Speaking to Mortgage Introducer, Hannah McCourt, mortgage adviser at Phoenix Mortgages, expressed her disappointment at treatment by Northern Rock. She said: “I have a client who is paid every two weeks and I calculated her annual salary by multiplying her fortnightly wage by 26. However, Northern Rock said it did not do this and subsequently reduced the loan amount. The calculation method its BDM said it used was to multiply the fortnightly pay by two, to give the monthly amount and then times that by 12, which gives a lesser amount.
“I was contacted at a later date, informing me that Northern Rock does not calculate clients salaries like that, but I received no apology from the BDM who calculated it wrongly.”
McCourt also added her disappointment at the length of time it took the lender to make the original decision. “Northern Rock received the client’s payslips on April 12, but didn’t make the decision until April 20. There was a bank holiday, but that was still four working days. Too long by my way of thinking.”
John Watson, operational director of corporate communications at Northern Rock, said: “Northern Rock transacts an enormous amount of business with brokers and prides itself in its service. In this instance it seems that there has been a misunderstanding that has taken longer than normal to resolve. I would like to apologise to the broker for the misunderstanding and the length of time it took to sort the issue out.”
