Playbook, mortgage broker
Two payments on one case, and only one arrives as a document
A broker is paid twice on a completed case, once by the client where the firm charges a fee and once by the lender, and only the first of those ever turns into an invoice. That asymmetry is the whole of this page. The client is looking at a document for money they are being asked to pay, usually before they have keys, while the larger question in their head is about the payment they cannot see and were told about once, in a sentence they have forgotten reading.
Why this is not the general answer
The handling pattern for billing and invoices holds across every trade. What follows is the part that does not.
- At many firms the invoice is raised when the mortgage offer is issued rather than on completion, so a client is asked to pay while the purchase could still collapse, and the timing is what prompts the message rather than the amount.
- The lender pays a procuration fee on completion which appears on nothing the client receives, and yet the firm is obliged to have told them it exists, so the honest answer confirms a payment the client has no paperwork for.
- A client who paid something at application and something else at offer is looking at two charges against one case and cannot tell which document covers which, particularly when only one of them was invoiced.
- Nothing on the invoice is a mortgage cost: the lender's own charges are settled through the lender or rolled into the loan, so the firm's bill is smaller than expected and gets read as part of a larger one that never arrives.
How it arrives
- why have you invoiced me before we completed
- what is a procuration fee and who pays it
- do i pay you and the lender separately
- i have paid two amounts what were they both for
- does your fee show on the mortgage illustration
- can i settle your invoice on completion instead
What has to be indexed for this to work
| Your invoice, and the event that triggers it | Whether it is raised at application, at offer or at completion, and what the client is being charged for at that point. Name the event rather than a stage of the purchase, because a client measures everything against moving day. |
|---|---|
| The disclosure wording for what a lender pays you | One plain paragraph a client can read, saying that the lender pays the firm on completion and roughly how that works. Write it to be quoted, since the assistant will quote it, and a compliance sentence lifted out of a document reads as concealment. |
| How your charge appears on the applicant's illustration | Where in the document it sits and how it is labelled, so somebody comparing an invoice against an illustration can find the same figure twice. Most billing queries here are somebody failing to reconcile two documents. |
| Who answers a query about a raised invoice, and who can vary one | The route for a client who thinks the amount or the timing is wrong, and the fact that varying a fee is a decision for the firm rather than for the adviser on the phone. Keep it separate from your complaints route. |
The reply
There are two payments on a case and they work differently. Our own fee is invoiced at the point set out in your fee agreement, which for most clients is when the mortgage offer is issued rather than at completion [1]. Separately, the lender pays us a procuration fee once the case completes, which is why you will never receive an invoice for it, and we tell every client it exists [2]. Our charge is also shown on the illustration you were given. I cannot open your invoice or see what has been paid, so if the amount or the date looks wrong, leave your name, your email and the invoice reference and the person who raised it will go through it.
It answers the timing objection before the amount, because the message is nearly always prompted by receiving a bill early rather than by the figure on it. Disclosing the lender payment unprompted is stronger than confirming it when asked, since a client who discovers it later reads it as something the firm was hiding. The refusal asks for an invoice reference rather than for the client to retype the figures.
Where it stops
The trigger. The visitor quotes an invoice number, an amount or a payment date, says they have been charged twice, or asks for the invoice to be reissued, held or written off.
I cannot see any invoice, any payment or your case, so I would only be guessing at that. Leave your name, your email and the invoice reference and the person who raised it will look at it properly.
It stops answering before it guesses, says who will pick it up, and asks for the one thing that makes a reply possible. Nothing about it reads as a dead end.
Never say this here
Out of bounds
- Never state what has been paid, what is outstanding or when a payment cleared, because the assistant has no view of any ledger and no view of any case.
- Never say the fee will be moved, reduced or written off, which is a decision for the firm under the agreement the client signed.
- Never deny or play down the payment the lender makes, since it is disclosed for a reason and a client who feels it was hidden goes to a complaint next.
- Never answer a question about the loan itself from an invoice, because what somebody could borrow and what a rate is are not on that document and are not the assistant's to give.
Questions
- Can it tell a client whether their invoice has been paid?
- No. It has no connection to accounts, banking or case management, cannot look a client up and cannot see a payment. It explains when the invoice is raised and what it covers, then hands the specific query to whoever issued it.
- Is it wise to have it mention what the lender pays us?
- It is safer than the alternative. The obligation to disclose does not go away because a client is asking about something else, and a firm that states it plainly in ordinary language is in a far better position than one whose assistant went quiet on the subject.
- Clients keep asking to pay on completion. Should it offer that?
- Only if the firm publishes it as an option. Improvising payment terms against an invoice already raised commits the firm to something nobody agreed, and the request usually arrives from a client whose case is under strain, which is a conversation for a person.
Keep reading
- Everything for a mortgage brokerProcess, documents and fees are safe to automate. Rates go stale fast and affordability cannot be answered generically.
- Handling billing and invoices in generalInvoice copies, tax numbers, purchase order references. Nearly all of it is account specific, so the honest handling is process plus a clean handover.
- A client wants to stop, and the offer is already on the tableAn offer carries an expiry date and a conveyancer is holding a completion date. Withdrawing touches three parties and reaches none of them from here.
- Three complaints arrive on one website and one of them is yoursA declined application, a low valuation and slow service are three complaints with three destinations, and only one of them is the firm's.
- Open until eight, and nothing can be submitted after fiveAdvisers take evening calls after the lender desks have shut, and products get withdrawn overnight. An hours page here runs on two clocks.
Try it on your own material
Upload a document or point it at your site, paste one line of HTML, then ask it something only your business could answer.