There is now a company that is looking to chase mortgage brokers for mis-selling mortgages but it would have to be a proven case of selling to your detriment and not just something that you may not understand.
If there is a fee added to the mortgage then since 2005 this must be identified on your Key Facts Illustration for what it is and a description of this must be given in the fees section of ther KFI. No fees that are not listed on the mortgage will be charged on the mortgage loan (there are other independant fees that would not be listed). However, some mortgage brokers may have also created simple contracts between themselves and the client that can include a guarantees against cancellation of any insurance products. While this is not illegal or miselling it is not seen as good practice by the FSA.
So far as a broker adding a charge to a mortgage to reflect charging for his services - I would be highly doubtful if you could gain any kind of claim for this as any professional is entitled to charge for his services. You would not expect a painter or decorator to decorate your house and not charge you for it.
I would also say the same for a mortgage broker not setting up a mortgage for you till retirement. A broker may suggest not to take out a mortgage up to retirement if they feel that you could easily repay a mortgage in a shorter time and therefore save you potential thousands or even tens of thousands of pounds in interest repayments if you took the loan over a shorter time. Can you say you are poorly advised if a broker saved you £10,000 or £1,000 or even just £1. Whilst this can be good news it is also essentail the the broker lists this in his advice letter. But also let it be noted that a broker cannot just do what he thinks is right, if you totally disagree with him then he must do as you request but if he thinks that what you want to proceed with is potentially ill advised and detrimental to you financially from his point of view he will also note this in his advice letter even if only just to protect himself. You cannot lay blame on a broker who advised you not to do something but you did it anyway.
While I think that this is just going to be a round of ambulance chasing in 99% of cases it will give extra impetus to brokers to ensure that the advice that they give and even more so the recording of said advice is put in place in each and every case. The down side of this is that while banks rarely give advice and are now getting hard to pin down for blame because they now do not give advice it does mean that this round of ambulance chasing for some free money will mean that those who seek advice from a mortgage professional will see a steady rise in ths cost of this advice as the liability costs increase.
What it will all come down to and where 99% of all cases will fall down is goibng to be based on how the advice given was listed in the Suitability Letter. If they have explained their advice in this letter (they do not need to explain fees in this letter) and the advice stacks up with the mortgage that was offered then I would find it doubtful any claim could be made. If a claim was made and it was not listed in the letter then it would still need to be proven that this feature/fee./action/lack of advice was psecifically detrimental to the mortgage or could constitute mis-selling.
Like the ambulance chasing against the lenders of 2-3 years ago I think this again will come to nothing in most cases but I daresay there will always be someone who did a bad job and should be identified and held to account for it...and by doing so it will likely make the advice trade a safer place to approach for all potential mortgage holders
