morgage holiday charges

milliebear

Can anyone help or point me in the right direction.
My daughter and her boyfriend have a mortgage with the halifax on a high interest rate ( 7.49% )as they could only put down 10% deposit
last october they phoned Halifax and asked for a mortgage holiday, they were told yes they would not have anything to pay for 6 months, They never signed anything but did have the 6 months mortgage free expecting that 6 months would be added to the lengh of the mortgage time.
Last month when the started paying again they were told they had £4000added to there mortgage to cover the 6 months holiday.
My question is can they reclaim this £4000 they did not sigh anything in writing at all
Please please help as they are strugling without the added cost
thankyou for any help

dunstonh

My daughter and her boyfriend have a mortgage with the halifax on a high interest rate ( 7.49% )as they could only put down 10% deposit

Actually, 7.49% is just about the long term average mortgage rate. It looks high at the moment but it isnt really when compared to long term.

Last month when the started paying again they were told they had £4000added to there mortgage to cover the 6 months holiday.
My question is can they reclaim this £4000 they did not sigh anything in writing at all

What grounds do you think they have for not paying that?

They already didnt pay it for 6 months (hence the payments being rolled onto the mortgage balance). Why should they get away with it again?

its not a fee/charge. Its the interest accrued during the 6 months they didnt pay their mortgage. Mortgage holidays are not "free". They are authorised arrears.

Please please help as they are strugling without the added cost

That is a consequence of not paying your mortgage. When you restart, you have a shorter term and a higher mortgage balance in which to clear your debt so your mortgage payment goes up.

I know its not what you want to hear but thats the way it is.

jamesd

For each month of a mortgage payment break the interest for that month is added to the loan amount. If the mortgage term doesn't change then that's certain to produce higher monthly payments when they restart. They could contact Halifax and see whether Halifax is willing to extend the mortgage term. It's not likely, but they might.

A possible alternative is looking for 0% credit card deals and putting spending equal to the difference in mortgage payment on the card. When they remortgage they can seek a six month longer term and also remortgage for enough to clear the debt. This isn't a good option but if they can't afford the payments it beats failing to fully pay the mortgage. It's likely to be difficult to do this because the 7.49% mortgage interest rate suggests that Halifax considers them to be quite high risk borrowers.

Other options that might be available include family members assisting, potentially even to the extent of offering a family mortgage (loan from family secured on the property). That might be funded by the family member borrowing on their own property, which would probably be at a much lower rate than your daughter and boyfriend have. Or an alternative mortgage where a family member acts as guarantor and is responsible for the mortgage payments, and any possible shortfall on a repossession sale if they fail to do that, if your daughter and boyfriend don't pay. All of these are quite high risk options for the family member(s) concerned.