Trouble porting a mortgage?

A reader from Glasgow wants to move home and move his mortgage with him. However, he is coming across some stumbling blocks porting his mortgage.

Lee from Glasgow asks:

I am currently a Northern Rock (NR) mortgage customer, I entered into a debt management scheme a year ago but my fixed-rate ended in Sept '07, I had a review with NR and was asked if I wanted more funds when I remortgaged, I explained my financial circumstances, as I thought I would not get more funds but the mortgage review team at NR applied and this was successful.

I entered into another fixed-rate until July 2010, but I now want to move house.

I don't want more funds, but just want to port my mortgage over to the new house and this application was rejected, and now if I want to leave I have to pay £4,000 early repayment costs.

This seems extremely unprofessional and unfair, I did not want to go to another lender but am forced to if I want to move house, this seems irresponsible lending on their part in September as my financial circumstances are no different now.

Is there any way that I can either negotiate the repayment cost or appeal the rejection?

We reply:

The first thing to establish is whether your mortgage contract is one that can be transferred or "ported" to another property.

If it can't be then it would seem that the bank may not have done anything wrong. If it does allow you to, you may want to contact them to ask why you have not been allowed to transfer the mortgage across.

If you are unhappy with their response, you could then complain to the bank in the first instance.

In relation to the charges; you might like to check your contract wording to see if it allows the bank to make an "exit" charge and at what level.

Additionally, was the level of charge drawn to your attention as part of the sales process?

Again, if you are not happy with the response, you should raise this matter directly with the bank in the first instance. If you remain unhappy with the response, you should consider referring the matter to the Financial Ombudsman Service.

Advice on complaining is available at the Financial Ombudsman Service website.

If you have a question for one of our team of experts go to the myfinances.co.uk Ask the Mortgage Expert section.