Ernie Faulkner, broker at Kando Mortgages, complained to Abbey for failing to input a client’s details onto its system two weeks after the mortgage application was originally sent.
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Despite Faulkner having spoken to various members of the lender’s BTL team, the case remained off Abbey’s system, when he said it should be on the system within seven days and processed within 20.
He also encountered difficulties in trying to contact the lender, and said he suspected the BTL deal received a large amount of interest, which had led to the lender being inundated with business leaving it unable to cope.
Faulkner said: “Abbey’s service standards are totally unsatisfactory. My client could lose their property because of this delay. This needs to be reviewed as a matter of urgency. Abbey is living in the dark ages insisting on paper-based applications.”
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Responding to the criticisms, David Stewart, media relations manager at Abbey, commented: “We have not had time to look into this particular case, but we have had a very successful BTL period and because of this our service teams have been under a lot of pressure.
“While we have made steps to improve this, there have been isolated incidences of which this is one. We are looking into this case and aim to resolve the problem as soon as possible.
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“We take our service standards very seriously. At the moment our BTL mortgage products have a paper-based application procedure, but in the future we would like to make them electronic and this is currently under consideration.”
