100% sales valuation accuracy
0% sales fee satisfaction
Aug 27,2015
Aug 27,2015
15
people found
this helpful
this helpful
If anyone out there is thinking of applying for a mortgage, my advice to them would be do not go anywhere near Allen & Harris (aka 'Sequence'), or it will end up costing you a lot of money,, and chances are you still won't get a mortgage, but they will fully exploit the inexperienced first time buyers. It's what they excel at.
They charge a 'lifetime brokerage' fee of approximately £650, then they talk you into buying life insurance, home insurance, a will, etc, and all at almost three times the price of what these financial products cost from other companies. They also apply scare tactics, claiming that if you don't purchase these policies it will prove so much more difficult to obtain a mortgage, while never once explaining that these policies are available elsewhere at a fraction of the price.
Both first time buyers in our early 20's, we were initially told that our mortgage application had been accepted on principal by a major high street bank, and were even phoned one night at 9.30 pm by the Allen & Harris sales rep, who demanded that we make sure that the £650 brokerage fee was in our bank account as she'd been trying to take it out and there wasn't enough funds available (very professional, right?). We had a prearranged with them a date for the 'broker's fee' to be paid, but for some reason this Allen & Harris rep was accessing our account late in the evening and phoning us to insist that we transfer the funds right there and then. We said we would transfer the funds from our savings account the next morning, but she insisted it be done immediately. We were actually asleep at the time and had to get out of bed to do an online transfer between our bank accounts.
Once Allen & Harris had then secured from us their 'lifetime' broker's fee along with their commission from their extortionately priced financial products, they then phoned with us the bad news that they couldn't secure us that particular mortgage after all, claiming that it was something to do with a very small sum of undisclosed credit that we hadn't mentioned on our application form (which was actually a t-shirt from an online catalogue that we'd told her about). I then then phoned the bank in question, whose representative actually laughed out loud at this suggestion, and confirmed for us that it may have been simply because as young first time buyers we were considered too high risk, and that other banks would probably accept us.
But Allen & Harris had even worse news (now that they'd had several hundred pounds off us), and it was that they felt they would probably no longer be able to secure us a mortgage - any mortgage - but they'd be keeping the 'lifetime broker's' fee, as who knows, maybe at some point in the dim, distant future they might consider us an acceptable risk for a mortgage. The mind boggles. Who knows what the future holds? Anyone's circumstances could change over time.
After being soundly discouraged by Allen & Harris from continuing to pursue a mortgage through them, we learned from the experience and started to do things the right way. First, we stopped taking 'advice' from Allen & Harris (they'd apparently washed their hands of us by then anyway -so much for their 'lifetime broker's' fee) and we then approached the high street banks on our own.
The very first bank we approached approved our mortgage application within a few days (apparently our credit rating was more than acceptable), and we've now moved into our new home.
Allen & Harris, even though they did not adhere to what they said they would do for us as per the terms of their contract, still refused to refund our broker's fee. It appears that in their moral universe it's perfectly acceptable to take hundreds of pounds off customers and then do virtually nothing for them. But that's not in the least surprising, as in my opinion the only thing this despicable company were ever trying to 'break' was our hopes and our will to continue with the process.
I have since reported them to both Trading Standard and the Financial Ombudsman, and I would warn any prospective home buyers that they should not - under any circumstances - go anywhere near this despicable company, as all they're looking to do is line their own pockets at your expense. And they don't care how they do it.
They charge a 'lifetime brokerage' fee of approximately £650, then they talk you into buying life insurance, home insurance, a will, etc, and all at almost three times the price of what these financial products cost from other companies. They also apply scare tactics, claiming that if you don't purchase these policies it will prove so much more difficult to obtain a mortgage, while never once explaining that these policies are available elsewhere at a fraction of the price.
Both first time buyers in our early 20's, we were initially told that our mortgage application had been accepted on principal by a major high street bank, and were even phoned one night at 9.30 pm by the Allen & Harris sales rep, who demanded that we make sure that the £650 brokerage fee was in our bank account as she'd been trying to take it out and there wasn't enough funds available (very professional, right?). We had a prearranged with them a date for the 'broker's fee' to be paid, but for some reason this Allen & Harris rep was accessing our account late in the evening and phoning us to insist that we transfer the funds right there and then. We said we would transfer the funds from our savings account the next morning, but she insisted it be done immediately. We were actually asleep at the time and had to get out of bed to do an online transfer between our bank accounts.
Once Allen & Harris had then secured from us their 'lifetime' broker's fee along with their commission from their extortionately priced financial products, they then phoned with us the bad news that they couldn't secure us that particular mortgage after all, claiming that it was something to do with a very small sum of undisclosed credit that we hadn't mentioned on our application form (which was actually a t-shirt from an online catalogue that we'd told her about). I then then phoned the bank in question, whose representative actually laughed out loud at this suggestion, and confirmed for us that it may have been simply because as young first time buyers we were considered too high risk, and that other banks would probably accept us.
But Allen & Harris had even worse news (now that they'd had several hundred pounds off us), and it was that they felt they would probably no longer be able to secure us a mortgage - any mortgage - but they'd be keeping the 'lifetime broker's' fee, as who knows, maybe at some point in the dim, distant future they might consider us an acceptable risk for a mortgage. The mind boggles. Who knows what the future holds? Anyone's circumstances could change over time.
After being soundly discouraged by Allen & Harris from continuing to pursue a mortgage through them, we learned from the experience and started to do things the right way. First, we stopped taking 'advice' from Allen & Harris (they'd apparently washed their hands of us by then anyway -so much for their 'lifetime broker's' fee) and we then approached the high street banks on our own.
The very first bank we approached approved our mortgage application within a few days (apparently our credit rating was more than acceptable), and we've now moved into our new home.
Allen & Harris, even though they did not adhere to what they said they would do for us as per the terms of their contract, still refused to refund our broker's fee. It appears that in their moral universe it's perfectly acceptable to take hundreds of pounds off customers and then do virtually nothing for them. But that's not in the least surprising, as in my opinion the only thing this despicable company were ever trying to 'break' was our hopes and our will to continue with the process.
I have since reported them to both Trading Standard and the Financial Ombudsman, and I would warn any prospective home buyers that they should not - under any circumstances - go anywhere near this despicable company, as all they're looking to do is line their own pockets at your expense. And they don't care how they do it.
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Latest Reviews
27th Aug 2015
reviewed by 'Jrlan'
20th May 2013
reviewed by 'David'
Opening Hours
Address
Allen & Harris
26 West George Street
Kilmarnock
East Ayrshire
KA1 1ER
01563 501030
Performance statistics
| Services | Valuation Accuracy | Fees Satisfaction | Min Price of property reviewed | Max Price of property reviewed |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Sales | 100% | 0% | £0 | £0 |
Review statistics
| From Landlords | From Tenants | From Vendors | From Buyers | Other | |||||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 2 |
Areas covered
Services offered
- Sales
- Lettings
- Block Management
- Surveys
- Conveyancing
- Mortgage Advice
- Home Builder
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Aug 27,2015
Aug 27,2015
15
people found
this helpful
this helpful
If anyone out there is thinking of applying for a mortgage, my advice to them would be do not go anywhere near Allen & Harris (aka 'Sequence'), or it will end up costing you a lot of money,, and chances are you still won't get a ...
read full review
read full review
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Yes
May 20,2013
May 20,2013
7
people found
this helpful
this helpful
We submitted a bid for a flat at £38k which was accepted, we went into the branch on the Friday at 16:00 to get the mortgage in place. We were told there was a fee of £399 which would be a lifetime fee, any other properties or ...
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read full review
What agent could do to change your mind?
We should have been told at the point of mortgage application in detail that if the deal falls through tomorrow you are liable for ‚£399 for starting the mortgage process.I would have done it myslef, at the point we were told there is a ‚£399 fee for setting up the mortgage which is common as the estate agents can get better deals on occasions. They should not have lied when they knew a higher bid was coming in or had came in after accepting our bid. If they wanted to take the higher bid which i would have no problem with they should not be charging me ‚£399 for doing so.Attached Filesnbsp;
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