Halifax criticised for client contact

Jonathan Barnett, of All Mortgage Matters, claimed that the lender had sent his customer a confirmation of application when a Key Facts Illustration (KFI) had been requested. He claimed that he requested the KFI to be sent to his office but it was sent to the client instead, along with the confirmation of application.

This led to the customer sending Barnett an angry e-mail concerning what he was doing, and assumed that the broker had been working behind his back. The client then called Halifax to cancel the deal altogether.

Barnett said: “A new procedure has been adopted that will cause all sorts of confusion and my client is now too embarrassed to come back. The documentation that was sent out is confusing for consumers and what I want to know is, is Halifax going to compensate me? Times are difficult enough at the moment and I can’t afford to lose customers. The intermediary supplies the KFI to their customer and the lender shouldn’t even be talking to them.”

A spokesperson for Halifax said: “First and foremost we are sorry for any inconvenience caused. We would never normally contact a borrower directly on a broker-introduced case. This is not our policy. Only once a full application is received would we normally issue a copy of the offer to both the broker and the customer. We would need to look into this case to establish exactly what has happened, we will happily do this if the intermediary is able to provide a roll number.”

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