Also does she have to engage a solicitor? She has been in touch with Bank of Ireland and they seem to want to treat the transfer as a new mortgage and want valuations etc which incur costs.When is a fixed-rate mortgage not a fixed rate? That really is the question of the day for thousands of homeowners who have fixed-rate mortgages with either KBC or Ulster Bank.
The only downside of fixed rates is the threat of a substantial “break fee” if you choose not to honour the full term for which you have fixed. The last time this issue arose on this page, several readers who are KBC mortgage customers got in touch. This is what one of them had to say. Now, it is not something I have heard KBC formally announce but it does certainly appear that if your daughter approaches the bank, she is likely to be able to break her fixed rate and make the move to the “very competitive” five-year rate that you say she is being offered elsewhere.
If she is switching other than via this “en masse transfer” – including to Bank of Ireland – then it is certainly possible that you could incur costs. It would be standard practice in mortgage switching for the new provider to require an updated valuation and there would also be legal matters in the switch that would require the modest involvement of a solicitor.