Extortionate Final repayment fee!!

Donut41

Hello, I am looking for some advise as what I have found on the Internet so far hasn't been very clear??
Last week we completed on a remortgage with Barclays/Woolwich. Our old mortgage was also with Barclays dating back to 2011.
Today we have found out that we have been charged (and they have deducted it from our monies owed already) £275 for a final repayment fee???? Not once did the advisor tell us about this fee and we had no idea we had paid it till today?? I have looked on our new mortgage offer and Barclays fee says £80, so had a hunt for the previous mortgage offer and yes! it says on there £275?? This is the first time I have realised that this was a charge for just changing mortgage!! and I am so cross that Barclays have charged this amount and their advisor never brought our attention to it!! especially as we stayed with a Barclays mortgage??? How can they justify this amount of money?? and why is the charge now £80 if they didn't know that the old pricing was totally disproportionate
Please help! Is there anything we can do?? 😞

Thrugelmir

A lesson learnt for the future. Read everything that you are given.

kingstreet

Presumably you moved house?

When you move, your old mortgage ends and any final/discharge fee is payable whether you take a new mortgage with the same lender or go to a new lender.

No draft completion statement or redemption statement from your solicitor for you to check beforehand?

safestored4

From what you have said you appear to have been charged exactly what was stipulated in the terms and conditions of the previous mortgage, which you agreed, and signed up to, with Barclays when you took it out. if you couldn't previously be bothered reading these don't blame anybody else except yourself.

Donut41

We didn't move house, we just remortgaged. My biggest gripe is the amount of money it is! It is totally disproportionate to what it is supposedly paying for. Which Barclays have obviously realised as now the fee on the new mortgage is £80. The fee on the original offer doesn't clearly explain what the fee actually is (I thought it was a fee when you finally pay your mortgage off and are mortgage free ie, to release the deeds to us etc)

magpiecottage

If you think that it was not clear then you can complain to Barclays.

Thrugelmir

Donut41 wrote: »

We didn't move house, we just remortgaged. My biggest gripe is the amount of money it is! It is totally disproportionate to what it is supposedly paying for. Which Barclays have obviously realised as now the fee on the new mortgage is £80. The fee on the original offer doesn't clearly explain what the fee actually is (I thought it was a fee when you finally pay your mortgage off and are mortgage free ie, to release the deeds to us etc)

No deeds any longer. As they will be held electronically at Land Registry. Hence why the fees have reduced. The fee now will purely cover legal charges associated with removing the charge.

kingstreet

Donut41 wrote: »

We didn't move house, we just remortgaged. My biggest gripe is the amount of money it is! It is totally disproportionate to what it is supposedly paying for. Which Barclays have obviously realised as now the fee on the new mortgage is £80. The fee on the original offer doesn't clearly explain what the fee actually is (I thought it was a fee when you finally pay your mortgage off and are mortgage free ie, to release the deeds to us etc)

If all you've done is taken a customer retention product from your existing lender, I don't understand how/why this fee should have been charged.

If you are an existing Barclays borrower it wasn't a remortgage as that is a new mortgage from a new lender to repay the old one and a change of mortgage deed is required.

How could/did they collect this fee?

As it is not normal for the discharge fee to be charged in such circumstances, you may have grounds for complaint if it wasn't explained or confirmed in writing to you that is what would happen.

amnblog

Section 8 in your mortgage offer in 2011 makes this charge clear.


This says:


Final Repayment Charge (payable on final repayment of the mortgage and
non-refundable). £275


I am not sure how the Lender could make this any clearer.


However, there is some confusion here as Kingstreet says.


I suspect you are not referring to a new mortgage product on the same property with the same lender (in which case this fee NOT is payable).


Rather you have sold up, moved and taken out a new mortgage with the same lender Barclays (in which case this fee is payable).

pinkteapot

Other lenders do similar. Santander have an "account fee" of £225, which you can choose to pay when you get the mortgage, or when you finish paying it off or otherwise close the account.

It irked me too as it seems to be money for nothing. Admin fee for closing the account? How long does that take them?! But it was clear in the paperwork when we got the mortgage so we knew we'd be hit for it.

I suspect lenders are adding more one-off fees because of the number of people remortgaging these days. 30 years ago, people got a mortgage and just had it for its life, or until they moved house. Nowadays, it's much more common for people to do 2/5/10 year deals and switch at the end of them. There's money for the lenders to make in charging fees every time people switch.

amnblog

Why do Lenders charge these fees?


Because they can.


If I charged someone £275 to stop doing business with me I suspect there would be a row.