MSE News: Halifax to repay £500m to 300,000 mortgage holders

Margoriglick

LondonLass wrote: »

Do you still have your mortgage offer letter/document? Give it a read and see if there is any mention of the 2% above base rate "cap". From what i can make out that is the starting point. Next you have to worry about any changes you might have made to the contract that would have changed the terms, such as increasing the mortgage size or converting to a different product. Lastly you have to think about how many months you were on the standard variable rate having come off of a fixed rate.

Hi thanks for your reply, it states under "description of this mortgage"

The mortgage is at a Fixed Rate FRA694 - Fixed Rate of 5.59% which ends on 31/08/2010,
Your loan reverts to Halifax Standard Variable Rate currently 6.750% after 31/08/2010.
A few other bits then,
We have set a limit on the Halifax Standard Variable Rate so that it will not be more than 2% above Bank of England base rate.

This is the bit isn't it??
So i've been on SVR since September last year. Definately not had no letters though, i'd definately remember getting giddy. The mortgage bit at Halifax isn't open on a Sunday so can't even ring them.

Thanks x

Forgot to say, no changes made to the mortgage.

Margoriglick

Morning everyone,

Just wanted to say thankyou to everyone that posted information on this thread.
Have just spoke to Halifax and they confirmed that i had recieved a "goodwill payment" of £420 :j. My letter must have got lost in the post???

Thanks again x x

Pete111

Not been a customer of Halifax since the end of 2009 so may payment was also slow in getting through.

However I have just received and cashed a cheque for £570 - which was broadly what I was expecting and very welcome indeed.

Now, how to sue them for fact I would have very happily stayed on the SVR at 3.5% (instead of jumping to a fixed rate of 3.89%) had I known they would refund me 1% of the balance - When I look at it that way, I'm £9k out of pocket!!

lisa2621

Finally received my letter today...and a cheque for £1000!!! Over the moon!! :-)

My circumstances...
Took out mortgage April 2006 - £68k
Went onto SVR April 2008
Sold flat and paid off mortgage July 2010

(funny that its £1000 exactly but i'm not complaining as i started to think i might fall into the £250 bracket)

Thanks Halifax for making a little mistake and making my summer!!! Yippeee..

lisa21

Update on our situation with Hailfax saying we are due no payment as our conditions were changed when we took a further advance in 08......I today recieved a letter from Halifax and a copy of their 2007 mortgage conditions which, the letter states, would have been included with my FA paperwork. Cue another phonecall to repeat that this was not the case, and that my FA paperwork actually states conditions of my exisitng mortgage would apply. Advisor could tell me nothing.

Think my next port of call will have to be the FOS.

helpmysis

I am pretty sure that we qualify. Received our offer in March 2007, but mortgage actually started in October 2007. Fixed rate until Jan 2009, then went onto SVR until Jan 2010 when we switched providers.

I called today and was told if we hadn't received a letter by now then sorry we don't qualify! Said I was pretty sure we did, so he raised a query and said someone would advise us within 21 days......

Can't find my offer letter anywhere right now, but have a copy of the conditions which is 2004 (2nd edition).

Didn't change our mortgage by extra borrowing etc.

I was pretty confident, now I'm not so sure??!!

medokt

Hello all,

I thought I understood the criteria for the goodwill payment and clearly thought I was inline although have just been told I do not qualify.

Our mortage was taken out in May 2007 at a fixed rate with a 2 year tie in, we then paid the SVR (3.5%) for approx 12 months (From June 2009 to May 2010 - we were not tied in during this period). We could not port our mortgage given that lending criteria had changed significantly since the mortage was taken out in May 2007. Therfore we were stuck with the SVR at 3.5% until we could afford to move it and the banks started to increase high LTV products again.

Its annoying that the Halifax have not even honoured their communication, i.e if you took out a mortgage between the specified date 'you will be wrriten to'. I have called numurous times to told something different every time!

Anyone else have similar situation to us, i.e. not tied into the SVR but signed a mortgage agreement that contained information on the 2% cap? No advances so remained on the original terms.

I will defnitely write to them now given they don't seem to be applying the rigour this exercise requires, it seems a case of those who shout loudest to me!

Thrugelmir

lisa21 wrote: »

Cue another phonecall to repeat that this was not the case, and that my FA paperwork actually states conditions of my exisitng mortgage would apply. Advisor could tell me nothing.

By accepting the offer and therefore the terms of the new advance then your entire mortgage debt would become subject to these new terms.

LondonLass

medokt wrote: »

Hello all,

I thought I understood the criteria for the goodwill payment and clearly thought I was inline although have just been told I do not qualify.

Our mortage was taken out in May 2007 at a fixed rate with a 2 year tie in, we then paid the SVR (3.5%) for approx 12 months (From June 2009 to May 2010 - we were not tied in during this period). We could not port our mortgage given that lending criteria had changed significantly since the mortage was taken out in May 2007. Therfore we were stuck with the SVR at 3.5% until we could afford to move it and the banks started to increase high LTV products again.

Its annoying that the Halifax have not even honoured their communication, i.e if you took out a mortgage between the specified date 'you will be wrriten to'. I have called numurous times to told something different every time!

Anyone else have similar situation to us, i.e. not tied into the SVR but signed a mortgage agreement that contained information on the 2% cap? No advances so remained on the original terms.

I will defnitely write to them now given they don't seem to be applying the rigour this exercise requires, it seems a case of those who shout loudest to me!

Were you told this by letter or telephone? Sounds a bit odd to me. I could have sworn that i have read on this thread of people getting a goodwill payment on similiar circumstances.

moneyblue_2

I would recommend contacting Halifax in writing. I have visited my local branch and been told one thing (that was completely untrue) and called the helpline four times now to be told different things each time.

I don't know if I qualify or not but I would like a definitive answer one way or the other. I hope that in writing they will take the time to look at it rather than trying to just get me off the phone ASAP.:)