Knock on effects from the corona mortgage freeze

Traybee70

We was told by kensighton mortgages during the height of the pandemic, that the mortgage repayments can be 'frozen' to help finances due to not being able to work. Now, since then they have kept us on the variable and it's hiked up several times, and now over an amount that is comfortable, on top of that, now we have fees from the late payments that were FROZEN they will not let us change to a lower fixed rate, as we are "now in arrears" but this is all because of the advice THEY GAVE during the pandemic! Now just banging my head against wall. Was the advice given by them even lawful knowing that it would cause financial problems later on down the line??? 

housebuyer143

If you called them and said you couldn't afford the mortgage and needed a payment holiday they will have considered this the best option at the time. Having payment problems imminently is worse than down the line so at the time was this not the best option? 

Payment holidays are an agreement to be in arrears, but you are still in arrears and it will look bad on your mortgage history. You are also not let off the payments they are just deferred until a later date and if you don't increase your payments to make this back then you will end up owing them money as seems to be the case you are in?

Traybee70

Kensington mortgage advised me to "freeze" payments to help during pandemic. Now i want to change from the variable as the interest hike has taken mortgage WAY too high. They won't change my mortgage to lower 'fixed' PAYMENT rate due to the arrears from the 'frozen' payments that THEY advised me to do! Very BAD advise at the time, and did not explain the consequences in the future. 

housebuyer143

Traybee70 said:

Kensington mortgage advised me to "freeze" payments to help during pandemic. Now i want to change from the variable as the interest hike has taken mortgage WAY too high. They won't change my mortgage to lower 'fixed' PAYMENT rate due to the arrears from the 'frozen' payments that THEY advised me to do! Very BAD advise at the time, and did not explain the consequences in the future. 

You have two posts about the same thing? 

Traybee70

It's not right that the same company cannot allow you to at least change mortgage to help financially. It's still with the same mortgage company I feel its almost like they WANT you to be always in arrears or worse still waiting to repossess my house! . It's not my fault the interest rate had gone out of my control to make the banks richer! 

Traybee70

I need to delete the first one. 🙄

housebuyer143

Traybee70 said:

It's not right that the same company cannot allow you to at least change mortgage to help financially. It's still with the same mortgage company I feel its almost like they WANT you to be always in arrears or worse still waiting to repossess my house! . It's not my fault the interest rate had gone out of my control to make the banks richer! 

Banks are a business. They lend you money knowing they will get a certain amount back from you in interest - if they just wiped arrears then they wouldn't be very successful. 

I can understand why it's frustrating but is there anyway you can clear the arrears so you can remortgage to a lower rate? It might worth speaking to them about different options available to you. Maybe you can request to only pay back the interest for that period rather than the capital as well or ask if you can extend the term to make the payments lower to help you clear them. Ultimately you need to clear the arrears and Kensington should be helping you find a way to do this.

Mr.Generous

Did they advise you to freeze it, or offer you the opportunity? Was your wage lower during lockdown?

TadleyBaggie

Let's have the whole story. Did you contact them because you were having problems making your payments during that time? If so what else were they expected to do?

ACG

I dont think you needed 2 posts for the same thing.

As far as I am aware Kensington dont advise on mortgages. I dont think they have any advisers (but I could be wrong). 
Are you sure they did not say something more along the lines of they "can" freeze payments rather than making a recommendation to freeze them? 

There was an ability to take a payment holiday for (I think) 3 months under some scheme without it negatively affecting your credit report. Was your payment holiday before or after this or went on longer than 3 months? If it was part of this scheme, did it need paying back by a certain time in order to avoid negative markers?

 

MWT

Traybee70 said:

... now we have fees from the late payments that were FROZEN they will not let us change to a lower fixed rate, as we are "now in arrears" but this is all because of the advice THEY GAVE during the pandemic! Now just banging my head against wall. Was the advice given by them even lawful knowing that it would cause financial problems later on down the line??? 

I very much doubt that you received any advice from Kensington, or that it was ever described as 'frozen',but if you called them asking for a mortgage payment holiday, which was how the numerous announcements about the facility were described, then they would have been able to arrange that for you.

This was only ever a break from making payments, not a break from the interest accumulating, and towards the end of your holiday period Kensington would have contacted you to find out if you were ready to restart payments and to determine how you wanted to handle the unpaid interest that had accumulated...

Does any of this sound familiar...?