Sent a letter requesting refund of Arrears fees for an old mortgage account since paid off and closed.

They charges me £50 per month 'Arrears fee' and £30 twice for two Direct Debits which did not go through. Having spent lots of time reading though cases and faqs decided to start process to get money back.

129/3 Sent nice letter asking for money back - no reply

14/4 Sent LBA - no reply

2/5 Sent reminder no reply

7/5 issued money claim

10/5 Acknowlegement of service received from GMAC with intention to defend!

Bit worried -seems like you have to get to drastic action before prompting any kind of response. has anyone dealt with these guys before?

Any advice welcome.

sandy

3/6/06 Received defence from GE. they have engaged solicitors Eversheds and are defending based on contract and the 'terms of agreement' mentions the tariff of charges and 'the company's right to recover it's costs and expenses'.

They deny that the arrears fees and unpaid direct debit fees constitute "penalties" They also state that whether or not the law on penalties applies, each of the fees reflected a genuine pre-estimate of loss in terms of the cost to the defendant.

They also deny fees were unreasonable and keep harping back to the pre estimate ploy mentioned above. defence runs to 8 pages!

Has anyone else had this. help needed here as it may go all the way. 28 days for defence was up 4th June so no hearing date yet.

P.S the claim is for arrears fees of £50 each and bounced DD's total of £952.28

I cannot see how it is not going to cost them that to defend!

Any guidance would be gratefully received.

All seems to be going according to plan. Expect them to settle sometime before the Allocation Questionairre deadline.

Nothing so far from GMAC. Have sent in allocation doc.s so I guess now we go to hearing date. Getting a little more worried as i have not come accross any other posts this far with GMAC. Any help very much needed!!!

Hi

I will be monitoring this one, I also have a current mortgage with gmac and they are currently charging me £50.00 for being in arrears and £25.00 a month for no direct debit setup.

I fully plan to pursue them for this also.

I cant do much about the mortgage as i'm tied in until december 2006

Hi Sandy

Just read your posts, I too was with GMAC and as I recall they charged me £50 a month for being inarrears. It cost me £2,200 penalty to get out of mortgage back in April. I was told it was fixed penalty for only 2 years then I found out it was 3 years. Any way I will send a DPA and see where that gets me.

Good Luck and I will follow your posts.

GMAC are absolutely horrible to deal with.I have about £120 in failed mortgage payments to collect from them but I get the feeling it will be hard work.

hello Sandy

GMAC ???? well we were with them until 21st april this year.

(see reposession/PPI/early settlemt) my post in the mortgage board?

Would love to know how you get on

They were charging us £39.00 per day interest on our arrears plus £50.00 per d/d that failed .

Would really love one of us to get somewhere with gmac!!!! then we can all start.

They used evershed llp against us as well , not nice people to do business with.

Hope it goes ok for you mate

keep us updated please

They are very unpleasant.

Hi Sandy

Any News, You hav'nt posted for a while, Just wandered how you were getting on with your claim. Keep going don't let them win.

Good Luck.

Could anyone tell me when they took out their mortgage with GMAC what the discount period.

mortgage with gmac taken out in 5th may 2004 at a rate of around 6.5% this was discounted for 1 yr, and then went upto 7.9%.

Please note the 1yr discount was from the offer date and not from when they actually paid for the property.......

Hope it helps you?

Update

Court date set for 10/10

Guess what though! they have filed a request for an extention of time to exchange documents. they have asked for 1 month although it will not affect the hearing date.

their reasons are amazing:

'The defendant has decided it is necessary for it to seek advice from council.

'Dependant upon that advice the defendant may wish to apply to remove the case from the small claims track on the basis the hrearing will take longer than 1.5 hours. The arguments are complex and that the evidence may be voluminous in excess of 3 lever arch files. the defendant may also with to attempt a form of ADR' What is that?

The hearing is listed fo MONDAY 9.30 am. i was not going to go as it seemed ok to me as hearing would not be delayed but on reflecton I would not mind going and objecting. Case started in April which is bags of time for this to be sorted. help please on what would be best approach...what about the 3 lever arch files... I am quaking in my boots.

Hello Sandy, I've passed this to the other Mods and Bankfodder for an opinion. Hold tight. Don't panic!

ADR' What is that?

ADR is alternative dispute resolution

they might ask it to be moved to fast track or multi track on the grounds that there will be an extensive legal argument

Sounds like they will settle this,

Update

Court date set for 10/10

...what about the 3 lever arch files... I am quaking in my boots.

Their ploy seems to have had the desired effect then. Don't let them bully you now.

Hi Jssandy,

Don't worry they are trying to intimidate you. The issues are really not that complex and its unlikely the judge will allocate to the fast or multi -track as it is a straight forward case, well under the 5k limit and it is a consumer dispute.

ADR is alternative dispute resolution which includes mediation, negotiation concilliation and arbitration. So they are contradicting themselves in that one minute they are stating it is too complex for the small claims and then stating it is suitable for ADR. This is likely to be just a tactic as under the overriding objective of the Civil Procedure Rules parties have to show that they have considered the possiblity of using ADR.

I'm trying to imagine what they have put in their 3 lever arch files? It would be worth turning up just to see that! Its worth going to the hearing so that you can explain your reasons for wanting to remain in the small claims and drawing their behaviour to the attention of the judge.

All the best

Zoot

Hi Team.

I know what is inside the 3 arch lever files.. THEIR DINNER !!!

They are going to be in there for hours if they take this on.

It is a scare tactic to make you remove your claim. Keep on with your schedule.

As usual Zoot is impressive.

Good luck. . .

Ukaviator

Also, I would very much look forward to them being able to move this to the fast track and preferably even multi-track.

Their scare tactics would then backfire in magnificent fashion when they realise they would be faced with Standard Disclosure. This would force them to supply documentary evidence of their charging regime, the costs involved and any profit made from them.

For all that replied with support many thanks.

I will be attending hearing to argue the case is simple and it should remain in small claims.

I will let eveyone know how I get on tomorrow!

Will be with you in spirit. Just keep calm, and if there is anything you don't understand, don't be afraid to ask for an explanation.

Good decision and best of luck Jssandy,

Keep your cool and be clear in your arguments. Don't worry they will not be expecting any legal arguments at this point.

Points to argue in your favour include:

1. It is a consumer dispute and should be allocated to the small claims which is designed particularly for consumers.

2. The claim is well below the 5K threshold. You filed the claim believing it would be dealt with in the small claims court and did not anticipate the risk of bearing the costs in the Fast Track. So to transfer to fast track would be grossly unfair.

3. Under the overriding objectives of the Civil Procedure Rules there is an obligation on the judge to ensure the parties are placed on an equal footing. As the defendant is a huge financial institution it would be unfair to place this in the fast track as they would have the advantage in being able to bear the risk of costs whereas you do not.

4. The points of law relied upon are well established and settled law with no complex issues of interpretation. There is thus no need for it to go to the County Court.

5. Whilst you have repeatedly tried to contact the defendant to resolve the issue, they have failed to respond to any communication. Their request for extra time for ADR is thus likely to be a further delaying tactic to those already employed.

All the best, will be thinking of you also!

Zoot

Hello again .. herewith update...

Went to court today, Judge agreed to extend time for service of papers to GMAC and the three lever arch files is apparently to accomodate calculations. We argued that they have been aware of this since April but judge explained that if they are going this track it will take considerable time to put this all together. The judge mentioned the avalanch of claims now clogging the court system and that the mercantile court are trying to get a test case through the courts. He did mention that, however, every time it gets near to one being tried as a test case the banks settle. The judge has asked that our case be referred. We raised the issue of costs and all the points mentioned by Zoot! (thanks came in very handy) the judge agreed and referred without costs to be applied to Claimant (us!).

The agent for GMAC tried to scare us stating the enormous costs going fast track and came accross as a little intimidating but we made it clear we felt this was fine as these cases need to go to trial to settle once and for all. Made it clear we will fight.He mentioned that he had not had instructions to settle but to fully defend.

Have to admit felt a bit intimidated about the legal arguments but I guess that is what they wanted us to feel. The case if still in small claims will not be heared until after 15/12 !!

Whew!

Hi Sandy.

Well done with even turning up.I filed with Birmingham Midshires this morning for my ERC,so i am expecting simular things to happen.Thanks for keeping us posted.Good luck.

Ukaviator