Valuation Fee for New Mortgage - Bad Information Received from Current Lender

mwhalber

Hi All,

I am in a bit of a pickle: Recently, belieiving that I was about to fall back into a Standard Variable Rate on our mortgage on our home, I stopped into our current lender's bank branch to find out 1) when the SVR started and 2) what offers they had available.

The "adviser" at the branch advised me that we went onto the SVR on October 31 of this year, and extended a few mortgage offers to me. Believeing his advice, I (stupidly) failed to check my mortgage detals myelf and assumed that he had quoted the correct date for the SVR to begin.

I went forward with a mortgage broker and Alliance and Liecester offered us the best deal, therefore we decided that we would go with that offer. The offer required that a valuation fee was charged up-front (£430.00)

Shortly after paying the valuation fee, I realised, to my horror, that my current bank branch had mis-quoted the date which we would go onto the SVR, it is *next* year on Oct 31.

Needless to say, I have contacted A+L to try and get my payment back, claiming on the Unfair Terms in Consumer Contracts EU regulations. They are refusing to pay. The reason why I feel that I have a case is that, within the contract it states that the £430 fee is for used to compensate a surveyor to suvey the property and the remainder is charged as administration fees. This same fee is charged whether an actual physical valuation is performed, or if the valuation is taken online. (i.e. the admin fee is 100% of the cost)

According to EU regulations, charges must accurately reflect the cost of the service being provided, and I dont believe that it is so in this case.

Do I have any recourse at all??

Thanks very much!
Mike

mwhalber

sorry to bump this, but does anyone have any advice?

Thanks
Mike

Leon_W

I think you've done your money on this one.

As far as I am aware, charges do not have to reflect the cost of any service provided. It is up to you to go around and compare the charges for any given service you purchase and then decide what is best for you.

Alliance and Leicester would have spent money on valuations (and the administering thereof) so why should they be out of pocket because your exisiting lenders adviser dropped a b0llock ?

I do have sympathy for you as you obviously believed what he said (did you get it in writing ?). Perhaps go and ask him to repay you ? Although I suspect he will probably deny all knowledge of it and claim you miss-heard or something.

dunstonh

According to EU regulations, charges must accurately reflect the cost of the service being provided, and I dont believe that it is so in this case.

Since when?

Charges do not have to reflect the cost of the service provided. Especially where professionals are concerned as you are not only paying for the actual costs and profit margin but also the time and costs involved in qualifying to become a professional.

The reason why I feel that I have a case is that, within the contract it states that the £430 fee is for used to compensate a surveyor to suvey the property and the remainder is charged as administration fees. This same fee is charged whether an actual physical valuation is performed, or if the valuation is taken online. (i.e. the admin fee is 100% of the cost)

How the surveyer surveys the property is up to him. If he/she is able to use software to reduce his/her costs and increase his/her profit margins then that is their choice. In reality, a fixed fee service like this has cases where they lose money and cases where they make money as some houses are easier to survey than others. Indeed, provision of software may save hundreds of pounds against a single visit but may cost tens of thousands of pounds a year to maintain.

I sympathise for your situation but you are flogging a dead horse quoting EU regulations which have nothing to do with it.

carol99_2

Seeing as you have already paid the fee, why dont you go ahead and have the Offer anyway? I believe that A&L Offers are valid for 6 months from the date of issue and can be further extended after this date as long as there have been no significant change in circumstances. At least this leaves your options open and if its still a good rate, you'll be ready to go. Suggest you or your broker double check this though.