Mortgage Mistake

KIKIE

Hi. Hopefully someone can give me some advice. I worked abroad for a while to help pay off major debts. I was paying off my mortgage in lump sums. Last June i telephoned my mortgage company to pay a normal monthly transaction only to be told due to my large repayments my mortgage arrears had been reduced to approx £2000. This was explained as referred interest because of early repayment. I telephoned twice more to double check and asked for confirmation by letter which i received. Since then i moved back home and reduced my outgoings as i was almost mortgage free. I paid my reduced mortgage payments for 7 months until a few weeks ago i received a letter from the mortgage company informing me that due to an error in their accounting they had applied a payment twice and i now need to repay an extra £15,000. Having written to the company i have not had much joy, no apology, only insistence i repay the amount owed. I will struggle to pay my new monthly payment as i had reduced my living expenses to suit the lower mortgage payments. I am not sure how i stand legally and whether i have to repay the whole amount, the mortgage company are not being too helpful. Just feel as i`m being penalized through no fault on my part. I hope someone maybe able to help. I know in these times this may seem like a trivial matter but it is a lot of money to me. Thanks.

hamster2013

check your bank statements as well as ask a the annual statements for the last few years to your lender to confirm how much you have repaid.
cross check (i'm sure you will know exactly what you have paid) and make sure that the £15,000 extra they are asking is legit. i.e it is indeed due to an error on their side where they miscalculated your remaining balance.

if it is indeed a miscalculation - then why do you feel that you dont owe it to them anymore ?
if it is not a miscalculation - then do ensure that you let them know with the facts and that make sure that they do reimburse you on any excess interest they have charged you.

I think the only amount you could request them to waive as a goodwill gesture is a backlog interest calculation if they applied that on the £15k.
otherwise, you can always ask them to review your payment duration to be able to adjust to your afordability.

billchecker1

I had a similar issue with NR who undercharged me for four years.

They were gratious enough to place the extra amount into a 0% mortgage until paid off.

I suspect that they might do the same.