Mortgage Times placed in administration

21 December 2009 | By Robert Thickett

Mortgage Strategy understands that Mortgage Times has today gone into administration.

Staff were this morning told by management that the firm has been placed in administration and that they would not be paid.

Mortgage Times was apparently close to securing a deal with a buyer but talks collapsed.

A source close to the company says: “The firm was looking to do deals with a number of other corporates but they did not come to fruitition.”

In an email to ARs from Mortgage Times’ board seen by Mortgage Strategy, the ARs were told that with effect from today MT ARs can no longer carry out any regulated activity and that they are no longer permitted to conduct regulated activities under its FSA number 303007.

The email says: “It is with great regret that The Mortgage Times Group Limited, as the authorised person, has applied for a variation of the current permission granted to Mortgage Times pursuant to Part IV of the Financial Services and Markets Act 2000.

“The variation of permission requested is the addition of a requirement that with effect from December 21 2009, Mortgage Times may not carry on any of the regulated activities in the permission.

“As you will all be aware 2009 has been an extremely turbulent year for Mortgage Times and we have been vigorously attempting to secure investment into the business from strategic business partners to allow us to continue to trade solvently in to 2010.

“We are extremely saddened that at the 11th hour a potential major investor has made the decision not to proceed and we have been left with no alternative but to cease trading.

“We would like to thank all our AR’s for their loyalty over the last five years and apologise profusely that we have not been able to continue to provide a platform for you all to continue to trade. We assure you that we have left no stone unturned in an attempt to find a solution to our recent difficulties but ultimately have been left with no other options going forward.

“We would like to give you our best wishes for success in the future when this marketplace eventually returns to normality.”

The firm has been beset with problems over the last year, mainly relating to the payment of commission fees.

In March of this year the firm formed a trading partnership with Legal & General Mortgage Club whereby L&G would pay brokers direct rather than Mortgage Times.

But ARs continued to complain that they were owed thousands of pounds in unpaid commission payments.

At the beginning of December the firm told Mortgage Strategy that the problem of delayed commission payments to its appointed representatives should be resolved within the next two months.

Chris May, director of Mortgage Times, sent an email to ARs on November 27 stating that Mortgage Times had agreed for Legal & General, Paymentshield and Bright Grey to pay brokers directly.

And then as Mortgage Strategy revealed last week, Bright Grey changed the way it pays commission to Mortgage Times ARs to a monthly basis over a two-year period instead of one lump sum when policies are taken out.

As of the beginning of December, Mortgage Times had 427 listed on the Financial Services Authority’s register, 116 of which show as being suspended. And it’s latest results showed that it made a £1.3m loss for the year ending December 2008.

Mortgage Times was unavailable for comment.

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Readers' comments (64)

Anonymous | 21 Dec 2009 3:14 pm
No surprise, sombody better tell the FSA as they will not be aware. The staff that were involved in not paying brokers fees will now know what its like not to be paid
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Anonymous | 21 Dec 2009 3:20 pm
Another one bites the dust, no doubt the RSA are all asleep again after fighting valiently against the adverse weather in order to trouser another "getting to work against the elements bonus".
NDL, now MT, whose next on the FSA ignore at all costs list.
What a useless bunch of lame donkies they are!
Comment is annonymous for fear of FSA reprisals against the long suffering little bloke.
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Anonymous | 21 Dec 2009 3:21 pm
Well, it's no real surprise. Does anyone know what is likely to happen with pipeline commission & procuration fees?
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x mt staff member | 21 Dec 2009 3:31 pm
No surprise, sombody better tell the FSA as they will not be aware. The staff that were involved in not paying brokers fees will now know what its like not to be paid

Thats a harsh comment - I used to work for MT and its not the fault of the staff - they were just following orders!! Think how bad it must be to lost a job just before Christmas, especially if you have a family!!
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Anonymous | 21 Dec 2009 3:36 pm
The administrators will move in and pay back the priority debts which may not be the brokers comission
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Anonymous | 21 Dec 2009 3:44 pm
Mortgage Times owes my firm a lot of money, and looks like they will not pay. But it’s not the money that was the issue; it was the constant lies from all the staff at MT. They knew that MT will not hour payments, but still lied to poor AR’s.

Well, they have finally gone down. Just wondering how many AR's the Director has lied as a way of keeping them on board. It’s a shame really, that so many AR's supported them by staying. Well, it’s about time everyone’s loyalty should expire and they should jump ship.

Good luck to anyone thinking of staying with MT
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Anonymous | 21 Dec 2009 3:56 pm
Mortgages Times has applied for variations of permissions. This means that existing brokers are not allowed to submit anymore business via their network. That is bad news for many families this charismas. I wonder how many more broker will now exit the industry.
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Anonymous | 21 Dec 2009 4:01 pm
FSA knew about this situation for a year past and did nothing. Directors lied through their teeth to brokers. In the end providers must shouder the blame also by supporting such a network for as long when it was clear they were not paying their brokers. good riddance to MT
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Anonymous | 21 Dec 2009 4:03 pm
I called the office Mortgage Times today. It’s like a ghost town. There is a message on their answer machine saying ' due to adverse weather conditions the office is now closed. However, when I called earlier today, the message said 'due to adverse weather conditions, the office is now closed.

As usual, they keep on changing their story; but the truth is now out – MT have now let down so many brokers.
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MT AR | 21 Dec 2009 4:50 pm
its a real shame the way the directors of this company has treated its brokers. we have pipeline business that our clients will not b able to complete on. now brokers have to find other networks which takes time. what about the business the brokers will lose. the directors of MT were very selfish in dealing with this and i hope they lose everything.
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