Advice about early repayment charge

whitwam13

I'd like to get opinions on my next move on the following.....

In December we put our house on the market and we were told from day 1 that if we were within 3 months of the end of the mortgage that the early repayment fee would be waivered (Mortgage finishes at end Sept) and we could start a fresh mortgage on new rates.
Then in July while finalizing the sale the Halifax said the rules have changed it will no longer be waivered, basically we kicked up a fuss, so my mortgage advisor (Halifax employee) appealled succesfully.
But refused to put it in writing as they said it was a favour considering we are good customers, and we just had to trust them.
The conveyancing contracts were exchanged 21/08/09 and we are now in our new house, 24/08/09 I checked all was OK with the waiver, I was told it was and not to worry.
25/08/09 my solicitors have received a document from the Halifax saying as we didn't port the product the fee (£2227.00) is now due.
I have none of this in writing, except for my own notes, should I go through the Halifax complains proceedure or write to the obudsman.
Any advice would be appreciated.

happybroker

you would need to go through the complaints procedure before going to the ombudsman, that is what FOS will tell you so this will help avoid you wasting time.

opinions4u

You have to go through the complaints procedure.

The Ombudsman won't look at a case until there is a letter of deadlock (or the complaint is 8 weeks old, and I'd say the complaint starts now).

Have you actually spoken to the mortgage adviser since you got the letter?

(From memory, they used to waive the charge, and could issue a standard letter confirming they would do this. I would be genuinely surprised if this policy has changed and think it's more likely that it's an unusual set of circumstances that the individual mortgage adviser has never dealt with before. Talk to the mortgage adviser first and ask them to resolve it. If this fails pursue their internal complaints procedure and if that fails then bring in the Ombudsman. You'll see your money before you need to write to the Ombudsman).

whitwam13

Thanks for the advise.
I have just spoken to the mortgage advisor, who to be fair seems to be on my side, he says that he has an e-mail from somebody saying it will be waivered and is goint to look into it tomorrow.
Maybe my post was premature, but my gut feeling is that this isn't going to be resolved and I will have to persue it as you say through the compaint procedure.
It just surprised me how (unproffessional may be the wrong word) unofficial the decisions are for such a big organisation. Not giving agreements in writing and saying "trust me I'll sort it" is more like a response from Del and Rodney.
Thanks again anyway.