Kensington Redemption Fee

[TRIXIE]

I've been reading all the tread with great interest and hope too.

 

I need to get all my details from Kensington before I make any decisions as I'm no longer with them.

 

Once question that I'd like to ask before though is.... The aforementioned mortgage was jointly held with my Ex. We divorced, I kept the house and Kensington refused to allow me to keep the mortgage on my own so I had to move and put the £9k redemption fee onto my new mortgage, so I solely paid this off.

 

If I decide to go for a claim on this, can I do this in my own right and have any payment made soley to me (as I repaid it in the 1st place) or will it come back in joint names (as the said mortgage was) and have to split it - which would stick in my throat, but by the same token I'd still be approx £4k up so can't moan too much!

[caro]

There are a number of issues here and I will help with those I can.

 

1. I suggest you send off your SAR to Kensington, as they have up to 40 days to provide the information. You can use this waiting time to try and work out the next stages.

 

2. Any claim over £5,000 could not be dealt with in the small claims court, so you could leave yourself open to paying Kensingtons costs.

 

3. In my personal opinion, you have evidence that you paid all of the fees as they were on your mortgage. Have you got documentary evidence of this? I cannot confirm the legal position on this issue as I have no experience of it, but I am sure others will have and will help further.

 

Good luck

[caro]

I have a bit more information which may help.

 

Whilst claims over £5000 are generally dealt with as a Fast Track claim, there is still a possibility that simple issues over £5k can still be handled as Small Claims track cases.

 

The cost of starting a claim would still be the same (£250).

 

It is also possible that a judge could order costs in such circumstances.

 

Hope that's confusing enough for you!

[quin1962]

I am in the same boat to a degree, I have claimed on joint account in just my name and I am hoping that when it is settled the payment will be made to me .... my ex does know about it and I am hoping to be able to pay her a smaller percentage as per the house being split. If and when you get it to the court stage do it just in your name.

[TRIXIE]

Thanks for your help, I will do as you suggest and start the process by sending off a SAR, like you say it gives me time to decide on what course of action to take.

 

I suppose the only documentation I have is via my solicitor who acted for me on the redemption of Kensington Mortgage. This settlement amount this was replaced in full by my new mortgage from TMB.. would that be enough do you think?

[ellielou]

Hi

I too had a mortgage with Kensington & repaid it a few months ago. The mortage was a 2 year discounted but I was tied in for 3 years!! I only had the mortgage a year and had to pay a redemption fee of £5,600!?

I was thinking of sending them this ................

"I recently repaid the above mortgage with yourselves with a redemption figure of £****. I was contracted to stay in the mortgage for three years, two of which were at a discounted rate. I had to cancel the mortgage after a year and subsequently had to pay the early redemption charges mentioned above.

I now believe that this charge was disproportionately high. As I am sure you are aware in Common Law you can only recover liquidated losses stemming from a breach of contract - that is, money which it has actually cost you to end the contract early. Therefore this charge is contrary to the Unfair Terms in Consumer Regulations 1999. In addition I believe that this charge was a Penalty. Again, as I am sure you are aware penalty charges are irrecoverable at Common Law. The precedent for this was Dunlop Pneumatic Tyre Co Ltd v New Garage and Motor co Ltd [1915] AC 79. along with Murray v. Leisure play [2005] EWCA Civ 963. It was held that a contractual party can only recover damages for an actual loss or liquidated losses. It is clear that this charge does not reflect any actual and or real loss.

To this end I require you to refund the total of this charge (£****) or provide me with the evidence and calculations that the total of this charge does actually cover your liquidated losses. If this is not done within 14 days, I will be forced to take further action and legal advice."

what do people think? Should I give it a go? I have my mortgage elsewhere now so they can't really affect me that way. But don't want to push for it & end up in court if I can't really prove my case.

[TRIXIE]

I think I am going to start the process off so at least get all my figures together and that letter you have put together looks good to me but I'm a novice and the only very limited experience I've had with it all is getting my charges back from First Direct and I have no legal training what-so-ever

 

I only had my Kensington mortgage a year too, with a 3yr lock in, probably the same one as yours

 

I've just dug out my account number and I'm going to fire the SAR letter off 1st thing Monday...from what I've read they will ask me to fill in a form that is about 7 pages long before they look at sending the info on.

[ellielou]

Sounds very similar doesn't it?

I know the figure they charged me, as I only changed mortgages last month, so everythjings fairly fresh.

Bit worried about doing it but I think I'll run it past a few people & see what they think. I've no legal training either, I'm in the process of re-claiming cgs back from the Halifax but other than that I have no idea.

I'll let you know what I decide.

[TRIXIE]

SAR sent to Kensignton, they replied asking me what I actually want as a SAR is a lot of info. I wrote back and said, I want all statements and the final redemption statement, if that is more than the £10 SAR then proceed with the SAR as they've kept my £10 cheque!

 

let's wait.

 

I'm assuming I can claim the 8% interest on this £9k fee??? or is that incorrect?

 

I've also input the details and amounts on Money Claim (in readiness) and it allows the £10K+ figure and tells me it will cost £250, so another assumption I'm making is that I can go through small claims?

 

Can someone please confirm or refute these assumptions

 

Thanks

[zootscoot]

You can claim the 8% interest when you make your money claim but not in your prelim & LBA.

 

I think with the amount you are claiming you would be optimistic in expecting to be allocated to the small claims track. So you would risk having to pay Kensington's fees.

 

Also as the redemption fee is relatively untested it might be worth waiting to see the response of the banks to the other claims which are currently going through before making your claim.

[ellielou]

I seem to remember I have seen something that says if your claim is over £5k it goes through a different process. The over £5k process means that you have to pay the defendants court costs as well as your own if you lose - it might be worth checking before you proceed as this hasn't been tested yet and people aren't 100% confident these charges are unlawful.

[caro]

Yes, small claims are under £5k so it is best to try to keep under this limit or you incur the other parties costs if you lose. You should consider splitting your claim somehow. Use the search facility and put in the word "sever" and you will find ideas of how to do this. I am not too familiar with the process myself, and not sure how easy it would be when you are claiming one item, ie redemptions fees, but you should look further into the possibilities.