If a customer has paid the product fee (typically £995) up front, this will be refunded after the £150 withdrawal fee payment has been deducted. The fee will be payable on all residential and buy-to-let purchase and remortgage applications.
No withdrawal fee will be payable if a customer decides not to proceed with an application pre-offer or if NatWest declines the application after offer, said the lender.
Sarah Taylor, service development manager, NatWest Intermediary Solutions said: “This is a positive move to reflect the fast-moving circumstances that brokers and their clients can find themselves in.
“We believe that this new standard fee will be welcomed as a fair and transparent one.”
Terry McCutcheon, chief executive officer of The Finance Planning Group said this looks like an attempt to control business volume.
“From a broker’s point of view, if you could place a deal with NatWest or Halifax on similar terms and one of them, in this case Halifax doesn’t charge £150, you’d go for Halifax,” he said.
He added if NatWest was the best fit for a case you would still point a client in that direction, but it was a case of buyer beware.
“But any client forced to withdraw for reasons beyond their control already facing losses would not be “best pleased” to be confronted by another charge,” he added.
