Pommiebird

My hubby and I built our first home in late 2009. Our mortgage which we got thru Aussie was 95%. We asked when Aussie found us the loan could we, if needed go interest only ( we were planning another child) the answer was yes. When we got the mortgage contract we read it thoroughly and at no point did it say there we could NOT go interest only. We asked the morgage broker again before signing he still replied yes we could.

14 months down the track we called the mortgage broker to set up interest only, he did a few calculations told us how much we would save and then told us to call Aussie to sort it out as he was rather busy! We had no problems with that only to be told on the phone by Aussie we could not go interest only! We did not meet the criteria from the lender? Criteria...what criteria we were NEVER told of this. Aussie have repeatedly ignored our complaint that we feel misled and were never told the entire story (even after asking several times) We were told by Aussie there is NO where in our contract telling us this. Our broker should have explained it to us.

We have now put this in the hands of the mortgage ombudsmen, however have just been told that as nothing is in writing and if Aussie deny we ever had these conversations with them we do not have a leg to stand on!!

The lady from the Ombudsmen service said they they are our last port of call to help if they can't do anything no one can.

It seems very unfair that we were misled by Aussie and the product we signed up for for the next 25 years is not what we were led to believe - Had it been a TV or DVD player we would be able to change it, as its a mortgage it seems we are stuck with it.

Has anyone else been in the same boat? If so what did you do?

If you are looking for a mortgage at the moment be very wary of going with Aussie, they seem helpful but when push comes to shove they ignore there customers!

freebo

Just a couple of thoughts...

Can't you just change lenders, if there is one who will do the terms that you want? I'm sure there was recent legislation allowing folk to change their mortgage providers with no fee or reduced fees?

As far as I know the lenders can change their criteria whenever they like, although the bloke you dealt with at the broker probably just said whatever he needed to in order to get your business, highly unethical but it seems to happen a lot. Unless its in writing it may as well never have happened I'm afraid.

Pommiebird

Thanks....

Have tried that but no one is giving out 95% mortgages at the moment it seems!

AlliF

I might well be wrong (I would love to be in this case) but I think the change in legislation only applies to new loans taken out after it comes into force (some time later this year - July seems to stick in my head for some reason).
Also there seemed to be a general feeling that it wouldn't help because lenders would just bump up/impose establishment fees - meaning that if you are already have a mortgage then you are even worse off because not only will you still have to pay the exit fee but cough up the higher establishment fee for a new loan too

Sunshine7

Could you extend the length of your mortgage with your current provider, add a few years on? Not ideal, but at least it would bring your payments down for now.