I recently submitted an application for house purchase together with certified copies of identity and address and a valuation fee cheque. These items were secured with a plastic-covered paper clip.
Three days later I received the application form back with a letter stating that I needed to return it with a valuation fee cheque. Naturally I telephoned the mortgage processing department and explained that the cheque and other items were somewhere in their building because I had posted them myself. The lady concerned made enquiries and advised me that it was pointless looking for them because the lender has a policy that any items which become separated from the application are immediately destroyed.
Given the current litigious society which advisers currently inhabit, would it not seem a sensible idea for some system, however archaic it may be, to be instituted so that ‘lost items’ can be centralised and therefore conveniently located and restored to the correct file?
Both my client and I are really grateful for this opportunity to work extra hours, and waste less time relaxing and socialising, which the mortgage lender and its stone age mentality has presented us with.
Alan Lakey
Partner
Highclere Financial Services
