Financial advice - is it worth complaining?

[KahlanAmnell]

Hoping for some advice. FA charged me £995 to find a mortgage to buy out stbxh. He said as soon as you get the mortgage offer, let me know and I'll talk to the bank's conveyancers and tell them it's a transfer of equity. I tell the conveyancer I want the mortgage, then they tell me they need a signed consent order before they can proceed. That's obviously months in the distance, but hey, I've got 6 months before offer expires. At no time does the FA help. Finally, 4 months later the consent order is sealed, and although time is now limited, it still looks like I can do this before time runs out. Then the conveyancer tells me that because the consent order isn't straight forward I need a legal charge on the property, to be drawn up by my stbx (reluctant) h's solicitor, and it's unlikely to be done by the court's date of 12th Sept. This is the first I've heard of this one. FA didn't ask before he charged me nearly a grand. So now I'm in the position where the mortgage offer is likely to expire before it's all sorted. Do I have grounds to complain? Do I go to FA or straight to ombudsman, or his professional association? Really upset that he charged me so much yet didn't ask the pertinent questions about what was in the consent order, or advise me that it would need to be sealed before I could accept the offer (which I obviously did, back in April). Should I have expected this kind of advice? Thanks in advance.

That's poor on their side. However, even if you need a new mortgage, presumably the FA wouldn't charge you again? Just tell them to sort sth out asap as they messed up.

I believe that the ombudsman and any professional association would expect you to have followed for FA's complaints procedure before they got involved, so you do need to do that.

Chances are your FA will agree to mortgage find for you again for "free" as a goodwill gesture - especially as all the pre-work is done, and (I believe but am not sure) complaints against them can cost them money whatever the outcome. One thing is certain - it'll take more of their time to respond to a complaint than to do a mortgage search again for you. So I think you have a good chance of getting them to do that again.

I am that you paid a grand though!

I'm not so sure you have grounds for complaint though. Mortgage advice knowledge is totally different to divorce knowledge. I'd be really surprised if a mortgage broker knew the ins and outs of Consent Orders. Especially given that on financial matters, a divorce lawyer will often refer you to an IFA! The opposite situation. Of course the IFA should say if they don't know about an area... but that would all depend on your interactions with them.

Starting from "I want a mortgage that will enable me to buy my STBXH out", I can't see why they'd be asking you about Consent Orders.

My XH bought me out - but as he didn't have the cash at the time, he did a remortgage for full amount of the house, and I put a legal charge on what became his house. All of that was completed long before our Consent Order was sealed. August I think, with the CO the following February.

If you're buying your ex out, why do you need the legal charge?

Given my own experience of remortgaging, TofE, divorce, COs I don't think the IFA can be expected to advise you on it - or know there would be an issue.

though - I do remember the whole bloody ball ache of it, especially kicking my XH into action

Hope you're sorted soon!

Thanks for answering. I did wonder if an FA would even know about the legal charge thing, but it was the consent order business that threw me a bit, because he knew I was getting one. The legal charge is because I can only afford to give ex a certain amount now, and will have to owe him the rest. He wouldn't discuss selling the house, and kept telling me he didn't want to.

I wouldn't expect an FA to know anything about legal charges and consent orders. Well... I'd expect them to have a vague working knowledge of the principles as they must come up during mortgage discussions periodically.

But when I did my divorce and put a legal charge on my former home, even my divorce solicitor passed me to a land law colleague to create the legal charge. It's quite specialist even for a solicitor, so definitely no reason a FA would know enough about it. I wouldn't expect them to, so I'm not sure you'd have grounds to complain. Definitely ask for a goodwill gesture of finding you another mortgage.

All lenders will have different criteria and a broker is best placed to know that.

Sounds like the issue is that your CO gave him an interest in your property but as a lender they want it clear via land law not divorce law. A mortgage lender will generally insist on having the first charge on a property. So if you defaulted and there was only enough equity to pay back the mortgage or your XH, the mortgage company gets first dibs. As part of his legal charge he'll agree to be second charge - and the mortgage company wouldn't get that just from a CO, I think.

Good news is that you're in the house, yes? So any admin delays on his side are his problem, really. The longer he waits to do the legal charge, the longer he waits for your partial buy out!

Good luck with it! If you change broker, there are some who don't charge until the mortgage is completed.

Thanks Ellisandra Unfortunately my mortgage offer runs out on 30th Sept, so if he doesnt' hurry up I'll have to either get an extension or find another mortgage offer. A ball ache is exactly what it is! He's dragging it out to the bitter end, no doubt about it!

Ring the lender and get an extension.

I'm told I can only do that if there is a date for completion, and because ex is ignoring both conveyancer's and my attempts for an update we can't get a completion date set. Consent order gave 56 days, and that ends on 12th Sept, so thinking I will have to go back to the court

Tell them
You're aiming for Xth September...