Claiming MEAF – Mortgage Exit Administration Fees

Since the FSA (Financial Services Authority) deemed charges such as MEAF’s as breach of the Unfair Contract Terms Act 1999, lenders were told to justify the increases in fee amounts.

The excuse of this from most lenders was that the contracts contained clauses allowing them to vary the fee over time, but the FSA concluded that as the term can be varied without the knowledge of the consumer– they were therefore in direct breach of unfair contract laws.

This then meant that lenders had to take action in order to compensate and refund past and present customers.

Here’s what you can do to reclaim the money you are rightfully owed.

First of all this must be dealt with internally, by phoning your lenders. Ensure that you have all of your paper work available and are aware of the dates and amounts of charges and fees that you incurred.

If calling your lender is not practical, a letter should suffice to begin this process. You can find templates for this letter any where on the web.

If after 8 weeks of receiving your first letter or phone call regarding reclaiming, you lender has demonstrated no intention of cooperating on the matter, you can use their complaints system to agitate a response.

This can be achieved by forwarding your complaint to the Financial Ombudsman Service, an independent body set up by the government to resolve disputes between financial institutes and clients, for free.

When you contact the FOS they will provide a form that you must fill out and return. The FOS will judge the case and if it is branded that the lender has acted unfairly, they will be obliged to refund you in full.

The other option would be to take your claim to a small claims court. If the claim is under £5000 then you may issue legal proceedings against your lender and use a solicitor to support your case through court ensuring that you are from that point onwards treated fairly and correctly.