Thanks for that. Of course the obvious next question I should perhaps be asking is has there been any cases for refund of mortgage arrears fees that have actually come to court and if so are there a number of successful outcomes that could be potentially quoted? Is that sort of information available?

Many thanks for your reply Lea_HTH. Assuming I can get the limitatation issues resolved, do you think the FSA rulings would stand up to scrutiny in a Court? Regards, Tony.

Barry, Is it just a letter or actual proceedings?

Hello, A brief background: Between April 1994 and July 1999 I had a mortgage with Birmingham Midshires (subsequently acquired by HBOS). I ran into financial difficulties and incurred huge swathes of arrears charges etc. The mortgage was redeemed in 1999. Following the recent publicity regarding arrears charges now being regarded as unfair, I did a SAR request. This showed arrears charges amounting to almost £4000.00. I wrote to BM in June 2011. They ignored the letter and I wrote again in August. As they were unable to deal with the matter in sensible timeframes I issued proceedings in September. Their Defence: Their in-house solicitors have written to me to suggest that I cannot rely on the recent FSA v Redstone and DB Mortgages rulings as these are "not legal authorities". They also contend that this case is statute barred being over six years old as defined in the 1980 Limitation Act. Opinions Sought please: So I have two questions. Firstly, can I rely on the FSA rulings if this does come to court or is there alternative case law? Secondly, can the statute barred rules be applied here as my assumption was that I had six years from the date that I could have reasonably discovered that I have grounds to make a claim. They've offered me £725.00 to in effect "go away". I want to decline this offer but I will only be able to do that with any confidence if I'm sure of my legal position. So can anyone assist me with answers to my two questions please? Many thanks. Removalman.

Hello, I'm into some "Without Prejudice" correspondence with inhouse counsel acting on behalf of HBOS (Birm Midshires) following a claim I've made for a refund of arrears. They are contending that this is statute barred as the claim relates to a mortgage taken out in 1990 and redeemed in 1996 therefore the whole thing finished more than six years ago. Can anyone give me (urgently) an appropriate form of words pointing out that I was not aware that arrears charges were unfair until recent case law brought this whole thing to the fore? Therefore how can it possibly be statute barred if I didn't discover the possibility of being able to make a refund claim until about six months ago? Can anyone help me please? Many thanks.

Wow! Many congratulations. I bet you're delighted. Your success will certainly spur me on! Just one other question, did any part of the sum you claimed include any legal expenses incurred by BM when you when in arrears? Regards, Tony.

Hello Claire, Good luck with this. I also have a potential claim against BM for arrears charges. How did you decide what is a reasonable charge or what was fair? Or have you just gone for the lot? Regards, Tony.

Hello, I was wondering if anyone on the forurms can point me in the right direction to where I can find some information about what constitutes a fair charge by a mortgage provider and what doesn't? In specific terms, I had some arrears with Birmingham Midshires a few years ago and I had a whole raft of charges debited to the mortgage account. For example: "Arrears Fee": £40.00 "Unpaid DD fee": £40.00 "Account in Litigation Fee": £40.00 "Admin Fee pre-Litigation": £25.00 There are numerous other charges too. My question is what constitutes a fair charge and what is unreasonable? Regards Removalman.

Brilliant! Hopefully they'll pay attention to an ICO document. Many thanks!

Hello Yozdagger, I have a similar situation myself (in fact almost identical). Was just wondering if there's been any further developments? Did you go legal yet? Regards, Tony.

You may be right, but as its the DCA that has applied the second default I believe they have a duty of care to ensure that information is processed in a correct and appropriate manner. I don't care which of the two defaults are removed, but the DCA needs to take responsibility for ensuring one of them is removed. If that means that they talk to Egg, then so be it. The dates for both defaults are the same - so at least there is some consistency. I'm hoping the CRA's will ensure the right thing is done as well. We shall see...

Thanks to everyone for their views/comments. I have today written to Apex (the DCA) putting them on 14 days notice that as they applied the second default it is their responsibility to remove it or have the original default notice from Egg removed. I don't care which is removed as long as one of them goes! A copy of my letter to Apex will also be sent today to all of the CRA's. Ironically, its not really going to make any real difference to my credit rating which is already shot to pieces but I believe there is a principle here that needs to be addressed and I'm ready for a battle.

If you were up for it then I would suggest that you begin a Data Protection Act action against the DCA and also against the credit reference agency. Don't expect an easy ride though. Thanks for your views on this. Can you enlighten me as to what a Data Protection Act action would entail?

Hello, I could really use some help/advice here please... Some difficult personal financial circumstances resulted in Egg registering a default against me at the end of 2009 for unpaid unsecured loan of £8700. The debt appears to have now been acquired/assigned to a DCA called APEX Credit Management who have defaulted me again for the same debt! I have no contractual arrangement with them, nor did they send me any notices that they were about to take the action that they have. So my credit file now shows two defaults for the same debt. Surely there must be some rules against this as it hardly seems fair. I know I could in theory post a notice of correction but they tend to be generally ineffective. I would like to get this remedied and I need an effective stick to beat Apex around the head with. I suspect me just writing to them to ask them nicely will have little effect. Help please?

The tale continues... Some nine months after the DCA accepted my offer of payment (Clarity on behalf of CitiCard) and banked the cheque, I've had a letter from Cabot who have acquired the debt and are chasing me for the full sum due. They've also entered a default on my credit record. I've sent them copies of the correspondence showing that the DCA accepted my offer. Is there anything else I should be doing?