We approached a mortgage broker who worked at an advisory service for a remortgage in mid-January and formally applied for a deal with RBS at beginning of Feb as our fixed rate expired in March (with Northern Rock).
ANyway, I was phoning broker on a weekly basis for updates and there was more information requested like DH place of work (full address) and some confusion over my married name and my maiden name. He also said they wanted our mothers maiden names for security purposes etc ect
Fast forward to now and we still don't have a remortgage. On Friday he phoned me at home to tell me he had been made redundant and that the whole of the advisory centre were closing down asap. He then said he was going to go independent but was unable to do this officially for 4-6 weeks so we could either apply direct to RBS or he suggested the name of another broker who was an independent. I asked if I could just ring RBS and manage the rest of the application but he said that they wouldnt accept that as there was different procedures for individual applicants and those that use intermediaries. He did say that the broker he recommended could act in his place and finish off our application....so I took the number of the recommended broker and contacted him.
He also told me to ignore any information we may receive from the advisory service where he used to work.
So I tried to get hold of this other broker today and he took my number and said he'd call back. On a whim I decided to phone RBS myself to see if I could just push the application through and they had no record of us applying at all. The lady checked and re-checked. Confused by this I decided to phone the main number of the advisory service where he had originally worked and asked to speak with the broker. The lady on the line said he had 'left to pursue other things'. Then I asked about our remortgage application and she had no record of us making one through their advisory service. She also told me that the advice centre was going strong and not closing. The lady on the phone sounded quite shocked when I told her what he had phoned to tell me and said she was going to look into it asap and get back to us by midday tomorrow. She was just manning the out of hours phone and didnt have full access to everything.
Totally not sure what to make of this - does it sound 'normal'...is there an innocent explanation?
Meanwhile, I could cry - we're stuck on a shitty varuable rate with Northern Rock that we cannot afford and the rate we applied for is no longer available.