Mortgage Exit Fees successes and failures

burnleygirl_2

My remortgage completed on Wenesday 18th April. I posted Martin's template letter on Sunday 21st April reclaiming the £90 redemption administration charge from my old mortgage provider, Nationwide (when we took out the mortgage there was no MEAF in the contract). My cheque for £90 arrived in the post on Wednesday 25th April! Thanks Martin

thesecretarybird

I was sent £65 by Halifax after requesting a refund when remortgaging two years ago. This was the difference between the fee stated when I took the mortgage out and the day I redeemed it. I then asked the Leeds BS to consider a refund when I totally redeemed my mortgage last month and they waived the £199 fees they had asked for ... great results thanks to MSE.

mayb_2

MarkyMarkD you may be able to answer this one for me. As I understand/remember it (I am not as young as I was so could be faulty here) there was some ruling that if a Mortgage Lender had a product offering better terms than existing customers were enjoying - they had to offer that product to existing customers. Stop me if I am wrong but should that not mean that they cannot penalise the customer if they chose to change product any more than if the customer changed mortgage to go to another company altogether - in other words MEAFs. Otherwise they are not really offering the existing customer the same opportunity as new customers are they. They cannot have to carry out the same amount of work as with a new customer so it cannot cost them that much to make a switch. I know you are going to say they can charge what they like and the customer does not have to switch - but that is flying in the face of the original ruling isn't it?

shaymenRup

Got £125.50 back from Yorkshire Building Society.

Just a query though. They stated that two deed release type fees totalling £74.50 equated to a mortgage release fee and deducted this from the total sum.

I got the impression this was a con and wrote back for clarification. They ignored my letter, is it worth going to the ombudsman?

Tesco_points_addict

Quick update
As well as my £83.06 my father has just been told he will get over £100 from Woolwich, he had no details from his mortgage with them not even his account no!! They informed him that they had not charged any MEAF on his last mortgage but offered him the refund based on his previous mortgage with them...result for a free phone call
Letter sent to Abbey Morgage taken out in Oct 02 and redeemed in ?? Sept/Oct 04..no idea if they owe me anything but no harm in trying!
Thanks Martin/////I think I love you!!!!

MarkyMarkD

mayb wrote: »

MarkyMarkD you may be able to answer this one for me. As I understand/remember it (I am not as young as I was so could be faulty here) there was some ruling that if a Mortgage Lender had a product offering better terms than existing customers were enjoying - they had to offer that product to existing customers. Stop me if I am wrong but should that not mean that they cannot penalise the customer if they chose to change product any more than if the customer changed mortgage to go to another company altogether - in other words MEAFs. Otherwise they are not really offering the existing customer the same opportunity as new customers are they. They cannot have to carry out the same amount of work as with a new customer so it cannot cost them that much to make a switch. I know you are going to say they can charge what they like and the customer does not have to switch - but that is flying in the face of the original ruling isn't it?

Of course I can answer that. There's no such obligation on lenders and hence your views about "penalising" customers who change product are incorrect.

When you buy a 25 year (say) mortgage with 2 years (say) fixed or discounted, you are legally buying a 25 year mortgage and at the end of the 2 years you are legally obliged to pay the higher (SVR or similar) rate.

If you want to change that deal, then you can only ask the lender if they will allow you to switch product; there is no obligation on them to allow you to do so at all, and any switch they offer can be conditional on the payment of any switch fee they choose.

At the end of the day it's all about YOUR choice - you originally committed to 25 years (or whatever) and you might be offered a choice of a product switch, often at a cost. If you don't like the switch cost, you don't have to take the switch.

It's not flying in the face of "the original ruling" because there never was such an original ruling.

mayb_2

Thanks for that - I thought that is what you would say MarkyMarkD and I have continued this on the other thread as it is more in line with a discussion and this thread is about success and failure of claims.

Jeannine

I received a cheque from Coventry BS for £70 as I paid £195 exit fee and £125 was stated in the paperwork. No joy on the phone though - I had to write...

Carla_2

After seeing the program on Thursday, I telephoned our last two mortgage suppliers and have been promised a refund from both.

Halifax who we closed our account with in 2004 charged us £115 instead of £75 that the contract stated so are sending us a cheque for £40.

Abbey who we closed our account with in 2006 charged us £225 when the contract said £99. They have sent us a form already which we have completed and returned and they are sending us a refund of the difference.

Not bad for 10 minutes of phonecalls! Would definately recommend making the call - thanks for the advice!

alexandlee

easy peasy this money lark isn't it!
£50 from B+W and £25 from Halifax,

better than a smack form a wet kipper!