Nationwide backtrack on paying our conveyancing fees

StuntNun

My husband and I remortgaged our house with Nationwide earlier in the year and as part of the mortgage incentives they paid the solicitor conveyencing fees. Now we are in the process of moving house and on applying for the new mortgage I was told that Nationwide would pay the conveyancing fees for the purchase of the new house, although we would be responsible for the fees for the sale of our current house and for the cost of various searches, land registry etc. This information was given verbally during the mortgage application and is also detailed in the key facts document for the mortgage.

Now we are close to completion the solicitor assigned by Nationwide is billing us for the purchase conveyancing fees and Nationwide are claiming that they do not pay these fees for purchases of property in Northern Ireland. I'm wondering whether we have any basis for compensation given that we were informed, verbally and in writing, that the purchase conveyancing fees would be paid. It's quite a sum of money, it will cost us another £700 on top of the other fees we need to pay. In addition it took Nationwide five weeks to assign a solicitor which has significantly delayed our house move. If they weren't going to pay for the conveyancing we would have used our own solicitor and saved ourselves five weeks of delays and at one point daily calls to the Nationwide to repeatedly ask for a solicitor to be assigned.

I'm wondering whether we have any basis for a misselling claim and whether it is worth taking it to the Financial Ombudsman. It's all very well for Nationwide to say we should have read the small print, but all I can find is a footnote on their website that says purchases in Northern Ireland aren't covered by the free legal fees offer. Why would I have gone searching for this information when our key facts document clearly states that the purchase conveyancing fees will be paid by the Nationwide.

jd84

I'd put a complaint in if I were you, and take it from there.

Especially as you have this in writing, these KFI were supposed to make things clear and easy to understand.

Did you not get a schedule of fees from the conveyancer when they were appointed?

Wh05apk

I a not aware that Nationwide have ever offered to pay purchase conveyancing fees, if this is stated in the KFI then you have a good case for complaint.

StuntNun

JD84 we did get a schedule of fees from the solicitor but queried the charge immediately. I assumed it was a mistake at the time.

Who05apk it's only on the Flexclusives mortgage for Flex Account customers that you can get the payment of conveyancing. When we remortgaged to Nationwide they paid the solicitor's fees. Basically we had no reason to doubt that it would be paid for our purchase when moving house.

I am wondering how quickly we could arrange a mortgage with a different provider but I suspect time is too short now to abandon the Nationwide and start again.

KolaKube

we recently took out a flexclusives mortgage with nationwide in NI - they told us up front about the legal fees issue in NI and offered £250 cashback as compensation

tBagpuss_2

Put in a complaint to Nationwide.

I had a similar issue when I re-mortgaged - I was told they would make a contribution to my legal fees. I double checked that my solicitors were covered (I didn't think they would be, as lenders pay such low fees to their solicitors for these schemes) Turned out I was right, and they weren't included.

Nationwide ended up paying me as it was there misinformation (which was an excellent thing for me, as had I known from the beginning they were not going to contribute, I still wouldn't have changed solicitors - but as I had specifically checked and been told they would definitely pay, I felt they ought to!)

I think that if you went with the solicitors you did because they were recommeded by Nationwide you should get the full costs (but not disbursements) back.

However, if you KIS does include the information about it not being available in NI you may only be able to get he £250 contribution.