Abbey - mortgage penalty charges

[100mel]

Abbey have charged me £40 a time for late direct debit payments on my mortgage. Can I claim these back and is there an appropriate letter I can write on the site?

 

thanks

 

Mel

[eyeofhorus]

Why are you paying your mortgage late?

[Helford]

Hi 100Mel,

 

EOH - irrelevant.

 

100 Mel, yes all such charges are reclaimable, follow the standard bank charge reclaim process adapting the wording. 12 year Statute of Limitations apply, not 6 years (England only). Not sure if you are North of the Border.

 

Abbey will pass to their Solicitors (DLA Piper?) at court stage and file a defence, probably making a counterclaim for an amount not exceeeding £5K. They will then settle in full and drop the Counterclaim.

 

Went through all this in early 2007 - a worthwhile exercise!

 

H

[100mel]

Thanks for that - payment was late in one month because cheque (I am self employed ) was late in clearing via Abbey bank - hence the £40 hit. To date they have of course refused to do anything

 

Mel

[elizabeth1]

Hi Mel 100,

 

YES you can reclaim your mortgage charges back off any mortgage.

 

If you don't know the dates/amounts of charges do the Subject Access Request asking for all the details they hold on your Mortgage Account (do it in joint names if account is joint) Use the bank charges SAR in the template library here - just adapt letter to suit account). OR

 

If you already have a list of the charges they owe you - use the spreadsheet in here to work out the interest owed on each charge from date it was made etc.. (just like for reclaiming bank charges). Print this out and send with an adapted Preliminary request for repayment from the template library - this gives them 14 days to return your money.

 

After the 14 days - send the Letter Before Action with same spreadsheet updated to match new date.

 

Abbey will probably reply you can't have your money back they are right etc..

 

At this stage send all copies of your letters and charges to the Financial Ombudsman Service - use their complaint form linked here in the A-Z - explain you've asked for a refund of these charges and Abbey refuse to pay you back etc..

 

FOS will then look into it and write to Abbey about it. It doesn't matter whether your mortgage is still with Abbey or not - you are entitled to your money back either way.

 

Abbey will usually pay up rather than have FOS investigate this matter.

 

I reclaimed my own Abbey Charges this way and had a full refund plus interest etc.. on the money they took off me.

http://www.consumeractiongroup.co.uk/forum/welcome-consumer-forums/69359-cant-find-what-youre.html - this is the A-Z list to help you.

 

Good Luck - the FOS is easier than the court route and costs you nothing - FOS do all the work once you place your complaint.

[meursault22]

Can you also claim back penalty charges for changing to a different lender? Abbey charged me £1100 early repayment charges when I changed my mortgage to a different bank.

[100mel]

I would say that it depends if the fee was part of the original agreement - was it an early repayment penalty? Did you change lenders during a fixed rate period for example? if this fee is part of the agreement and you have it in the mortgage offer document I think it is unlikely. I changed lenders in the middle of a fixed period and was stuck with a similar fee

 

Mel