Mortgage Exit Fees successes and failures

charm1

Hi,
I sent template letter off just over 1 week ago regarding (MEAFS). I originaly took my mortgage out in 1999 with northern rock, in 2002 I got a unsecured loan with them and it was put down as a together loan. for this i was charged £220, I then moved home in 2005 and got a new mortgage with nationwide, the mortgage part from northern rock was obviousley cleared but we carried on paying the unsecured off for 3 more years on completition of the new mortgage northern rock charged a furthur £195.
The letter of response that I received today says to cut it short.
"Northern rock is charging the dom fee that applied when the loan was originaly advanced or when the contract was last ammended, in other words, when the most recent mortgage contract was entered into.
Having reviewed your account the DOM fee was £160 at the time your most recent mortgage contract began. As a result, I have arranged to refund £35 the difference of the amount we chared you £195 and the fee that applied at the start of the mortgage contract (£160)"

I dont really get where the £160 figure has come from original mortgage was done in 1999 10 years ago MEAF WAS AT £75 see guide on this site. and second payment of £195 in 2004 5 years ago MEAF WAS £150 again see guide, on main page.
Should I accept this or contact them again ...
advice would be great thanks

Dozertron

Hi Everyone,

Just a quick Question if anyone can help, i sent a letter to Abbey who i had a morgage with recently but left them to go to another lender at the end of my fixed term. Because of this i incurred a £225 charge, as stated i sent the first template letter to them from the MSE and i recieved a reply included a criteria for "am i eligible for a refund" which basically states that if i did sign up to the morgage with this in the Terms & Conditions then i would not be eligable for a refund.

I after this i get a letter from the Abbey saying i am not entitled to any refund should i persue this further,

Any advice on this would be greatefully appriciated, thanks everyone!

_Andy_

£225 is what you agreed to so why on earth should they refund it?

dunstonh

I after this i get a letter from the Abbey saying i am not entitled to any refund should i persue this further,

The Abbey are complying with the FSA guidelines. The refund payable is the difference between what was on your offer letter of the last deal you purchased and what you paid. Abbey are telling you that you paid the correct amount. Therefore they have complied with the FSA rules.

meaniegreenie

Hi i have just attempted to receive my mortgage exit fees back from Abbey National - Mortgage ended May 2003 they sent myself a form i filled in every question except could find no paperwork with my mortgage ref number with themselves, all other questions relating to the mortgage ie start and end date, address etc were all answered correctly, i used martins template word, anyway i received a letter this morning informing myself that i shall not be receiving anything as they can find no record of myself?, i have no records after six years so my question is are they just being awkward and do i give up or is there a second round template and i fight on? i am still in the same address as 6 years ago surely they have some archives of this and do not require my mortgage ref number? please someone advise thanks in advance

barloo69

Dozertron wrote: »

Hi Everyone,

Just a quick Question if anyone can help, i sent a letter to Abbey who i had a morgage with recently but left them to go to another lender at the end of my fixed term. Because of this i incurred a £225 charge, as stated i sent the first template letter to them from the MSE and i recieved a reply included a criteria for "am i eligible for a refund" which basically states that if i did sign up to the morgage with this in the Terms & Conditions then i would not be eligable for a refund.

I after this i get a letter from the Abbey saying i am not entitled to any refund should i persue this further,

Any advice on this would be greatefully appriciated, thanks everyone!

In short. Yes Dozertron, continue. That is a standard letter that is sent out to all. Dig out your original mortgage offer and ascertain what the stated MEAF at the outset of the mortgage was.

If it was Abbey (which you say it was) then if it recently finished (which you say it did) then I am presuming here that you took out a 2 year fixed deal (most popular) so in which case, you initially took this out in say 2007. (stop me if Im wrong here) Then I imagine you had a charge of £99 on their.

So, if the above is correct then yes you would be due a refund of the difference between this amount and the fee you have ACTUALLY been charged (BTW, I do know that some other reclaimers have been successful in reclaiming the whole fee refunded on the basis or arguing that the banks admin costs are not proportionate to their real costs, but this is upto you) As legally you not entitled to this amount per se.

Good luck and keep us posted.

rebecca140370

3/7/09
I downloaded the letter template last week & sent the letter to the Nationwide, a week later I received a cheque for the full amount (in this case £90). Their reply stated that the refund was due as the fee had not been listed in our original mortgage offer, though it is their policy not to refund interest charges.
Now waiting for a response from the Alliance & Leicester...
By the way, I didn't have a reference or mortgage account number so I used the address which the mortgage was used for.

13/7/09
I have received a letter & cheque from Alliance & Leicester for £350 - it turns out I had 3 mortgages with them (I thought I only had 2 !) They listed all mortgage account numbers & reasons for their refunds.
Result !

mhairib_2

hi there
Having sent the template letter off to Northern Rock last week requesting the difference plus interest on the exit fee that I would have paid when I completed my mortgage. I have today got a letter back stating that at the time when I completed the mortgage the fee was infact £250. Unfortunately I dont have any paperwork from the mortgage to check this.

The state in the letter - In accordance with the guidance issued by the FSA, NR is charging the fee that applied when the loan was originally advanced - I personally think this is incorrect as they state it was in 2007, and I completed that mortgage 2005/6.

What im trying to say is that, how can I find out what they are saying is correct without having the original mortgage contract paperwork.

thanks for any help.
mhairi

MarkyMarkD

Presumably you switched products in 2007, in which case that is the relevant date and NR are correct?

mhairib_2

thanks for your reply. No I didnt switch products, I sold my flat in 2005 so im not sure where they are getting 2007 from. Do you think I should write back to them or just go straight to FOS?

thanks