First Direct Unfair Arrangement Fee?

[ppsears]

I'd appreciate any views on the following scenario.

 

I made an application to re-mortgage with First Direct last July - it was for a fixed rate and I paid a booking fee of £899. It was made clear to me at the time it was a non-refundable fee.

 

After a period of c. 24-48 hours I realised that as part of my calculations I had under-estimated th early repayment fee that my current lender, N&P, would charge on my current fixed rate. This was completely my fault and I picked up the phone to First Direct to see if they would be willing to refund my booking fee, bearing in mind we were so early into the application process.

 

They were not prepared to look at this sympathetically, a fact that has been confirmed since upon my formally taking the matter up with them. The basis of my complaint was that as a minimum, there would have been an element of the £899 booking fee set aside to fund the 'free' valuation/conveyencing fees that were implicitly includes in the sum paid at outset. Neither of these have been actioned and it felt to me that First Direct were 'trousering' this money simply because the contract allowed them to.

 

The fact the booking fee was increased to £1499 within a week for the same mortgage simply added to my frustration - surely they could have re-sold/re-allocated my 'share' of the fixed rate tranche to someone else and recouped their 'losses' on my aborted application.

 

So I'm just interested as to whether I have a potential claim under TCF-type principles. I'm conscious that over 6 months has elapsed and the Ombudsman may not now be an option (if it ever was in the first place).

 

Thanks for taking the time to read.

 

Regards

Pete