Northern rock asset management plc

benbosh

Hi, (1st post).
I currently have a mortgage with northern rock and im tied in until june 2011. the company have recently split in two and i am with asset management side.
a few months ago we was looking to move into a bigger house so we went to our advisor and we could borrow the amount we wanted from northern rock great. so we would just port our mortage and borrow a bit extra.
We have found the house and agreed a price etc etc however now the company has split in two we have learned that they are not offering any more money etc etc to anyone. So now we have got to pay £3500 approx to buy out of our current fixed period!!!!
Anyone else think this is unfair? Is there anything we can do about it??
Many thanks Ben.

dasilva_2

Take a look at the first thread on the mortgages forum. There was a member who posted yesterday who had spoken to NRAM and they had offered to waive the early settlement charge.

benbosh

Brilliant thankyou very much!

benbosh

Well spoke to NRAM and they said they wont waive the penalty and there is not really much chance of us claiming it back once we have moved!
How rude is that so £3700 for nothing at all!!! Thanks Northern rock tah very much!! grrr makes me angry#!!

Samtobuk

We are in a very similar position, but have already redeemed our lending when we sold. We were looking to port and take some extra borrowing, but as our loan went into the asset management side of the business, not the PLC bit, we cannot get any extra lending.

My broker put me onto a possible way out, and I have now confirmed it directly with NR. As you cannot borrow more with NR, and so are being forced to move to another lender, as long as you borrow more than £3k extra on top of the loan you had with them, they will try (no promises) to help out with costs, or effectively give you your early redemption fee back. NR confirmed this with me verbally, and say all I need to do is write in to request the payback with proof of completion.

They cannot guarantee anything, and the offer could be removed at any time, but the general gist I got was that we had a pretty good chance of getting something back (early redemption fee in our case was £6k!!).

I'd give them another try, and ask to speak to the asset management dept. specifically, and tell them about this deal. I think if you don't tell them that you know, they are not falling over themselves to inform you about it, for obvious reasons!

Hope that helps in some way. Let us know if you succeed.

Derek_Hercules

I'm in the same position. 20 months left on our fixed rate deal with NRAM, liable for an ERC of approx £3k if we move in that time.

However, I phoned NRAM a couple of days ago to enquire what would happen if we wanted to move to a bigger house, and needed to borrow more. The guy on the phone told me that NRAM cannot offer us any new products, but if we moved to another mortgage provider within 3 months of ending our NRAM mortgage they' refund the ERC.

They were going to confirm this to me in writing. Hopefully the letter will arrive today or tomorrow. I'll copy the key parts here so that you know exactly what they are telling me.

Samtobuk

The 3 month period is if you move to a NR PLC product from asset management, and you only get up to 50% of your ERC back. If you move to another lender, the time period is not limited (although the offer may be withdrawn at any time!) and the potential return is up to 100% of your ERC.

Forgot to say I did get my confirmation in writing on this, although no formal application form.

rjj1james

Having spoken to NRAM about the refund I was sent the letter stating the criteria - which I will meet. However I wanted to double check and only through persistance did I find the refund offer was to end at the end of June (for moving to another provider).

But worse is that each application will be considered on a 'case by case' basis, NRAM will not tell me what other criteria they are 'considering'. This is one for FSA who agree this isn't clear of fair and as such doesn't not comply with the 'Principles of Business'.

I'm concerned because I got into a house chain on the basis of the letter, its unlikely the chain will not complete before the end of June and for me its a £9500 ERC risk.

I have made a complaint but have been told by NRAM that it won't be upheld. Anyone could be mistaken for thinking NRAM are duping customers to leave the 'bad bank' on the promise of a fictitious refund!

Thanks Northern Rock!