Alliance & Leicester "administration" (!?!) charges

hollie.weimeraner

Thanks lisyloo. I'm not particularly bothered about being spurned by A&L as I don't have too long left on the bulk of my mortgage. I'm actually tempted by Cheshams mortgage offer at the moment which has no fees for setting up, £50 deed redemption (at the moment) and no penalty for overpayments. It also tracks base rate +389%.

I think I will push them further but am quite prepared to go to the ombudsman if they don't play ball.

marlot

Craig_A wrote:

I received a final letter from them today offering me a cheque for a £225 refund!

Yep, I've just received mine too - well worth writing a few letters.

Craig_A

They must have been busy with their 'thorough investigations'!

hollie.weimeraner

hollie.weimeraner wrote:

I think I will push them further but am quite prepared to go to the ombudsman if they don't play ball.

Well I did push them further and received a reply this morning. I had suggested in my letter that a fee of no more than £100 would be appropriate. For some reason (for which I'm not complaining) they have written confirming that they will WAIVE all redemption charges:j . What a result.

They haven't said that they will not welcome me back in future but I have a sneaky feeling that may be the case. I don't have long to go on my mortgage anyway so shouldn't need to remortgage again.

Thanks for everybody's replies on this thread especially lisyloo. It does pay to keep hounding the lenders and there are still some mortgage providers out there that charge "reasonable" fees.:beer:

silvercar

Just moved house and kept the mortgage with the Coventry BS. Two weeks after completion received a cheque for the redemption fee charge of £195. "following my request" - except I hadn't done anything about it yet, so I guess my solicitor must have complained on my behalf.

*I wonder if it rubbed salt in the wound when I sent it straight back to them with instructions to credit my offset account with the proceeds?*

dfarry

My turn next.... The Woolwich have given my solicitor the redemption amount but I am still awaitng the statement... on which I am expecting to see a £275 fee.

dfarry

Yes the £275 did show on the redemption statement, I have lodged an "expression of dissatisfaction" with them and should receive a call from their complaints department in the next 24 hours.

ericthekidstoner

Good news

I've just had an offer from the A&L Customer Services to waive the Redemption Admin CHarge of £295 in full.

I followed lisyloo's (a big thank you!!!) 3 letter approach and simply didn't take the bait from them for the lowering of the fee, as opposed to a full waive.

PM me if you would like to use my letters as a reference. Or if loads of people ask, then I can post them on a thread (here?)

dfarry

The Woolwich called me today.They said that the fee's have existed for a number of years and last year the Woolwich increased theirs to £275 from £195.They said that this was subject to a review by the FSA and was consistent with their recommendations and that it was similar to the charges levied by other lenders.Obviously based on what I have read here I disputed the scale of the fee.Apparently the Woolwich do have a document that details why the fee is is charged and they will send that to me (should make for interesting reading). Also it has details of how I can complain if I remain unhappy.Thanks to Eric for the letters... looks like I will be using them.

dfarry

I received this morning a letter from the Woolwich in response to my complaint. They justified the charge as follows: The increases came into effect on 1st Dec. 2005 and I would have been informed. The fee is aligned to similar fee's charged by other lenders and that the fee reflects the additional activities they need to perform..........

Namely....(I quote.....)
1. Retrieving property deeds from secure storage
2. Posting property deeds with appropriate insurance cover against loss
3. Preparing and issuing a full repayment statement
4. Re-assignment of any life policies held in support of the mortgage
5. Releasing our charge with Land Registry.

In my case I actually had my own deeds and they were sent to my solicitor, I will be confirming exactly if anything the solicitor requested from the Woolwich but I believe it was just a redemption statement.The only other thing they might need to do is release the charge with the Land registry but I would have assumed this is done by the solicitors anyway.Either way the fee is a rip off and I will be fighting to get this waived.