NEW Mortgage Exit Fees Discussion

melinge

Don't bother with The Kensington. I rang and they just read a note to me from the FSA that said that they charged the lowest fees. i then sent the letter and they answered saying the FSA had said their fees were the lowest and were acceptable. they also said that when we took out the mortgage several years ago we had signed the contract that said fees may change ! So not a leg to stand on. oh well was worth a try. Never use them for mortgages either nor Mortgages No4 ( MA4 or MA5 or MA6) they are all found at the same address as The Kensington but claim to not be part of them.

janew_3

Thank you MarkyMarkD, very helpful. So the £15 doesn't actually equate with the fee but is just a goodwill payment. Will now try to get the cheque reissued in my name!

MarkyMarkD wrote: »

2001 was before mortgage regulation.

If you had a mortgage with a company which ceased trading before mortgage regulation occurred, then they never became regulated and they are not required to comply with the FSA ruling.

Any amount they pay will be discretionary and you can't force them to pay more.

Puddle

I left the Yorkshire Building Society about 5 years ago to take my mortgage elsewhere. After sorting through a pile of paperwork and finding no mention of Exit Fees I decided to phone them.

It took a 5 minute phone to a very pleasant lady who looked up my original contract and told me I had been overcharged by £51.50. She has said that I will receive a cheque in the post in a few days.

Brilliant - thank you very much!!:j

astralbee

I had two previous lenders: Halifax and Alliance&Leicester. I just phoned both and got different treatment from the two.

Halifax originally agreed a charge of £50 in 2000, but charged me £100 in 2004. They just took my details over the phone and agreed to pay me back £50 as a cheque. No problems, just a form to sign.

Alliance and Leicester charged me £295, but they have no structure in place to pay these back and are boasting that the FSA have not ordered them to change their charges. What they have done is logged my request for a refund as a complaint, and are dealing with them all individually. So now I'm just waiting.

Does anyone have any experience of Halifax refunding the entire MEAF in full? I am happy they are refunding what they overcharged but if they jacked it up then in principle the entire charge is not legal.

Also, any recent A&L stories? What should I expect next?

Darrell

MarkyMarkD

astralbee wrote: »

I had two previous lenders: Halifax and Alliance&Leicester. I just phoned both and got different treatment from the two.

Halifax originally agreed a charge of £50 in 2000, but charged me £100 in 2004. They just took my details over the phone and agreed to pay me back £50 as a cheque. No problems, just a form to sign.

Alliance and Leicester charged me £295, but they have no structure in place to pay these back and are boasting that the FSA have not ordered them to change their charges. What they have done is logged my request for a refund as a complaint, and are dealing with them all individually. So now I'm just waiting.

Does anyone have any experience of Halifax refunding the entire MEAF in full? I am happy they are refunding what they overcharged but if they jacked it up then in principle the entire charge is not legal.

Also, any recent A&L stories? What should I expect next?

Darrell

A&L do have a mechanism for repaying over-paid MEAFs. But equally well, the FSA have not ordered any lender to reduce their charges.

I presume that what you mean is that you took out your A&L mortgage (or switched product) after August 2004, and hence £295 is the correct MEAF for you to pay.

Your comment

if they jacked it up then in principle the entire charge is not legal

simply has no substance. Most lenders' terms and conditions enabled them to charge a variable fee which they could alter as they determined appropriate. The FSA ruling hasn't changed the legality of this. All it's done is said that the FSA insist that their regulated bodies (i.e. the mortgage lenders) don't charge more than originally agreed unless the increase can be substantiated by reference to cost increases. Almost all lenders are refunding down to the originally agreed fee; some are not doing so and they have agreed this approach with the FSA because their increases are relatively insignificant and therefore justifiable to the FSA.

Just to reiterate - there is no legal or moral basis for reclaiming the full amount of MEAFs. Whilst some (few) people have achieved this, there is no justifiable basis for such refunds.

Burlesque_Babe

Just called the Abbey and spoke to a VERY nervous young lad!!

He kept saying - I have to send you a form. I managed to get the old account number out of him and that the account hasn't been archived. He started off by saying if I didn't know the a/c number and was over 18 months old it had probably been archived, he'd send a form........a bit of gentle 'stroking' and he looked it up and low and behold it hadn't been 'archived' and he gave me the a/c number.

Still have to fill in a form though!! Apparently turnaround is 5-10 days . I'll believe that when I see it though! I asked what would be due to come back and he fumbled his way through 'I don't know, someone else has to look at it'.

Bless him - I'd got as far as 'I used to have a mortgage with the Abbey' and he said 'oh, are you calling about your mortgage exit fee'.......

Not sure it will be much (if anything) as it was 4 years ago, but anything is better than nothing !!

dunstonh

Abbey do require the form to be filled in. Abbey have fallen foul of the FSA a lot recently. Mainly as they havent been reviewing complaints correctly.

This form could be them being difficult. However, it could also be a consequence of them not doing things right and requiring a greater audit. Companies that have a bad score card with the FSA often have to jump through more hoops and do more work. You shouldnt have any problems with it, its just a little more work for you.

amsmith

how far backcan we claim our MEF's

MarkyMarkD

Strictly, for mortgages redeemed during the past 6 years. Whilst some lenders are paying out for earlier redemptions, the amounts involved are unlikely to be very significant - typically £15 or so.

JohnnyL_2

First post. I use the site a lot and get the email so thought I'd sign up and let you know about my Northern rock exit fee saga.

Following on from the press regarding the exit fees I rung NR and asked for info on how much i paid etc.. They asked me to write in. It took me a few months to get round to it, but I found all the details, however the mortgage offer and terms and condition had no mention of a discharge fee. I wrote to them asking for a full refund of £195 + interest. They wrote back offering £35 as the discharge fee was apparently £160. I revisited my paperwork and could again see no mention of the fee so I rung them and they replied via post with a leaflet called 'Fees in black and white'. Now I genuinely can't recall receiving the leaflet and when looking thorough it I couldn't find any details of the discharge fee. I rung them again. They said the fee was a combination of a 'sealing fee' and 'transfer of deeds fee'. I compained to them on the basis of

1. I hadn't received the leaflet
2. Even if I had received the fees weren't explicit enough. who knows what a sealing fee is???
3. There is a paragraph in the leaflet stating that all fees connected with the early repayment of a mortgage would be mentioned in the offer.. and it wasn't.

I received a reply this morning from NR stating they stand by the earlier decision, however, as they didn't want any bad feelling they would refund me the full £195.:D The offer is no admission of liability blah blah blah...

So happy days