Anybody had any dealings with the Bristol & West?

cazzie49

When we decided to move home in 2005 we ported our mortgage with the Bristol & West as in their words "it would save time, money & hassle". Although it was stated in their blurb that we would have to complete and re-start our mortgage on the same day or we would have to pay a five per cent penalty charge we applied in plenty of time and with the excitement of a new move didn't really give this much thought. I do accept this was stupid but they are supposed to be the experts so feel this should have been more thoroughly discussed. We purchased a brand new home and, as often happens with new developments, there was an unfortunate delay resulting in a two week break in the contract for which we have been charged £890. I have written complaining that this amount was excessive but they defend this charge by stating this was an early exit penalty. We argued that this was not an early exit just an unfortunate delay that could not be avoided. We fully intended to resume our mortgage but if we had delayed our sale our buyers were threatening to pull out therfore we would have lost everything (We had put a substantial amount of money into the new home). Their manner has throughout been offhand, unhelpful and downright rude. Any advice would be much appreciated on a way forward or if anyone out there has had the same experience.

silvercar

Seems unreasonable. I know other lenders will refund the charge if you start your new mortgage within a few months of the old one.

If its in the T&C all you can do is appeal to their better nature.

MortgageMamma

I bloody hate bristol and west they are crap. sorry I know that doesnt help you I just felt compelled to get it off my chest

MarkyMarkD

There's no automatic right to port your mortgage if it isn't simultaneous. With almost all lenders, it's down to their discretion.

Clearly B&W don't care whether they upset you or not.

If asking them to let you off hasn't worked, you won't get anywhere taking it further - they have no legal or regulatory obligation to do so.

Why are you complaining now about a port which happened 2 years ago - the time to complain has surely passed.

LisaT186

I take it your offer was out and the 'new' mortgage agreed?

I would complain bitterly and officially. I know some lenders are strict on the simultaneous sale and purchase, but most have some leeway if the offer is out - it proves you were seriously trying to abide by their rules. They may charge it, but agree to refund it. Had a similar one where a client had to move in order to stop the chain collapsing and was then charged a huge penalty as it wasn't all completed on the same day. We / he had to take it to the lenders board of Directors, but it was refunded in the end.

Good Luck

Ps just read the timescales - they will probably decline the refund simply due to the length of time that has elapsed.

NightNurse

I hate Bristol & West. They declined my application with no hint of a reason and would not even consider my explanation of a possible reason (an error on my credit file which has been admitted by the credit provider)

Since then I've heard from one other broker that they are rubbish, inflexible and unpredictable.

Polovski

i requested a remortgage of £20k with Bristol and West(over £60k equity in the house) - they were very unhelpful, took an absolute age to make a decision and then decided to only offer just under £7k (which i could have got a loan for). I was also tied into an unfixed deal (2yrs fixed & 3 yrs variable). With the the mortgage going up and up i decided to leave them - i paid over £3k to get shot off them and changed to woolwich (the lesser of 2 evils) to be on fixed rate.
Glad to see the back of them to be honest - worth every penny of the 3k to be rid of them and their unhelpful staff.

When i initially took the mortgage with B&W they made it condition that i paid off £2k car finance - my father did this to help us out but then they were unwilling to add this £2k to the offer so we had to pay another £2k to afford the house. totally unreasonable in my eyes - we had never missed any payments on anything at this point and ended up owing my father 4k just to get the mortgage they had originaly offered us.:eek:

Can you go with another provider?

MarkyMarkD

Polovski wrote: »

i requested a remortgage of £20k with Bristol and West(over £60k equity in the house) - they were very unhelpful, took an absolute age to make a decision and then decided to only offer just under £7k (which i could have got a loan for). I was also tied into an unfixed deal (2yrs fixed & 3 yrs variable). With the the mortgage going up and up i decided to leave them - i paid over £3k to get shot off them and changed to woolwich (the lesser of 2 evils) to be on fixed rate.
Glad to see the back of them to be honest - worth every penny of the 3k to be rid of them and their unhelpful staff.

I don't think you requested a remortgage, I think that you requested a further advance, and then got declined.

If you had a 2 year fix followed by a 3 year tie in, it would only have been because the initial fixed rate was VERY loss-making for them i.e. very cheap for you. You chose the product - so if you then wished you'd had a 5 year fix, that's not B&W's fault.

Having equity in your property isn't the only requirement for a further advance - you need to have a clean enough credit history, and sufficient income. Presumably B&W had some reason for only wishing to advance an extra £7k.