Mortgage Fee's Can I reclaim????

tally86

Good evening all,

I am just looking for some advice/opinions. When my partner and I bought our first house in December 2005 we were told it would be better for us to put our 'Mortgage Fees' on top of the mortgage, even though we told them that we could pay them up front. The total of the fees were £3456.60.
Unfortunatley we bought at just the wrong time, just before the market crashed. We bought a one bedroom house and I am now pregnant (yey!) We have put the house on the market but we have had to put it up for nearly £10,000 less than what we bought it for. Our estate agent and mortgage provider were both Halifax.

I am wondering if it would be worth writing to Halifax and asking them to refund these fees due to it being their advice to add the fees to our mortgage, even though this took us to over 100% loan to value.

Anyone have any advice or opinions please write back!!!
Thanks

dunstonh

There is absolutely no reason for Halifax to refund those charges. You had to pay them one way or another. Your choice was to pay by cheque or add to mortgage. You made your choice. There is nothing wrong whatsoever about adding the fees to the mortgage. Typically they get put in a sub account with no tie in to allow you to repay them at your convenience.

The reason advisers often recommend adding charges to the mortgage is that some of the charges are non-refundable and need to be paid in advance. However, if you add them to the mortgage and the mortgage does not proceed, most lenders do not then ask you for the money. However, there is a caveat. On advised cases, the adviser should make you aware that you can repay the charges immediately if you wish. On non-advised cases, they do not.

Most banks have been non-advice for some time.

tally86

Thanks Dunstonh,

I do understand that they would have had to have been paid in one way or another. However, we have since been told that it would probably have increased the sellers bonus slightly if we added it to the mortgage. We did make it quite clear that we had the funds available to pay them upfront.

Surely also taking our total LTV to over 100% should have been classed as mis-selling? At the time we were both eager to move out into our own place and probably would have done anything to get the mortgage agreed. We were advised to put the fees on top therefore we did! Now we're in a horrible negative equity situation and I feel it's partly Halifax's fault??

Thanks

dunstonh

However, we have since been told that it would probably have increased the sellers bonus slightly if we added it to the mortgage.

That is complete and utter rubbish. Firstly bank staff dont get paid like that. Secondly, what a staff member gets paid is irrelevant.

Surely also taking our total LTV to over 100% should have been classed as mis-selling?

Nope. Never has been.

We were advised to put the fees on top therefore we did! Now we're in a horrible negative equity situation and I feel it's partly Halifax's fault??

Pay the fees out of your savings now then.

If you were advised (and Halifax have been non-advice for a while) then its probably to do with the reasons I have already mentioned as that is very common advice. However, you were free to repay the fee at any time you wanted. So, do it now.

roonaldo

tally86 wrote: »

Surely also taking our total LTV to over 100% should have been classed as mis-selling?

No, thats your fault, you could have put a deposit down and got a smaller mortgage.

tally86 wrote: »

Now we're in a horrible negative equity situation and I feel it's partly Halifax's fault??

Are you joking here? welcome to the real world

roonaldo

OMG another I paid too much for a house and took a too bigger mortgage, I didnt have enough cash for fees, but it some elses fault.

tally86

roonaldo wrote: »

OMG another I paid too much for a house and took a too bigger mortgage, I didnt have enough cash for fees, but it some elses fault.

'OMG' there's no need to b rude. Get over yourself! I was just asking for advice! I accept that we bought at the wrong time. And yes I kno that we could have put down more of a deposit but again, we were advised not to! Once again probably for their commission purposes, and I kno that bank/building society staff do get paid commission because I have since worked for a major high street bank! Where the mortgage adviser told me that we should NEVER have had the advice to put the fees ontop of our mortgage as taking the LTV to over 100% was not really 'responsible lending' which was something that all banks had to follow!
Don't bother replying if you haven't got anything constructive to say because noone wants to hear your rubbish!

dunstonh

Once again probably for their commission purposes

Once again, they are not paid commission.

and I kno that bank/building society staff do get paid commission because I have since worked for a major high street bank!

The vast majority get paid bonus on achieving targets. Not commission. I know an ex Halifax adviser and their method was bonus. Lending amounts are not an issue for individual staff.

Where the mortgage adviser told me that we should NEVER have had the advice to put the fees ontop of our mortgage as taking the LTV to over 100% was not really 'responsible lending' which was something that all banks had to follow!

As already said, there are very good reasons for not paying the fee in advance. However, you can pay it any time as the fee is typically put in a sub account with no penalty to repay whether it be 1 day after completion, 1 year or the end of the mortgage term.

Why not pay the fee now then?

You are looking for something that isnt there.

roonaldo

tally86 wrote: »

'OMG' there's no need to b rude. Get over yourself! I was just asking for advice! I accept that we bought at the wrong time. And yes I kno that we could have put down more of a deposit but again, we were advised not to! Once again probably for their commission purposes, and I kno that bank/building society staff do get paid commission because I have since worked for a major high street bank! Where the mortgage adviser told me that we should NEVER have had the advice to put the fees ontop of our mortgage as taking the LTV to over 100% was not really 'responsible lending' which was something that all banks had to follow!
Don't bother replying if you haven't got anything constructive to say because noone wants to hear your rubbish!

just becuase im being honest and telling you something you dont want to hear. At the end of the day the fees were added to the mortgage as this was the only way you were going to get the mortgage, if you didnt want that arrangement you should have had money up front. now you are blaming the bank which isnt constructive. The bank isnt to blame as they have done nothing wrong. You just need to take responsibility for making a bad decision.

As you have worked for a bank, you should now better, you know financial services and you should know you are talking rubbish.

So tell us, as it was bad to put the fees on top of the mortgage, how were you going to pay for them?

tally86

roonaldo wrote: »

So tell us, as it was bad to put the fees on top of the mortgage, how were you going to pay for them?

If you had read the first message that I had written you would have seen that I wrote ' even though we told them that we could pay them up front'

And you know what? It's not that you telling me something that I don't want to hear and as I have previously said 'I accept that we bought at the wrong time'

Dunstonh has replied and basically told me the same thing as you, but they didn't try to belittle what I was asking! You're 'OMG' attitude stinks and you clearly work in the financial services and are a right jobs worth!

The reason why we can't pay the fees now is because we don't still have the £3500 spare that we did back then.

Are you someone who paid too much for a house and is now in negative equity and can't move on, no probably not. Do you know the reasons why we had to move at the time that we did. No you don't! You don't know the full picture, so get off your high horse!!!

roonaldo

tally86 wrote: »

If you had read the first message that I had written you would have seen that I wrote ' even though we told them that we could pay them up front'

so you had the option of not then.

And you know what? It's not that you telling me something that I don't want to hear and as I have previously said 'I accept that we bought at the wrong time'

I sympathise, i too bought at high prices

Are you someone who paid too much for a house and is now in negative equity and can't move on, no probably not. Do you know the reasons why we had to move at the time that we did. No you don't! You don't know the full picture, so get off your high horse!!!

calm down no i dont know the full picture, i dont know you. I too cant move on either, you are one many. perhaps rent it out? use the rent to overpay on mortgage each month