Halifax letter stating we owe early exit fees.. Please help!

melissa1709

Hi all,

Looking for some advice after receiving a letter tonight and am very concerned.

We recently moved house, our old mortgage was with Halifax and due to having to pay an early exit fee if we left them, we took out our new mortgage fee with Halifax also.

During this process our mortgage broker advised the fee would not be payable as we were staying with Halifax. Our solicitor also asked for an email from our mortgage broker stating this which he sent.

We have been in our new home 2 weeks today and recieved a letter tonight saying we must pay £1989 to close our mortgage account. This is the early exit figure.

I am totally confused as to why we have been told we have to pay this and quite frankly after just moving home it's money we do not have. I would have never stayed with Halifax if this was the case as we could have got better rates elsewhere but didn't want to take the hit on the early exit charge.

I have emailed our solicitors to ask if they can advise. I don't want to speak to our mortgage broker as he was absolutely ridiculous throughout the whole process and made it very difficult so things weren't left very well. Hoping this isn't him doing something dodgy.

Can anyone help in the meantime as to what might happen?

Thanks in advance

minimike2

You may not want to, but you need to speak to the broker.

melissa1709

I am guessing we will have to speak with him, going to see what our solicitor said first.

Was just wondering if anyone had any experience with something like this and what their outcome was - I feel as though we have been lied to by our broker and should not be responsible for the early exit charge.

silvercar

It could be an admin error by the Halifax. I'd speak to them first, possibly the person dealing with account closures failed to see a marker that you have taken a new mortgage with the Halifax too.

ACG

I know this is easier said than done, but I would not worry about this too much. If this email exists from broker to solicitor, if the fee is due, my money is on the broker will be the one who ends up paying it.

You need to speak to the broker to rectify it.
Get a copy of the email fromt he broker to the solicitor (from the solicitor), if you can.

melissa1709

Thanks for your response silvercar, never thought of that - will contact them tomorrow and see if this is the case!

ACG thank you, my partner is also telling me not to worry as we have all emails of correspondence between ourselves, our broker and the solicitors stating numerous times it wouldn't be payable. If it is I hope he gets the bill for it as he made the whole process terrible for us in the first place and now this!

ACG

It does not quite work like that.

See what the broker says and also see if you can resolve it with Halifax if the broker can not.

If that fails and it is due, you need to speak to the broker about covering it.If they refuse, you will need to make an official complaint. If they reject the complaint, then you would need to take it to the ombudsman (you can not go straight to the ombudsman).

All of that process can take time, so best to try and get it resolved before going down the complaints process.

kingstreet

Were your sale and purchase concurrent or was there any gap between the two? If yes, how long?

Was there any reduction in the amount you owed before to the amount you have recently borrowed?