Please help my bank have let me down

Cornucopia

So how did you expect the 6-month limit to work?

Kezziehodierne

I was told the mortgage account was left open.

Cornucopia

What did you do/were you planning to do between selling the old house and buying the new one?

I think in the circumstances, I would have looked to Barclays to withdraw the penalty clause entirely. You might have been able to get your MP or Councillor to get written confirmation from the Police of the arson risk to support your request.

Kezziehodierne

Move in with my parents and put our stuff into storage. I have all the proof they need should they require it. I asked for that but they wouldn't budge, then obviously when they said I could just port the mortgage I thought great when I've made another 6 payments I can remortgage with whoever I want, but no. The mortgage advisor I dealt with genuinely didn't know we would have to buy and sell at the same time until after we had already sold.

Cornucopia

As far as I know, that would be acceptable under the terms of most porting arrangements with most lenders. You should probably go back to the terms & conditions of your original mortgage to see what it says on the matter.

Kezziehodierne

So it's acceptable to tell someone they can use a mortgage and then a week before tell them they can't not when they have already sold their house? I don't get how that can be true, what if when we reapplied for the mortgage we couldn't get one?

AnotherJoe

If it's all in email it should be an open and shut case. All the stuff about arsonists etc horrendous as it is, is irrelevant. If Barclays stated one thing, on that basis you exchanged, and then they changed their position after that, that's all you need state. That could be done in one short paragraph.

Cornucopia

It's not really about what I think.

Overall, it does sound as if you've been badly advised by Barclays. There's also the question of what the other professionals (your Solicitor, your Estate Agent) knew when and what they did with the info.

If you're talking about Barclays changing the terms between Exchange and Completion, then that would be a serious contractual matter and your Solicitor would have been involved.