Abbey Mortgage Administration Charges

[exfacteur]

The Abbey have now twice phoned me to try to recover £64 in administration charges, which they've added to my mortgage account as arrears. I've grumplily told them that I don't accept their charges, to which this evening I've been told they're perfectly legitimate under FSA regulations. I also wrote them a letter Friday, pointing out the various inequities in more detail, but that hasn't registered with them yet.

 

Thing is, I'm now thinking maybe I should pay and then try to claim the money back later, as they're also threatening a monthly fee of £35 plus interest as a result of this. I don't really want the situation to snowball.

 

This was my recent situation - Abbey successfully took mortgage payment, but not the £32 they'd added to it for a previous late payment (admin charge). For that they charged me another admin charge (an admin charge on an admin charge in other words), meaning a total of £64, and the building society they were taking it from also charged me £29.50 for lack of funds. I've written a letter to try and get that back as well.

 

Any advice on my best course of action would be welcome.

[callumsgran]

if you can afford it pay the fees off then claim them back! your home could be at risk if things snowball and it does'nt take long to get out of hand! hope this helps?

[Seminole]

Are you currently in any arrears with your mortgage? Have they taken you to court in the past for arrears?

[exfacteur]

Hi, I am in arrears with my mortgage to the tune of £64 - because the unpaid admin charges have been added to it. Nobody has ever taken me to court for arrears previously.

[Seminole]

In that case you would certainly be sensible to pay the amount they are claiming before claiming it back. You need to think about the sort of relationship you want with your mortgage company in the future particularly if it's possible that you may get into arrears. There's no problem in claiming charges back from former mortgage companies but you need to be a little cautious in going after your current one.

[exfacteur]

Thanks very much for the advice. I couldn't see the logical path for red mist!

 

In that case do you think I should go no further than attempting gentle persuasion?

 

Perhaps a little leverage by mentioning other mortgage lenders? (although I think my credit rating has been shot to pieces this year).

[Seminole]

I'm in two minds about this to be honest. You have a minimum of 6 years and probably 12 years in which to reclaim these charges. If they are small and you're not planning to move mortgage companies in the near future, getting the money back may be outweighed by the disadvantages of cheesing them off.

[callumsgran]

i'm with semi on this one, you could always try a bit of 'gentle persuasion' if you wanted to see where it gets you?

[exfacteur]

Thanks again for these responses - I guess you're both probably right. I think I'll just pay up and try and laugh this one off.

[callumsgran]

make sure you keep the evidence tho! you may need it sometime in the future ok?