Jonathan Barnett, director at All Mortgage Matters, was requested to send copies of his documents to IF. However Barnett claimed that the lender wanted the original documents sent, despite having already posted copies as standard practise, as IFAs need to be certified and as Barnett worked alone there was no one available to certify the documents.
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Having sent the originals of the documents to IF as requested, via recorded delivery with explicit instructions to send the documents back the same way, Barnett was furious to receive the documents returned via second class and with the envelope not completely sealed.
Barnett said: “My concerns are that in this day and age with so much credit fraud going on, this is such a poor effort at security for the customer. If this information fell into the wrong hands, my business could well be in danger. I also made a written request for my information to be sent by recorded delivery, and this was ignored.”
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Jennifer Raeburn, senior communications officer at IF, said: “In this instance we understand that Mr Barnett included a compliment slip, requesting this documentation was returned to him by recorded delivery, along with a signed Welcome Pack. Where we have been specifically asked to return such documentation by recorded delivery we always endeavour to do so. However, on this occasion the compliment slip was overlooked. We are extremely sorry for this oversight and appreciate the concern this caused. We have provided feedback to the manager of the individual concerned to ensure there is no repetition of the matter.
“To assist us, and in the interests of customer security, we promote certification of documents by qualified individuals, as this ensures there is no possibility of customers being inconvenienced or the possibility of documentation falling into the wrong hands. Security is of paramount importance to us and will be calling Mr Barnett to apologise personally.”
