Mortgage Exit Fees discussion

twinstwins02

Hello
Can anybody help? I spoke to Kensington Mortgages who I left in 03/2004. The lady today seemed to be completely in the dark re. FSA ruling etc. She did however tell me I paid £145.00 exit fee and £50.00 deeds release fee. I do not have the original paperwork to check the fee I was quoted and I was told today I cannot request to find out my original quoted fee (From December 2000) although £50.00 rings a bell??
Does anyone know whether I am entitled to this information and is anyone dealing with Kensington re. MEAF or knows what they were quoting 12/2000. Thanks you guys

On a positive note when I checked my current equifax report it shows I was -£422.00 balance with Kensington. When I spoke to Kensington redemption dept I was told a payment either direct into my bank/?cheque was sent 4.3.04 for £332.81 and the other £90.00 would be ?admin?solicitors charges. I have checked all my four accounts and have never received any form of payment. Any ideas how to proceed from here?

MarkyMarkD

I would have thought that the payment to clear your balance might have been sent to your solicitors, rather than direct to you. It might be worth checking the completion statement from your solicitor.

glenT_3

Surely all of this will take us down the same route as all the other unfair bank charges. These charges are not meant to be a penalty or punishment and should represent the true costs incurred by the banks / building societies. . A banks would find it extremely hard to justify nearly £300 for an exit fee, just the same a trying to justify charging me £30 for sending me a letter telling my I’m overdrawn, as both processes are largely automated and probably cost a 10% of the price charged.

The MEAF charged to me was the same that I agreed in my contract 2 year earlier, so at the moment I have no scope for any refund, but I still feel I have been overcharged.

Unfortunately most, if not all lenders are just trying to screw us out of every penny they can get away with and with no other option, we are all forced to pay these extortionate charges.

Every time I change my mortgage, I go to bed feeling somewhat back door violated! And there is nothing I can do about it.

If someone had the money or the legal capacity, it would be good if they could run a test case on these charges and hopefully set a precedent for the future.

MarkyMarkD

GlenT

You are completely wrong.

The FSA have clearly stated that there is no reason why MEAFs should bear any relationship to cost of performing the work.

As I've posted repeatedly, lenders are not charities. They exist to make money.

It makes NO difference (in terms of customer fairness) whether customers are charged in the form of an up-front fee, interest during the life of the mortgage, or an end of mortgage fee, as long as all of those elements are contracted up-front. Indeed, it's better for most people's cashflow if costs are charged at the end of the account's life rather than earlier and it can be argued that doing it this way rewards loyalty.

If you feel hard done by when you pay a fee, at any stage in your mortgage's life, which was disclosed to you up-front and which is the same amount as disclosed up-front (which it is now required to be, per the FSA's ruling) then you are simply being daft.

If you'd prefer to have paid £250 more at the start of the mortgage, to save paying that £250 at the end, that's your choice, but it's a pretty silly choice IMHO. And if MEAFs were restricted to being the "cost" involved, that's all that would happen. Or mortgage interest rates would be higher.

Sting_2

About 4 years ago I had a mortgage with the West Brom, when I switched it to a better deal with another lender I had to pay various fees for a redemption statement (£65), deed release fee (around £50) and a redemption fee of one months interest £300.

All the fees were the same as when I took out the mortgage (only had it for 2 years) but I thought I would ask if I could recalim any of the 'one months interest' since £300 is disproportionate to the costs incurred by the West Brom.

I should point out that is was a REDEMPTION FEE, not an EARLY REDEMPTION FEE, my fixed rate had finished.

Smanfer71

Hello, Thanks to this site, I rang my old mortgage company (mortgage express), and they've written back today to say I can expect a refund of £60 if I accept it. However, there is nothing about interest. Should I just accept the £60 and not quibble about the couple of quid interest?

Also, their letter is their "final response" under the terms of the Internal Complaints Procedure. Does this mean that if something turns up on 28th February, that I'd lose out?

Thank you.

Bernard_Coleslaw

Sting wrote:

About 4 years ago I had a mortgage with the West Brom, when I switched it to a better deal with another lender I had to pay various fees for a redemption statement (£65), deed release fee (around £50) and a redemption fee of one months interest £300.

All the fees were the same as when I took out the mortgage (only had it for 2 years) but I thought I would ask if I could recalim any of the 'one months interest' since £300 is disproportionate to the costs incurred by the West Brom.

I should point out that is was a REDEMPTION FEE, not an EARLY REDEMPTION FEE, my fixed rate had finished.

Strictly speaking, it would be classed as 'early' redemption, as you hadn't let your mortgage run to its full term. But I'm being pedantic, here.

I think if you take a couple of mins to read the original article and some of the entries on this thread (especially the particularly erudite one immediately above yours from MarkyMarkD), you probably don't have much of a chance in reclaiming.

Please note that this is all about lenders increasing fees once you've signed up - in your case you paid exactly the fees to which you would have agreed when taking out your West Brom mortgage. And before you ask, by taking out the mortgage in the first place it will be argued that you had implicitly agreed to the terms and conditions.

In this respect, this has nothing about 'proportionality' of fees and is a different debate to the ongoing one about credit card and bank default charges. The FSA are only interested in the proportionality of fees where a lender is putting them up but with no evidence to support the need for an increase.

rooo

I sent the letter to Chelsea on Monday and got a reply yesterday stating that 'my recent communication is receiving attention and we will reply within 28 days'. So lets see what happens.

Bernard_Coleslaw

Smanfer71 wrote:

Hello, Thanks to this site, I rang my old mortgage company (mortgage express), and they've written back today to say I can expect a refund of £60 if I accept it. However, there is nothing about interest. Should I just accept the £60 and not quibble about the couple of quid interest?

You could try, but to be honest, lenders haven't been told to pay back interest by the FSA, so they're under no formal obligation to do so. Some are doing it, some have decioded not to. Is it worth it for a few year's interest on £60?

Also, their letter is their "final response" under the terms of the Internal Complaints Procedure. Does this mean that if something turns up on 28th February, that I'd lose out?

No - this is standard wording that companies use when they've finished their complaints procedure, and has nothing to do with the 28th Feb deadline. It simply means that if you wanted to take matters further you could go to the Ombudsman.

tellyerworraldowivyer

Hello All.
I am thinking about enquiring about the amount I paid for MEAF fees, my story is:
In August 2000 we (me and the wife) took out a discount rate mortgage with a tie in with Bank of Scotland (before they merged with the Halifax) We were aware of the early repayment charge, which was paid along with the other fees.
We moved house in March 2002 and redeemed the mortgage.
In the same year we took out a two year fixed rate Halifax mortgage, again, we redeemed this in April 2003.
We took out another mortgage with Abbey in 2003, again a two year fixed rate, again we had to redeem it early in March 2004.
Just to say that I am fully aware that redemption fees are non negotiable because we repaid a fixed rate early and tie in rate early.
I want to know if we can still get a part of the repayment fee back in these circumstances.
Thanks everyone