Mortgage Confusion - Mistakes made by Abbey??

BettyBe

Hello everyone, I need some advice here whether to uncover the following mistakes made on my account or not! My head hurts from the last 2 nights of trying to work out options surrounded by various paperwork, so maybe you guys have better ways of working these things out - Here goes!!!
We plan to move house pretty soon so I need to figure this all out asap!

First off I'll copy and paste the letter I intend sending to Abbey, and hopefully that will explain a lot of things:

Key Cottage

Abbey Rates Team
Urgent

Re: Mortgage Account: xxx Whitehouse

To Whom It May Concern,

Please find attached the relevant paperwork to support the details below. There seems to have been some confusion with the different parts that make up our mortgage and the products they are/were on regarding their tie in dates and hence repayment charges.

According to the details held on your system we currently have 2 parts to our mortgage:
Currently, Part 1 of approx. £74,660.05 and Part 2 of approx £97,607.70.
Part 1 was transferred from the house before Key Cottage, 104 School St, and Part 2 as additional lending to purchase Key Cottage (on the 6 July 2006).
Part 1 is on a 3yr stepped discount rate, supposedly started on the 26 October 2005, ending on 25 October 2008.
Part 2 is on a 2 yr discounted rate, started on the 6 July 2006, ending on the 5 July 2008.

According to my records I have different details about Part 2 of our mortgage.
Part 2, according to my records, is made up of 2 parts from 104 School St., Part A and B for the purposes of this letter (See Doc 1.).
Part A, originally £76000, started on 1st April 2004 (3yr stepped discount mortgage due to end 31 March 2007) and then an additional Part B of £5000 started on 26 October 2005 (Doc 1 and 2.).
When 104 School St was sold (around 6 July 2006) the combined mortgage left was about £80000, and it was this that should have been transferred to Key Cottage and should now be Part 1.

The issues I have are the following
1. We paid an Early Repayment Charge on Parts A and B (from 104 School St.) while transferring it to Key cottage – surely by transferring it and carrying on the tie in/product we shouldn’t have had to pay this? (according to my records this was £2551.50) (See Doc 3 and 4);
2. Part 1, according to the details held by Abbey, supposedly started on the 26 October 2005, when in fact it actually started on the 1st April 2004. This means that this product should have ended on the 31st March 2007.
It somehow appears that when this was transferred from 104 School St to Key Cottage, the product (3 yr stepped discount, only available between Nov 03 and Feb 04, according to your records!) was retained but the start date took that of the additional lending of £5000 – 26 October 2005. This couldn’t have been the date it started as this product was not available then.

Please see the records attached and hopefully this matter can be resolved as soon as possible. It is a matter of urgency as we have accepted an offer on our house, Key Cottage, and have had an offer accepted on a house we would like to purchase. The matters above will contribute greatly to the decisions involved in the purchase of the new property.


Ok, so hopefully that paints the picture reasonably clearly??? If not please let me know and I can supply any more info needed.
The thing is now - do I actually submit this letter and risk them trying to get the interest payments off me that I would have had to pay if the real rates were in effect (3yr stepped discount = 0.24% below base in the 1st yr, +0.24 2nd year, +0.74 in the 3rd, reverting to SVR after) and if I do will this breakeven, cancel out etc the repayment charge (by the way the repayment charge is £2500 on Part 1 and 1500 on Part 2) I will have to pay now to get out of my mortgage now?
Also what are the chances they'll refund the repayment charge paid in July 2006 when it shouldnt have been charged - anyone care to hazard a guess?!

Thanks everyone in advance!!! (Sorry its so long and confusing!)

BettyBe

By the way, if it helps in any calculations the house we intend to buy is much cheaper than our present house and as such we only need a 98K mortgage, which is why this situation exisits as we'll be paying off about 75K... so need to work out which bit has the repayment charge if any on it, which rate is better to keep etc etc etc!!!

silvercar

I hate to say it, but its as clear as mud!

I suggest you work out whether you have gained or lost by the apparent errors and by how much.

A refund of the repayment charges would be applicable if the original mortgage was portable ie you were able to move it to a different property; otherwise they are within their rights to charge it, just as you would have been within your rights to take your mortgage business elsewhere.

Do you at least agree on the amount outstanding?

Sometimes lenders do allow a small amount of extra lending to be taken on the same terms as an existing mortgage, even if the existing mortgage terms are no longer on offer.

If this really is a matter of urgency, get a named person to deal with it. Sending that letter addressed to "whom it may concern" will guarantee than no-one jumps up and says "I'll deal with that one".

BettyBe

Hello, thanks for your reply...

the original mortgage was indeed portable, which is why we didnt take our business elsewhere. I'm not quite sure how I managed to miss the charge of £2500 but it all gets a bit hectic at that stage!

Abbey agrees with all the amounts outstanding, its just the start/end dates of the stepped discount product that seem to have got mixed up (in our favour as we have effectively got a discounted mortgage for 4 yrs and not 3, but are tied in for a year longer)

All extra lending was taken out on different terms.

Wish I could get a name out of them, I will keep trying, thanks for the advice!

Trying_to_be_good

BettyBe

I had a long battle (about three years in the end) with NatWest about them messing up the administration of my mortgage(s). They consistently mis-applied overpayments, had wrong interest rates, and failed to apply corrections they'd agreed...

In my case, it was worth fighting for (I worked out they owed me over £1,000 before even considering compensation) and in the end I had the name and direct dial number of a lovely lady who sorted it all out the day before my re-mortgage went through.

As a previous poster said, if they owe you, fight for it, otherwise just cut your losses and mortgage with someone else next time. But it is possible to win - you just have to be good at spreadsheets!

BettyBe

Thanks for you reply Trying to be good, really helpful.
I went for it - sent in the letter above, with all the supporting documents (by Fax due to the postal strikes at the mo) and 2 days later I got a cheque for the refund of the repayment charge and the mortgage was put back onto the terms that I had in my paperwork, therefore getting me out of paying an early repayment charge again!!!!! How amazing is that - I never expected it to be as easy or quick as that lol! I figured they didnt have much to do what with the postal strike and all and as I faxed it in it got straight to them!!! Result!!
Thanks Everyone for your help,