Paying off the mortgage

dpol_2

I have just paid off the final bit of my mortgage with Abbey and was amazed to be charged £225 for the priviledge. This was not an early repayment charge, just their standard admin charge to close the mortgage. The charge had increased from £55 when I transferred the mortgage to them in 1999 to £99 just over a year ago. It then jumped to £225.

Needless to say I complained and asked them to give me a full breakdown of how these charges could be justified. They replied with some standard nonsense so I took the complaint further, and was prepared to go to the ombudsman if necessary.

They have just written to me to offer the full £225 in settlement of the complaint as I was such a loyal customer. Result!!!

BACKFRMTHEEDGE

Congatulations on 2 fronts then, but particularly on paying of the mortgage :beer: I,m jealous. :rolleyes:

dpol_2

Not such good news really. The company I worked for called in the administrators leaving us with no pay and no redundancy other than the statutory minimum from the Govt. I was massively out of pocket after 16 years service. Funnily enough, the original owners were able to sail of into the sunset running basically the same business but having shed a load of workers and an even bigger load of debt (£30M plus). Hopefully they'll get what's coming to them!

As for the administrations. They kept us on for 2 weeks without pay - refusing to let us go and at least claim benefits. They said there was no money to pay us even though they were taking £285 per hour for themselves. £310K for a few weeks work - not bad if you can get it.

Luckily I had been putting every spare penny I had into the mortgage over the last couple of years - it wasn't that huge to begin with, especially compared to house prices today.

But every cloud has a silver lining - I have decided to start an IT consultancy and web-design business. It could turn out to be the best thing that could have happened.

BACKFRMTHEEDGE

You don't want to work for those B******** anyway.....Good luck with your new business. :T

dpol_2

Cheers.

The B******* is very apt. That is what we Christened as well.

Aiadi

Well done dpol on that! That's seriously impressive! :beer: I too have been hit with the dreaded £225 redemption fee without warning- any tips for how to get them to waive it?!

dpol_2

I just complained to them that

1. The charge was excessive
2. The increase year on year was unwarranted
3. There is a difference in the way mortgages closures are handled in England/Wales compared to Scotland/N. Ireland. Basically in N. Ireland/Scotland you have to retain a solicitor (with their associated fees) to conclude the mortgage. In England/Wlaes this is included in the £225 fee. I complained that this was therefore an unfair charge and that I was paying for a service I didn't receive.

I expected them to refund part of the fee but was very chuffed when the whole fee was returned. I suspect they dont want the issue being raised too often with the ombudsman who may well agree that it is an unacceptable amount. Better to refund to the small percentage who complain and pocket the rest.

hilstep2000

I've just paid off my mortage too, with Northern Rock. I paid £225 as well, never occured to me that I could get it back! Maybe I'll try!

BACKFRMTHEEDGE

Congratulations hilstep :j :j :j :j and good luck with getting your £250 back :money: