Low rate Spanish mortgages offering currency mortgages and apparently bucking all the trends in Spain by completing on an enormous amount of mortgages in 2009 making them a very successful company have for some reason despite this success decided to completely change their name.
Last year they state they completed on 700 mortgages! This is an astonishing amount of business. If each loan was an average of 150k and they earned 0.50% from the lender “Dominion Credit” this would have brought in an income of € 750k . Not bad for a two-person business giving as a pro rata cost against income BP a run for its money.
If I had a company as successful as they have pertained to be the last thing I would do in current environment is completely change my name. It is a conundrum as usually only companies who have damaged their brand by poor service or failure feel the need to change their name.
The new website called “Ubiquitous Mortgages” is pretty much a rewrite of the old website however, the spot the ball competition at € 25 an entry no longer exists under the new brand.
The old saying if it seems to good to be true does not apparently apply or does it!!!!
See latest feedback on Low Rate Spanish Mortgages below .
The comments from Clive Ballard are posted below.
As you say, Dominion Credit and Finance website is new, The name was only registered Jan/Feb 2009. Low Rate Spanish Mortgages were advertising the Yen mortgages in Oct 2008. The DC&F website, like the LRSM website is not very professional for the nature of what it is supposed to sell, and the office in Singapore is not an office but only a phone answering service. Like yourself I could not find any references to Henry Braithwaite in the banking world. I phoned/e-mailed him on a number of occasions in March 2009 requesting information on agents, other than LRSM for these mortgages.
I got no responce to the messages left.
Since DC&F were not contactable, and had no website until Jan 2009, I wonder how LRSM were able to offer their mortgages in Oct 2008, and purchased the domain name in May 2008.Low Rate Spanish Mortgages charge a non refundable, 500 € to apply for a Yen mortgage.
I applied for a mortgage from them in Jan 2009, when there office was in Valencier. Approximatly 6 weeks later when I chased the mortgage, they had apparently moved to Bilbao, though were working through a UK phone answering service. When they rang back, I was told the morgage was not granted, due to the financial situation, but if I liked to apply again in 3 months (and pay another 500€) the situation might have changed.
It seems to me that the only ones making money out of this, are “Low Rate Spanish Mortgages”, a 1/2 man run business who as well as running lotteries*, also run a dating site under their other company name of Marverose S.L
They also have interests in an Estate Agents (wherepropertysells.com), though I think this may now, have closed.
N.B. The original UK company named Dominion Credit and Finance went bust in the 1990′ies.
*IMS would like to state there is no evidence that Mark Foreman runs lotteries which would which under the gaming act would be a criminal offence. A lottery has very different regulations to a competition.
Brian McKenzie says:
January 25, 2010 at 12:17 pm
Hi.
Similar story as clive only this time they said the mortgage was not approved because the valuation was wrong,which made no sense as no valuation had been made on the property. This email stating the above information was sent to me only after repeated attempts to contact them and also they said that they had sent me an email stating this a month previous which was total rubbish. Further attempts to contact them to clarify this has been ignored. I am now quite sure after reading Clives letter that I have been well and truly scamed..
B.Mckenzie
G F Crudgington says:
February 22, 2010 at 4:46 pm
Like Bryan & Clive I have also had similar experience with Low Rate Spanish Mortgages and paid £228 for survey only to find that the survey was never done and the mortgage was refused on the basis of an “In House Valuation” made by a company Dominion Credit and Finance located in Singapore, thousand of miles away from my property in France and that the loan was below the Dominion Credit and Finance funding level. Communications have not been good. I doubt whether they will refund the money paid for a survey which was never carried out. I had hope that it was all above board but I am now convinced that it is a scam and it is highly unlikely that I will get the survey fee back.
Matt Onel says:
June 5, 2010 at 1:30 am
I was approached by ubiquitous mortgages and offered a multi currency mortgage for property in Turkey. They want me to pay the in-house valuation fee upfront as well.
These people have no idea how the buying process works in Turkey as UK nationals require to go through a military clearance process which usually takes about 3 months before a property can be registered in their name (and therefore be mortgageable!).
Also, if the property is ‘valued’ on a desktop from Singapore how can they be sure of the risk factor for the lender’s / underwriter’s capital is tied to? in other words, how do they know the property is really worth the amount of credit they’re offering?
This all sounds a bit too suspicious in the way that they gave me an agreement in principle within hours.Is there anyone out there who actually DID receive their mortgage through Dominion in Singapore? Can anyone please come forward and do us AND Dominion a huge favour and testify?
However we have received this positive comment from a Mrs Barbara Gosling in Mexico
I read your warning with interest!
While I cannot comment on Clive’s own application, all I can say is that I found the service provided by LRSM to be of an extremely high standard. Indeed, thanks to them I am happily residing in my new property soaking up the sun.
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I am the owner of Ubiquitous Mortgages and interested in Heather Chambers comments. Firstly she refers to my providing 700 mortgages in Spain. Who said Spain, I arrange mortgages in a number of countries and Spain accounts for a small percentage of those.
She then refers to our change of name from Low Rate Spanish Mortgages to Ubiquitous Mortgages implying poor service or failure. Well, this certainly is not the position. We changed our name for two reasons a) because we have a new website and b) because our previous site name implied that we only arranged loans in Spain, not so, hence ubiquitous!
Again, I am the owner of Ubiquitous Mortgages (formerly Low Rate Spanish Mortgages) and I would like to refer to the comments posted by Clive Ballard:
It is true to say that Henry Braithwaite of Dominion did receive an email from Mr Ballard in relation to his loan application. However, Mr Braithwaites secretary wrote to Mr Ballard stating \I would suggest that you refer to your broker for further details\. This is perfect normal practice and the correct ettiquette just as if you were making a mortoring claim on your car insurance. If insurance was arranged by a broker you contact the broker. We never heard futher from him!
I have also unearthed that Clive Ballard did call them but it was during the day UK time and the office in Singapore was closed due to the time difference.
Finally, I am amazed with Mr Ballards comment, \they also run a dating site\ in what appears to be an attempt to belittle the company. I must confess that I had to chuckle. This is how Clive Ballard learned of my mortgage business. He has been a member of Whereheartsmeet.com since 2007.
Regarding the comments made by George Crudgington:
George is an absolute gentleman. I have tried everything humanly possible to approve his loan and this is still ongoing.
His options are very limited since he’s a 76 year old pensioner. His valuation was lower than expected but I have afforded him every opportunity to contest this by having a formal valuation done (personal property inspection). So far he has refused to accept this offer. By the way, if the formal on site valuation is materially different we refund the fees!
George has informed me that he has had French banks offer him finance but to date has not accepted their offers…holding out for a better rate. I asked him for a copy of the valuation that they must have had done to offer a loan but this has not been forthcoming.
In hindsight, and in my opinion George has been unable to obtain a mortgage anywhere in over a year. Why else, and in his own words “ I even met a broker on the forecort of UK motorway service station who assured he’d get me a mortgage but wanted 4,000 pounds up front” and “all these issues have cost me a relationship”
Lastly, George applied to us many times for a job since he was so impressed with the service but unfortunately was declined so I have no idea whether it’s a case of sour grapes or not.
In every case where a valuation is disputed clients are afforded the opportunity to have a formal on site survey carried out, and where a valuation is materially different a FULL REFUND of the AVM valuation is given. Both of these applicants refused to take up that offer which leads me to suspect that they were over optimistic of their properties value.
If a mult-currency mortgage is not for you I’m sure that Heather Chambers at IMS Mortgages can help you
Re Matt Onnel comments:
This guy changes his name more often than I care to mention!
I suspect he’s a Turkish mortgage broker or agent fishing. Might be wrong but his name was Murat Onel. That sounds pretty Arabic/Turkish to me but later changes to Khana Dilip and now he’s Matt.
Firstly, I never approach people – they approach me!
He was not approved for a loan simply a decision in principle which then has to be followed up formally to include a valuation.
If he referred to FAQ’s on our website he would see that applications, on average, take 3-4 weeks plus a further two weeks to finalise in first world countries and we make it clear that applicants should refer to their own legal representative in their country of purchase if in doubt.
POSITIVE COMMENTS:
I have no doubt in trusting Mark Foreman/Ubiquitous to handle/manage our Mortgage application.
They have responded to our emails almost the same day, (depending time diff.) and being very honest with personal advice (Not for their profit, but suggestions!)
I think Mark Foreman/Ubiquitous has provided excellent professional service so far. In our specific case/application we are under pressure due to “timing”:
Despite the pressure on timing; we are “on the way”, better than “no way” at all.
Quote; “These are exciting times”; Indeed. Whatever the outcome will be..
…”Nothing is impossible”; my rule for 30 years! (not quoting the football team)
Unfortunately we have had a similar negative experience with LRSM as the comments posted towards the end of last year. Whilst arranging the initial decision in principle and obtaining the valuation fee, Mark was very helpful. Less so when surprise surprise Dominion would not lend as the valuation was significantly less than the property had been on the market for. However I would dispute Marks statement of a full refund if this is the case and despite numerous attempts to contact the company we have failed to obtain even a reply.
I can only imagine the company changed it’s name to escape the negative comments that could be found on a google search from February onwards.
It was reading those that confirmed to us that we had been scammed.
However a comforting thought is that many people are now aware of this company and its changing forms and will steer well clear.
Let’s hope for Mark sake that he doesn’t scam someone dodgier than himself, I’ve heard there are some very deep lakes in Florida!
I would refer to the comments made by Suzanne Kelly as follows:
It is correct to say that she applied to me for a loan in or around August 2009. Again, I believe that she was extremely over optimistic of the property value. I was informed that the property was valued between 450k and 595k Euros, yet Suzanne was able to buy it for 320k. If it’s worth 600k who would sell it for 50% less?
Unfortunately, experience shows that the marketing campaigns of real estate agents referring to values when they were at their peak bears very little relationship to values on the ground right now.
We went to great lengths to get this application through to include considering some UK property as further security. However, the lender did not wish to get involved with all the legalities and complications involved with using UK assets as security for a Spanish property.
As always, if applicants are not happy with the valuation figure and they truly believe that the property should be valued at a considerably higher figure we can have a formal on site valuation done. This does not prejudice their position since they need it for a loan anyway. And if there is a material difference they are refunded the valuation fee! Again this offer was not taken up…
I find it unfortunate that declined applicants refer to the word “scam” simply because they were declined a loan. This forum has so far (in the space of 22 months) since Clive Ballards comments unearthed 5 dissatisfied clients. My God, they should have seen the list of declines when we were using the Spanish banks for mortgages.
During this 22 month period we have completed in excess of a 1000 mortgages across wide ranging countries and received almost 20,000 enquiries. So it’s a case of perspective.
That said, I receive applications for my products that far exceed funds available, so please, if you have any concerns whatsoever please apply for a traditional loan with a high street bank!!!
Thank you
Mark Foreman
Managing Director
Make that 6 dissatisfied clients (that have taken the touble to speak up).
At the risk of all publicity being good publicity, I would like to add my own experience to your list of disgruntled people that have contacted Mark Foreman, MD of himself and one other person company Ubiquitous Mortgages.
I read the comments here and thought that it was a rival posting letters to attract business to themselves instead of Ubiquitous. I was hoping to add to the positive comment from Marianne but no such luck. The yen mortgage is a much cheaper option that a Euro mortgage – that is if you ever get one. If you do apply to Ubiquitous DO NOT get an AVM – i.e. a computerised valuation, pay for a full valuation. The computer program is not clever enough to know the difference between a 3 bedroom apartment 5 minutes from the sea or a 3 bedroom apartment on the local council estate.
I approached Ubiquitous – got their “These are exciting times” reply, I was then given a quote and paid for the AVM. It also says on their web site that if this is more than 18% too low, if you get another valuation the cost of this will be refunded. Well the AVM valuation came out at exactly 18% below the market value. Normally these valuations take 4 weeks to complete but for another 95 Euros they will rush it through in 2 weeks. So you pay 416 Euros which is more than most other valuations.
Ubiquitous gave me a ‘Decision in Principal’ which was dependant on this valuation, when it came out too low I asked if they would lend me the agreed 80% of their valuation, planning to raise the rest in the UK. But no, this was not possible. The mortgage goes through a Henry Braithwaite of Dominion Finance but he won’t talk to you/reply to e-mails. The next attempt was to send some estate agent valuations for similar properties with a higher price. After several more days this was not acceptable. Next we tried getting an old valuation for another property in the same complex but no – after several more days. that was not acceptable. I had repeatedly asked Mark or Alicia to get another valuer lined up so that a visit valuation could be arranged quickly but this was ignored. It says on the web site that if you already have a valuation then this can be used. Mark says this is not correct – yet repeatedly you are told that all the information is on their web site.
When I repeated my request to get another valuation done (at my expense) I was then told that there was no guarantee that the original ‘Decision in Principal’ still held and even if I did get a proper valuation there was no guarantee that Dominion would still lend. A you can imagine after all this time I am in danger of losing my holiday home and gave up with Ubiquitous and found a broker who could get things done quickly and also responds to e-mails the same day.
Oh and by the way forget phoning them, they have an 0845 number with a UK operator who tries to put you through but not once did I succeed. Once I did get a call returned but all ‘difficult’ questions were avoided and then oops we were cut off.
Don’t go anywhere near this guy. My wife went through the full process of sending him all the required paperwork and a fee was paid for a valuation. No valuation was ever carried out. He is never contactable direct but only through a call centre where messages/complaints are supposedly forwarded on to him. After numerous emails we were informed that the documentation had been sent to the so-called bank in Singapore for approval. Many months on there has been no further response and obviously no mortgage. You have been warned. STAY WELL CLEAR of this guy and his ever changing company names.
Ubiquitous mortgages arranged a currency loan for me on my Italian apartment without any real issues. In fact it was the second mortgage that they arranged for me, albeit the first one on my villa in Spain was arranged through a Spanish Bank.
I am of course unable to comment on other applications but mine was handled effectively, on time and in a professional manner.
J Cummings
http://419.bittenus.com/10/5/MarkForeman.html