Chris Belcher, mortgage adviser at A2B Mtg Ltd, expressed his frustration, highlighting the affect of increasing deeds release or exit fees – the fees charged by some lenders when the client wants to leave the mortgage deal. He claimed the rises had affected remortgage volumes over the past few weeks.
Belcher said: “An increasing number of lenders have cottoned on to the fact they can get away with increasing their exit fees.
The majority of our business, and a lot of other brokers’ business out there, is remortgage-based. This issue is bound to have bigger repercussions in the future as lenders are making it harder for brokers to write remortgage business.”
Mark Fenton, director of Fenton Simpson Financial Services, agreed and said that the fee is being used as a retention tool to manipulate clients to stick with an existing lender.
He added: “Brokers are being squeezed by the increasing fees and this has resulted in a drop in remortgage business. It is in the lender’s interest not to upset the broker community too much as it’s us that seem to do most of the work for them.
“With this fact in mind, it’s difficult to see how some lenders can justify such a large fee.”
Paul Darwin, head of intermediary lending at Skipton Building Society, commented: “It is important to weigh up all aspects when offering a remortgage deal.
“But for those with clients on a lender’s SVR of between 6 and 7 per cent, it is hard to believe brokers won’t be able to find an attractive fee-free mortgage which would be advantageous to them
