You receive a personal recommendation for a residential loan from a German bank. For the assessment not only the named product counts. It must also be comprehensible on which needs, which information and which goals the recommendation is based. This page is aimed at consumers in conversation with a lender and makes no statement about a concrete advisory error.
Formulate your own mandate before the product
Note down the financing you actually need, the planned period of use and foreseeable changes. Distinguish fixed requirements from wishes: for example a pension entry date that is already fixed as opposed to a non-binding idea of a later sale. Unclear assumptions receive an open note for review.
§ 511 BGB requires for such advisory services information about need, personal and financial situation as well as preferences and goals, insofar as they are necessary for a suitable recommendation. The assessment should be based on current information and realistic risk assumptions. [BERATUNG] Therefore correct outdated income or asset information before the recommendation is based on it.
Ask about the offer considered
A recommendation is not automatically a comparison of all loans available on the market. § 511 names, for the lender, a sufficient number at least from its product range. [BERATUNG] Ask clearly which selection was actually examined and what limits the comparison had. A narrower selection can then be recognisably classified, instead of appearing unnoticed as a complete market overview.
Compare the reasoning with your most important goals. If early flexibility is important to you because of a planned move, merely naming a monthly instalment is not yet an explanation of how the recommended product fits that. Which contractual terms are practically relevant must be explained on the basis of the offer.
Return a contradiction concretely
In the hypothetical case, €4.000 per month was assumed as permanent household income. In fact €600 of that belong to an already time-limited job. The follow-up question is not in general “Is the financing secure?” but: “Please review the recommendation with the documented end of this income component and explain the consequences.”
By law the recommendation or the indication that no product can be recommended must be made available on a durable medium. [BERATUNG] Keep this document with the underlying information and your factual corrections.
In the end it should be recognisable which personal mandate the recommendation answers. The statutory duty to advise is neither a return nor an affordability guarantee for every later change. Open questions are clarified concretely before committing yourself; possible legal consequences of an actual error require individual examination.