Zoot, I really hope you can pull something together. I can't forget the sadness in my wifes eyes a few months ago when she said 'I am sick of these peolpe ripping us off'. It's time to fight back.

I have sent Abbey the Prelim letter and received their standard reply. I have started a thread but have not taken any further action yet. I presume it is up to me when I send the letter before action, though I could be wrong. Any advice ?

Being stupid ! Found it and posted the relevant letter yesterday. Await their response.

Rascal, Thank you, I was forgetting the small claims track element and the limitations you point out. Still quite idfficult to pick out the relevant aprts of other peoples cases though. however, I am heartened by your comments. Thanks again.

Just a thought :- I am finding some of the legal side of all this very difficult to follow and my wife is absolutely adamant that she does not want me to issue threats to Abby or my other case TMB that I will take them to court due to the risk of losing money. Zoot scoot (and others ) seem to be doing a fantastic job of answering our indvidual letters and so on but frankly without their help I feel totally scuppered. My question is therefore if we are all so sure of our arguements why dont we as individuals employ a solicitor as we would be able to recover the costs once we win ? Wouldn't we ? Any thoughts ? All the best everyone in 2007.

Hope that doesn't sound bad ! What I meant to say was, I have looked every where several times but I can't find the words that seem appropriate to respond to TMB's letter stating that as I knew what the charges were when I signed up it's tough. Can anyone point me in the right direction please ?

Gizmo, Can't find a letter that is appropriate to send to TMB no matter how many times I read this fabulous web site. can some one direct me ? Thanks.

Hi, My Abey redemption statement dated 31/08/2001 shows a Product Related Charge of £2,617.81. I sent the preliminary letter requesting repayment of this Product Related Charge on 8th Dec 2006 and have received the following response today :- “Thank you for your letter dated 8/12/2006. Your complaint is being handled by Abbey Customer Relations Teeside blah blah blah. My understanding of your complaint is that you’re unhappy that we charged you an Early Repayment Chrage (ERC) of £2609.71 when you repaid your mortgage account in full on the 5th November 2001. You feel this has been charged unlawfully and have asked Abbey to refund this to you. Castaneda and Others V Clydebank Engineering and shipbuilding Co lTD (1904) 12 SLT 498. Dunlop Pneumatic Tyre Co LTD V New Garage and Motor Co Ltd (1915) AC 79. I am sorry I am unable to comment on the above cases mentioned in your letter as they have no relevance to your mortgage account. I would like to explain how Abbey fund special rated offered to customers and why we charged you an ERC when you repaid your loan before the products end date. When we offer special products such as discounted rates. A date is then agreed for Abbey to repay these funds back which is usually the date the special product ends. If a customer pays the loan off sooner than expected, we could find that the interest we are being charged is higher than the returns we can make on the money the customers replied. Also if funds are repaid early we need to find somewhere to invest this money until we’re due to repay it which can mean further costs for us. The ERC ensures we do not make a loss when a customer decides to come out of a product early. Abbey expects you, your financial advisor and any solicitor acting for you to have read the terms and conditions of your mortgage carefully, because once your mortgage begins you are legally bound by them. Because you went ahead with your mortgage we believe you had understood the terms and conditions of the mortgage contract, so it is our opinion that you must have been aware of the need to pay us an ERC if you closed your mortgage before the date we had agreed on. The terms and conditions also clearly state how the ERC will be calculated if the mortgage is closed before agreed date. I cannot agree with your comments that Abbey have acted illegally by making this charge as we have not broken the contract made between you and the company. In view of the above, I cannot agree to your request for a refund of the ERC that was charged when your account was repaid in 2001. “ Any advice as to where to go now please ?

Hi, My completion statement date 24/05/2004 from The Mortage Business shows Amount owing £213,865.15, Mortgage Discharge Fee £115, deed Dispatch Fee £50 and Repayment Fee £2281.23. . I sent the preliminary letter asking for repayment of the Repayment fee on the 8th December 2006 and have today received their response. The response includes the following :- “ I have since obtained a copy of your mortgage offer. In the offer it details the conditions if you decided to redeem your mortgage early. A copy of these conditions is enclosed for your information. You will notice that I have highlighted the area that specifically applied to your mortgage account. As the mortgage was repaid in the second year of the mortgage term, you were obliged to pay 2 months gross interest, which was the redemption penalty you were charged. A mortgage offer is a legally binding document and you have agreed to the terms and conditions contained in the offer, therefore I am unable to agree a refund of your early redemption charge. I realize this was not the answer etc etc “ The copy to which they refer has a highlighted section that reads “you must pay the following additional sum to us in respect of the amount repaid or transferred : 1) During the second year of the Mortgage Term two months gross interest at the Mortgage Rate.” So as TMB (the mortgage business) are saying that at the outset I agreed to pay two months gross interest upon early redemption is that the end of the line ? Many thanks to anyone that offers advice.

My redemption statement fromAbbey National dated 31 August 2001 shows 'Product related charge' of £2,617.81. What do you reckon ? I have already started one claim against TMB, is this another ?

Zoot, Many many thanks ! Would you look at the following post if you get chance ? Sorry, can't work out how to link to it so here is the actual question if you have chance. Hi folks. My wife and I have adverse credit score and therefore our options to borrow are limited. We have been offered a secured loan for £9,600 which we need for house repairs. There are £750 of broker fees meaning we borrow £10,350 and the rate is 17.4% meaning monthly payments of 134.76 for 240 months. The form says we boorow £22,742 includign the interest. We can live with the above BUT we are not sure we understand the early repayment charges correctly. Can you help ? The following appears on the form that we are to sign :- Examples of early repayment charges. Term expired Quarter Half Three Quarters Charge per £100 borrowed £96.32 £83.55 £56.90 Please note that in calculating the amounts shown in these examples no account has been taken of any variations which might occur under the agreement, so the amounts are illustrative only. Please see condition 10 over for the details of the Early Repayment charge. Part 10 to which the above refers talks about the amount due being in accordance with the consumer credit regulations 2004 so I presume this is OK. Conclusion What I am asking is can any one explain the table to me ? Is it as bad as I think it is ? Say I repay after 5 years when we move how much will I have to pay ? Many thanks in anticipation.

I have juut realised I paid a fee of £2,281,23 described as 'Repayment fee' to The Mortgage Business of Chester in May 2004. Is this time barred in away now ?

Hi folks. My wife and I have adverse credit score and therefore our options to borrow are limited. We have been offered a secured loan for £9,600 which we need for house repairs. There are £750 of broker fees meaning we borrow £10,350 and the rate is 17.4% meaning monthly payments of 134.76 for 240 months. The form says we boorow £22,742 includign the interest. We can live with the above BUT we are not sure we understand the early repayment charges correctly. Can you help ? The following appears on the form that we are to sign :- Examples of early repayment charges. Term expired Quarter Half Three Quarters Charge per £100 borrowed £96.32 £83.55 £56.90 Please note that in calculating the amounts shown in these examples no account has been taken of any variations which might occur under the agreement, so the amounts are illustrative only. Please see condition 10 over for the details of the Early Repayment charge. Part 10 to which the above refers talks about the amount due being in accordance with the consumer credit regulations 2004 so I presume this is OK. Conclusion What I am asking is can any one explain the table to me ? Is it as bad as I think it is ? Say I repay after 5 years when we move how much will I have to pay ? Many thanks in anticipation.

Thanks for the replies. I have checked out the web sites referred to and these seem to support my position ie the surveyor is wrong. Do you think I should write to the senior partners or what ever of the firm of surveyors and put my case ? I suspect no matter what I do it won't help the loan situation but I would feel a whole lot better if I got at least some of the extorionate fee refunded . Comments please ?

HI, What a site ! Fantastic. We have had our financial difficulties and have a debt management plan in place with Payplan. We are trying to raise some addtional money to create an extra bedroom for our growing family. Went to a recomended mortgage broker and went through the application but eventually arrived at the point we had to pay a valuationfee of £465. We were concerned about this but as the house was valued two and a half years ago by Birmingham Midshires for £320,000 we we reasonably sure that the new valuation would be £340,000 as we needed for the additinal mortgage. ie a 5% increase each year. Surveyor comes around, ten minutes later has gone and in due course the mortgage broker told us he had only valued the house at £320,000 too. Ie the same as two and a half years ago in a prime south east Town. We asked the broker about this and they have said they asked the sureveyor to reconsider but he won't budge. We have a copy of the valuation document and it refers to 3 similar (one of the similar properties quoted is a semi detached house whereas ours is a bungalow) houses within 500 metres and their achieved prices. I don't know which specific properties these are and I don't know where the surveyor got the information. Websites such as as mouseprice.com don't confirm these figures. Point of this long rambling post 'what's the feeling, is there any way of challenging this or contesting the extortinate cost of this valuation which I think is simply wrong and is costing us dearly in terms of alternative finance options ' ?