? Bizarre.

I remember we took a mortgage out with had a cash back amount a few years ago. Several months later I was looking through the documents as I think the solicitor sent paperwork back etc so I was putting it altogether and noticed it said our solicitor had been paid the cash back amount.

I sent them an email and they checked and confirmed they had and sent it on to me. If I hadn't emailed them enquiring about it I'm not sure if we would have received it! I did get the impression that they had the amount but weren't sure who it belonged to rather than they were trying to keep it!

No, I'm saying that in calculating everything they accounted for it (because they know what all the amounts will be in advance) even if it wasn't explicitly broken down in that way. I remember this happened when we had cash back - the calculations on the completion statement were correct, just they didn't split out the cash back so it was confusing.

I think the only way anyone is going to be able to help you meaningfully is if you screenshot the mortgage offer bit with the mortgage amount and the cash back detail, and also your completion statement.

See this is where it’s confusing, the mortgage amount, on our mortgage account that we are repaying is £98,885. Our solicitor has confirmed that he’s received £99,375 from the bank - so he’s got that extra £500.

I don’t think he’s included the £500 within other fee’s because he send me a breakdown of these fee’s before we even took out this mortgage offer, he’s not reduced it from his email when I enquired about costings from his letter that states what the costings are.

So do you have a proper completion statement from the solicitor which lists everything out (usually sent out between exchange and completion)?

If not I think you need to request one

No we only have a draft completion statement. We have emailed to request a copy of the final completion statement today.

I think you need to pursue that then, because you should have had a final one, and hopefully that should either clarify things so you understand how everything tallies up, or show they've got it wrong.

If you don't get it in a reasonable timeframe or they're resistant to providing it then follow the complaints procedure in your client care letter (usually approach named supervising partner).

Isn’t it the It’s other way round
amount of the loan requested £99,375
you have borrowed £98,875
So the £500 has been knocked off the loan you asked for.

What is your balance on the mortgage on online banking?

however on our paperwork and mortgage illustration it quotes the mortgage currency loan to be repaid is to the sum of £99375

so if we’re repaying £99,375 .. that is not cashback, surely?

The screenshot you've shared does not say you're repaying £99,375. It says you're borrowing (and therefore repaying) £98,885 but they are paying you £99,375 - the difference is your cash back

Normally the final completion statement will show the cash back amount deducted from the total due, so you will pay £500 less to your solicitor than originally quoted. Why did you pay the final amount without a proper completion statement? This is really unusual and unprofessional of your solicitor. Are they actually a solicitor or did you use a cheap "registered conveyancer" or whatever they call themselves?