Unexpected last minute charges £800

Locoblade

thenorthernmortgagemonkey wrote: »

Why would the broker be sending funds?

I dont think its a case of funds being sent early anyway to cause an ERC. Its because the 1 month notice wasnt given to the lender. The only person who can give the notice is Mrs Skint herself (im assuming the broker isnt a party to the mortgage agreement).

As a professional he should have asked for a copy of the orginal mortgage offer to tell Mrs skint what she had to do or at least asked her to call them with her intentions and see what she had to do that way. This is something i, and many others would do as part of the service but there is nothing the broker can be pulled up on, what i can see, by not giving the notice (as they are not able to do so).

Sorry, "sending funds" is the incorrect terminology, what I meant is if the broker had arranged for the remortgage to take place a couple of days before the ERC term was up. You're right that this wasnt the case here anyway, just an analogy.

Like you say though, as a professional outfit I also think they should have been aware of this penalty charge from the outset having done some research, and then informed the OP beforehand what she needed to do in order to avoid such penalties and ensure a smooth transition, but they haven't done this. They've then thrown this curveball in at the last minute, and the OP has decided to continue with the original completion date. This was a mistake and yes it was her decision, but I suspect due to the timing, Mrs Skint was panicked and maybe ill informed to make the correct decision which would have been to have deferred a month.

MarkyMarkD

Its not them failing to provide notice that I think is wrong, because as people have said they cannot do that, and I do agree that the OP took the decision to continue and trigger the penalty, but I still think they've failed on two counts here:

1) They should have done a bit of research on the existing mortgage from the outset and made Mrs Skint aware of what she needed to do.

2) When they became aware of the penalty at the last moment, they shouldn't have tried to make out they did give notice when they plainly cannot do that. This just stinks of fishing for an excuse after realising they've not done No.1 properly.

Whether these failures are something they can be held accountable for or not, I guess is the question. From the reaction of many of you brokers, it seems that although you would generally do this research so your client wouldn't have any last minute suprises, its perhaps not something us customers can rely on, even when as in this particular case, we're paying extortionate amounts for the "service".

MarkyMarkD

Thanks, Loco.

I agree with your analysis. A competent broker would have ensured that they understood the terms of the old mortgage and advised their customer accordingly. They don't seem to have done this.

But, having said that, the customer was notified by one professional in the chain of the impending charge, and chose to proceed anyway.

I don't see that the broker is liable for the full fee, as it was avoidable. The most they are legitimately liable for is the unavoidable element, which is probably the rate differential on the products if the OP had agreed to delay completion by one month. I am betting that is a figure very significantly lower than £800.

opinions4u

My view is that it's the solicitor's responsibility to ensure the notice is given or the customer understands that it hasn't been. This appears to have been discharged.

The broker's fee is extraordinarily high, but if stated up front is it wrong or extortionate?