Abbey £790 letting fee - help!

wilburpig

We recently contacted the Abbey to ask for permission to rent out our house. They replied, saying that 'as valued customers' (of 7 months!) we would not have to change to a buy to let mortgage, but pay a one off fee of £790. It does state in the terms and conditions that this is non refundable. Our circumstances have now changed and we will no longer be letting the house, so I wrote a polite letter asking for the fee to be refunded. They sent a copy of the t and c and said no. Can I pursue this? How? The charges are unfair as we never let the house and excessive for any paperwork involved aren't they?

david29dpo

i would say the fee is fair. you paid it, so you must have thought it fair at the time. did you pay it before you read the TC or after?

Bernard_Coleslaw

I'm with david29po on this one.

The charge, and the fact that it was non-refundable, was notified to you before you decided to pay it. It was your choice to pay it or not as it was your choice to let your home at the time. The fact that you've subsequently not let out your home is, I'm afraid, not relevant.

The question of whether a £790 charge is reasonable 'for the work done' does not apply in this case. That argument applies to charges levied for breaches of contract (i.e. late payments, overdrafts, etc). You haven't breached a contract here - you asked Abbey for a variation to your mortgage from a residential to a landlord contract and they agreed, subject to payment of a fee.

I completely understand why you might want to get it back - £790 is a lot of money. But technically Abbey are under no obligation to pay it back to you.

noisypinkbubble

Having worked for abbey in the recent past, I think you're miles better off paying the fee then having to look at chaning to a BTL rate, as they are not very favourable at all.

asandwhen

I had this problem with the abbey a couple of years ago I think they quoted me something similar - When I contacted them they told me that if it was only short term then the cost would be around £100 for the year and if I needed to renew it in a year it would cost the same so you should have done it on a short term basis.

Jimble

I am having similar troubles, I have had a letter today asking for £1700 :mad:
Am I better off switching to a buy to let with them or another lender.

pipee

Jimble wrote: »

I am having similar troubles, I have had a letter today asking for £1700 :mad:
Am I better off switching to a buy to let with them or another lender.

It depends upon any early repayment charges you are likely to have to pay to leave. If you are not tied in then it is likely you would be better off on a Buy To Let mortgage.

dunstonh

The charges are unfair as we never let the house and excessive for any paperwork involved aren't they?

I think the charge is fair as you knew in advance how much it was and you paid it. Whilst the level of work involved may seem little at £790, it also has to take into account the increased level of risk to the lender and no doubt some of that fee is a risk premium.

Dan_Collins_2

This is going to get higher to, most lender used to do this for free, more and more are charging. B2L's are non reg remember so different rules apply for the time being anyway. A lot is going to affect this market, we have seen more and more student lets come back on the market as landlords do not want to bother with HMO's, the buy to let market will be going through some changes next year I am sure as HMO Licencing will get tougher.

silvercar

A lot of people just let out their home without getting lender's permission.

Provided you have genuinely lived in the property as your home prior to this, you would be in breach of your mortgage terms and conditions. You are not committing any criminal offence, as you would be had you applied for a residential mortgage with the intention of letting the property - that would be fraud for obtaining money by deception.