Mike Sammon, manager at Thornley Groves Financial Services Ltd, contacted Mortgage Introducer and voiced his disdain. He said that a straightforward application to port an existing Abbey mortgage to a flexible product had taken two months with two incorrectly-issued offers, causing his client to lose a property and leaving them with penalties that should be avoided by porting after staff gave him incorrect information.
Sammon said: “Early on the sales team requested confirmation that the client was porting the existing product which we gave. Two months later it said we couldn’t port the existing deal over and have a flexible rate, and said it could only offer additional lending on SVR.
“We would have proceeded on the SVR to have the penalties refunded but based on its staff’s comments, an issued offer was accepted. My client is considering issuing legal proceedings against Abbey if it is not forthcoming with a settlement.”
Jeff Scott, head of intermediary marketing and specialist lending at Abbey, said: “Without full details it’s difficult to confirm what may or may not have gone wrong and if criticism is justified.
“However, clearly there have been some issues and we regret that this broker is unhappy. We take these issues very seriously and we hope to have this problem resolved by the end of this week. Service is of paramount importance and in this instance it hasn’t been what it should be.”
Simon Chalk, mortgage planner at Mortgage Portfolio Services, commented: “Lenders who win awards aren’t being voted for by smaller intermediaries. Big firms carry a lot of weight with awards so lenders get away with bad service to smaller brokers.”
