Life Financial Services

No good
Feb 26th, 2020

Mar 24th, 2019

Great
Oct 20th, 2018

Paul Read was our broker and it was a pleasure to work with him. He worked late into the evenings and weekends to get our mortgage in place, was always available to answer questions and dealt with any issues promptly. Getting your first mortgage is stressful but Paul talked me through it all and got the job done! Many thanks.
Dec 30th, 2017

I used Life Financial services when purchasing my first home. I went with Life Financial Services as I was basically bullied in to doing so by the estate agent (Chancellors of Reading). The agents at Chancellors insisted there was a second offer on the table and said using their in house broker (who worked for Life Financial Services) would see the seller accept my offer instead of the other bidder's (although I doubt there ever actually was another bidder...) This was frustrating as I already had a mortgage AIP in place with a rate of 1.13% with Yorkshire Building Society, as well as my own conveyance solicitor and survey company. Never the less, I was assured the "in house" broker would use their expertise to get a better deal and, more importantly, would allow the purchase to go through smoothly. The biggest bonus being that they could update the estate agent on progress of the mortgage (as they all worked in the same office). All I wanted was a fast and smooth purchase so I agreed to use them and my offer was accepted. I paid just under 400 to use Life Financial Services. What I got was: (i) a mortgage at 1.74% (which cost me over 1000 more over the 2 yr term than the mortgage AIP I already had). (ii) The apparent smooth process I was promised also didn't appear to exist. I would get emails and calls from the estate agent asking what was going on with the mortgage application and why it was taking so long; questions I had myself! Questions which surely should have been directed to the broker in the same office- which was the whole basis on why I went with them in the first place! (iii) I would reply to all correspondence they sent me and return all signed paperwork within 48hrs. However, as the process went on, they became slower and slower to respond to my correspondence. (iv) I already had a pre purchase survey arranged through an independent company. However, my broker insisted they could arrange a survey for me for a significantly cheaper price. This seemed like a no brainer so I agreed for them to sort the survey on my behalf. However, despite me requesting the survey be completed five 5 times by email and several other times by phone (over a period of 3 months), the survey was never organised for me. I eventually ended up going back to the independent company I had originally planned to use and they ended up doing the survey for me- which revealed major defects (subsidence) at the property. I have my own theories that the brokers knew about this and deliberably and maliciously obstructed me in getting this survey done... To top it all, off once the mortgage was approved (which took 4 weeks longer than it should have taken) they sent me an email invoice, immediately took the money from my bank account then never responded to any further emails I sent. Avoid like the plague!
Dec 24th, 2020