Mortgage redemption advice please

katkin804

We moved out of our house back in April. I thought I would have an early redemption charge to pay so when my solicitor sent me the figure I questioned it and asked when I would have to pay the ERC. She said it wasn't on the statement so I assumeed it was because I was staying with Nationwide. She did know that I wasn't porting my mortgage.


The mortgage was paid off and closed down. 10 days after completion I had a letter from Nationwide stating that I owed ERC. I complained to them and then the financial ombudsman and they stated there is a 'small print' paragraph on the back of the redemption statement that if not porting the mortgage to request a figure including charges. As this was there the FO investigator suggested to leave it there but said to complain to the solicitor.


I am in the process although they think it isn't their fault so I am thinking about the legal ombudsman.


The solicitor knew I wasn't porting, the small print showed to request a new figure if not porting and I even asked her about it when she sent me the final figure.


As I thought she had done her job and so assumed there was no ERC after all I spent the money on the new house. Its about £3200 so not a small amount.


Do you think this is a valid claim to go through the legal ombudsman?

davidmcn

What's your loss? If you were intending to sell the house anyway then you would have had to pay the ERC, you're now just doing it later.

katkin804

we were intending to pay it, saved the money then the solicitor told us it definitely wasn't on the statement, she knows we aren't porting
so we then spent the money on our new house once the sale was completed as we thought that was a definite


we now have to pay this money which we don't have because of the solicitors negligence in my opinion

davidmcn

Ok, but if you had paid the ERC at completion you wouldn't have had the money to spend on the house...I'm just trying to point out that you can't claim the £3200, at most you might get the interest if you have to borrow the money.

The fact that you suspected there should have been an ERC payable isn't going to help matters.

katkin804

but i asked the solicitor 'when do i pay the ERC?' and she said its not there. i don't get the redemption statement so i can only rely on the solicitor to do their job properly and give me the right information.


the account got closed so i assumed that i was mistaken and there was no ERC due so spent the money.


if i had to pay it because the solicitor had requested the correct information then i wouldn't have spent it on the house and we wouldn't have bothered redoing the garden, but we did as she told us it wasn't on the statement


if the solicitor hadn't been negligent i would have the money to pay it. if i can't claim the ERC surely i can try and claim some of the legal fees i paid as they didn't do the job that i paid them to do sufficiently

mierzwin

I had exactly same thing with Nationwide, look at my started threads as I cant post links yet.

To be honest I was supposed to write complaint letter but as got so busy with new house that I totally forgot. In the mean time I received a letter from Nationwide that they tried to contact Solicitors with no luck and I have to pay my ERC to close the account, but in fact they already removed the charge from property so I cant see there any account to exist. All my online mortgage account got closed aswell, only credit card is still there. I checked land registry and they removed the charge there aswell.

I kind of played hard man and ignored Nationwide's one and only letter but it was 6 month's ago and I didn't see any impact on my credit rating either and Noddle shows account was settled in January and balance matches the one from Redemption Statement to exact pound. February shows as balance 0 and account closed.

My advice could only be: their mistake your win. Solicitors from remortgage on my case stated it wasn't porting either and Nationwide sent wrong figure. My situation was more complex as I actually had porting application in the past but it was cancelled due to remortgage but it seems they make mistakes on simple cases aswell.

Good luck with your case but I wouldn't pay them

katkin804

Mine sounds exactly the same actually. I had porting application in the got different mortgage as changed house.

Credit check says account closed,how do you check land registry? To be honest I haven't heard from them for a good few months now. Perhaps it was a mistake complaining at all!

Jhoney_2

I would explain to nationwide what happened and offer to repay in installments. I would complain about the solicitor, but can't see it being worth all of the time - max £150 compensation but at least an acknowledgment.

FWIW you were not at fault, however nationwide are not at fault either and are due their ERC, albeit late.

If you choose not to settle the matter, you may find yourself getting debt collectors etc on your back with associated fees and interest accumulating - somewhere down the road!

upoiupou

I wouldn't just leave it either. I'm sure there will be small print on the back about interest too!

I think Nationwide are rubbish not to bother including it on the statement apart from covering it in some generic small print. And I think the solicitor is rubbish for not reading it. But unfortunately, I don't think this changes the situation for you.

I have to say I think you were being a bit optimistic to be willing to believe it had gone away rather than questioning further/checking yourself. I think leaving it in the hope they'll never chase again is equally optimistic and don't recommend taking this approach again.

If it was me I would complain about the solicitor because it will possibly help others if you do and solicitors just shouldn't get away with stuff like this. And I would ask Nationwide about paying it in instalments interest-free, given the circumstances. I wouldn't hope for any more than that.

cr1mson

I would be pursuing it through the financial ombudsman rather than solicitor if anything as think it is incumbent on the Nationwide to provide the correct redemption figure rather than for the solicitor to ask for it in a particular form of words.

Also there is an argument that the onus was on you to tell the solicitor to ask for a redemption with charges as you knew that you weren't porting, your solicitor wouldn't necessary know this.

Thrugelmir

katkin804 wrote: »

She said it wasn't on the statement so I assumeed it was because I was staying with Nationwide. She did know that I wasn't porting my mortgage.

Why didn't you speak to Nationwide rather than assuming. Solicitors will act on the information provided to them.