If you are a landlord whose portfolio includes properties bought prior to 2008, you could be owed thousands of pounds in compensation if you were mis-sold a mortgage by your broker. In a time when the need for transparency in the dealings of financial services with the public has become clear to us all, the mis-selling of mortgages by brokers (who were the main conduit for this service until 2008) is finally being addressed with a compensation pot running into hundreds of thousands of pounds.

The grounds for claim are wide-ranging and it is believed that a significant number of people who arranged mortgages through a broker pre 2008 are due compensation. To qualify for a claim you must be able to demonstrate that you were subject to one of the following irregularities:

• Hidden broker and packager fees;
• Unfair and illegal charges;
• High lending fees;
• Arrangement fees;
• Early redemption charges;
• Unfair repossessions;
• Mortgage Payment Protection Insurance;
• Miscalculation of fees and AP;
• Or that you were sold a product unsuitable to you needs and circumstances

As with most financial contracts the devil is in the detail of these claims, and undertaking the work required to demonstrate that you were mis-sold a mortgage is a time-consuming and potentially confusing process. Specialising in buy-to-let mortgage compensation claims, Unfair Credit Direct is regulated by the Ministry of Justice and has so far processed hundreds of successful and substantial claims.

The claims are dealt with by our team of barristers who work through a three-stage claim process, which determines both the veracity and the extent of each claim. This is especially important to those seeking to claim from the buy-to-let sector where property portfolios tend to lead to complicated and multiple claims. The upside is that these kinds of claims frequently lead to substantial compensation payments, for example a recent buy-to-let client received a six-figure sum in compensation for mis-sold mortgages across the entire portfolio.

The first stage of the claims process can be understood as ‘the investigation’. In accordance with the Data Protection Act, our barristers will obtain full disclosure from your lender. This means that the lender must send us all the information pertinent to your case including, all applications, actual agreements, full payment structure, underwriting sheet and all other relevant information including any payments made to brokers and packagers

The second stage is the review, where our barristers (who also have access to specialist software) will review your claim based upon the paperwork supplied. Our chartered accountants will then complete a full 5-stage forensic audited report. The findings will be assessed and sent to the lender in the form of a legal report.

The final stage involves the settlement of the actual claim. After submission of our report to the lenders we await the response from the lender to establish whether they are going to challenge the findings or proceed to court to establish the level of compensation to be paid. In either circumstance we continue to act for our clients using the court to either prove the claim for our client or as a way of establishing the best settlement for them. Compensation claims are made up of the actual claim figure, damages and statutory interest at 8%.

In a time when every penny counts more than ever for most businesses, it is important that limited cash-flow does not determine who can make a claim when they have been treated unfairly. Our legal team will look at your case free of charge initially and furthermore we offer a money back guarantee on any fees paid, giving client reassurance that they will not be left out of pocket and that we only take on cases we are confident of winning.