Getting no-where with Halifax mortgage complaint

[SA Gold]

Re: Getting no-where with Halifax mortgage complaint

Just out of interest who did you pay for the survey? Was the cheque made out to Colleys or HBOS? I was surprised to see that the FOS didn't question the fact you may not have entered into a contract with HBOS (unless you paid them direct). This would definitely be an issue if you took it to court. How can they breach a contract that doesn't exist

Hi PlanB,

Apologizes for not replying sooner - i did see your post at the time but then got side-tracked.
From memory the money was paid to HBOS.
Heard nothing back from FOS to date which i am hoping is good news?!

Many thanks,
Missy

[SA Gold]

Re: Getting no-where with Halifax mortgage complaint

Update: email from FOS saying they appreciate i made the choice of survey on the basis it would be sufficient and have asked for photo's of the damage (which i am sure they had originally) before coming to a decision.

Fingers crossed

Cheers
Missy

[PlanB]

Re: Getting no-where with Halifax mortgage complaint

Update: email from FOS saying they appreciate i made the choice of survey on the basis it would be sufficient and have asked for photo's of the damage (which i am sure they had originally) before coming to a decision.

I feel a U-Turn coming on

[SA Gold]

Re: Getting no-where with Halifax mortgage complaint

I feel a U-Turn coming on

and its thanks to you PlanB, nice one! Any tips before submitting the photo's?

[PlanB]

Re: Getting no-where with Halifax mortgage complaint

and its thanks to you PlanB, nice one! Any tips before submitting the photo's?

Are these photos of the water damage to the house before you rectified it? I'd be tempted to say use Photoshop but it's possible that the phantom surveyor took some photos when he was/wasn't on site so you might as well be honest Pick out the worst ones obviously, and any that make it plain this damage should have been easily noticed by a competent surveyor.

Do you have any *after* photos to show the difference as well?

[SA Gold]

Re: Getting no-where with Halifax mortgage complaint

Are these photos of the water damage to the house before you rectified it? I'd be tempted to say use Photoshop but it's possible that the phantom surveyor took some photos when he was/wasn't on site so you might as well be honest Pick out the worst ones obviously, and any that make it plain this damage should have been easily noticed by a competent surveyor.

Do you have any *after* photos to show the difference as well?

ha ha! Thats the good thing PB - the natural photos show what a mess it was before repair. I also have some after the repair, so they can see the difference.

[SA Gold]

Re: Getting no-where with Halifax mortgage complaint

FOS have received the photos and replied with:

Thanks for your email. I've just had a look at the photos. Please could you provide me with what your initial thoughts were on the damage before buying the property? I have to consider also whether or not you had any reason to be aware of the defect before buying.

Many thanks and I look forward to hearing from you.

Not sure if that is a trap in to admitting we were aware of problems (when we weren't). Any suggestions on what to reply with?

Thanks!

[PlanB]

Re: Getting no-where with Halifax mortgage complaint

FOS have received the photos and replied with:

Thanks for your email. I've just had a look at the photos. Please could you provide me with what your initial thoughts were on the damage before buying the property? I have to consider also whether or not you had any reason to be aware of the defect before buying.

Many thanks and I look forward to hearing from you.

Not sure if that is a trap in to admitting we were aware of problems (when we weren't). Any suggestions on what to reply with?

That's a tricky one for me since I haven't seen those photos. Do they show water cascading through the ceiling and puddles all over the floor which you could have hardly missed?

Or can you safely say you only visited the property once and it was dark (because it was the middle of winter) and since you're a well-brought-up young man (woman?) you didn't go poking around too much because the owners things were there (unless it was vacated due to the repo).

When you viewed the house you were only looking at it to decide whether it would make a suitable *home* for you and your 109 children. You knew that a professional survey would be carried out at the mortgage stage and you would be relying on that survey before making any final financial commitment to the purchase. And it was for precisely that reason that you bothered to study that boring Colleys' website in some detail and take screenshots of exactly what to expect from that survey including a roof void inspection (which is why you didn't climb up into the loft to make your own inspection on your visit of course)

Something like that?

[SA Gold]

Re: Getting no-where with Halifax mortgage complaint

Hi PlanB,
Many thanks for prompt reply!

I have attached the photos sent to FOS which will hopefully help.

I think paragraph 3 is good; we didn't notice anything untoward at the time of viewing the property although we are not "property experts" - we were relying on the Clowns at Colleys for that. It was also a nasty winter so things may have accelerated somewhat.

As you say, we were looking for a home for our (its 150 by the way ) children.

Thanks again.

[PlanB]

Re: Getting no-where with Halifax mortgage complaint

Blimey I hope you've changed the colour of the bedroom walls

My reaction to those pictures is that a qualified surveyor could hardly have missed the water damage to that ceiling which should have flagged up enough alarm bells to make him go up into the loft to fully investigate (like the website promised he would) and/or it should have been noted on that HBOS *survey* letter which you were sent and you should have been advised in that letter to get it checked out. Neither of those things happened and that's why you find yourself in this position. I genuinely think it should have been flagged up to you at that stage.

You could say that you did see a water stain on the ceiling when you viewed the house but you weren't overly concerned because when the HBOS *survey* came back there was no mention of it so you presumed the professional surveyor had checked it out and decided it wasn't a problem.

Perhaps he disregarded it as historical water damage from an old leak that had been fixed but the redecoration hadn't been carried out. But he was there to carry out a hands-on survey not make assumptions.

[PlanB]

Re: Getting no-where with Halifax mortgage complaint

It was also a nasty winter so things may have accelerated somewhat.

Don't plant any ideas in Miss FOS's head that the damage may have accelerated after the surveyor's visit and before you took those pictures

[SA Gold]

Re: Getting no-where with Halifax mortgage complaint

Excellent, thanks PlanB.

How about:

Thank you for your email.

I cannot recall anything untoward about the ceiling whilst viewing the property other than peeling, dated wallpaper and how i would need to change the paint scheme in all the rooms!
There was no access to the loft.

I do remember seeing condensation on the windows - something i was concerned about although that was mentioned in the report from Colleys and I feel the very reason our lower than asking price offer was accepted by the vendor.

[PlanB]

Re: Getting no-where with Halifax mortgage complaint

How about:

Thank you for your email.

I cannot recall anything untoward about the ceiling whilst viewing the property other than peeling, dated wallpaper and how i would need to change the paint scheme in all the rooms!
There was no access to the loft.

I do remember seeing condensation on the windows - something i was concerned about although that was mentioned in the report from Colleys and I feel the very reason our lower than asking price offer was accepted by the vendor.

Don't mention you were concerned about the condensation you saw because that sends out the signal you were quite capable of noticing defects and were having a thorough look around for any negatives. She'll say "well if you're savvy enough to notice the condensation on the windows how come you didn't notice the ceiling problem as well, since you were clearly having a serious look at the condition of the property?" .

And whatever you do don't tell her you got a low offer accepted. She may think in which case you got what you paid for (at a discounted price) so have not really lost anything.

This really is a case of less is more in a crucial email. You've got this far after an uphill struggle to get her to change her mind so your final email is the one which could make or break this for you.

The main message is you were only viewing the property as a possible home to live in, and you were relying totally on the surveyor to point out any potential defects on his visit. You're trying to shift the blame on to the surveyor.

I'll be back online again tomorrow to help you get this email word perfect

[PlanB]

Re: Getting no-where with Halifax mortgage complaint

There was no access to the loft.

If there was no access to the loft how do you expect the surveyor to have gone up there to have a look

[PlanB]

Re: Getting no-where with Halifax mortgage complaint

Hi PlanB, Many thanks for prompt reply!


I think paragraph 3 is good; we didn't notice anything untoward at the time of viewing the property although we are not "property experts" - we were relying on the Clowns at Colleys for that. It was also a nasty winter so things may have accelerated somewhat.

. . . . As you say, we were looking for a home for our children.

^^^^ if you think my paragraph 3 is good why didn't you put any of that in your email using your own words