Please help: redemption penalties!

duncanp_2

I sold my house at the end of April and redeemed my Abbey National mortgage with a redemption penalty of about £2400. Before the sale, I contacted Abbey who reassured me that if I took another mortgage out with them within three months of finishing the old one, they would refund my penalty.

We found a house to move into and arranged an Abbey mortgage through Taylors Countrywide, through whom we were buying the house. We told the financial advisor that arranged the mortgage about the redemption penalty. She understood what we wanted to do and the mortgage was arranged. I contacted Abbey twice in the meantime to confirm that we would be eligible for the refund and was reassured that all I had to do was call them once the new mortgage was arranged and they would refund within two weeks. I checked over the phone that there were no other clauses to trip us up and they assured me there would be no problem.

We moved in last week and the day after I called Abbey to arrange the refund. They told me they could not refund the money as I did not port the mortgage over to the same product. They told me to ask the financial advisor to fax over some sort of porting authority.

My financial advisor told me that it was down to the Abbey to sort it out and advised me to call customer services and explain the situation again.

Abbey customer services have told me that the advice they gave on the phone is of no consequence and the full responsibility for the error is down to the FA. The FA will have to go to the branch development unit for the agency and plead their case to the Abbey, in which case, they may be able to refund me some of the money.

The FA seems reluctant to help, presumably as she may get in to trouble for not advising me correctly regarding the mortgage. Her advice so far consists of 'ring them again to sort it out'.

I have advised my solicitor who is ready to send out letters. I am considering contacting the financial services authority. I think Abbey are partially to blame for not giving me the correct information on the phone (unfortunately I did not get the name of the people I spoke to). My FA is very much to blame for not investigating the application properly and advising me incorrectly.

Has anybody else dealt with anything like this before? What else can I do?

payless

On original approach to Abbey were you aware that it needed to be ported OR did you get told any new deal ( that said original offer likely implied port for refund)

The FA should have known ( or found out / checked postion ) if the refund of the fee was based on porting same deal ( fairly common- so meallow any new deal but thats rare ) She should have got you a special porting KFI , and also compared this against a new deal/ no refund.

That said of course , Abbey c/s should have also reconfirmed, when you called them, whether the the refund was based on porting the old deal

Get the FA to speak to her Business Development Manager at Abbey, to either
1. swap products ( after the event) to give you the old deal and a refund
OR
2. Leave rates as they are ( easier for all) but make a refund ( perhaps accepting a small alteration IF you end up on better rate and refund)

If no joy / FA refuses ,and you still feel mistreated/ out of pocket - then you need to write to both parties' complaints dept before approaching the regulatory

as a side are you actually going to be out of pocket overall ( ie if dumped a high fixed rate for a lower rate , possible the saving would be higher than penalty - I doubt it , but worth checking)

duncanp_2

When I approached Abbey, they never specified that I needed to port the mortgage. It was said that if I took a new mortgage out with them within 3 months I would be elligible.

The rate I am on is practically the same as the old rate, so I am worse of by a fair amount.

Thanks for the advice.

payless

Ok raise this point, as you state info was provided before original sale
although original offer ( sound like the only thing in writing concerning this) actually gives any period of grace between redeeming/ new ( states must be at same time) - the grace period may be at their discretion anyway

to avoid penalty offer states - " same conditions apply to new mortgage "