Another unjustifiable rip off charge

Madjock

Poppycat, please accept my apologies for hijacking your thread, this is the last response I will make to peter.

All I was implying with my bold statement was read the small print. I was not condoning any charges banks make, nor any past mis-deeds by Halifax or anyone else.
And I do think people should read all of the small print. It's there for a reason.
Perhaps I have a more pragmatic approach than you.

Poppycat

Hi, Madjock I havent taken offence to any posts, but thanks for your kind words and support, that includes everyone.

I wish you all a very merry christmas and happy new year.

UK007BullDog

Poppycat,

First of all I am, sorry was a broker and now work for a leading lender.

I also think that there are a lot of charges out there that should be scrapped or clearly defined and not left open to future rises. I too have a mortgage and had to pay all kinds of fees and will continue like everyone else to pay fees when remortgaging.

As for the £25 fee for the Buildings insurance, that is standard, has been contested and won by the lenders. They do check that you have cover. If they find out you do not have cover they will place cover on your property and then charge you for it.

The KFI is a standard document and the sentences on there tell you that you have 3 choices.
1. Take out insurance with the lender (no £25 fee to pay);
2. Take out insurance via the broker (which will probably be cheaper than the lenders but pay the £25 to the lender);
3. Take out insurance via your own research like via the internet (might be cheaper than the broker and the lender, but you have to pay the £25 to the lender.

The broker is not ripping you off. Its the lenders if you feel its a rip off. Personally I think its a fair charge for what it is for as long as it does not rise.


Now to your booking fee of £99 morphing to £599. Well, a classic case of the broker not updating his sourcing software or keeping track of his emails telling him of ending times of any special deals.
Is the mortgage you chose initially for the £99 EXACTLY the same as the £599 offer? I am asking as usually the fixed rates are lumbered with higher fees and the lower fees are associated to trackers. I don't have my docs with me now to check when the deals ended but if you called the bank and they said that the deal has always been at this price you might have an issue there. But you might not get far there. However if the broker messed you about to see them 3 times I would scream as a consumer especially if I had all documents with me on the first visit. Due to their lack of timing and skills they potentially lost you a good deal if you missed it due to their administration skills. But I doubt very much that you might have a case here with the ombudsman.

Lastly the exit charge. I never liked those either, especially if they are not forthcoming with the cost. I mean its like buying a car and telling people it could cost £125 in this year if you wanted to scap it but you keep the car 10 years and then have to scrap it and pay the scrappy £450 due to escalating costs.

One thing however we must not forget, what would happen if the lenders all decided to no longer lend more than 50% hypothetically? What would we all do if we could no longer ask them for more money? We are all quite privileged to have such a flexible lending market and able to buy our (lenders) properties. A country I visited about 10 years ago the interest rate on a mortgage was 54%. Only the very rich were able to buy, the rest lived in their shanty towns. We are very privileged. Also the lenders are a business that has shareholders (some being ordinary people, like you and me), who expect to see some sort of profit from placing their money into the lenders. Lenders also have overheads, employees, branches, running costs (even though I do not agree with some of those huge bonuses and pay scales, not just lenders but all over the place in businesses as a whole).

danjberry

was going to say what bulldog said, i think that pretty much covers it. I am an underwriter and for the company i work for when we have the insurance document come in we ask for our company to be noted on the policy that way when this policy is cancelled we are informed that the policy is cancelled and we should be informed by the customer when they change. I do work for a smallish lender and belive that fist national (GE) actually only ask for a declaration from the applicants stating they will insure the property for the amount the valuer has stated. We do not charge any fee at all if insurance is not taken out through us so dont belive GE should if that is all they do but I am not so sure if the declaration is true maybe any1 with experience with them can inform me. but with this they will not be liable if the insurance was not taken out as the applicant has made a declaration

Poppycat

I believe it is, he didn't sell us any other mortgage.

It may well be true that he didn't update his software, however I shouldn't be made to pay from someone else's mistake.

If it was a mistake it took them almost 3 weeks to inform me, by that time I had lost time and paid monies, which put me in a difficult position, if I didn't go for the product I would have to seek a new lender, I could loose my sale and my new house for the delay.

The brokers call centre informed me that the £99 was only until the 17th Nov, 3 days after we applied for the mortgage. 3 Week later we were told by the brokers call centre that it went up to £599 instead of £99, but no only told us before hand, they even said it was a offer which expired on the 17th, if that's correct, the lender said to me there was no such offer its always been £599.

As for the insurance, I mealy quoting what it states on the KFI. I feel that the £25 is a rip off, granted it may be the lender, but £25 to just check I have some insurance is another way I believe to extort monies from customers. I complied with what it stated on the KFI, if the wording is incorrect as I pointed out in a previous post, then that's there fault, why should I be made to suffer financially as a result of incompetence on the part of the broker, or there call centre.

Thanks for your help.

UK007BullDog wrote:

Is the mortgage you chose initially for the £99 EXACTLY the same as the £599 offer?

Poppycat

Right guys here's some news. After moving house and all that came with that, I decided to write to the company that employs the FA with regard to the insurance charge and increase in arrangement fee.

Today they have decided to pay me the full amount I asked for which was the insurance charge plus difference with original arrangement fee I paid and the new fee as a gesture of good will.

They accept that I should have had a new KFI when the arrangement fee went up and that the wording was ambiguous with regard to the insurance.