We look at Dal and Rupa’s complaint about their mortgage lender applying an early repayment charge, which they felt had been unfairly charged given their circumstances.
What happened
Dal and Rupa got into arrears with their mortgage after Dal lost his job. The couple were worried that their lender would repossess the property, so to avoid getting further into debt they decided to sell the house. They were on a fixed-rate deal at the time, and their lender applied an early repayment charge of around £7,500.
Dal and Rupa felt the charge was unfair, given their change of circumstances. But the lender wasn’t willing to reduce the charge, which it said it had made clear throughout.
What we said
We thought Dal and Rupa had done all they could to deal with their situation – they’d put the house up for sale and downsized to avoid things getting worse. We explained this to the lender and it offered to reduce the charge, which we thought was fair.