Request for payment of loan application fee 9 months after home loan settlement. Do I have to pay? problems about that Debt Settlement Letter
I was wondering whether I could get some advice at all if possible please?
I refinanced my existing home loan (Queensland) with another lender using
the equity in my home to consolidate a couple of
loans. The refinanced loan was $182,000.00
Settlement was effected 31 December 2003. At settlement the disbursements
were supposed to be as such.
Previous Lender Home Loan Payout $146,693.31
Bank Loan Application Fee $1,001.00
Car Loan $20,687.84
Dept of Natural Resources $205.00
Other Loan Payouts $12,725.85
Various Legal Fees (My Solicitor/Bank Solicitor) $687.00
Total $182,000.00
As you will notice there is no figure for stamp duty. I assumed that as I
had already paid stamp duty on my original mortgage and I was just
refinancing my home loan that no stamp duty would be payable. However, a
copy of the banks settlement letter details settlement as such. The only
difference between the bank's letter and what was supposed to be settled was
the amount of $1,001.00 going to the Office of State Revenue instead of the
bank for the Home Loan Application Fee. I didn't really take too much notice
and just assumed that it was a typing error by the Bank's Solicitors.
Previous Lender Home Loan Payout $146,693.31
Office of State Revenue (Stamp Duty) $1,001.00
Car Loan $20,687.84
Dept of Natural Resources $205.00
Other Loan Payouts $12,725.85
Various Legal Fees (My Solicitor/Bank Solicitor) $687.00
Total $182,000.00
In late February I received a cheque for $683.00 from the Bank's Solicitors
being a refund from the Office of State Revenue. I didn't take too much
notice of what it was for and excited by the windfall duly banked the
cheque.
A couple of weeks ago I got a letter from the Bank's Solicitors advising me
that according to the bank's records I hadn't paid the Bank's Home Loan
Application Fee and they advised me that they were going to debit my Home
Loan Account for $1,001.00 dollars. I wrote back to them and said that I
thought that it was paid at settlement and as far as I was concerned the
loan was settled nine months ago in December and that any dispute over
mistakes that they had made in disbursements at settlement was now a matter
between the Bank and the Bank's Solicitors. I further advised that any
attempt to debit my Home Loan Account without authorisation would result in
myself taking legal action and referring the matter to the banking
ombudsman.
The Bank's Solicitor's contacted me by telephone and said yes they had made
a mistake and incorrectly disbursed funds at settlement, however, as the
Home Loan Application Fee had still not been paid to the bank they asked me
if I would send them a cheque for $1,001.00 or an authorisation to debit my
Home Loan Account.
Technically the Bank's Solicitor is right in that the Bank Loan Application
Fee is still owing but that is only due to their incompetence at Settlement.
As Settlement was effected over 9 months ago do I still legally have to pay
this?
I can't see how you can avoid liability for the application fee, if you
ever agreed to pay it. The fact that the Bank's solicitor messed up the
processing doesn't cancel the debt. Instead, you've had a free loan for
a while.
As for acting against them for debiting your home loan account, a bank
account is only the bank's record of how much they think you owe them,
or vice versa. To my mind, all they're saying is that they note that you
owe them this money, and they are going to record that fact in the loan
account.
The only issue that could subsequently arise is over the amount of
interest to be levied on the unpaid amount, but I'm sure they've got
that covered somewhere in the small print.
Why wasn't the entire $1,001.00 refunded by the OSR if you weren't
liable to pay it?