Question

You have been working with a client for the past six months who has finally been approved by the lender and is ready to close. Two days before closing, interest rates drop and you explain to your customer that you are unable to go with a different lender at the better rate because of the standing commitment to the current lender. You also inform your client that breaking a rate with a lender is very damaging to the broker-lender relationship. After explaining the situation, your client still chooses to back out of the loan and go with a different loan officer. Your client's action in this situation is:

Answer 1

Answer: c. legal but unethical

Step-by-step explanation:

There is nothing illegal about wanting to back out of a standing commitment to a lender especially if they have bad rates.

It is not considered ethical to do this however because a standing commitment constitutes a promise to do something which means that the other party is expecting that thing to be done. If you then break that promise, the relationship between the person who broke the promise and the affected party will take hit.