Remortgaging: Put the wrong date on solicitor's questionnaire and have to pay early repayment fee

mairali

We are in the process of remortgaging our house. Application was accepted in December 2021, and the solicitor was provided by the new lender. The solicitor sent out a questionnaire asking for personal details like name, phone number, etc. and the details of our existing mortgage, including lender, account number, whether there are redemption penalties, and if so when the redemption penalty period expires. I checked all the info, filled in the questionnaire and sent it back just before Christmas. 

The problem is, I appear to have put the wrong date for the end of the redemption penalty period. I know I definitely looked it up, but I can't remember where I found the date that I put, and so I don't know how I made the error. I think it was on something we had recently received in the post but I can't find any record of it now. I *definitely* didn't just guess, because I remember being a bit surprised that it was earlier than I expected. It's out by a month - it should have been the end of April (according to our original mortgage letter from two years ago) but I put the end of March. The solicitor has taken my word for it that the penalty period expires at the end of March, and arranged completion for April 1st. I was notified of the completion date in January. Only today - 31st March, so the day before the scheduled completion - the solicitor has told me they've received a redemption statement for tomorrow and it includes a £2,000 early repayment charge.

I am really surprised that this has only come to light now. I know it was me that made the mistake - I can only think that 31st March must have been the date for something else and I have read off the wrong one. But I suppose I assumed the solicitor would have double-checked the information I gave him. I realise now that I don't actually know what the solicitor's obligations are. Should he have checked earlier? Is there any way for me to get out of paying the charge, or is it just totally lost forever? It seems like such an easy mistake to make, on a hand-written form, I am really annoyed at myself but I need to know whether I can also be annoyed at the solicitor... or is that just not their job?

Thanks for any advice

Snookie12cat

The solicitor isn't going to know anything about your existing mortgage until they order the redemption statement which they normally do at the end. They would listen to your instructions on the date you want to complete.

Did you tell him not to go ahead tomorrow? Is it too late to push the date out.

mairali

Thank you so much for your reply - good to know my expectations of the solicitor weren't *totally* unrealistic, and also that there might still be a way out. 

The solicitor might yet suggest something - he only emailed this afternoon to tell me, and by the time I could check my mortgage statement and reply to him I guess he had clocked off so I will have to wait and see what happens tomorrow. Fingers crossed there's solution that costs less than £2,000 

mairali

Snookie12cat said:

The solicitor isn't going to know anything about your existing mortgage until they order the redemption statement which they normally do at the end. They would listen to your instructions on the date you want to complete.

Did you tell him not to go ahead tomorrow? Is it too late to push the date out.

Unfortunately I think it will be too late to change the date as he only told me this afternoon, and I checked and got back to him after work - he hasn't responded to my email so I assume he'd already finished for the day by the time he got my email.

Windofchange

We complete on our remortgage tomorrow too, and I nearly had the same problem. Originally set the completion date for today (31st March) as that is when our deal expires, but thankfully realised that this would have meant we were within the redemption period. I mailed the solicitors a month or so ago and they changed it to tomorrow, so it can be changed, but not so sure that anything can be done now as you are completing tomorrow? You'll have to be on the phone first thing in the morning I guess to put a stop to it all and try and push it back a month. I would assume that funds have already been requested from the bank, so you are going to incur some costs in terms of interest, changing paperwork and so on so forth. 

Thrugelmir

How long is your new mortgage offer valid for?  Could this be the cause of your "date issue" . 

ACG

Can your solicitor not send the money back and request it for a later date? 

csgohan4

That reminds me to check on my completion. It can happen to anyone

mairali

Thanks for your comments, everyone. I had an automated text from the solicitor's office at 6 o'clock this morning saying the completion had gone ahead successfully, and had a temporary panic... but I then found that the solicitor had emailed at 5.30am to say they had been sent an updated redemption statement last night with the early repayment charge removed. So it turned out to be a false alarm, and we haven't been charged at all. I still don't know where I got the date of 31st March from but it was right after all. And it was inconsistent with the original mortgage letter we were sent in 2020, which clearly says 30th April 2022. Very confusing!