Question on part-advance of commercial mortgage and fees paid

Jaxer

I agreed a £100K advance from Abbey for a commercial property about 18 months ago. The property was undergoing a major refurbishment so Abbey would only release £40K on agreement to go towards the building costs with the balance to be paid down on completion of the work and a re-survey.

The building work dragged on for much longer than anticipated and there were legal issues with the builder which meant I've only now gone back to Abbey (Santander).

I've now been told the staggered release was only valid for a 6 month period and I'll now have to put in a fresh application for any further advance. Having checked the correspondence, I can see this was stipulated in the agreement at the time so it was a pretty major oversight on my part.

Although they originally advanced only £40K of the agreed £100K they charged 1.5% against the full amount at the time (£1,500). The thing that's annoying about this is that Abbey have said they'll charge new arrangement fees on a new application which seems unfair to me, although it's probably contractually valid.

Is there any chance that they'll discount the fees for a new application - I'm waiting to hear from them but it would be useful to get feedback from anyone who deals with commercial mortgages here as to how it works.