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Bad Mortgage Advice? You might have a claim.

It is important that when dealing with something as important as your mortgage that you receive suitable advice from a qualified financial advisor.

In this article we talk about mortgage introducers, and how we can help if you think you might have suffered from negligent advice about your mortgage.

1. How do I know if an ‘introducer’ went beyond introducing and was giving me advice?

There are a wide range of introducers who carry out the roles of brokers and introduce people into unsuitable and often unaffordable mortgages which can then leave the individual in serious trouble.

If an introducer is spending a lot of time looking at your personal finances and explaining that they think this particular mortgage provider is great for you, then this is likely to be classed as stepping over the line into advising.

2. Why is it important that the person who provided me with advice was regulated?

Arranging and advising are classified as regulated activities under the Financial Services Markets Act 2000. This means that if someone in the financial services introduces you to a mortgage company, they must be regulated with the Financial Conduct Authority (FCA).

The Financial Conduct Authority Handbook contains an important set of rules and guidelines for regulated financial advisors and regulated mortgage brokers to follow, with the hope that any financial advice provided to you is suitable and appropriate for your needs and circumstances. It is unlikely that someone not regulated by the Financial Conduct Authority will be familiar with these rules and therefore they may not follow them.

3. How do I know who my financial advisor was?

It is very important for you to realise, especially as you may well be dealing with many different people when you are purchasing a mortgage, who those individuals are and what each of them are supposed to do. You may be surprised to find that the individual with whom you had the best relationship and talked most to was not in fact your financial advisor but an unregulated introducer.

Ordinarily, you would assume that your financial advisor would be the one doing most of the work, talking to you on a daily or weekly basis, and making sure that everything is running smoothly. However, this may not be the case.

There are cases where the role of the financial advisor is in fact incredibly small and simply limited to turning up and providing brief financial advice in order that the unregulated broker and the mortgage company can say that you received this, when in fact you did not.

4. What does the ‘introducer’ have to gain from this?

These brokers can go on to receive high fees for introducing you, which can be added to the mortgage sum for you to pay off. There are no requirements on them whatsoever to adhere to the Mortgage Conduct and Business Rules in the Financial Conduct Authority Handbook.

5. Who can help me if I think I have received negligent financial advice?

If you are worried that your mortgage may have been negligently mis-sold to you, then you should seek legal assistance as soon as possible. Please conduct Alex Williams by email at enquire@bbc-law.co.uk or by telephone on 01273 604123 to book your initial consultation.

Alex Williams

Alex works in professional negligence, contentious probate, and court of protection litigation. He also has a particular specialism in negligence claims in the financial services sector, including cases against financial advisers and pension providers relating to negligent mis-selling and mismanagement of both pensions and investments.

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