Mortgage Exit Administration Fee "MEAF"
What is Mortgage Exit Administration Fee, often referred to as ‘MEAF’?
This is the fee you are charged when your mortgage ends either through going to another mortgage company or simply having paid your mortgage off. The lender claims the fee to cover the administration and certain legal work when closing a mortgage. Analyst state that this fee should be around £35 and not the £200 - £300 that some lenders have been charging.
I have been charged for a deed release fee, is this the same thing?
Yes it is, the following are also MEAF’s but under a different name, 'discharge fee', 'final administration fee', 'final redemption fee' and 'sealing fee'.
What about ‘Early Redemption Fee’, can I claim for this as well?
Let’s first explain what this is, Mortgage Redemption Penalty, MRP, commonly know as ‘early redemption fee’ is the penalty you will incur if you change the mortgage over to a new provider before the agreed date, for example you have a fixed rate mortgage at 5.5% for two years and decide to change it to a new lender after 18 months, you will then incur a cost known as redemption penalty. You will find more details on this on your mortgage statement or the key facts of your mortgage agreement. This you cannot claim back and is different to MEAF.
Excessive MEAF’s can always be reclaimed as you will be charged this fee whether you incur a MRP or not.
Why can I now suddenly claim this MEAF back?
The Financial Services Agency, FSA, started looking into this back in January of 2006 and gave mortgage lenders until February 2007 to respond. The lenders eventually agreed to refund all cases whereby they could not justify the excessive MEAF.
How much can I claim back?
The difference between the fee you paid for example £275 and the fee that was written on your original mortgage agreement, say £50. You would therefore look to recover £225.
I feel I have a claim, what is the best way of going about it?
I would simply telephone the mortgage lender in the first instance. If you can try and locate your paperwork as this will make the call easier, if you can't then just call them and they should pick you up on your name and address. I fyou have your old mortgage statement then you will have all the contact details and references you need, the lender will go through some security checks and may ask for the mortgage account or roll number.
Many individuals are getting refunds just by telephoning, but just in case you have to write then we have detailed a template letter for you, just insert the relevant bits that we have detailed in orange and delete the I or we as appropriate.