Halifax chasing for interest on mortgage

dipsy

Hi wonder if anyone can enlighten me

re jigged mortgage back in Feg

got paper work through saying they would be calling for d/d on 1/3/09 for xxx amount and subsequent payments would be xxx amount

Just had phone call from Halifax call centre saying that there is an amount of £99.37 in interest outstanding.

Have asked them to put this in writing - guy on phone said he would put me through to another department, I said no please put it in writing, however I pointed out to him that there was a d/d in place and my understanding is that when you take out your mortgage the first months payment can sometimes be less or more than the subsequent payments depending on time of completion etc (am I correct???)

anyway my question is where do I stand, I have paperwork to show xxxx amount due 1/3 and xxx due 1st of month there after.......

am I liable for the £99.73 charge even though not listed in my paperwork ?

thanks

happybroker

I would make a complaint in writing about this and ask how the figure was arroved at. Keep copies of letters and send by recorded delivery.

opinions4u

dipsy wrote: »

re jigged mortgage back in Feg

Did you remortgage to Halifax, or raise extra money from them? Explain what you actually did please.

got paper work through saying they would be calling for d/d on 1/3/09 for xxx amount and subsequent payments would be xxx amount

Did this mention 'initial interest'?

dipsy

Hi sorry guys bit long winded....

I did extended borowing and asked for all of my mortgage to be put over a longer term to make it affordable - I had 10 years left on my mortgage and wanted to do equity release to build a much needed ext to the house as my partner has children that stop with us every other weekend and at present they have to "camp" in the front room.

anyway the inital paper work I received (6th February 2009) showed that there would be an inital interest payment of 92.46 and a mortgage payment of 719.50 to be collected on or just after 1st March.

I called halifax as on reading the paperwork further it stated that after 122 months the payment would drop to £292.18 - I concluded from this that they had not infact put the whole of the mortgage over the longer term but only the additional borrowing.

The lady at the halifax appologised and said there had been a clerical error and would send me out new paperwork to reflect that all of the mortgage would be over the extended term.

new paperwork arrived (11th February 2009) and stated that my whole mortgage term had been revised as requested and as a result my new monthly payment had changed - no mention of the inital interest in this letter or request that this be paid seperately to the direct debit.

Call received 29th April 2009 to ask me to pay the outstanding balance of £99.37 - which does not even reflect the inital interest payment of £92.46 that they quoted back on 6th February.

I then asked them to put this in writing to explain what this was all about as I had assumed that they had called for what they were due on the 1st March 2009.

Anyway got home last night and there was a letter from them stating that there were arrears of £99.37 on my account

read like this:

Dated 22 April 2009

Dear Miss xxxxx

ARREARS ARE OUTSTANDING ON YOUR ACCOUNT

We write to advise arrears of £99.37 are outstanding on your account. Please send a payment for the arrears to bring your account up to date, or contact us on the above telephoen number with your debit card to make a payment over the phone.

If you cannot pay the arrears you must contact us and we will try to help you resolve the situation.

Please ensure that all future payments are made when they fall due.

if we do not receive these payments or agree a resolution with you, whould we have to contact you again an administration charge will be added to your mortgage account

signed

Jasper Davy (Head of Secured collections and recoveries)

Enc: Mortgage arrears collection action

Charges

telephone call £35
letter £35
if we refer your account to solicitors £125
Visit by debt counsellor £100
Adjourning legal action £40
if we cancel an eviction £250
if we agree you not to make full payments £60
dealing with your failure to make a promised payment £40

no mention at any point what the arrears relate to, but now know that this is regarding the inital interest payment.

Where do I stand with this, will find it hard to just find almost £100, whilst I agree it looks like it is due to them, well the £92.46 not the £99.37, how can I be held accountable for an error on their part - can I request that I pay this amount over a period of time and can I complain to anyone about their handling of this situation?

Many thanks for listening/reading

happybroker

I would put your concerns in writing to them and mark the letter COMPLAINT. Ask them to explain precisely how they have arrived at this figure. If you owe it you will have to pay it and if it's an error on their part at least you will have something in writing for the future in case the "arrears" issue comes back to haunt you.

Call them to establish what their time scales are for dealing with complaints, send the letter by recorded delivery and then chase them up if you haven't had a response within those time scales, keep copies of everything.

dipsy

Unbelievable, they have called me again today, have yet again asked them to write to me to explain how they have arrived at this figure, why they didn't call for it as they should have and asked them to send me a copy of their complaints procedure

Have said to them if I owe you I will pay, but equally someone needs to be held accountable for the errors and that a letter asking for money to do with arrears should be more in depth i.e. explain what the alledged arrears relate to.... not a bog standard letter.

opinions4u

While I would in no way defend the poor administration around this, it still sounds like the initial interest payment for February (based on your additional borrowing) hasn't been paid.

So you will still owe them this money.

dipsy

yes I agree that I owe them, but I want them to put their house in order and get it right, to mess up on a mortgage not once but twice is not acceptable.

I will pay when they write to me in the correct manner showing how they have come to the figure as it has increased since they sent out their first lot of incorrect paperwork.

I equally want to lodge a complaint as surely it is not too much to expect them to get it right - they charge enough in fees to make sure they do the job correctly.

mttylad

The Halifax have always been very poor at explaining charges, they just take them & the poor little borrower gets screwed over.

Stick to your guns & demand it all in writing.

dipsy

I will do, never had this kind of problem before with any other mortgage.

opinions4u

dipsy wrote: »

yes I agree that I owe them, but I want them to put their house in order and get it right, to mess up on a mortgage not once but twice is not acceptable.

I agree they should 'get it right' on basic things.

I will pay when they write to me in the correct manner showing how they have come to the figure as it has increased since they sent out their first lot of incorrect paperwork.

Is it really worth potentially damaging your credit rating to haggle over the calculation of a few quid? I would pay what has been requested, but submit your complaint at the same time. Perhaps requesting compensation that rounds up to a few pounds more than the amount you paid!