Mortgage Broker Fee

LDFerguson, i said to u already, i understand that you r a broker, so you sound like you r more or less standing by her. i ONLY met her twice to fill in application form and she told me what rate/amount i wud b looking at, thats all, around 50mins in total. my bf met her cos social drinks or after work whatever with her husband(the colleague). i didnt even know her by that time! so you are wrong to say that we cost her a lof of time over five or several meetings to arrange mortgage for me.

and indeed she got me two approval, i thanked her for that, but she told me she only used the ONE application form which i filled in and wud send the same form to the lenders. plus its me who had to fill in all the details and sign everything that the bank required.(all same thing as i went to the bank by myself) i just posted them back to her, then i guess she just needed to post them back to the bank. and yes, she did make calls.

Like you said mortgage brokers supposed to get customer the most competitive rate, which she didnt! and from what i cud remember she didnt tell me she didnt deal with this bank that i got the offer from only till last week when i asked her (i asked bout five banks at the beginning, she only told me apart from one bank) and i even told her that if she cud match up the offer that i got, im happy enough to go with her. which she couldnt match it up.

Do all lenders pay commission to brokers. Are there any that pay not a cent to the broker?

eskei said:

LDFerguson, i said to u already, i understand that you r a broker, so you sound like you r more or less standing by her

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Not much point in any of us trying to help you out here if you are going to turn around and question the motives of anyone telling you what you don't want to hear.

eskei,

I told you myself that I'm a broker in post number 4 of this thread. I have no interest in "standing by" some other un-named broker. For all I know, she could be the greatest crook that ever walked the earth.

It has been explained to you several times by myself and others that you have no legal obligation to pay the broker in question, based on the information you have provided.

But I have noticed that you have chosen to argue with or ignore any of the posts that suggest you should agree payment to the broker and welcomed only those that said you should pay her nothing. Seems like you have already made up your mind that you don't want to pay her. All you seem to be looking for here is people who will agree with you.

well, thank you for the advice LDferguson. and also thanks for everyone who gave me advice. it is not that i ignore the post that suggested i should make an agreement to pay her some fee. i know she has done some work and as i said i was thinking of saying thank you in a way to get her a nice personal gift. because the problem is a little bit more complicated, but i thought it was too long to write.

600euro is just part of the fee she is looking for, which supposed to be free of charge. Because she is looking for other money that i have decided to pay her or i have paid her!!

i have an email from them before and said i didnt have to pay for the valuation because im a first time buyer! Now apart from 600eur, she asked me to pay for the valuation, which is fair enough, so i have decided to pay her that money!

Then the life insurance problem, i found a good deal for the life insurance on line by myself, and wanted to get that. Once she asked me bout it, then she insisted that the insurance company that she dealt with would definitely match it up, so i agreed. Then days later, she sent me the letter with the matched up amount. i have paid her(not the insurance company, as she asked me to make the cheque to her company) the first year life insurance with discount, now she said if i still want to go with them of the life insurance, then i have to pay for the full amount instead?!? and they didn't mention anything about the cheque they got from me and cashed by her company for the first year insurance. so does that money count for her service if i decide not to take it back?

just at this stage, im so so stressed over this. just want to get it done and over with. being a first time buyer with not much experience is really hard!

LDFerguson said:

Of course, if eskei has any reason to believe that the broker acted illegally, she should complain to the Financial Regulator. But there is nothing in this thread to suggest that she did, so it seems you're just putting two and two together and coming up with twelve.

A broker has an obligation to find the most competitive mortgage from the range available to them. This range will be detailed in the Terms of Business letter, which would be given to a client from the outset.

As you say, a broker is also obliged to furnish a client with a "Reasons Why" letter which details in writing why the recommended product is suitable for them.

It turns out that the broker actually got approval from two different lenders from eskei. So maybe she wasn't engaging in "bad practise", maybe she didn't have any illegal covert affiliations with any bank, maybe she has no "case" to answer against her...

...maybe the broker was just doing her job.

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Agreed.

Maybe try to speak to the broker again on the matter and try to come to a compromise.See what comes of it, if you get nowhere you could always speak to their compliance department if they have one or their manager to try to resolve the situation. I dont think they would have any legal case against you to pursue you for the money but best to make every effort to sort it with them directly

If you signed a contract with no fee marked out then you have to pay no fee. Even if you don't have a copy of this, she will have to have a copy of this, I hope the page you signed is the same page as the no fee crossed out. I have a problem with these two things you wrote

wrote down ''no fee'', as im a friend of hers - post 1

and i cant call her a friend. i only met her twice. - post 3

Was it clear that she would do the work on a no fee basis as she would get commission, if not why would you let her do the work for you?

Alsos you now say she did a lot more work as in arranged a valuer (and for sure someone must pay him) and arranged life insurance. In relation to the life insurance, if you have a letter with the premium for the first year and your cheque matches that amount I don't thing they will be able to claim it as a fee, but I don't understand how the premium has changed, you could ring the life insurance company to find out.

Bronte said:

wrote down ''no fee'', as im a friend of hers - post 1

and i cant call her a friend. i only met her twice. - post 3

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At the start of this thread, the broker only posted off an application form and made a few calls. Since then, it turns out the broker has had several meetings, processed two applications and got them both approved, arranged the valuation and arranged life assurance cover.

Anything else?

ah.. i dont know if i didnt make it clear or... i didnt need her to arrange valuation or the life insurance! she insisted me to go with the valuer and life insurance company that she deals with! and she even rang me twice to pay her manager to do the snag list!? who is not an engineer or surveyor? After i have found and arranged a day with a professional structural engineer.

i told her before that i could arrange valuation, life insurance, snag by myself. and i was about to buy the life insurance at a good price and told her the price, then it was her being kinda pushy and promised me the company she dealt with would match it up and asked me to go with that, thats why i agreed. now they said i had to pay for the full amount, because now they said it was them going to match it up for the first year(i didnt know bout this before), not the insurance company, so i had to pay them the full amount, if i knew this, i wud have bought the insurance by myself.

Time to shut this thread? The query has long since been answered.

This is going on a bit.
I personally wouldn't pay (and I'm a broker).
I have been in this situation before where I waived a fee and the client went directly to a bank after I had obtained a loan offer on her behalf. (By the way getting to loan offer stage is usually more than a few hours work unless you have the perfect client)
I learned a valuable lesson from this, changed my terms of business, clearly explained that the waiver would only apply if the client drewdown the mortgage with me, otherwise the fee is payable once a loan offer was obtained.
Once this is explained in the first meeting, the client then has the option to accept or else go elsewhere, simple as that.
The broker in this situation wasn't thorough enough to cover all eventualities and should just suck it up and learn a lesson. Be careful who you waive fees for!
Trying to force someone to pay in this situation suggests a very short sighted attitude at this particular brokerage.

ok. thanks a million for everyone who gave me the advice. really appreciated. im just stressed out and worried. i actually just checked their website again and it says all service is FREE, and i rang the head office as well, the advisor told me there's no charge to customers. so i dont understand if thats their policy, how come she could turn around and ask me to pay her now. so i dont think i owe her the money.

anyway, thanks again and we can close this thread now.