Mortgage Exit Fees successes and failures

Good afternoon all. First post, so my apologies in advance if this is a little less focused than with more experienced posters...

First off, I hadn't realised that MEAFs were being treated in much the same way as PPI nowadays. So I'm very grateful to all at MoneySavingExpert for bringing it to my attention. That's because my story is possibly one of the worst you'll ever have heard. Even now, several years later, I get so distressed talking about that it brings me close to tears.

Back in 2007 I took the plunge and did something I'd always wanted to do: to design and build a house of my own. I'll try to post a few photos as soon as I can work out how - mostly because, at the time, I was incredibly proud of what I was doing.

Having researched the market for self-build mortgage companies, I settled on Amber Home Loans. Initially, things went smoothly and the build held few terrors. Like quite a few first-time self-builders, though, I decided to 'up' the spec a little as I went, to make sure the house was as perfect, and future-proof, as possible.

I had a sizeable deposit at the outset (£225k+) and took out a mortgage with Amber for £236k. With that much equity in hand, I told Amber that my cashflows showed I would only need 4 of the 5 usual stages, handling the completion stage myself from my reserves.

Each of the first three stage payments were released without any hitches, and when I realised I was going to need more money to complete, Amber were fine with this. I had a good job, was solvent, and everything up to this point had gone without a hitch. The extra funds I needed to complete and get my completion certificate were approved. However, this is where the story takes a very much darker turn.

When I went back to Amber for completion funds - i.e: the 'missing' 5th stage payment - they agreed that, given the extremely low LTV (+/- 50%) they could foresee no problems.

I completed the paperwork and paid the fee for the survey. This is where it gets interesting.

With the build around 75% complete (we were at 2nd fix at the time), Amber appointed a surveyor with *NO* self-build experience whatsoever. I found out later from a local estate agent that he was well known within the business as a local 'panel' surveyor; he apparently only ever valued standard residential properties.

So you can imagine my shock when he placed a 'nil' value on the work done up to that point (with documented expenditure of around £200k). In fact, he returned an overall valuation of £235k - a £15k drop on the price we paid for the land only - instead of something around the £400k mark. This made it look as if we had a 100% LTV (£236k loan against £235k valuation) and gave Amber grounds to refuse any further advances. I chalenged this valuation with Amber, but they told me that the surveyor was sticking with a nil valuation on the structure.

By now, we were in early 2008, and the credit crunch hit, and Amber wrote to me to tell me they were closing their loan book with immediate effect, and no further funds would be made available. This left me in an impossible position: without the funds to complete stage four, I couldn't get a completion certificate and move in. Furthermore, without the completion certificate I couldn't turn to a conventional lender to remortgage. I was stuck. No way forward, and no way back.

With deep misgivings, I was forced to take out multiple credit cards just in order to complete the build. This was bad enough - I've never had credit before - but took a deep breath and did what I had to do. The build was finished (cutting every remaining corner I possibly could) and I then approached Amber to remortgage. It was at this point that I learned they wouldn't close off my loan - a loan they themselves would no longer honour - without billing me a breathtaking amount. How breathtaking? Very... in fact, a simply staggering £14,347.94.

I had no alternative: I had to pay the sum as I moved across to the Halifax, my bank at the time. This was a horribly bitter pill to swallow: it not only felt like highway robbery (which arguably it was) but there were no alternatives whatsoever.

To add insult to injury, I then lost my job and the additional credit card burden and massive hole in our savings left by the exit fees meant that I had no option other than to be forced into an IVA, another arrangement which cost me countless additional thousands in arrangement and exit fees. Finally, the strain of all this cost me my marriage.

I was so angry that I did, a few years later, ask a solicitor for a view on all this, but she wasn't terribly optimistic so I let it drop. I'm now wondering whether I have some recourse after all, hence my long and rambly post here. It won't get me my house back - long since sold to fund the divorce settlement - or my job, or my wife and children. But it might send a strong message to lenders like Amber, and give others the strength to stand up for what's right.

So my question to everyone out there - and I'm sure I'm not alone here - is: what should I do next? With grateful thanks to all who reply, and for perhaps giving me a chance to finally get some justice.

Thank you so much for the reply... I've just edited the post as the sum paid was £15k rather than £25k, but even so it's egregious. I do wonder whether there's any recourse here, if not through the MEAF process (I accept the difference between them now) then is some other way? Any thoughts? Could the FCA be worth a punt?