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I'm still really confused! My dad was left with a debt of £XXXX from missed payments on the mortgage. Bradford and Bingley wanted him to pay back £26.70 a month, but he argued he could only afford £20. They took him to court over this, so I'm quite concerned that they would take him to court over this too. The judge agreed with my dad, so he is paying £20 a month off of the debt.Before the case, they were not charging him a penny to "monitor" his account, afterwards it was £10 a month, which rose to £20 in 2002 and £25 in 2004. He has tried since 2001 to get them to stop the monthly charge, with no success. They just keep reeling out the . But £25 does not seem a reasonable amount. Added up, it will come out as more than the debt.Basically, all the advice I have seen on this site, and I have done some exhausting searching, seems to concentrate on the one off fees you get charged when, for example, you go overdrawn. I am concerned that it will turn out that BandB can charge this fee as it is classified as a monitoring fee, although all that really means (and I have no proof) is that a flag is thrown if he misses a payment and this can be done through an automated system, so it's not like they are paying someone to sit there and watch my dad's account just in case he slips up. I'm also quite worried that they will turn around and call in the mortgage. Like I've said, he's on disability and is unlikely to be able another mortgage at a sensible rate. I don't want to promise my dad that there's a good chance he could get this money back if it's going to lead to more problems. I would really appreciate some help on this!

Hi there, My parents divorced several years ago. My mother left a load of debts, including missed payments on the joint mortgage. She continued to live in the house for a while, and my father rented property from elsewhere. He had no knowledge that there were missed payments and had been contributing to the mortgage by giving his half of the monthly payments to my mum. The mortgage company never informed him about what was going on. Furthermore, they entered into an agreement with my mother but not my father regarding the mortgage. My mother then moved out, my father moved in and once he found out what was going on had my mother's name removed from the mortgage (although she is still there for the debt accrued). He is now on disability benefits and contributes £20 a month to the mortgage (which is about £100 a month) with the govt contributing the rest. Since he took over the mortgage in 2001, he has never missed a payment. B&B have been charging £25 a month to "monitor" his account since 2001. This seems very unfair and he has repeatedly asked them to reconsider the charge given his recent payment history. He has been into the local branch, called various numbers and written letters. I just want some advice really on how to proceed. Are we right in thinking that the charge should be stopped and is he entitled to claim the money back? I have been reading advice on this site and it is proving helpful, but there doesn't seem to be anything specific about these kinds of charges. Appreciate all your help, ej