Getting no-where with Halifax mortgage complaint

[SA Gold]

Re: Getting no-where with Halifax mortgage complaint

Hi PlanB,
Thanks for posting.

makes no mention of the photos which support your argument that there was plenty of other evidence to alert the surveyor to a roof leak. In fact he makes no reference to the photos whatsoever even though the Adjudicator asked to see them as evidence.

I can't help but feel this is a crucial part of the complaint which is being ignored. They were quick enough to ask, and then moan about no date (without asking) and then not mention them when its blatently obvious there were issues above.

This begs the question why did the Halifax send you the document if you're expected to ignore it. I expect the Halifax would say that's because you have the right to know what they have based their lending decision on because sometimes they don't lend the full amount or require a 'retention' of funds until remedial work is carried out. There have also been a number of cases where borrowers have sued lenders whose surveyors have overvalued their properties which they only find out when they come to sell, so lenders tend to tell you upfront how they got to the decision.

I agree. When i received the letter i looked on the FOS site and amazed at the number of people who have been awarded, so have to assume its not an office full of people telling people to piss off and stop complaining.

Is this the end of the road? My honest answer is "yes"

If you say its the end of the road, then i accept that is how it is and would like to thank you for all your help with this.

I do think you should reject the Ombudsman's decision and consider a complaint on "Service Levels" through the Independent Assessor since he disregarded your photo evidence in his report (and possibly other bits and bobs). The IA can award compensation for poor service levels. Give it some thought before you go down that route. You've got three months to do this following a complaint to the FOS first:

http://www.financial-ombudsman.org.u..._reference.htm

I will do this if you think you would have the time to pop in to review my correspondance now and again as i often think i have coverered everything - until i read your reply and see how crap mine is!

Now let me give you my personal view with a little bit of Devil's Advocate thrown into the mix. I'm doing this to make you feel better about your house purchase and hopefully help you to see the bigger picture.

You bought a repossession for a bit below market value because they wanted a quick sale. You then got the agreed price reduced further because of some defects. The Halifax were happy to lend the full mortgage you requested based on the surveyor's valuation. Therefore the house must have been worth what you paid for it at the time including the dodgy roof/ceiling.

Ask yourself whether you would have cancelled the purchase if you had known that there would be £1k of work to be done on the roof/ceiling. Probably not. From what you say the house was in a poor condition which is why you still haven't moved into it a year after buying it. There were lots of things which needed fixing up first.

We've argued that the surveyor could hardly have missed the water stain on the ceiling, but the same could be said of you since you visited the house before buying it. I expect a court would tell you caveat emptor or "let the buyer beware" and reject your claim outright with case law to back this up:

http://www.law.cornell.edu/wex/caveat_emptor

So just remind yourself how excited and happy you were to bag the property which you said was to be your "home" not any old house to make a profit in your original thread.

http://forums.all-about-debt.co.uk/s...l=1#post247056


Then cheer yourself up by knowing that the Halifax had to pay £500 to the FOS to carry out the investigation so in some ways you've got your revenge. You may still get comp from the FOS for poor service levels too.

Thanks Devil's Advocate - you have just cheered me up on the whole saga and put everything in to perspective!
Yes, i feel pissed off spending over £1000 on roof repairs but the excitement overwhelmed us; we could have slowed things down a little and got others oppinons on the property. That said, you have hit the nail on the head: we saw it, liked it immediately, everything we wanted from a house and garden it had so would have ended up putting an offer if aliens were landing on the lawn every morning!

Right, i am off to draw a list up on how the Mrs can re-pay me the £1000. Im a reasonable man, so happy to take repayment in the forms of:

Cold Belgium beer brought to me in the bath - every night and lots of it. Temperature is crucial so anything outside my desired threshold will be rejected.
Lots of dressing up
Breakfast in bed
No moaning (only whilst dressing up!)
Just generally being at my beck and call



Thanks again
SA Gold