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“Unbelieveable mortgage disaster”

written by Ricky233 on 02/05/2014

My partner already had a mortgage with HSBC so when we made an offer on another house and sold ours, we already knew we would stay with them so as not to incur an early repayment charge.

HSBC have been nothing but a disaster from the outset. The first problem we had was that once we had our mortgage in principle they asked for a multitude of documents but were not able to ask all in one go, we had to go in to the branch with something different and then when we called to check progress they would decide they needed something else. We went through the standard stuff, and then on to financial references and finally pension projections. Why they couldn't have reviewed our paperwork properly to start with and realised this would all be necessary upfront I don't know. It took over 4 weeks from the offer being accepted to get the survey arranged and 5 weeks for the survey to be done. Our seller grew increasingly frustrated with this and thought we were dragging our feet and decided to put the house back on the market to register any interest in case we fell through.

We had our mortgage offer made, although they had decided our rate had expired and that we now needed to agree a new rate.

We then went through a quiet patch where we thought everything was going ahead, and in all our correspondence with HSBC everything seemed like it was all heading in the right direction. They were not a good company to liaise with because their call centres are outsourced and we would be passed from person to person. We then started getting told that our application had been halted because documents were missing or that there was other paperwork we hadn't signed.

All of these documents had been returned in full into the branch weeks prior which was eventually established.

It then came to our exchange date, and after our solicitor receiving the relevant documents from HSBC and drawing up all the necessary paperwork, he called the bank to check the transfer of the full funds was imminent. They said that in our case the mortgage application was actually closed, and nothing further was due to go ahead according to their records.

We were utterly stunned by this revelation as we had seen the legal documents from HSBC hours prior to this. We spent all evening on the phone desperately trying to get sense from someone about what had happened and no one could assist us. After going into branch to discuss the matter the next and spending upwards of 10 hours on the phone to no one of any particular use, the bank admitted fault in closing the mortgage application and the branch issued a letter to confirm this as we knew our seller would not be happy and we would need a convincing explanation, with completion due less than a week away.

HSBC are currently saying that the error was due to something system related, however we are now looking at a full reapplication in order to get the mortgage and effectively, starting from square one. Looking at least a months delay we are now just praying our entire sale won't fall through. We moved out of our place nearly a month ago to get our sale done and alleviate chain related delays and are currently staying with my partners parents but we are all stunned by the service from a bank which in theory, gives out mortgages every day and should be able to do this without completely mucking everything up.


We suspect it may have something to do with new mortgage regulations however intend to fully appeal the case and will be taking this up with the financial ombudsman if this is not suitably resolved. This includes recovering any costs incurred by their mistake.


Do not get a mortgage from HSBC, they will not honour the rates that attract you in but because the application takes so long, by the time they tell you this you will be so desperate to continue you will accept anyway.

They are a shambles and we will warn everyone we know looking for a mortgage and ensure that HSBC loses as much business as humanly possible from their horrendous conduct and disgusting service.