Mortgage broker process and fees: what to explain to clients

Borrowers search for mortgage broker fees because they cannot tell what they are committing to. They do not know how long the process takes, what they will be asked for, when money changes hands or whether they can change their mind. Firms that answer those questions plainly get better enquiries and fewer people who disappear after the first call.

This is about how to explain your process and your charges, in writing and on the phone, so that a client understands them before they hand over personal information.

Set out the stages in the client's language

Describe the journey end to end: the first conversation, the fact-find, affordability and eligibility checks, an agreement in principle where it is appropriate, your recommendation, the full application, valuation, underwriting, the mortgage offer and completion.

For each stage, say roughly how long it takes and who controls it. Clients become anxious in the gaps, and most of the gaps are not yours: a lender's underwriting queue, a surveyor's diary, a solicitor waiting on a search. Saying so in advance is the difference between a client who waits and a client who rings every second day.

Be honest that timescales are estimates. It is better to be believed than to be optimistic.

Explain how the firm is paid

State whether you charge a fee, and if so whether it is a fixed amount, a percentage, or nothing at all. If you are paid by the lender, say so plainly and explain what that means: the lender pays a fee to the firm when the mortgage completes, and it does not change what the client pays for their mortgage.

Then be precise about the client fee. When is it payable? At the outset, on application, on offer, or on completion? Is any part of it non-refundable, and in what circumstances? Is VAT applicable? What happens if the application is declined, if the purchase falls through, or if the client decides not to proceed?

Put all of that in writing before the client commits, and make sure what you say on the phone matches what the document says. Fee disclosure is a regulatory requirement, but it is also the single thing most likely to produce a complaint if it is handled loosely.

Explain what a recommendation is based on

Say what you will look at and what you will need from the client. Explain that a recommendation reflects the information available at the time, that rates and lender criteria change, that a valuation can come in differently from expectations and that income evidence sometimes leads somewhere unexpected.

Say what you are, in terms a client understands: whether you look across the market or a panel, and what that means for them. Avoid claims you cannot support.

Never promise approval, a particular rate or a completion date. Clients remember the reassuring sentence far longer than the qualification attached to it.

Say what you will need, early

Give a short document list at the outset rather than requesting things one at a time as they occur to you. Clients experience a drip of requests as disorganisation, and it slows the case because each request restarts the waiting.

Explain why each item is needed and what makes it acceptable — how recent, how complete, what has to be visible. A little explanation prevents most of the rejected uploads.

Make the next action obvious

Every client-facing explanation should end with one thing to do. Book a call, complete the fact-find, upload three documents. Give them a named contact and a realistic expectation of when you will reply.

Where you use a portal or a secure route, say why: it is safer for their financial documents than email, and it lets them see what is outstanding without asking.

Handle the awkward parts deliberately

If a client is in a difficult position — recently separated, unwell, bereaved, unsure about affordability — the process explanation needs to bend. Slow the pace, avoid automated sequences, and give them a route to a person.

The same applies when the answer is no. A client told clearly and kindly that this will not work now, with a sense of what would change it, will speak well of your firm. A client left hanging will not.

Put it on your website

A process and fees page is one of the most read pages on a broker site, and it does two jobs. It sets expectations before a conversation, and it lets someone compare advisers without submitting their details to three firms first.

Keep it factual, keep it current, and remember it is a financial promotion in its own right: fair, clear and not misleading, with any fee stated accurately and any claim about your service supportable.

Review what you actually say

Listen back to how your team explains fees on a first call, and read the wording clients receive afterwards. Firms are often surprised by the variation. Agreeing one clear version, and using it consistently, removes a source of complaints and makes the whole firm sound more competent than it did the week before.