Rejected mortgage application still attract a fee?

hshen

Hi,

I applied to for a mortgage a few weeks back. The application was rejected based 2 factors, my residence status and the amount of (lack of) credit I had.

Since then I have successfully got a mortgage from another lender.

Today I received a letter from the original lender that they will be charging me £150 withdraw fee for my rejected application.

My question is, can they charge me the application fee given that:
1. I was ready to proceed if I was given the offer
2. I was honest and did not hold back any information in my application

Thanks!

hshen

I just checked their withdraw fee charge definition and it doesn't apply to me.

From their leaflet the reasons why they would charge a withdraw fee are:

a you decide not to proceed with the mortgage application; or
I was ready to proceed. In fact this causes me a lot of grief as I thought I had things sorted out.

b we are unable to offer you a mortgage because you cannot substantiate the information you have provided; or
I provided evidence of income/affordability and visa to substantiate everything I told them.

c you have not disclosed any relevant material facts relating to your application; or
I was honest about everything from beginning.

d where we make you an Offer and you do not complete on the mortgage before the Offer expires (Mortgage Offers are usually valid for 6 months).
I was never given an offer.

Am I missing something?

opinions4u

c) Covers a multitude of sins.

Have you asked them why?

hshen

opinions4u wrote: »

c) Covers a multitude of sins.

Have you asked them why?

I will ask them on Monday when they re-open.

Just wanted to get some idea whether it's usual to be charged a withdraw fee when lender reject an application when it's due to no fault on my behalf.

e.g. the fact that non-permanent residence status + lack of credit = no cigar

I was honest about my residence status from the first contact. All my credit (3k total) is on my credit file. So I can't see how I can be responsible.

hshen

For the record I called up and was told application fee is only ever refunded if survey comes back with something which makes the purchase impossible. It didn't sound right but I thought fine, I got better things to do than fighting the bank.

I was pleasantly surprised when a refund was given a few weeks later. Makes me feel pretty chuffed as I always thought I had a leg to stand on. Better that I didn't have to fight for it.