Mortgage Discharge Fees** WON !!! **

[sammyjammy]

Keep going its your timetable not theirs, send the LBA when the 14 days is up, good luck

 

Sam

[Rob S]

There was a letter from Northern Rock waiting for me when I got home from work yesterday. They stated they are not obliged to give me a breakdown of their costs because of "commercial reasons", but they have offered to refund the entire discharge fee of £250. I have accepted of course:D The acceptance letter was signed up and posted in time to make the last post!!

 

I would encourage anyone else out there to pursue this outrageous charge that the vast majority of banks are now throwing in when mortgages are discharged. When you consider that Nationwide charge £90 for this service (and they waive it completely if you have less than 10 years to run on the mortgage) how can the other banks justify charges of £200-250? If Northern Rocks refusal to divulge a full breakdown of their charges is a common line that all the banks take then I see no reason why more people can't challenge these fees and get a refund of them.

[zootscoot]

Congratulations Rob!

 

Good news indeed and I believe a first for the site. Good job you didn't listen to me eh!

 

I'll arange for your title to be changed. Don't forget to fill out the survey.

 

All the best

 

Zoot

[ginnever]

There was a letter from Northern Rock waiting for me when I got home from work yesterday. They stated they are not obliged to give me a breakdown of their costs because of "commercial reasons", but they have offered to refund the entire discharge fee of £250. I have accepted of course:D The acceptance letter was signed up and posted in time to make the last post!!

 

I would encourage anyone else out there to pursue this outrageous charge that the vast majority of banks are now throwing in when mortgages are discharged. When you consider that Nationwide charge £90 for this service (and they waive it completely if you have less than 10 years to run on the mortgage) how can the other banks justify charges of £200-250? If Northern Rocks refusal to divulge a full breakdown of their charges is a common line that all the banks take then I see no reason why more people can't challenge these fees and get a refund of them.

 

Well done! do you have a draft copy of the letter that you sent asking for an explanation & breakdown of the charge of £250.00 Would you mind attaching a copy of Pm one.

 

We had a mortgage with the B&B for over 20 years never changed it didn't know that you could:| Anyway when we moved we changed lender and I have just looked today that we were charged £140.00 (sealing fee) for the priviledge of settling up. If we had kept the mortgage we only had 4 years left and that's what we got for loyalty.

 

So the question is now can I claim this fee?

[Rob S]

Yes, I do have a copy of the letter, I think it's at work. When I find it I'll send you a pm. You have nothing to lose in writing to them and giving it a go.

[Sihi55]

Hi folks,

 

Just like to report another success here. A nice refund of £175 from those rats at the Halifax.

 

I took my mortgage out in March 1998 and the redemption charge was then £110. Having sold my house in November I noticed that the charge had shot upto £175 plus a further £50 for deed dispatch fee.

 

The Halifax didn't even send me a mortgage statement after repayment! I had to ring up for one and despite some Halifax cretin promising me one, it still didn't arrive - queue an angry phone call.

 

having read this message board and various other reports like on Motley Fool, I wrote a strongly worded letter to them, asking for a refund of £65 for overpayment of exit fees. Explained in my letter how the FSA themselves suggested that fees should not change during the lifetime of the mortgage and also how the Ombudsman had asked the big companies to review their exit fees as they were too high.

 

The reply from the Halifax was just a bog standard letter, saying how the fees were justified due to increased costs etc.

 

Undetered, I wrote a second letter saying that this would be final letter to them and if they failed to refund me what I asked for, I would make an offical complaint to the Ombudsman within a week, the letter which I had downloaded from their website.

 

That did the trick. Rather than refund me the £65 I had asked for, they sent me one for £175!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

 

So my advice is to go for it, don't let a standard rejection letter put you off. Send a second one telling them that unless they refund you the overpayment and quickly, you will be filing a claim directly with the Ombudsman with no further reference to them.

 

This I feel frightens them and jolts them into action. For every case that is referred to the Ombudsman, the bank/building society has to pay a fee to the Ombudsman to investigate, which I believ is in the region of £80.

 

Good luck folks, if I can do it, everyone else can.

[johnrambo]

My experience with Accord mortgages eventually came to fruition after exchange of about 3 letters. They firstly sent their standard breakdown of costs (heating, lighting, wages etc). Next they claimed that the initial £75 was too low! They also pointed out that there was an additional "deeds retrieval" fee of £50 which I had missed. But finally they agreed to refund the £74 which I was happy to accept, so the trouble was worthwhile in the end.

[miss_CORErupted]

Intersting

can't belive this, i'm hoping to move soon so when i have i'll stay with nr but i bet it gets treated as a 'new' mortage

if it is i will claim it back

also when my 2 yr capped was up last year i had morgate with nr (didn't actually move companies) and they charged me then!!!!

so i'll claim that as well hehe best wait till i moved though i think

[jacrock]

Help! i filled out letter to Bank of Ireland saying that their fees were not justified and i received my letter today. I asked for the full £195 refund but they are offering me £50 which is the amount extra they have charged from when we originally took out their mortgage. What i want to know is do i accept this or send another letter back saying that the amount is still high and i want the full £195 back and threaten to report them to the FSA? has anyone else had this same problem?

[wallii]

Hi, I am new to this forum and have found a wealth of help from just reading so far. Thanks

Does anyone know if you can also claim for redemption charges when you have had a secured loan and then paid it off early. Secured against the mortgaged property and therefore classed as a second mortgage.

I would appreciate any help,

Thanks,

[wallii]

Hi, I am new to this forum and have found a wealth of help from just reading so far. Thanks

Does anyone know if you can also claim for redemption charges when you have had a secured loan and then paid it off early. Secured against the mortgaged property and therefore classed as a second mortgage.

I would appreciate any help,

Thanks, Apologies if I have done this incorrectly - I am very knew to forum sites. !!

[Rob S]

Hi Walli, and welcome.

 

You would get more exposure to your issue if you start off your own thread on the subject, rather than to come in on this one, which is about mortgage discharge fees. The issue of early repayment of a loan is very different.

 

Good luck:-)

[Rob S]

A link to Martin Edwards site.

 

Mortgage Fees: Reclaim £100s of unfair fees if you've switched/repaid a mortgage | MoneySavingExpert: Consumer Revenge, Credit Cards, Shopping, Bank Charges, Cheap Flights and more,

 

Very useful with regards to mortgage discharge fees, it includes details of what some lenders were charging 5 and 10 years ago.

[karengameson]

Having problems with Northern Rock also, they have refused to refund £250 DOM fees when I have written to request this. Not sure what to do next any advice ?

[Rob S]

Hi Karen,

 

What have you done so far, just written and asked them to refund the fees and they have said "no"? If so, that is what happened to me. You need to be persistent with them. Take a look at this from the FSA site:-

 

FSA statement on mortgage exit administration fee increases

 

And also take a look at the link in post 38 in this thread which will also give you some useful info.