LPA Receivers

[rosco97]

I paid the arrears and the lender suspended the LPA Receiver

[mungos mum]

Hi rosco97

Well done you.

Would you mind telling us which lender you are with?

They sound far more reasonable than the now government owned clowns we are dealing with.

Mortgage Express (MX) told some people we know that they would 'consider' suspending LPA if arrears were paid so they duly paid arrears but LPA were still instructed, also as I have mentioned in a previous post LPA were 'managing' some properties and borrowers were actually ahead with mortgage payments but MX (bless 'em) decided that to safe guard themselves they would instruct LPA to also 'manage' these properties even though there were no arrears and the accounts were in credit. With these particular properties the LPA have again done their usual trick of driving out existing tenants and properties are now empty. As you can imagine we have absolutley NO faith in these scumbags, niether the lenders nor the LPA.

Best wishes for the future

Mungos mum

[pigland]

Hi Mungos Mum etc,

 

Have a look at this thread; Re: Mortgage Express & LPA Receivers.

 

I'd be interested in your input, Tried to PM you but to no avail!

 

Kind regards,

 

Pigland

[samedfry]

We are currently tenants in a property the lease started 8 weeks ago, unbeknown to us our landlord had failed to pay his mortgage for some 12 months prior to our tenancy starting, 6 weeks into the tenancy a bailiff arrived with a repossession order, this has got to be one of the shortest tenancies ever, when I was finally able to get hold of my landlord he to me to F*** off, we have involved the police as this is fraud, the LL knew this was happening but failed to let us know and we took the tenancy on in good faith, had we know we would never have moved our family into the property, I am fighting the eviction and I am trying to open up dialogue with the mortgage company GE Money with a view to us becoming their tenants instead, I have been granted party to the proceedings by the court, but am not getting very far, can I as the tenant ask for an LPA receiver to be appointed to save our home.

The are lots of measures in place to protect landlords fro bad tenants but nothing to protect tenants from rouge landlords and in the current climate this is happening more and more, any idea or advice would be gratefully received

Edited August 26, 2009 by samedfry

[chillinlong]

Hello all,

 

Unfortunately this must be happening a lot at the moment as the market is not the best currently.

 

I am in a similiar situation with Mortgage express and Walker Singleton as LPA Recievers.

 

Put shortly, fell into arrears on a portfolio. Walker Singleton appointed LPA on these and from that day on things went from bad to horrible!

 

Walker Singleton cannot manage properties, I think they have designed their practice to deliberately to make the tenants leave so that they can sell the properties and get their fees quickly.

 

I have manaed to fight with them to the point of working with them when I was looking to take legal action against Mortgage Express as it was a clear case of negligence. I have spent so much time and money on trying to work a plan to resolve this as the benefits is while the interest rates are low the rents can clear the arrears and the mortgage payments themselves but only if it is being managed properly. I wanted them to do this instead of selling as they are all in negative equity in this market.

 

I have tenants vanishing due to the poor management as in nobody answers the phones to tenants for rent payments and maintence issues which makes everyone in the picture look unprofessional and increases the arrears instead of clearing them.

 

I know for a fact if I was still managing them all to this day that I would now be clear of the at least most of the arrears. The problem is Bradford and Bingley can see this but are not willing to accept they have made a huge costly mistake. The bank is funded by taxpayers and they have a public duty to ensure that they try not to lose any money but the top people seem to make decisions that are to lose more money and heap more misery on landlords and tenants.

 

I am interested to know if anybody did find out if the LPA being appointed is legal to be actioned on the Mortgage Express terms and conditions? I want to take control of the proeprties back so that I can make progress and start clearing more of the arrears, some of the properties are now in positive but they will not hand back until they are all clear.

 

I am considering legal action against them to regain control of the properties but it will cost a fortune and that could be spent on the arrears if I did have it.

 

It is insane that they think selling now would resolve this but I think business point of view it is wise to manage efficiently and then once arrears clear they can hand it back to the landlords. If they were actual recover and turnaround agents then maybe they would think along these lines but unfortunately very negative and just want to shift, they look for every excuse to not lay the blame on themselves. In one case they took nearly 1 year just to evict a tenant for non payment, this list goes on.

 

Has anyone else made any progress with Mortgage express and Walker Singleton? They must be thinking why does this guy not just give up and leave this now, as a result we are making very slow progress but could be 10 times better if they were good at their job.

 

I know we would win this if there were quite a few people that was able to put together funds for a class action to fight them legally to regain control to make progress.

 

Any comments are welcome.

[pigland]

Hi Chillingalong,

 

Good old Mex, I've carried out a lot of investigation and it seems that they are either deliberately flouting the law or are completely useless! People that go into arrears they know don't have the resources to fight!

 

Their are thousands off situations where tenants pay rent late because their circumstances have changed. Sometimes tenants don't pay, this affects landlords portfolios. Mex relies on this and knows this situation is more likely to happen in a recession hence the amount of new LPA receivers. Instructing LPa receivers is unsettling to the landlord and the poor unsuspecting tenant. The landlord gets blamed, but actually it's often not their fault and it's the inflexibility of the lender.

 

As you're probably aware Mex need to run down their balance sheet and pay back the government. They've tried to get people to remortgage elsewhere. There's not many other buy-to-let products out there so the alternative is to frighten the existing landlords off by effectively nicking property via instructing LPA receivers. This is a very dangerous game being played and i feel it is actually about to bite back!

 

It's interesting that Richard Banks Mex Managing Director,has just quoted in the Bradford and Bingley interim report;

 

"Bradford & Bingley is on track to deliver on its Business Plan priorities, which will enable it to repay HM Treasury and the Financial Services Compensation Scheme as quickly as possible.

 

He then quoted:

"We are meeting our targets - costs are down, we have reduced lending balances and arrears have stabilised. While looking after taxpayers' interests, we are also helping those customers facing genuine hardship."

 

I think not Richard!!!

 

Do a Subject action request (SAR) on all your accounts at Mex. Request all information including conversations with their LPA receivers. Do not accept or refer to these LPA receivers as yours!!!

 

Don't forget to claim back your charges for the last 12 years! Also the interest was added to your loan so it is compounded this is also due back! So maybe your accounts weren't in arrears?!!

 

Maybe as Richard's helping everyone he'll just send all this money back to you and everyone else! If your accounts were in dispute have you asked how they've been able to instruct an LPA receiver. Are any of your mortgages pre 2007 as the LPA receivers powers maybe limited.

 

Walker Singleton.....mmm. It appears from reports that they just fly below the radar. They have a lot of good tricks and are good at frightening off tenants 'by peaceable means'. Amass any info you have. Maybe a new post should be set up under the heading 'Walker Singleton frightened off my tenants and can't find any to replace them!'

 

 

Hope this helps!

 

PL

[pigland]

Hi Chillingalong,

 

Good old Mex, I've carried out a lot of investigation and it seems that they are either deliberately flouting the law or are completely useless! People that go into arrears they know don't have the resources to fight!

 

Their are thousands off situations where tenants pay rent late because their circumstances have changed. Sometimes tenants don't pay, this affects landlords portfolios. Mex relies on this and knows this situation is more likely to happen in a recession hence the amount of new LPA receivers. Instructing LPa receivers is unsettling to the landlord and the poor unsuspecting tenant. The landlord gets blamed, but actually it's often not their fault and it's the inflexibility of the lender.

 

As you're probably aware Mex need to run down their balance sheet and pay back the government. They've tried to get people to remortgage elsewhere. There's not many other buy-to-let products out there so the alternative is to frighten the existing landlords off by effectively nicking property via instructing LPA receivers. This is a very dangerous game being played and I feel it is actually about to bite back!

 

It's interesting that Richard Banks Mex Managing Director,has just quoted in the Bradford and Bingley interim report;

 

"Bradford & Bingley is on track to deliver on its Business Plan priorities, which will enable it to repay HM Treasury and the Financial Services Compensation Scheme as quickly as possible.

 

He then quoted:

"We are meeting our targets - costs are down, we have reduced lending balances and arrears have stabilised. While looking after taxpayers' interests, we are also helping those customers facing genuine hardship."

 

I think not Richard!!!

 

Do a Subject action request (SAR) on all your accounts at Mex. Request all information including conversations with their LPA receivers. Do not accept or refer to these LPA receivers as yours!!!

 

Don't forget to claim back your charges for the last 12 years! Also the interest was added to your loan so it is compounded this is also due back! So maybe your accounts weren't in arrears?!!

 

Maybe as Richard's helping everyone he'll just send all this money back to you and everyone else! If your accounts were in dispute have you asked how they've been able to instruct an LPA receiver. Are any of your mortgages pre 2007 as the LPA receivers powers maybe limited.

 

Walker Singleton.....mmm. It appears from reports that they just fly below the radar. They have a lot of good tricks and are good at frightening off tenants 'by peaceable means'. Amass any info you have. Maybe a new post should be set up under the heading 'Walker Singleton frightened off my tenants and can't find any to replace them!'

 

Hope this helps!

 

 

PL

[chillinlong]

Hi Pigland,

 

Thanks for your helpful suggestions there, some good points to take into account. The main reasons why I fell behind with payments was so many tenants at once could not pay and I was left with quite a few vacant properties at the same time, with the recession starting to top it off so I could not really get any remortgages or extra loans to keep on top of it.

 

I have to say though I have had several meetings with the MX portfolio manager who has been helpful with trying to get things back on track but they are limited to what they can actually do aswell as time restricted because there are so many clients who are in the same situation. It is only the recievers that have been really screwing everything possible up, it is the worst property management company I have ever come across.

 

The MX portfolio manager managed to set up meetings with Walker Singleton and myself to resolve issues as they were not answering a lot of questons I had at the time because they were not doing anything and things were just getting worse. It was actually after about 3 or 4 months after when they actually started setting up a property management team to handle these properties because they were so overwhelmed with work and could not handle this. I was dumbstruck and am still arguing with all of them all to this day as who should be suffering for their mistakes financially not me but them! But nobody will accept blame so I wrote letters to quite a few parties including the top man at Bradford and Bingley about the complaints I had with Walker Singleton.

 

The complaints process worked with I recieved a response straight away saying that they have allocated somebody on this and will get back to me. What was laughable they actually got a representative involved from Walker Singleton to discuss the issues with me, I then explained the problems I had to them via emails. The way this was dealt the rep just forwarded my confidential complaint emails onto the specific people who were dealing with my properties, which then caused a bad effect because the next day I recieved email form the people I complained about they were selling some of the properties because they are in a bad condition etc which still does not make sense to this day as it is very much negative equity (The previous tenant left because they did not bother to repair anything since taken over). I could not believe this, and specifically said to their rep why did they have to forward my emails to them which will cause a defensive attitude and certain people to get emotional therefore cause more problems.

 

Like you say MX are looking for an easy way to get out of this is to appoint the LPA reciever therefore they can just chase somebody like me for the huge shortfall that will exist, but this is very unfair as I feel I and the lender both have a duty to share responsibility to suffer the market problems and therefore should work together to resolve this. In other words they should never have lent me the money in the first place or likewise but it cannot be helped, if they sell all these there will be a massive loss to the public taxpayers whereas if they just wait a few years it will rectify itself. The credit reports works against you as soon you have arrears on your searches you cannot get finances anywhere to remortgage etc...

 

I fear if I request a subject access request it will cause a backlash and they decide not to work with me as much and start selling them off.

 

It is a massive shame because if it was any half decent managing agents that were looking after the properties and paying MX directly they would have almost payed the arrears off automatically by now.

 

The amount of tenants I have lost because of them is unbelievable and they always seem to have an excuse for example "well the property was in a poor condition", a good property management team would have addressed this. As a result of the poor management a lot of the tenants have actually gone direct to the housing authorities to complain about the condition of the proeprties which I then get the letters about. And then guess who Walker Singleton blames again?

 

During the course of the LPA recievership I have spent thousands and thousands on actually maintaining the properties myself aswell as letting them all out again once tenants have vanished but it makes it so difficult when you hand the tenants over to the management company. They are also esepcially poor in collecting rents which is shocking as this is the core reason why MX have appointed this, they want to collect as much money as possible.

 

I am not sure what you mean by claiming the interest back on the charges, please elaborate? Also, most of the mortgages were all taken out starting from 2007 so they maybe have the LPA terms included but I am interested to find out though. Where would this be found in the mortgage deed?

 

I will set up a new post about this subject to see if we can can collectively work together in fighting the problems everybody is having with the two companies in question. It is a clear case of negligence and therefore can be worked on to achieve something constructive, it all depends on how many people are involved and want to get involved with preparing a way forward.

 

Thanks again...

[chillinlong]

Hi all,

 

I have set up a new thread about this:

 

http://www.consumeractiongroup.co.uk/forum/mortgages-secured-loans/230253-mortgage-express-appoint-lpa.html#post2550471

 

Please post with your comments.

 

Thanks

[pigland]

Hi Chillinlong,

 

If you were charged an admin fee 3 years ago that was say £30.00 effectively as this is an illegal charge you can charge interest compounded on that £30 at 8% p.annum.

 

Year 1 £30.00 + 8% = £32.40

Year 2 £32.40 + 8% = £35.00

Year 3 £35.00 + 8% = £37.80

 

So after 3 years for each admin charge you can claim back £37.80.

 

See claiming back bank charge calculators.

 

Mortgage Express have told me even if I clear all of the alleged arrears I might not get the properties properties back from the LPa receivers. I will have to fill out a means test. Obviously they don't want to give back the properties. The arrears have now escalated to about £1300.00 since they've been with their receivers. They charge us £1000.00 for the appointment of an LPA receiver.

 

This is just a form of robbery and needs to be stopped!

 

All of my other properties are in credit!

 

I suggest just corresponding with either Richard Banks or Richard Pym at Mortgage Express see; Bradford & Bingley - Board of Directors.

 

Kind regards,

 

Pigland

[chillinlong]

Hi Pigland,

 

How often did you find the admin charge added onto the properties? Is this added onto the mortgage or onto the arrears? I know its a damn shame for 1k fee to appoint LPA reciever only for them to mess it up...

 

I written a complaint letter to the chief of the B & B, who then put me in touch with the LPA Walker Singlton director who then effectively made them more defensive took the complaints and told the responsible people and caused further problems.

 

I am going to write another letter to B & B explaining this was not a satisfactory response.

 

Are you not going to try and manage your properties but ensuring that rents are paid to Walker Singelton so that it clears the arrears pigland?

 

Surely there must be a way we can fight back for negligence if they allow the properties to go further into arrears with a poor management reciever.

 

Thanks

Edited November 10, 2009 by chillinlong

[pigland]

Hi Bona,

 

Is it an N244 form that you fill out to be able to sell your own properties?

 

Kind regards,

 

PL

[Orbital]

As a would-be first-time-buyer who has spent 8 years hard saving towards putting down a deposit, only for HPI to race away during that time... I have difficulty with this thread. I'm also not the only one. Many FTBs and those who actually hope to get on the ladder keep an eye on this forum.

 

Firstly, I don't consider any of your BTL people to be genuine consumers, and aren't consumers who this forum is supposed to be helping? I really don't mind this forum helping people who are struggling through little fault or recklessness, and trying to fend off repossession of their own homes

 

However you are more commercial borrowers, in business and generally in law, you are supposed to be more aware. Perhaps rather than continuing to buy properties some money would have been better invested in solid professional advice about everything involved in BTL, including LPA receiver action with fewer requirements on the lenders to run things through the courts.

 

Secondly, Pigfat has been 'in the business' for 15 years? At least 4 properties in arrears? How many smegging properties do you own? How many did you need for this golden retirement? Some of you don't seem to know you are born, compared to the epic reach many FTBs need to have to even get on the ladder with a basic starter home at current prices in so many areas.

 

Yes, the market needs landlords... but the market also doesn't need a mania of existing owners 'releasing equity' on their home to by a BTL, to release equity on that after and buy another at an ever higher price and so on - helping to force up values and putting would-be First Time Buyers at an ever greater advantage.. also competing for their homes.

 

You whine and moan about them being 'government' banks, which the 'taxpayer owns', but they been put in such a position by inability to offer further financing - but also by borrowers not coming good on the epic commitments they've taken on.

 

It seems to me that many of you have stretched yourselves too far, with too many properties. I'd take a guess that Pigfat would have been in a far superior and secure position if he'd limited his BTLing to just one or two properties in those 15 years. Perhaps now the mortgage paid off and generating secure positive cashflow, an easier life with 2 rentals coming in each month, and the security of fully owning an extra 2 homes, on top of your own home to pass down to children.

 

Continuing to buy lots of further properties, with debt, you keep buying you add to the risk, and render yourselves increasingly crisis-prone. What you are experiencing is a consequence of extending claims on resources to an extreme that could be supported only if boom and easy credit conditions were sustained uninterrupted into the future. Take your medicine.

[pigland]

Hi Orbital,

 

Thank you for your reply and advice. I can see you're angry and have noted that you have edited some of your other posts and removed your derogatory remarks following a rap over the knuckles from others.

 

I feel I speak for many; We are all consumers in different formats and are on this site as we require some form of help and at the same time hope that in highlighting situations and discussing it we can help others too.

 

I am sorry if my openness has previously offended you, my intention is to bring this to the open for the sake of many others. The banks rely on us dealing with things as individuals, that is how they get away with so much. Collective consumer power and this site brings the problems to the forefront, I feel if we stifle this we will all end up being at the mercy of the banks.

 

Many decent landlords have worked very hard during their life. Their pension is their Buy-to-Let portfolio. If we all had the hindsight and could predict the credit crunch and the unscrupulous ways banks have treated us as consumers, I'm sure the majority of us wouldn't be here!

 

We are all human beings and all need friends and interaction with others. This is how we learn!!

 

I do feel you have some valid remarks, If after reading all of the threads you still wish to buy a property, then good luck. If you wish to rent, I hope you find a property that is owned by a decent landlord that has a mortgage with a decent lender. I also feel you have a reasonable amount of knowledge on subjects and hope you can use this to gain what you want and at the same time spread that knowledge more positively to help yourself and others.

 

Kind regards,

 

Pigland

Edited January 15, 2010 by pigland

[diddled]

Well said Pigland!

[pigland]

Thanks Diddled!

[chillinlong]

Hello All,

 

I note your post Orbital, Im sorry to hear but sounds like some resentment towards Landlords for some reason on your part. Before you write us all off, we are not aware of each others situations so therefore we are only on this site to help each other aswell as ourselves.

 

Unfortunately it has been a hard time in this industry as of late, when I first started it was not really to build a golden nest egg, it was an income as it is my business and my passion. I can assure you I and many others on here went into this with full advice from brokers, acccountants and bankers that it was a sound investment and low risk for everyone involved otherwise a lot of us would never have chosen this route, the fact that the banks themselves did not predict this crash otherwise they would never have lent this money in the first place.

 

Yes we did end up in trouble but who didnt, I see a lot of people nearly went into trouble especially genuine small businesses.

 

Some of us could choose to ignore what is happening to us and go bankrupt and start again but when the banks are choosing to use bully tactics and we do notice illegal routes are being taken, yes we do look for advice but also along the line advise others how to handle based on experiences and sharing information such as a great resource website like consumer action which I understand is to help everyone who find themselves in a difficuelt situation and need help. I and others on here am of the view if I came accross important information we will want to help others such as vulnerable investors (Numerous different types of consumers pensioners, retired people who have chosen this route for the savings etc and countless others) for example who have put their life savings into a BTL and ran into trouble and then being bullied by some banks which is unfair practice. We are trying to address the problems and learn how to deal with these in the correct manner for everybody involved and importantly demonstrate to the banks that they cannot force people misery such as making them go into bankruptcy and changing the rules on people when they are just as guilty themselves. I continously read of people going through serious depressions etc about matters such as these therefore I feel when they know that other people are with them such as consumer action members and advising them where we can help coming from different backgrounds, it sincerely helps the people directly involved. It would also help individual home owners who are in similiar situations, so their are benefits for a lot of people on the consumer site altogether especially when some of us are paying for legal advice and willing to share this information for the purpose of helping others.

 

There are a lot of other situations on this site where consumers are having problems with banks and this is no different because banks are using unfair policies on consumers.

 

It would be appreaciated if we all work together rather than stating we are not consumers, if a lot of members felt this then it would be a different matter but again the fact is everyone is here to help each other not work against other. I would understand your post if I was a large company who could afford huge legal teams to do this for me and I was on this site and taking information but not sharing any information to help others.

 

I sincerely do hope you get the opportunity to purchase a home for yourself in the future, may I suggest now might be a good time as the prices are not as expensive as a couple of years ago.

 

I have noticed a lot of other posters such as pigland has helped other members on this site including me and I thank him for this aswell as thanking everybody else who posts on this site so I feel your comment is unfair and not appreaciating we are all the same people trying to make a living.

 

I look forward to constructive posts for all of us in how to progress with each of our situations.

Edited January 16, 2010 by chillinlong

[pigland]

Chillinlong, good points and thank you to!

[dubire]

In November last year my property was entered into LPA Receivership.

To cut a very long story short, I managed to negotiate with my bank through a solicitor I hired to get my property back, having to pay 6 months mortgage up front, along with “reasonable” LPA Receivership costs.

These “reasonable” receivership costs totalled approx £3,000. I am currently trying to challenge the Receivers to justify these costs. I have copies of the invoices, which only detail Invoice No. x for £x amount. I have asked for a breakdown of each invoice detailing exactly what work was done to justify their flat £1,000 fee, £900 solicitors fee and £900 Residential Management fee.

The whole saga lasted approx 3 weeks and there was never any management of the property and I cannot see what legal work would have been done in that space of time. I have asked for a copy of all the legal documents they may have needed to enter my property into the December auction. I had an email from the Receiver in November to say they had not yet agreed a strategy on the property and then 3 days later I paid up, but they are insisting the property was entered into Auction which is what the £1,000 flat fee is for.

They are not forthcoming with any back-up information and in fact have said they have already spent a considerable amount of time on my case. Yet I am still no nearer in getting all this back up information I have asked for.

Does anyone know if they are obliged to send me this information? I really think these LPA Receivers should justify their costs especially when a property is withdrawn from receivership.

They have charged me as if my property went through the full process.

Would it be worth my while contacting the FSA?

Any advice please would be great.

[pigland]

Hi Dubire,

 

Who is the Mortgage company and who is the LPA Receiver. It is a good idea to send an SAR request to the LPa receiver!

 

Kind regards,

 

 

PL

[diddled]

When LPA Receivers sold my husband's property they promised to forward copy invoices with the completion statement.

Initially they only sent the completion statement, and when I queried this I was told "that there was no money left in the pot to provide me with copies"

After digging my heels in they reluctantly provided copy invoices.

 

Have the receivers actually refused to provide this info, if so I would contact RICS and lodge a complaint against them direct.

 

Have you sent a SAR to the Receivers?

[chillinlong]

Hello dubire,

 

Hence the comments from pigland and diddled, send SAR to both the mortgage company and LPA recievers and the solicitors acting for them if you know who they are.

 

They might try and make excuses but you have to fight all the way and demand to know everything you legally have a right to know.

 

Good luck!

[dubire]

The Receivers are Allsops LLP. They are provided me with copy invoices which details nothing, except the Invoice No and £x. I want to know exactly what work they did to justify such a large amount of money.

They have also said they had provided my solicitor with the info I requested (they didn't) and so I have sent them a rather blunt letter saying I wanted details of all work done on my case and not just top line information. I have asked for them to justify this fee. I will fight all the way because I don't think these companies should be allowed to charge a "flat fee" in certain circumstances. Will also send the SAR form to them also.

Thanks to all.. will let you know what they say in their next letter.

[pigland]

Hi Dubire,

 

How are you getting on?

 

PL

[dubire]

Hi

 

The Receivers have come back to me and given me a date they said they put my property into the auction. This happens to be the same date I had confirmation from my solicitor that my bank had given me 7 days to pay the arrears, 6 months up front and had confirmed a figure from the Receivers, so my argument with them now is, why did they still put my property into an auction when they knew I had 7 days to pay? Why would the Receivers agreement a settlement figure on that date and still proceed? My solicitor had said at the time she didn't expect them to proceed unless the funds were not forwarded within the 7 days, and only then should they proceed. I have asked for a breakdown of every invoice twice now, and asked them to justify all their fees. I asked for a line by line breakdown of what work was done, how many phone calls were made etc. and no joy. They are becoming increasingly annoyed in their responses to me but I am in the process of sending them another letter (No 3) to ask why was I charged a receivers fee of £1,000 when I have seen no evidence that my property was indeed inserted into the next auction (have asked for copy of all the legal papers on this - again nothing) and most imortantly an explanation as to why it was put in there in the first place when I had a 7 day window.

I will keep badgering them but one thing I need to know is, are they obliged to send me all this information I have requested?

Do you have any other advice? Thank you for the help. I need as much of it as I can get.. DUBIRE