A mortgage adviser may be liable if he fails to act as may be expected of a reasonably competent and reasonably acting adviser and you suffer loss as a result. Think of a financing deadline that was not monitored, an assumption that was processed incorrectly or an agreed application that was never submitted. A rejected mortgage or a higher interest rate does not in itself prove an advice error.
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Written by Onur Arslan, attorney at Arslan Advocaten. Registered in the specialisation register of the Netherlands Bar for employment law and personal injury. Last updated: 17 September 2026.
First have it established what the engagement involved, what information was available and what careful conduct would have achieved. If deadlines are looming, you should also look immediately at how further loss can be limited. A complaint against the adviser does not automatically extend your purchase agreement or mortgage offer.
When is mortgage advice legally careless?
In carrying out his engagement, the adviser must exercise the care of a good contractor. Article 7:401 of the Dutch Civil Code is an important starting point for this. Supervisory rules on information and suitable advice may also be relevant. The content of the obligation depends on your engagement, your situation and the services offered.
Careful advice matches your financial means, wishes and foreseeable risks. To give it, the adviser must gather relevant information and be able to explain the choices made in an understandable way. A standard report is not sufficient if important known circumstances are missing from it or have been processed incorrectly.
That does not mean a guarantee of the cheapest mortgage with hindsight, or of acceptance by every bank. An adviser generally has an obligation of best efforts. The assessment concerns the quality of his conduct at the relevant moment, based on the information that was then available or should have been gathered.
What engagement did you give?
Look up the engagement confirmation, the service document, the mortgage offer and any arrangements about aftercare. Did you take full advice and brokerage, only a second opinion, or help with a single application? Was it agreed that the adviser would also handle insurance, a bridging loan or changes during the term of the mortgage?
The actual communication may clarify the written engagement. An adviser who promises to monitor a deadline or to complete an application cannot, without further explanation, confine himself to a general reference to a standard package. Conversely, not every question you have ever asked forms part of an ongoing advisory engagement.
Also check which legal entity you concluded the agreement with. The trade name, the franchisee and the individual employee may differ. Address a notice of liability to the correct contracting party. If a professional indemnity insurer becomes involved, clarity about which adviser is being held liable remains necessary.
Failing to monitor a financing condition in time
When buying a home, a financing condition can offer protection if the loan you need does not come through. That protection depends on the precise conditions: the amount, the end date, the required supporting documents and the way in which the condition must be invoked. A rejection by the bank does not automatically extend the deadline.
An adviser who guides the financing process can be expected to take the known deadline into account and to warn you in good time about its expiry and the risks. That does not necessarily mean he must dissolve the purchase agreement himself. Agree explicitly who will request an extension and who will invoke the condition subsequent, if necessary.
In Kifid 2024-0918 (Kifid is the Dutch Financial Services Complaints Tribunal), the adviser fell short in warning about an expiring financing deadline. The committee also took the consumer’s own responsibility into account and awarded only part of the loss. It concerned a non-binding ruling on specific facts, not a fixed apportionment formula for all cases.
What should you do if the deadline is about to expire?
Immediately ask in writing what the status of the financing is and which documents are still missing. Check the final date in the purchase agreement and any confirmed extensions. Do not rely solely on an oral assurance that “it will be fine” or that a request for postponement has been sent.
An extension is only useful once it is clear that the authorised other party agrees to it and which new date applies. If in doubt, have the purchase agreement reviewed. It may be necessary to invoke the condition subsequent formally and in time, in accordance with the agreed requirements.
Record which instructions you give and which response you receive. A discussion about liability can follow later; at that moment, preventing a contractual penalty or a forced completion takes priority. The adviser, the purchasing agent and the lawyer may have different tasks that must be explicitly coordinated.
Incorrect calculations and missing personal circumstances
Advice may fall short if known debts, maintenance payments, temporary income or a foreseeable retirement were not taken into account correctly. The same applies if important product features were explained incorrectly. Examine what you reported and what the adviser recorded about it.
Not every calculation error leads to the same loss. An overly optimistic indication given before a full assessment may be weighed differently from a final advice report on which you demonstrably based an irreversible decision. The wording of reservations and the clarity of warnings are then relevant.
Compare the original data with the application submitted to the bank. If the bank rejects an application because of incorrect income documents, it must also be examined how those documents came about and who supplied them. A dispute about a false payslip and registration in the External Reference Register (EVR) requires a separate analysis.
Letting an interest rate offer or mortgage offer expire
An interest rate offer has conditions and a period of validity. Sometimes documents must be supplied within a certain period, or a binding offer must be accepted in time. An adviser must carry out agreed work carefully and monitor relevant deadlines, but is not responsible for every delay beyond his control.
Map out why the offer expired. Was a document from you missing, did the adviser leave the application lying around, or did the lender unexpectedly ask for additional information? Several causes may play a role together. A mere rise in interest rates does not automatically make the earlier offer enforceable.
For the loss, a comparison with a feasible alternative is essential. Would the same loan actually have been granted at the earlier rate if the adviser had acted in time? A provisional indication without the conditions having been met is not always sufficient for this. So keep the full offer and the status of the application.
Forgotten insurance and agreed aftercare
Mortgage advice sometimes also includes protection against death or other income risks. If you follow clear advice and instruct the adviser to take out insurance, it must be checked whether that instruction is actually carried out. A recommendation in a report is not the same as a policy that has been taken out.
Kifid 2025-1020 concerned term life insurance that was never arranged and an extensive aftercare package. The adviser fell short, while the consumer’s own conduct and the hypothetical insurance situation also affected the compensation. The specific engagement was therefore important for both liability and loss.
An ongoing aftercare obligation does not have a standard scope for every adviser. Examine which services were agreed and which relevant change was known. Paying annually for a service package does not by itself prove which checks were carried out; request the commitments made and the records of contact.
Keep an advice error and an error by the bank apart
The adviser prepares the application and may act as an intermediary, but the bank decides whether to accept the credit. A bank may ask its own questions about financial capacity, documents or the origin of money. If an application stalls on that, it must be examined whether the adviser should have foreseen or prevented the problem.
It is possible for the bank to act carelessly without the adviser making an error. The reverse also happens. Where several parties are involved, it must be described for each party which obligation was breached and which part of the loss resulted from it.
A general accusation against “the mortgage party” is therefore too vague. Use the correct names and division of roles in your file. For complaints against the lender, the overview of the bank’s duty of care is also relevant.
What loss can you claim?
Possible heads of loss include a contractual penalty, demonstrable additional financing costs or reasonable costs of correcting an error. Whether those items are recoverable depends on the error, the causal link and the circumstances. Not every disappointment or additional expense is automatically compensated.
With higher interest charges, the actual situation must be compared with the financing that would have been achievable without the error. Term, repayment, tax consequences, costs saved and uncertainties may be relevant here. Simply multiplying the interest difference by the full principal can give a misleading picture.
A refund of advice fees also requires its own legal basis. A limited defect does not always mean that the entire service was worthless. So split the request for correction, reduction or refund of the fee and an additional damages claim into recognisable parts.
A fictitious example of a loss comparison
A buyer has an interest rate offer that is still valid subject to conditions. The adviser leaves an employer’s document that was supplied in time unprocessed for two weeks. The offer lapses and a new loan is more expensive. It then seems logical to claim all the higher charges, but it must first be established whether the earlier offer would have been accepted if the application had been submitted in time.
If there was also an unresolved BKR credit registration issue, the earlier loan may have been unattainable even without the delay. If the application was otherwise complete and the bank confirms that acceptance was possible within the period of validity, the substantiation of causation is stronger. The same delay can therefore lead to a different outcome.
The calculation follows after that. The comparison must take account of the actual loan parts and terms. Costs that would also have been incurred without the error do not simply form part of the loss. This example shows why both an examination of the file and a verifiable financial calculation are needed.
Which documents belong in your file?
| Document | What it can show |
|---|---|
| Engagement confirmation and service document | Scope of advice, brokerage and aftercare |
| Purchase agreement and extensions | Deadlines, penalty clause and conditions for dissolution |
| Advice report and calculations | Data used, choices made and warnings given |
| Application and bank responses | Status, missing documents and obstacles to acceptance |
| Emails and messages | Promises, instructions and information received |
| Invoices and proof of payment | Extent and timing of the specific loss |
Keep the original files and avoid ending up with only loose, undated screenshots. A timeline with exhibit numbers helps the adviser, insurer or dispute resolution body follow the events. For oral agreements, note who was present and what you remember.
Holding the adviser liable
Describe the engagement, the specific error and the moment you discovered it. Explain what careful conduct you expected and which loss you believe would have been prevented as a result. Enclose the most important evidence and ask for a substantive response within a reasonable period.
A first letter does not have to contain every final amount of loss if that is not yet known. Do, however, make clear which claims you reserve, and have it assessed whether a formal interruption of the limitation period is needed. A general request for an explanation is not always the same as a notice of liability or a valid letter interrupting the limitation period.
Ask whether the adviser will report the matter to his professional indemnity insurer. You do not have to wait for that insurer before safeguarding urgent deadlines. Also continue to keep correspondence with the adviser himself; the insurance does not automatically change who your contractual counterparty is.
Duty to complain, Kifid and the courts
Where services are defective, complaining in time may be important. If there has been no performance at all, the legal assessment of the duty to complain may differ from that in the case of defective performance. Have this question assessed rather than simply applying a standard period to every complaint.
For consumers, Kifid may be a route if the service provider is affiliated and the complaint falls within its rules. The internal complaints procedure generally comes first. Check the consequences of a binding ruling and the separate deadlines; a complaint must not unintentionally displace another necessary action.
Court proceedings may be appropriate for a complex question of evidence or loss, or where Kifid is not accessible. The costs, evidential risks and prospects of recovery must be weighed up. A settlement can also make sense, provided it is clear which claims it brings to a definitive end.
Switching to another adviser during the dispute
When a completion date is approaching, it may be necessary to bring in another adviser while the liability dispute is still ongoing. Ask straight away which documents can be transferred and which applications or offers are still valid. Have it confirmed who will be in contact with the lender from that moment and who will monitor the running deadlines. Two advisers who each assume the other is acting can cause fresh delays.
Keep the original engagement and the reason for switching. Ask the new adviser to record factually which work had to be redone and which data were missing. That is more useful than a general opinion that his predecessor did poor work. Additional advice fees are not automatically fully recoverable: necessity, reasonableness and the link with the alleged error must be assessed.
A solution offered by the first adviser also deserves a careful response. If he can still achieve a workable financing route, it may be unwise to reject it without assessment. Accepting it does not mean you immediately concede that everything went well. Record what practical remedy is being offered and which financial consequences fall outside that solution.
If you have a complaint, do not quietly stop supplying documents for the pending mortgage application. Make it explicit whether the engagement is being continued, limited or terminated. Your complaint about earlier errors and the work still needed to complete the purchase safely require separate arrangements. If in doubt, have the deadline under the purchase agreement assessed immediately; a notice of liability after the event will not prevent a penalty now.
Frequently asked questions about mortgage advice
Is my adviser liable if the mortgage falls through?
Not automatically. Examine why the financing failed and whether the adviser breached a specific obligation. A careful application may still be rejected by a bank. A missed warning or an instruction that was not carried out may, however, present a different picture.
Does the adviser have to invoke my financing condition himself?
That is not automatically part of every advisory engagement. The adviser may, however, be required to monitor the deadline and warn you in good time. Record explicitly who will request an extension and who will send the required notice to the seller.
Can I recover the entire penalty from the adviser?
That depends on liability, the causal link and any contributory negligence. The purchase agreement and the options for limiting the loss are also relevant. There is no automatic full compensation, nor a fixed percentage that you always have to bear yourself.
What if my adviser says I sent documents too late myself?
Compare the requests, deadlines and proof of sending. Also examine whether it was clearly explained which documents were needed and when. If several causes played a role, it must be established which consequences can be attributed to each party’s conduct.
Can I switch advisers while I have a complaint?
That may be necessary in practice, but check the costs, the transfer of the file and any pending applications. Make clear which engagement ends and which work is still expected. Switching does not automatically wipe out an earlier error or an existing payment arrangement.
How can Arslan Advocaten help?
Arslan Advocaten can assess the advisory engagement, the timeline and the loss comparison, and prepare a targeted notice of liability. If a contractual deadline is looming, the necessary action is considered first. Send the engagement, the purchase agreement and the latest correspondence; the approach and costs are discussed in advance.
Sources and legal basis
- Kifid 2024-0918 on a financing condition and the duty of care.
- Kifid 2025-1020 on insurance that was not arranged and aftercare.
- Kifid rules and articles of association.
Sources checked on 16 September 2026. Relevant provisions include Articles 7:400 and 7:401 of the Dutch Civil Code, the applicable rules under the Financial Supervision Act (Wft) and the rules on loss, the duty to complain and limitation periods.
