Halifax moving the goal posts ?

schoey123

Hi All,

In Sep-07 i bought a house with a residential mortgage (fixed 5.94%) from Halifax.

I lived in the house for 6 months and then moved out.

I informed Halifax and they granted me 3 yr consent to lease, charged me a fee (£499) and changed my mortgage product to a 3yr BTL and upped this to fixed 6.94%.

At the time and since then all correspondence has pointed towards the fact that at the end of the 3 year period i would drop onto the SRV currently 3.5%.

Now with 1 month to go before the product expires they appear to be moving the goal posts.

They are now saying that if i do not re-mortgage i would transfer to a variable base rate (assume this is the SVR) plus an "added rate" (whatever that is!?)

Has anyone had any experience of this ? I just feel like Halifax are trying it on because I'm going from 6.94% to 3.5%.

Thanks for any info.

kingstreet

Are they assuming (rightly or wrongly) the property is still let?

Last time I had a client asking for consent to let they wouldn't grant it unless he did as you did and moved to a higher rate, with a tie-in and a large fee.

They said they would also look to force him to another deal to have the consent to let renewed in the future. I got the impression no-one was getting SVR if they wanted that consent to let letter...

tribalboy

Surely there should be somewhere in the Terms & Conditions where Halifax outlines the conditions for Consent to Let. Does anyone know where to find this.

Other mortgage lenders simply charge a flat fee and allow the home owner to let it for at least a 3 year period before they decide to up the rate. Halifax simply seems to be ripping people off. Isn't there anything the FSA or the Ombudsman can do something about this.

Thrugelmir

tribalboy wrote: »

Surely there should be somewhere in the Terms & Conditions where Halifax outlines the conditions for Consent to Let. Does anyone know where to find this.

Google the Halifax website for their current terms and conditions.

The act of granting Consent to Let is a variation on the original purchase contract. So the Halifax can set the terms of same as it wishes. Granting of CTL is discretionary not a right.

So if you aren't agreeable to the terms on offer take your business elsewhere.