Should Lenders be Allowed to Alter Mortgage Terms and Conditions Mid Term

My Letter to the Financial Conduct Authority…

Dear Sirs,

I am David Lawrenson, a consultant from LettingFocus.com and an expert on the residential property market.

I see at the Financial Conduct Authority (FCA) you are asking for the public’s views on whether mortgage lenders should be allowed to alter mortgage terms and conditions mid term.

This seems rather odd. I thought a contract was a contract, was a contract – and was for life. Perhaps I should now write to all the lenders I have mortgages with and tell them that due to changes in “the funding environment” (i.e. I fancy a yacht and a racehorse) I will now be paying off their mortgage loans at rate of 0.1 per cent per annum. How would they like that, I wonder?

Should Lenders be Allowed to Alter Mortgage Terms and Conditions Mid Term

I cannot understand why the FCA, is not upbraiding these lenders, never mind seeking advice from the public on whether they can be effectively cheated in this way.

The effect on the landlords of the West Bromwich and Bank Of Ireland’s decision to unilaterally break their contracts was very hard. The FCA let the lenders get away with it – so now the landlords affected have had to go to court to enforce their rights.

Should lenders be allowed to alter mortgage terms and conditions mid term?

No, of course not.

If you go back to when these contracts were written, the landlord borrowers often paid high application fees and a high initial interest rate in order to get the benefit of a long term “rest of life” tracker rate later on in the term of the mortgage. You could say these landlords made a bet with the lenders on the mortgages – and this time it was the borrowers, not the mortgage companies who won.

But now the tide has turned and the lenders are losing money, they do not like it and would like to wriggle out of the contracts.

But the lenders would certainly never let their borrowers wriggle out of repaying a loan or changing mortgage terms, so why should the lenders be allowed to do this.

You should stand up against lenders – you should not be wasting time asking for consultations on whether or not this constitutes cheating.

Indeed as a result of the actions of the FCA, the regulator is now widely buy sildenafil australia seen as something of a laughing stock and a stooge for the financial services industry.

Note to readers: If you have been affected by lenders trying to change mortgage terms – or are worried it might yet happen to you, then write to: [email protected].

 

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