As I embark on my journey of buying the first family home Im starting to feel somewhat let down by the whole process. I know people say its one of the 3 most stressful things you'll ever do in life - the other two being having a child and getting married but I already have a wee girl aged 5 months and to be honest its been a lot easier than I expected and certainly a lot easier than getting a mortgage with Future.
We basically decided before Christmas that we would try and buy a house due to the market being quite quiet. We went and saw a mortgage broker and were really only looking for a good deal. I have credit problems which limited the amount of companies that would touch us and we were also looking for 100% mortgage. The broker set a time and we went for a meeting to discuss the specifics. Being somewhat naive first time buyers we didnt really have any opinion of who the best company was on the market however having been to a major high street bank and getting an illustrative quote, we knew roughly how much our monthly payment should be. What we were told it would be with Future Mortgages wasnt much worse - maybe in the region of £20.00 per month which wasnt breaking the bank.
After what felt like decades with the Mortgage broker we signed the paperwork and left that day to a warm smile, a welcoming handshake and told "All you have to do now is find your house".
Within a week we had found our new home, the offer had been accepted and the mortgage process began. From the word go it was stressful beyond belief. We provided copies of bank statements, passports and wage slips. Future then came back asking for further documents, which
we sent right away. This was about the 3rd week in November. They came back on a further 6 or 7 occassions asking for more paperwork. To the extent where I was waiting for them to come back and ask for blood as proof that we were human. The asked for every document you could possibly imaging but rather than ask for it all at once they spread their requests over a fortnight. Which meant I was getting up for work (I work nightshift) spending an hour scanning documents, neglecting my family in order that these papers get to them. At one point I sent 13 different documetns in the same email!!!!
The mortgage they provided us was 100% and it was the first time that they themselves had done 100% mortgages on the market. Naturally everyone and there granny with a bit of bad debt who didnt have a deposit wanted one and so they decided that they would shut up shop from December the 9th and put their 100% on hold because they couldnt deal with the workload they had. Fantastic we thought, all our paperwork (finally) was in before the cut off, we had our offer on the house accepted and all we had to do was get the mortgage offer and we were home and dry. We were told by them we'd have our offer before Christmas. So we thought "fantastic", we can enjoy our little girls 1st Christmas no stress, no hastle!!! Not a chance!
Chrismtas came and went and we spoke to them on the 28th December and they said we'd have the offer in the next few days. New year came and went and we were told "any day now". By this point we were getting haslte from the sellers solicitor via our own solicitor to conclude missives (basically sign the contract) and commit to buy the property, which we were uncomfortable doing because there was no offer and it would appear no sign of one. We were on the phone on a daily basis by this point to try and find out where the offer was. They then told us, about the 9th January that they were still working applications from before the 9th December and couldnt give us a guarantee of when we would get it. By this point we wre both ripping our hair out and all the stress meant that we were falling out and there was always an atmosphere in our house. We also got a call later on on the 9th from the estate agents and told that if we hadnt conlcuded the contract by the 10th they were preparing the paperwork to put the house back on the market! We were in a check mate because they had told us the same day that they couldnt even tell us when or if our application had been worked.
The solicitor stepped in at this point and sent them a fax telling them it was essential that the offer be sent asap. This fell on deaf ears and after 2 days of being assured it's being worked right this minute there was still no mortgage offer. Come the friday we finally had our offer - no one else had came in to buy the house so all was saved. So we thought!!! The mortgage offer was over £10,000 short of what we had been told we would get. Their reason was that their must have been a miscalculation by the mortgage broker! Who cares I was £10,000 short for our mortgage. We had already phoned our land lord 3 weeks prior to give them standard notice that we wouldnt be renewing our contract come the 29th January so we were effectively homeless come this point if the mortgage fell through.
Now bear in mind this had been gonig on since the 2nd/3rd week in November when we went and seen the house and had our offer accepted. We tried the hard line with Future by telling them that us and our 5 month old daughter were effectively homeless if they didnt get this all sorted! Who cares was basically the attitude I got from the girl on the phone!!!
Anyway we finally had to get a loan of the £10000 from a family member and the contrat was signed but with no thanks or help from Future Mortgages. The worrying part is that Ive not made my first mortgage payment yet and the funds arent due to be paid to the solicitor until Wednesday and Im totally stressed out that they'll screw that up to!
Further to that I sent the mortgage offer back to them signed on Monday in the reply paid, first class, freepost envelope they sent me with the offer. I phoned them this morning to see if they had received it and they said if i returned it in that envelope it couldnt be posted to them and would be returned by Royal Mail to me in the next 10 days! So why put the envelope in to start with. They then decided that in fact they had received it and at one point the girl I was on the phone with started having a conversation with one of her colleagues (or fellow Circus Monkey - whatever you want to call them) whilst I was on the phone and I actually had to say "You realise that Im a customer and your on the phone to me!!?
I'll tell anyone this - no matter how bad your credit or how desperate you are for a mortgage - save up for another year, get yourself a deposit and widen the variety of companies that will give you a mortgage so that your field of view doenst include Future Mortgages. When our 2 years fixed term is up im shifting my mortgage to another company at the first opportunity - however Im sure we'll have lots more stress and problems with them in the next 2 years.
And on a slightly more happy note - our Mortgage Broker and Financial Advisor have alrady started the official complaints procedure with the FSA due to their practices. So hopefully it'll be the kick they need! Watch this space......
All you have to do is look at the other reviews on here and you'll get my point. Im just worried about all the other people out there who applied for their first home with Future - spoils the whole process. I just want to get moved in, pay them the monthly payments and get rid of them in 2 years. Avoid like the plague.........PS their website doesn work and you cant access any information online
How helpful would this review be to a person making a buying decision? Rating guidelines
Advantages: To be fair I am finding it hard to thing of one. Disadvantages: Customer service is bad. Promises not kept. Do not solve queries or communicate.
Symbol0683 21.12.2005 ·
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Ciao members have rated this review on average: very helpful
Review of Future Mortgages
Jan 19th, 2006
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