Well they applied to SA and the hearing was on 6th Nov, it didn't go very well:( despite having prepared a good witness statement They sent a £700 an hour barsister along, well tooled up with all his legal books. the Judge said he could have a turn then me then the judge would sum up I thought it was going ok, till the judge interjected regarding the faxed defence that didn't reach the court and sumerised that maybe it did. Then it seemed to turn and I almost got the feeling the disicion to set aside had been made. When he turned to me and said now I have read your WS, is there anything you would like to add. And although I went though it, it didn't appear to matter. He basically said the defendant was obviously submitting a defence, they had applied to set aside in good time and their defence had a real prospect of success Then the real shock was when he awarded costs against me on the basis it was my fault I had put the defendant to the expense of having to set aside the judgement and only after pleading I was not at any fault with court process, and not in a position to pay he discided not to award them, phew! I'm waiting for the actual judgement and new hearing date now. I have to say, I'm not sure about continueing with my claim now, basised on what the judge said about the prospect that their defence would succeed and the pospect that costs would be award if I don't win Cheshirelad

Update: The court would not give me a summary judgement but made an order giving them till 31st July to submit a proper defence. I received a letter from their solicitors with a copy of a defence they were going to submit. Which basically said my claim was poorly pleaded and they we're embarassed to have to defend it. They said they had no real details of my claim and would be seeking to have the claim struck out. Well the court never received this and no defence has been file, so yesterday I got my judgement by default for £2500 (not sure if this is correct? as an order had already been made by the judge which they failed to comply with) I have issued a warrant of execution, so baliffs are going in A.S.A.P NO MERCY they never showed me any! Wish I was a fly on the wall Of course they could go for set aside just have to wait and see Cheshirelad

I have another case going now 'Cheshirelad v Mortgages Plc' possibly should have its own thread? Done all the prelimary stuff SAR, request letter for unfair charges and penalties with interest circa £2500, LBA All the usual replies so I MCOL and they submitted a defence earlier this week a copy of which the court has sent me today Their defence handwritten on one of their compliment slip's says ' Account number can't be traced for this customer. regards' I clearly stated my account number on the claim and have double checked it and its the same as the one quote on all letters and SAR I was g**smacked, I would appreciate comments and opinions from anyone. My questions are 1. Is this a real defence? 2. The court has accepted this as a defence, should they? 3. Its not signed and there's no name on it 4. What should my next course of action be, the court are asking me for an AQ regards Cheshirelad

Jansus I checked with the court today and they say I alright for a few days to get my AQ in. So gives me a little more timeto get my thoughts together Attached is a copy of the letter from their solicitors send I would welcome your opinion cheshirelad

Hi Jansus thanks for this, not found many other cases of people persueing mortgage co's with any consistent success. It does'nt seem as straight forward as bank charges. Cheshirelad

thanks Jansus I'm submitting my AQ to court tommorrow and continuing

Hi Jansus They say its statue barred by the limitation act 1980, but I believe they must be agreeing their charges are penalties charges to invoke this Act and as such these charges are unfair as per the OFT statment re: charges. They are offering a refubf of the charges that are within the 6yrs plus interest and my MCOL fee. Cheshirelad

Thanks Saintly no confidentiality clause I am considering the offer to box this off now, against £35 AQ fee tommorrow, a court date set any time in the next 3 months. Then the possible court games etc, etc. And it could go against me? I'm just about to MCOL Mortgage Plc for a similar amount then theres Preferred after the FSO have delt with my complaint. Cheshirelad

Update MCOL when in against SPML for cica £2K, at the 11th hour they submitted a defence saying the claim was statue barred as the charges were more than 6yrs old ( charges levied between Oct 2002 & July 2003) and in any event they were entitled to charge whilst I was in arrears and I had agreed to this when I signed up for the mortgage. I have to submit a AQ by tomorrow and pay another £35 fee, but have received a settlement offer the day before yesterday, offering nearly 50% of my claim. They say the offer is made for purely for commercial reasons and if I don't accept it they will draw it to the attention of the court and that the court could take it in to account when assessing the conduct of a party for unreasonableness if the court uses it's discretion to order costs. my other concern is they are asking me to sign a court draft order accepting their offer in full and final settlement of this matter and any other claim arising out of mortgage a/c no ********* Which would give me a problem if at a later date there was an opportunity to make a claim for the £15k ERC I paid when the house was sold with in days of repossesion Any opinions or advice much appreciated Cheshirelad

Hi Jansus hope your well, beautiful sunshine in cheshire this afternoon. if you could post the info you have or link to the forum that would be great thanks

sorry if I'm not understanding you, should the claim be issued against Captone in their name or SPML in their name? I just don't want to find I've issue incorrectly and waste time and cost having to reissue. thanks for you help

Thanks midge so as my claim is against SPML i'm right to issue in their name @the Capstone address do you think?

can Anybody help? I've just sent Capstone LBA regarding mortgage penalty charges on a SPML mortgage I used to have. I feel sure I will be issuing by month end but I want to make sure I issue the claim against the right company and their reg office. Can anybody confirm should it be Capstone or SPML ?

Update 1. The FOS are now progressing my complaint against Cap/Preferred. Will post when I have some news. FOS say could be a while as they have a huge volume!!!!! 2. I sent a letter (standard template) requesting the refund of penalty/default charges + plus interest (just under £2000 in total) to Capstone for a mortgage I had with SPML between 2002 & 2003. Capstone replied this morning with standard bull***t, I will be sending LBA on Thursday as thats the end of the 1st 14day period. I intend to issue bang on 28days. I have a question, who do I issue against, Capstone or SPML? do'es anybody have the correct address? 3. MortgagesPlc said they would not give me info about my account against my SAR as the account was joint and my dearly beloved had not signed the SAR request. Think they are out of order with this? but have re-submitted. So thats were I'm at, any comments, advice greatly apprieciated. Don't know if I've mentioned this before? and possibly it should be for another thread? I have a claim against Natwest for £7000 bank charges they have acknowleged but I have not taken futher due to test case. I'm aware of the recent announcement. Should I perhaps progress on the grounds of hardship? I do owe them £17k which is with a collection agency but they are not pushing, bit strange really. I presume if I issue they will counter claim our vice versa I could, if they issue? I'd be interested in any comments thanks Cheshirelad:)

Thanks Rache, yes you need all the support you can get much appreciated best thing I've found is a low profile no what i mean:) best wishes Cheshirelad

I need to do more research, but what I've read sounds very positive. the FSA say a reply to me is in the post re: my complaint to Capstone. apparently I've not given them a second chance to offer a reply to my complaint........ so FSA will give them a bit more time. J***s they've had nearly 3 months. Not seen the letter, just what the man told me over the phone so will see. Thanks Jansus

wow.. having read the posts on there it sounds like they were written for me! thanks Jansus Mortgages 2 Plc ERC £6k days away from repossession had to remortgage to SPML, then 18months later ERC to them £15k, days away from repossession just manged to complete a sale and pay them off. now the Capstone charges, I'm going to be busy!! I have requested SAR's from Mortgages 2 plc 3weeks ago. no reply yet( not cash cheque either) and SPML (they have cashed cheque) no reply yet

thanks Bona, that an interesting point, I want to get feel from the FSA perhaps later this coming week as to how they view my position. I clearly feel Capstone have egged the charges and find the attidude appalling re the delay with the redemption figure as this cost me extra interest for the delay. will update the thread as more info becomes available Cheshirelad

We were charged the HLC on the 1st mortgage statement, so assume they had one, I wonder if my case could be to prove it was not required as the property sale price covered the loan, so they got there money back. Capstone have charged 2% estate agents fee, the estate agent concerned told me they charge 1.25% the difference in money is £2k they did give me a full breakdown which I have been though and in total dispute approx the shortfall (which they have have not asked for) they show I owe

while since I've been here, but thought and update would be interesting for others and always interested to hear different opinions. Capstone took the full 8 weeks reply and apologied for the delay in producing the remdemption figure and put it down to a staff training problem and they were very pleased I'd pointed it out to them. They then went on to say they had not received all of the details of my complain but asumed I was complaining about the charges they had applied for selling the property. They went on to say they were entitled to charge what contractually they wanted to. I have now made an offical complaint to FSA and waiting for them to look at it (this week hopefully, they have a one month back log due to the volume of complains) I'm planning on waiting to see which way this goes, the supposed short fall is approx £3700 (of which the estate agents is £2000 more than they told me they charged, and the extra interest is about £500, redemption penalty is another £2000) I have a claim ready to send to Capstone for £1000 arrears admin fee's & charges applied to the account before they repossesed. I also wonder if I could claim the HLC back on the basis they would not have to claim if they got all there money back.

Bona do you have any specific's re certain circumstances? I was with SPML 5yrs ago got in arrears they were about to repo so had to sell and pay nearly £10k ERC which we would'nt have if we did'nt have to sell thanks

no worry's Jansus, i have found a fair bit out this last week, seems you can claim back against mortgage co's, not covered under the test case but it apparently depends on on some of the wording against the charges, still just 6yrs, the 12years is for redemption/exit charges. Got a bit of response from Cap, not very happy with there inital approach i.e. they telephoned to discuss (want a written reply) and they did'nt even have my letter in front of them. They picked up on the eatate agent cost and told me it did'nt matter what agent charged as Cap had their own fee rate, this definatly can't be right in fairness terms.

Have spoken to the OFT, they say mortgage charges regarding arrears penalties etc, are covered under the same test case as the banks. So will get my claims with interest in with the companies concerned and just have to wait Just trying to get confirmation on 6yrs or 12yrs? Can anyone confirm? thanks

Bona thanks for your reply, using the court order they obtained against me to obtain information about the charges they have applied, thats something I was aware of and could be useful. I wrote to Capstone via there website on Monday detailing my complaint regarding the charges they have applied to the sale part of the property. but have not had an acknowlegment, so with be phoning today.

Bona When you say what does you agreement say, I not sure in what respect you mean? what should I be looking for? basically I had a mortgage with Preferred with reducing %'s over the first 3yrs if I redeemed early, that 3yrs expired on 9th sept just gone. The property was sold following repossession and complete end October. they have charged 1% in the redemption figure. I am also thinking about the amounts I've been charged over the past 12yrs on 3 other mortgages with different companies. Thanks