In short: our fee is between £695 and £1,995 depending on your credit file and the complexity of your case. £200 of it is payable when you ask us to start your full application and is non-refundable once work begins. An additional charge of £10 applies for an electronic identity verification check. The balance is payable when your lender issues a mortgage offer, whether or not your purchase completes. There is no charge for a decision in principle. Full details are in section 5.
Adverse Mortgage Advisors is a trading name of AMA Financial Services Ltd. AMA Financial Services Ltd (“we”, “us”) is a mortgage broker specialising in helping people who may otherwise struggle to obtain a mortgage. Our address is International House, International Business Park, Charfleets Road, Canvey Island SS8 0PQ.
We are authorised and regulated by the Financial Conduct Authority (FCA), firm reference number 951303. You can check our details on the FCA Register at register.fca.org.uk. We treat all clients as retail clients, which gives you the highest level of regulatory protection, including the right to complain to the Financial Ombudsman Service.
We give regulated mortgage advice on home purchase, remortgage, consumer buy to let and second charge mortgages. We are not tied to a limited panel of lenders and recommend from across the market available to us. Our recommendation is made only after we have assessed your circumstances, needs and objectives.
We do not give legal advice, draft legal documents, or advise on the tax or investment aspects of a buy to let purchase. You should take that advice from a suitably qualified professional.
We may advise on life cover, critical illness cover, income protection or general insurance. Depending on your individual needs and circumstances, one of our advisers may discuss your insurance requirements with you, or we may refer you to an authorised adviser at another firm. It is important that you consider how you and your family would be financially protected if the worst happened. Where a referral is made, the adviser will contact you directly to discuss your needs. We normally receive commission from the insurance provider where a policy is arranged. You will not be charged a fee for any referral.
If your circumstances make it harder to deal with us or understand our advice, tell us and we will adapt how we work with you.
Please give us accurate, complete and up to date information about your circumstances and objectives and tell us about any changes while we are acting for you. Answer our questions honestly and to the best of your knowledge, because our advice depends on it. We only collect information relevant to your mortgage needs. Our Privacy Notice explains how we use it.
Our fee covers advice, research, recommendation and arranging your mortgage, including the application and administration. It depends on the complexity of your case. Once we have assessed your credit file, we will confirm in writing which category applies and the exact fee, before you pay anything.
There is no charge for assessing your credit report or obtaining a decision in principle, and you are under no obligation to proceed. The interest rate in a decision in principle is only secured once your full application has been submitted to the lender.
| Category | Fee | When it applies |
|---|---|---|
| Specialist or adverse credit | £1,995 | Your credit file shows any of these within the last 3 years: CCJs, defaults, missed mortgage payments, an IVA, bankruptcy, Debt Relief Order, Debt Arrangement Scheme or Trust Deed, or a Debt Management Plan running for less than 3 years. |
| Light adverse | £1,495 | No new adverse credit in the last 3 years. For example: CCJs or defaults recorded more than 3 years ago; no unsecured account more than 2 months in arrears in the last 12 months; an IVA or bankruptcy satisfied or discharged at least 3 years ago; or a Debt Management Plan running for 3 years with the most recent default at least 3 years old. |
| Standard remortgage with debt consolidation | £1,195 | A remortgage in our standard category where unsecured debt will be added to your mortgage. |
| Standard | £695 | No CCJs or defaults on your credit file and no more than 2 missed payments in the last 2 years. |
Our fee is paid in two stages:
Payable once you have a decision in principle and confirm you want us to proceed with a full application. It covers reviewing your documents, assessing your finances, lender research, preparing your application and the regulatory checks we must complete before we submit it.
We must complete electronic identity verification and anti-money laundering checks on every applicant. These are carried out by an external provider at a cost of £10 per applicant, collected with the Stage 1 payment.
Payable when the lender issues a formal mortgage offer, for advising on a suitable product, sourcing a lender and arranging your application through to the offer. For example, if the Specialist or adverse credit fee of £1,995 applies, £200 is paid at Stage 1 and the remaining £1,795 at Stage 2.
Once work has started, the Stage 1 fee and the identity verification fee are non-refundable. They remain payable whether your application goes to the lender or not, is declined, is withdrawn, or cannot proceed because of regulatory, compliance or lending issues found during our checks.
The Stage 2 fee is payable on issue of the mortgage offer and does not depend on your purchase completing. It remains payable if you decide not to proceed, your purchase falls through, your circumstances change, or the lender withdraws, cancels or amends the offer, including after further checks. Lenders may not tell us why. In each case we will already have done the work we were engaged to do.
We will not charge, and will refund, any fee where the problem was caused by our own error or our failure to follow the correct process.
If your offer has been issued, both stages have been paid and your purchase then falls through or you decide not to go ahead with it, you pay only £200 to submit a new application.
We must meet strict regulatory, legal and anti-financial-crime obligations. If our checks identify something that stops us progressing your case, we may stop acting for you immediately. We may be legally unable to explain why. Fees already incurred remain payable, subject to the paragraph above on our own errors.
We do not handle client money or cash. We only accept payment of our own fees; against an invoice we have issued. Our services are not currently subject to VAT. If that changes, we will tell you before doing any further work.
If a fee is unpaid 14 days after its due date, we may charge simple interest on the balance at 8% a year, accruing daily until it is paid. If we have to take legal action to recover unpaid fees, we may claim court fees and other costs where the law allows.
In addition to our fee, we normally receive commission from the lender when your mortgage completes. The amount varies by lender and product. It is paid by the lender and does not affect the interest rate or terms you are offered. You can ask us for the amount at any time, and it will also be shown in your personalised illustration or the lender’s documents.
Product transfers. We arrange product transfers for our clients at no charge. Please contact us before approaching your lender or another broker.
Returning clients. If your most recent mortgage was arranged by us, we waive our Advice and Broker Fee when you move home or remortgage, provided you apply before your initial deal period ends (shown on your mortgage offer) or within 6 months afterwards and have had no new adverse credit event since completion (for example a missed payment, default, CCJ, IVA, DRO, bankruptcy or repossession). You receive the same full advice as any other client. If we think you do not qualify, we will explain why in writing before you pay any fee.
Eligible clients pay only the £200 Initial Processing and Due Diligence Fee when they agree to proceed, plus £10 identity verification per applicant. These fees are non-refundable, including if a lender later declines your application or you choose not to proceed. The waiver does not apply to remortgages involving debt consolidation, where our standard fees apply.
If you arrange a mortgage or product transfer elsewhere without first using our service, your Returning Client status ends and our standard fees apply to future applications. If you contact us first and we are unable to arrange your product transfer, your status is unaffected. We may change or withdraw this benefit for future clients, but not for an application already in progress.
If you consolidate unsecured debts into your mortgage:
We will discuss these risks with you, and any recommendation will be based on your individual circumstances and objectives.
If you are working with another mortgage broker and want an independent assessment of your options, we offer a research-only service for £200, payable in advance. It covers a review of your credit files, an assessment of your income, research into potential lenders and an Agreement in Principle (AIP) based on the information you give us in a fact find.
This is not regulated mortgage advice, and we make no personal recommendation. An AIP does not guarantee a mortgage offer, because we do not assess bank statements or other supporting documents under this service. Your existing broker remains responsible for their own due diligence, suitability assessment, advice and application. Our involvement ends when we give you our findings and the AIP, and we accept no responsibility for their subsequent advice, application or actions.
If we cannot obtain an AIP, we refund your £200 in full. If we do obtain one, the fee is non-refundable whether or not you go on to proceed with a mortgage.
Conflicts of interest. If we become aware that our interests, or those of another client, conflict with yours, we will tell you, obtain your consent before continuing and explain how we will make sure you are treated fairly.
Cancellation rights. Cancellation rights depend on the product and will be explained during our advice process and in the provider’s documents. You must exercise them yourself and in good time. We cannot do this for you.
Lenders and other third parties. We deal only with reputable providers but cannot be responsible for their service, including delays. We will work to limit delays wherever we can.
Anti-money laundering. We must verify your identity at the start of our relationship and from time to time afterwards, including by electronic verification.
Call recording. We may record calls for training, quality and regulatory purposes.
We will provide our services with reasonable care and skill. We are not responsible for losses caused by information you give us that is incomplete, inaccurate or misleading, or for the delays, decisions or actions of lenders, insurers, solicitors, valuers or other third parties. Our liability is limited to losses that are a reasonably foreseeable result of our breach of duty.
Nothing in these terms excludes or limits our liability for death or personal injury caused by negligence, for fraud, or for anything that cannot lawfully be excluded. Nothing in these terms affects your rights under the FCA rules or your right to complain to the Financial Ombudsman Service.
If you are unhappy with our service or advice, please tell us:
Compliance Manager, AMA Financial Services Ltd, International House, International Business Park, Charfleets Road, Canvey Island SS8 0PQ
Telephone: 01268 794777 | Email: info@ama-fs.co.uk
We will acknowledge your complaint promptly, investigate it thoroughly and send you our final response within 8 weeks. If you are not satisfied with our final response, or we have not responded within 8 weeks, you may be able to refer your complaint to the Financial Ombudsman Service free of charge. You must do this within 6 months of the date of our final response.
Financial Ombudsman Service: Exchange Tower, London E14 9SR | Telephone: 0800 023 4567 | www.financial-ombudsman.org.uk
The Financial Ombudsman Service is an independent body that resolves disputes between consumers and financial services firms. If it decides you have been treated unfairly, it has the legal power to put things right.
We are covered by the FSCS. If we cannot meet our obligations, you may be entitled to compensation, depending on the type of business and the circumstances of your claim. For mortgage advice and arranging, the FSCS covers 100% of the first £85,000. Further information is available at www.fscs.org.uk.
These terms are governed by English law and the courts of England and Wales have jurisdiction, unless you live in Scotland or Northern Ireland, in which case you may also use your local courts.
Our relationship with you begins once you instruct us to proceed after completing our fact find and accepting these terms. By giving us your information and asking us to start work, you confirm that you have read, understood and agree to these terms, that we may share your information with lenders and other third parties where needed to arrange your mortgage, that lenders may carry out credit searches, and that you will pay our fees when they become due.
