Completion date

Jacopo88

Hello,

I remortgaged on 3rd January 2023, following the end of my fixed deal on 31st December 2022. To be specific, I remortgaged with the same bank (Halifax) and had to borrow more money so to repay Help to Buy.
The issue I am having is that I will be put on the new agreed fixed rate only in February, and therefore I will be on the much higher variable interest rate for the whole month of January, which is going to cost me roughly £400 more of interests. 

I spoke to the solicitor who confirmed that as per their normal procedure, they requested funds on the first working day following the end of my fixed deal (3rd Jan) so to avoid early repayment charges, and therefore they’re not taking responsibility, while the bank is saying that that’s incorrect information and that I could have completed up to 3 months before the end date of my fixed deal without having to pay any early repayment charges. 

I did ask the bank why the mortgage advisor (at Halifax) who I dealt with, did not provide that precious information, but I was told that the mortgage advisor was not supposed to provide that kind of clarification, or that I had to complete before 31st Dec in order to be put on the new agreed fixed rate in January. For that reason they are also not taking any responsibility.

Has anybody ever experienced a similar problem, or knows what would be the standard procedure for remortgaging in terms of completion date?
And also who should I approach now to get resolution?

Thank you,
Jacopo

JMA74

Did you do a product transfer with additional borrowing? So you were with Halifax and you stayed with Halifax?

Or did you do a remortgage from a different lender?

If the first option then yes you could have completed this at any time in the 3 months leading up to your deal finishing as Halifax waive repayment charges during this period.
This assumes the legal work to repay help to buy was done of course.

Your solicitor wouldn't know halifax internal policies so relies on you to say when your penalties expire. 

Whether its Halifaxs job to volunteer that information or yours to read it in your t&c's is the main question really 

I would complain to Halifax if i was in your shoes.   As someone who used to work for them, they have the ability to re-date the transaction if they need to.  

Jacopo88

Thank you. Yes I was with Halifax and stayed with Halifax, requesting additional borrowing.
I did file a complaint with Halifax, which has now concluded with them saying they did nothing wrong as were not supposed to tell me when I needed to complete.
I just find it unfair. As my original lender and mortgage advisor I believe they should have shared this information, without me having to request it.
However I did ask the question few days before the Christmas break, where it was confirmed I needed to complete before 31st December, so I passed this info to my solicitor. They said that completing before the end of the fixed deal is not their standard procedure, and that it was also too late now to complete as they were going to close their office for the Christmas break.
They are now saying they followed the standard procedure and so don’t have any responsibility.
Again I find this unfair as I did give them the information, but also kept asking them since October to ensure I would be transferred onto the new fixed deal from January. They kept saying all was under control.

Who’s really at fault here, and what am I supposed to do now?