Blemain,How We Love Them

[bmarr]

Hi
A brief background to my circumstances have 3 loans with this company couldn't keep up with the payments due to serious illness,ppi paid for a year,couldn't make the payments after that,taken to court 28 day repossession order granted which ran out 23rd July,
On the 23rd June sent them a letter regarding the astronomical charges levied on these accounts which are crippling,i got this reply and i will quote the relevant parts

In connection with your letter and your comments on Unfair Terms in Consumer Contracts Regulations 1999 we can confirm that our loan agreements allow us to reclaim costs charges and expenses incurred by us in connection with the loan and we are entitled to rely on the contractual provisions when enforcing these costs and so do not agree that they are a penalty.
We do not accept that the default charges do not represent our actual loss.They are a reasonable estimate of the cost of the additional administration work we have to carry out as a result of your failure to comply with the terms of the agreement.We do not consider that our charges are excessive and we regularly benchmark our tariff of charges against similar lenders within the market to ensure they are comparable.
Our charges do no constitute a penalty under commom law and we believe they satisfy the test of fairness under the Unfair Terms in Consumer Contracts Regulations 1999.We do not accept that the charges require payment of a 'disproportionately high sum in compensation'
Details of the various types of fee activities we charge are set out in the credit agreement and you were provided with a copy of the detailed fee tariff when your loan was completed.We would also include the tariff with some letters advising you were in arrears.You were,therfore properly informed of the administrative charges which were applicable during the term of your loan.
We note your referance to the courts and would comment that our view is that any claim would not be successful,You may be aware of the court case at Birmingham County Court where a claim for £2,545 against Lloyds ban was dismissed.In summary,the court agreed that the charges were not a penalty.
Also,in a court judgement in the case of Paul v Swift Advances plc we have been advised that the circuit judge sitting in the Southend County Court on 29th January 2007 dismissed Mr Paul's claim for default costs and charges,which we understand to be in the region of £3000.Swift Advances operate in the same secured loans market as Blemain Finance Limited and the structure and processes of the two companies are quite similar.
In that case the Judge considered that Swift's charges were justified and did not constitute a penalty either at commom law or under the Unfair Terms in Contracts Regulations 1999.In particular,the court was satisfied that this sector of the market was different to the credit card or banking sector which has received so much publicity recently because companies like Swift,when dealing with defaulting customers,employ a great deal of manual operations and there is very little automation.The same can be said of Blemain.
You should be aware that although Mr Paul's case involved sums that were within the small claims limits,he was nevertheless ordered to pay costs at the end of the case.

I am sorry it was a bit longwinded but i wanted to put the whole quotes in from that section of the letter received from Blemain.
Has anyone got any comments or how to proceed with this and to point me in the direction of the case law they mentioned any help would be greatly appreciated,thanks for taking the time to read all of this.

[bmarr]

Can anyone help on the above post please

[midge61]

Hi

The letter is aimed to scare you off. After all this is what this lovely company do best.

I am not best up on repossesions but this will bump the thread to the top and hopefully someone will take a look.

Good luck

[bmarr]

Thanks midge61

[bmarr]

Hi

The reason i put the initial post up was to see if it was viable for me to try and recoup some of these charges,if there is anyone out there who can and is willing to help me,i will fill them in on the situation as it is now.I have the will and fortitude to fight this company,the misery and stress they have heaped on us as a family by there bullying and intransigence is unbelieveable,even trying to open any sort of dialogue with them is virtually impossible as they treat you with total contempt,and now the costs are escalating out of control due to post litigation charges and there administrative costs etc.with the house going and all the stress that entails, i need the help to try and keep some sort of focus and support on this matter,i don't want to lie down and let them take everything from me without a fight,i appreciate any help that might be forthcoming.

[midge61]

Hi

Sorry no one seems to be helping, I will try and get some one to take a look.

You need to send them a Subject Access Request to get all your info ans specifically ask for a full break down of their costs. (it took me nearly a year to get this out of them!)

You could also send a CCA request for each of the loan agreements. Depending how old the loans are you may get some joy there as their agreements are known to be wrong

I know full well how you feel they are sharks in suits.

The folowing threads may be of some help

blemain-eviction notice - The Consumer Forums

The Consumer Forums

[bmarr]

I have sent them a sarn and actually got some information back within the 40 day time limit needless to say half of it is missing,i am sending them a non compliance letter through a template i located on this site,
I have the credit agreements on all 3 loans,full statements of accounts but funnily enough not any info on charges and costs,
I have also sent a sarn to one of the insurance companies who paid my ppi due to getting charges for there late payments,
I am also sending sarns of to the brokers of the loans one of which is phone-a-loan who i didn't know until reading other threads that they are linked to Blemain and a sarn to Ocean Finance,
One other point i asked for early settlement figures and they have assigned that to there solicitors who they used for the court hearing,is this usual practice as now i am being hit by solicitors costs for providing me with these figures whilst before Blemain supplied them for no charge,

[midge61]

hi

As far as I know you have the right to rquest an early settlement figure at any time and they have to supply it within 12 days at NO cost to you.

It may be worth phoning the FOS and talking to them about the issues you have as they now deal with loans.