Mortgage Exit Fees successes and failures
Comments
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Br1anstorm
It's not disingenuous. Nearly all the lenders originally charged separate fees for deeds production and redemption. It is definitely possible to have to produce the deeds without redeeming - many customers go part-way through selling their property, only to change their mind when the sale falls through. But their solicitor will still have had the deeds meanwhile and therefore the lender will have incurred the costs of producing them.
Since Mortgage Regulation, it's been compulsory for lenders to specify a total MEAF amount, but it doesn't preclude them still charging a separate fee for deeds production in cases which don't lead to redemption. But as deeds are of less significance in most cases, this is far less likely to be required.0 -
Refund from Abbey
I paid off my mortgage in 2003 but can't locate my original contract. They charged £179 for the legal requirements(?) and another £99 deeds handling fee. Abbey sent me a form after I phoned and a week later have sent me a cheque for £45. They say it's the difference between the amount I was charged on redemption of £95 and the mortgage repayment fee stated in my mortgage contract.
I was pleased to get the cheque today, but now realise the numbers don't add up! I have 8 weeks to respond if I'm not happy. Should I challenge it? Help please or am I just being grasping?
Thanks0 -
I suppose the question is does the redemption fee include the legal costs or are these separate charges that you have to pay. I thought redemption fees were the admin fees for sorting out your paperwork. I will be interested to see the answer to your question as now you have me wondering and I had thought I understood it.0
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MarkyMarkD wrote: »Br1anstorm
It's not disingenuous. Nearly all the lenders originally charged separate fees for deeds production and redemption. It is definitely possible to have to produce the deeds without redeeming - many customers go part-way through selling their property, only to change their mind when the sale falls through. But their solicitor will still have had the deeds meanwhile and therefore the lender will have incurred the costs of producing them.
Since Mortgage Regulation, it's been compulsory for lenders to specify a total MEAF amount, but it doesn't preclude them still charging a separate fee for deeds production in cases which don't lead to redemption. But as deeds are of less significance in most cases, this is far less likely to be required.
MarkyMarkD - thanks for commenting. It was your line of thinking that restrained me from challenging the YBS policy. I don't disagree with what you say, and I can see that in some circs (eg when deals fall through) deeds may be produced without proceeding to redemption. But the reverse is surely never true: full redemption will always require production/handover of deeds (to someone)?
So it may be reasonable for lenders to specify two fees (one for deeds production, one for redemption). But I think it would be more honest and transparent to charge one fee for each type of transaction, and to have each fee reflect the admin cost for the action concerned. So on redemption, the redemption fee would be charged, and it would incorporate an element for the production of deeds (so may be a bit higher than deeds-production alone).
In essence, my argument in respect of these charges is that it should be either/or, but not both. Not only is that common-sense, it would also be simpler! But since when was either of these a feature of mortgage-lenders' approach?
br1anstorm0 -
After recently reading that I was able to reclaim money from my mortgage lender I decided to have a go.
I have had this mortgage for nearly for years now and recently remortgaged when the fixed rate ran out. So I decided to have a go and was successful. I was charged £250 fee for Discharge of Mortgage ut was only contracted for £175.
They have since written to me and decided to refund me £75........very happy.
A Victory for the small man!!!
:money:0 -
Just phoned Bradford & Bingley using the 0800 number in table in Martin's article. We switched mortgage in 1999- I didn't even have any of the old paperwork, but B&B still had all our details on file. I just asked whether or not we paid a mortgage exit fee at the time, and was told that we paid £75 which we're entitled to claim back, and they're going to send us a cheque within 4 weeks. Pretty painless really!0
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I was with Northern Rock from March 03 & changed product in Oct 04 (charged £250 ‘admin’). I unwittingly didn’t keep hold of the documents & requested a copy of my original terms as I wasn’t sure if I was on a 2 or 3 year tie-in. They sent me a copy of my contract that stated it was a 2 year tie-in so I was quite happy to buy a new property & close my mortgage in Oct 06 but once everything was tied up & I was literally packing my stuff I got a redemption statement stating I hadn’t reached the end of the 3 year tie in period & had to fork out over £2.5K (I’d sold my house & bought another, no going back!) including another £250 ‘admin’.
Apparently they’d sent me the wrong document (!) & I had agreed to the 3-year thing to start with. Is it worth trying to do anything about this as I acted upon the info they gave me first time round & if I knew I’d have such hefty fees I might have put off moving. (sorry for lengthy question!).
Also, I recently wrote to NR to try & claim back some/all of the ‘admin’ fees I was charged both times (totalling £500) & they wrote back saying I was due £25 (difference between the MEAF when I took out the mortgage). They didn’t really justify the high cost of the charge - is it worth pursuing this or just sign the form & get the £25. I feel like they bled me dry last year on a product that I was mis-sold & due to their mis-information I’m well out of pocket.
1ST POST )!(0 -
I had a mortgage with Northern Rock from 1999 until 2003. I was charged a £175 discharge of mortgage fee (MEAF) and the original contract fee was £140.
I wrote to Northern Rock 3 days ago and received an offer of £35, obviously the difference between the fees, but can I get more?0 -
Having read Martin's articles and advice on this subject, and using the information from the list of lenders, we telephoned the Cheltenham & Gloucester BS and within 10 days of the call received £150 refund of charges for a mortgage which had been repaid in June 2005 following the sale of the property. We had no documentation other than the mortgage number quoted on the solicitor's invoice at the completion of the sale. Had we not been made aware of the FSA ruling through Martin's e-mails, we probably would never have made the claim. So many thanks to Martin.0
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We changed mortgage from c&g in October, because they wouldn't give us a deal on an extra amount we wanted to borrow towards our extension, saying we had to have the extra £10000 on variable rate...gave them enough opportunity to change their minds..they didn't want to know. Been with them or LLoyds since bought 1st house!! Their loss!!
Made the call, they charged us £225 to leave in Oct....Getting a refund of £175 + 4.50 interest....well worth doing!! Sweet!
Thanks Martin Top Man!!adoo..ah dunner!!0
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