ROOF Blog

Hundreds of thousands of homeowners could be in line to collect hefty refunds for unfair mortgage charges as lenders face being forced to hand back millions of pounds in fees imposed on customers who missed their monthly loan payments. One firm has been fined £2.8million and made to return £7.7million to borrowers when it was found to have acted unfairly. The crackdown by the Financial Services Authority is likely to lead to claims by hundreds of thousands of home owners who believe they have been harshly penalised.

Buy-to-let investors are back in favour with mortgage lenders for the first time in two years, raising renewed concerns that first-time buyers could once more be squeezed out of the market for one and two-bedroom properties by landlords. Brokers said that a number of lenders have started to focus on attracting landlords with more favourable interest rates, after a long period of freezing them out. Despite the credit-fuelled boom and subsequent collapse of the buy-to-let market, which left many city centre flats empty and landlords unable to complete purchases, the lenders that are now re-entering the market perceive their customers as less risky than first-time buyers.