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Can We All Do Something Meaningful About Starting A 'class Action' Against Lenders ?


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I have just been treated in the most vile and sickening manner regarding my mortgage and will almost certainly be shortly evicted (there has already been one eviction order which was suspended).

 

Does anyone have any ideas of how I might deal with this.

 

Unfortunately, it will take an age to write down all the details and you readers will become bored witless.

 

Birmingham Mudshires said I couldn’t pay them a large capital sum to cover a three year period of time needed to remain unemployed to look after small child as single parent and sort out the horrendous problems that had been caused by the child’s Mother becoming severely mentally ill.

 

The money eventually disappeared and before I actually got into arrears I wrote explaining that I was in the most horrendous circumstances and asked the building society if they would be happy accepting only the DHSS contribution of mortgage interest of about £400 which was about half the total amount of £800 monthly.

 

They said yes, but immediately charged monthly default fees and two months later the harassing telephone calls started in which they denied any knowledge of previous agreement to accept only DHSS contribution.

 

In one of these abusive telephone calls they said they were not interested in giving me further time to sort out an income while looking after my child at the same time and said they ‘would let the court decide’ if I should be given the opportunity of sufficient time to sort things out.

 

They seemed to imply by this that they were incapable of making their own decisions and must somehow rely on a court to make their decisions for them because they lacked that capacity. A strange form of buck passing to deny any responsibility for their obviously unreasonable behaviour !

 

Within just seven days I had the summons for reposession. I was approximately only three months in arrears at that time with the DHSS continuing to pay half the monthly amount.

 

My annual arrears were therefore accumulating at about £5 000 against an annual average increase in the value of the £220 000 house of perhaps £22 000 at 10% per annum, or even £11 000 at an annual increase of only 5%. As I owed about £150 000 I also had equity of about £70 000.

 

Why foreclose and evict someone in those circumstances ?

 

At this point I became severely ill and had a hospital date for abdominal surgery at the same time as the repossession hearing. I requested an adjournment until after the recovery period of six weeks after surgery.

 

I was unable to get any proper legal representation because solicitor after solicitor either said they didn’t do legal aid any more, or they did but not for mortgage issues. It took about a hundred telephone calls to find this out.

 

I was granted an initial adjournment but the building society went back to the court behind my back and listed a hearing for a time when I had only just returned from what had been a major abdominal surgery.

 

Barely capable of even walking, I made it to the court just seven minutes later than the time my case was listed. I was told by the usher the case had already been decided by default in favour of repossession by the building society. I could not therefore go into court as the case had completed, with several others - just seven minutes after listing !

 

Without going into the gory details it had been literally impossible not to be late and the precise reason for being late at all was directly related to the surgery and was a clear illustration of why it was ludicrous to expect me to be in court so soon after surgery (five abdominal incisions, moving the liver and pancreas around to get at other things, sewing bits of stomach around the oesophagus and stitching the diaphragm up) and well within the recovery period the surgeon had told me to remain in bed/at home/convalesing.

 

So I now have a repossession order and suspended eviction order and they are simply waiting until after christmas to throw me out with two weeks notice. My son and I will then be homeless and I will inevitably lose most of my household possessions and also lose any immediate possibility of working.

 

Are they real bastards or what ?

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Guest ian cognito

Firstly I trust you have already started the process of claiming back your charges from them, this willl not only help your situation when they are returned but can be used as a defence if you end up back in court with them.

 

I assume they did not received a possession order yet on your house so surely the fact that you now have a job and are in a position (or soon will be) to pay your mortgage, makes a difference to whether they will get one, if they already have one, I would be going back to the court to inform them of the changes and see what they advise. I know courts will only repossess homes as a very last resort.

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Yes, they do have a repossession order and evictiion notice which is currently suspended for a brief time.

 

And no, in this case the court did issue a repossession notice with incredible enthusiasm when it is obvious it was entirely inappropriate. And the judge was not interested in evidence relating to work because it was freelance work and he said this meant it was too unreliable to be a viable means of earning a living and being able to pay my mortgage.

 

I find this quite a remarkable thing for a judge to say. Most journalists and vast hordes of other workers spend their entire lives earning their living as freelancers - some earning huge incomes !

 

and yes, I will be claiming charges.

 

Rocket1

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Hi

As you did not get a hearing waiting until you get a reprocession date and the apply back to the court, The judge will want proof of your intended income he wont let you say I should earn XX but he will allow you to say I will earn XXX althrough as you know freelance you might and you might not. The other way is to remortgage and get the judge to give you time to do this. You have the equity

The Mortgage Man

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Rocket, first of all i am really sorry you have found yourself in this situation. Please please get to you local CAB tommrow and ask to speak to the housing specialist based there. Also go to your local housing association / council and tell them the situation. They will try to say you are intentionally homelss, however explain the DWP are paying half and you cannot afford the other half due to being a single parent, they have a responsibiltiy to you as a single parent of a young baby to ensure your housed appropriately.

Contact you local MP. Get them on your side, they have resources available to them which they can use in circumstances like these.

Begin the process of claiming your charges back.

Is there any chance you can remortgage? You have a lot of equity in the house so try to make the most of it.

Please keep in touch, pm me for any advice on benefits etc as this is my area of expertise

 

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How can I remortage with no proper job ? Of course I would remortgage if it was possible, but so many complications are imposed that it is impossble.

 

Also I, like millions of other people, would only be 'wealthy' if I had the equity in my property in my wallet and not tied up in the house. All it does while it is tied up in the house is reduce the monthly mortgage bill - it doesn't make me wealthy as I cannot spend it.

 

As I live in an ex council house this equity has bought me less than if I had no money at all and was sitting here as a council tenant paying rent on income support - just like the family in the council house nextdoor.! I am worse off with the equity than without it !!!!

 

When I am forced to sell the house it wont do much good either as I will be forced to spend it all on basic survival until it all goes and I then revert to income support or 9more hopefully become properly employed.

 

rocket1

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You can remortgage on a self cert basis - have a good look around at providers - and maybe call a mortgage broker - be aware that cos of the arrears you will need a sub prime lender and will pay higher interest rates. Have a look throug hthe mortgages forum on here as there is alot of info on how people have been treated by these lenders, and it is not all good.

Consumer Health Forums - where you can discuss any health or relationship matters.

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The fact you have lots of equity should be very much in your favour anyway regarding repossession

 

Means even if you did fall further behind Birmingham Midshires will not lose out

 

We have had horrendous problems paying a ridiculously expensive secured loan on top of a mortgage but have got about 4 repossessions overturned in the last 3 years, and are finally getting on our feet

 

Our arrears were as high as £8,000 at one point too

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Hi Rocket.

 

I think you need to see a Mortgage advisor to see if you can remortgage on a self certification type of mortgage. Also get a set aside to give you more time to get that sorted out. Did you have any form of insurance in case of redundancy, sickness etc. As Gizmo says your new lender may be sub prime one with maybe a 3 year tie in at a lower rate, where after that you may get the Libor rate afterwards, which is not good. That could buy you some time to regroup and attack again at a later date. Change the mortgage again in 3 years. You must act quickly, if the house is repossesed you will have vultures taking a piece of the action out of your equity and leave you with very little. It is worth seeing the advisor straight away to get your options. It is free to have the appointment.They only get a fee if they sell you a product which cost me a few years ago £300. Hope this helps.

 

Good luck

 

Ukaviator

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  • 1 year later...

HOUSE REPOSSESSION CASE STUDIES WANTED

 

Would it be possible to post this announcement somewhere suitable ?

 

HOUSE REPOSSESSION CASE STUDIES WANTED

 

 

I am a freelance journalist looking repossession case studies to write about.

 

If anyone has repossession stories they would be willing to talk about, I would be really grateful.

 

Nick

 

I can be emailed on (EDIT)

Edited by rory32
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  • 4 months later...

Help Desperately Needed !

 

I've had an unattended repossession hearing on September 1st. I had no idea of the hearing until a week afterwards when I received notice from the court that possession had been granted on Sept 1st. I had not seen any summons documents etc.

 

My efforts to negotiate intelligently with the lender were a waste of time with them telling me that nothing I could say would change their mind as their decision had already been made, and it would be a complete waste of time writing to them. I have this on tape as I thought it might be useful.

 

My circumstances are that when I remortgaged with this bunch of jokers it was because I was being repossessed by Birmingham Midshires. This was a desperate attempt to be able to keep my home and the only thing I could do at the time.

 

I was on income support, as I have been for some time as a single parent. I explained to the broker (Capital One) that I was in receipt of state benefits and that I was now trying to get back into work as a freelance, setting up a Ltd company to receive any income and not paying myself until I had to. I had cleared this with the income support people as legal and above board.

 

Unfortunately, my efforts to work have gone pear shaped as I have been too ill - more ill than I actually realised.

 

Because of this being ill thing, I have failed to sort out the tax credits due me and to sort out the mortgage interest payments due from the DHSS. I had instructed them to cease paying the previous lender and hadn't been able to deal with the paperwork to reinstate to new lender.

 

I should be owed perhaps as much as £8000 arrears which is what I would have got if paperwork had been properly organised at the right time.

 

At present I am still relying on state benefits, but it is only a matter of time before I start getting the work coming in

 

Normally, my work can provide a very good income - more than enough to pay the mortgage and make even very large amounts of arrears disappear fairly quickly. But I'm not there yet.

 

The only reason I have been unable to get back into work is being a single parent (finding that looking after a child with absolutely no help from anywhere) is monumentally time consuming, and being extremely ill. the combination of both was much greater than the sum of the two parts ! Ergo,very,very little time to work.

 

The lender has told me an eviction order has been applied for.

 

It seems ridiculous to be evicted as, given time, I will get the work in, despite the recession. But I know both lenders and courts are seriously nasty and merciless.

 

I just do not know what to do ?

 

Could I apply to have the repossession set aside as I didn't see any summons ?

 

I am finding that it is almost impossible to do anything at all under these circumstances as my state of anxiety makes it almost impossible to think straight.

 

I know I was mis-sold the mortgage because I made it plain I was on state benefits. If evicted I lose any possibility of work as I depend on my computer and broadband connection and my other office facilities etc.

 

It is not just about simply being evicted. It is really about being deprived of all your possessions and your whole life coming to an end. It is brutal, medieval and uncivilised to deal with mortgage arrears in this way.

 

I do accept responsibility for my collusion, as it was the right gamble for me to take. But I think the lender should be less grasping under the circumstances.

 

The bottom line in all this is that I have had ten years of hell as a direct result of several lenders being uncompromising rip off merchants.

 

My partner became mentally ill when our son was born ten years ago. Her chaotic activities destroyed our lives. The DHSS were paying 100% of the interest on £100 000 mortgage to Alliance & Leics, but arbitrarily stopped it. Alliance & Leics couldn't wait to foreclose - very spiteful and unhelpful.

 

This pushed me into the sub-prime market where all the real vultures are. This has resulted in my losing my original house (now worth £700 000) and resulted in me now having a £172 000 mortgage on a house barely worth £200 000 at present.

 

If the Alliance and Leics hadn't been so evil I would still only have a £100 000 mortgage on a house worth £700 000 odd. I've lost count of all the early redemption fees and other costs involved in all this endless re-mortgaging, but it is quite clear to me that all the lenders have connived to set up this system to rip people off.

 

All the high street lenders can't wait to push you into the sub-prime market where charges are hugely greater and re-possessions merciless.

 

But, surprise, surprise. Guess who all the sub-prime lenders are ? My, you'd never guess they were all subsidiary businesses' owned by the very High Street lenders that sanctimoniously refuse you normal mortgages on the spurious grounds 'you are too risky' for them. If you were too risky, how come they are quite happy to lend via their more aggressive and dishonest subsidiary companies ?

 

Something really needs to be done about the wicked dishonesty of the financial industry.

 

I was naive enough to think the financial industry had integrity and honesty. How stupid was I ?

 

Help !

 

Nick

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Hi there, I'm sorry to hear you are in this position.

 

The situation is this - you can apply to the court on an N244 form to have the eviction suspended. However, you will need to be able to prove to the court that you can make your normal monthly payments going forward plus an amount each month towards the arrears. You would need to provide documentary evidence such as income, confirmation that you are owed tax credits and DWP payments and that these payments are in the pipeline.

 

If you can do any of that then we can help you with the N244 application.

 

Kind Regards

 

 

Ell-enn

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Hi Nick

 

sorry to hear about your predicament, you will be able to apply to suspend the eviction once a date has been set. this will then depend on the judge and the evidence you provide to support your statements

 

Ellen or someone else with more knowledge will be along to help,

i know its a stressfull worrying time but try to stay positive

try not to worry too much.

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Thanks for the reply Ell-enn,

 

At this precise moment I cannot show the court I can maintain monthly payments from income. The DHSS will pay about half the monthly amount once their paperwork is sorted out. I am then dependent on getting work in, and then waiting (probably quite a time) to be paid.

 

However, as I am owed arrears of mortgage interest by the DHSS, it could be argued that, once I receive this, I will be able to maintain existing monthly payments for about four months as this is the amount of arrears owed (roughly).

 

Nick

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OK, when you finally get an eviction notice we can put in your application to the court - no point in doing it yet as it may be a few weeks before you get it and we can use that time to get some paperwork in order for your defence.

 

Do you have any evidence (letters etc) regarding your DHSS interest and tax credits - if not, you need to get onto those straight away - we will need something to put in your defence. Simply turning up at court and telling the judge you are owed these will not do - he will need to see paperwork to prove it.

 

Kind Regards

 

Ell-enn

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Please consider making a donation, however small, if you have benefited from advice on the forums

 

 

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Ell-enn,

 

The only evidence I have at this point is:

 

(a) the forms with a handwritten letter from the DHSS only vaguely indicating entitlement. I have now to fill these out and send them off to lender & DHSS and await return from DHSS which will, or should be, be a positive decision, thus providing evidence at that stage.

 

(b) so far no evidence of tax credit or child tax credit, only forms to make claim sent me. Again, I need to fill these out and send them off and await return communications.

 

BUT although there are arrears of tax credits due, they are not very relevant in terms of paying the mortgage. In other words, I think my tax credits will mean another £50 a week or so in income, which is not significant against my monthly mortgage payment of £1043

 

I have also put the house on the market through a local estate agent and have all those details. I would wish to ask the court :

 

1 - can I set aside the repossession order ?

 

2- If I cannot set aside, can I delay eviction to give me time to recoup significant arrears of mortgage interest from DHSS equivalent to about 4 months mortgage and to have time to obtain work - bearing in mind I am hugely well qualified, motivated etc to be able to obtain work ?

 

The only thing I have against me is my ghastly age of 60, but am generally now fit and far younger than most people for my age. The problem ONLY resides in other people's heads (of course) with their quaint ideas of utterly dismissing older workers in favour of less experienced people whose only advantage is being younger, which is usually no advantage at all really !!! ?

 

 

3 - If none of the above granted by court can I then delay eviction in order to sell the house and continue to receive DHSS mortgage interest (which pays about half the mortgage) until the house is sold ?

 

This will, a) provide me with accommodation now and after sale, and b) diminish potential loss to the lender and, ultimately me by half the monthly mortgage cost.

 

It it to be borne in mind that in the present housing market, it may not be possible to sell the house at all at any reasonable price because nobody can obtain finance owing to the bizarre credit crunch and drying up of mortgages which are currently almost non existent.

 

This means that auctions may also fail. So, my presence in the house (receiving mortgage interest from DHSS) reduces loss by %50 at present. If I am evicted the losses increase for the lender and me. It is obviously a stupid route to take.

 

nick

Edited by rocket1
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Hi there, ok - you need to get any forms off in the post asap (today if possible).Send them by recorded delivery so you can prove they have been signed for and make sure you send them to the correct person at the right address (phone up before hand and check you have the right details). You need to get this done as soon as possible so you can prove these payments are in the pipeline.

 

Remember - you are going to have to show the judge paper evidence of all this, so the sooner you get those forms to where they need to go the sooner you get an answer from them.

 

Also, take photocopies of any forms you send in the post - this is very important - some of these departments have a habit of "losing" forms, you need to have a back-up ready to post out if needed.

 

 

Kind Regards

 

Ell-enn

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Please consider making a donation, however small, if you have benefited from advice on the forums

 

 

This site is run solely on donations

 

My advice is based on my opinion and experience only. It is not to be taken as legal advice - if you are unsure you should seek professional help.

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  • 5 months later...

Ell-enn,

 

Many thanks for previous advice. I obtained a stay of eviction in November, but now I have another eviction date of April 7.

 

Mortgage lender Capstone has persistently failed (apparently) to send my completed mortgage interest DHSS form back to DHSS.

 

Today (mar 27 09) DHSS told me I should have no problem receiving backdated claims for over one year once forms are back with them. My understanding of all this, bizarrely, is that Capstone are deliberately preventing me receiving mortgage interest relief.

 

Therefore significant arrears would be removed and 100 % of current mortgage interest paid by DHSS less very small difference between DHSS capped interest rate of 6.8% and the 7.5% Capstone are charging me.

 

Ergo no need to evict: would be a senseless and spiteful action !!

 

As an experienced journalist and senior PR exec, it might be expected I could obtain an ocean of publicity for this. I have already written many articles on my blog spelling out what the banks are up to at MODERN TIMES IN MUDSHIRES which will indicate to you the depth of my hatred of the banks and if these blog posts have whizzed comprehensively around the World, which they have, then when I can get my teeth into my own mortgage case I will achieve at least some useful publicity.

 

I have had plans about this festering in my mind for some time now, but haven't yet been able to peruse them.

 

I have taped phone calls with Capstone where they say things like 'nothing you say will stop us evicting you etc etc" amazing.

 

I am putting in another application next week for another stay, but this time I want to commence a separate case for mis-selling. It was defintely mis sold and I have good grounds to think I can prove it. I would really, really like to be part of a class action on this one.

 

I am definitely commencing mis selling claim next week to try and aid stay of eviction.

 

Would it be possible to obtain the proper guidance from you on procedures ? I am quite capable of doing everything needed but only if I know what and am instructed accordingly ?

 

This morning my equiry to court office as to which form to use to make mis selling case application resulted in me being told that they wouldn't tell me which form, it was. I would have to find out for myself and then come back and ask them for that form; and so the conversation went on.

 

I cannot do a thing without that legal guidance on procedures.

 

Also reading various other threads here today where people like supeslueth produce legal arguments, I can see that I could apply those to my case. Without reading what supesleuth said I would not have a clue that all that was available to me.

 

I will post a brief outline of my case asap and ask

 

a) what form needed)

 

b)how to draft mis-selling case application (form of words and what to include)

 

c) how to proceed through further and better particulars and then to asking for directions etc.

 

I really want to get my teeth into this, but of course I am experienced enough to want a really experienced barrrister to do the business eventually. If one can be found pro bono ? maybe. I recently met a possible barrister when I was observing a high court family case as a McKenzie. The barrister asked me to do some court reporting on a case in Eire he was doing !

Edited by rocket1
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  • 8 months later...

'HOMEOWNERS SEEKING JUSTICE FROM MORTGAGE RACKETEERING'

After spending days and days reading through these threads I have a huge hunch there is a distinct possibility of getting a class action going against one or more lenders for the generality of the way sub-prime lenders have employed a number of devious/unfair/even illegal tactics to snare people and strip them of their equity.

 

I have lost about £500 000 in equity and I absolutely now know it was by corporate dishonesty.

 

The best way to do this is to be able to formulate how and on what grounds and then to persuade the OFT/FSA or other relevant public body to front it.

 

There seems to be a lot of people talking about class action, but in a fairly empty way and nothing seems to be going on about actually doing something concrete and meaningful about it ?

 

Has anyone at all got any ideas of how we can stop talking hot air and actually get on with the real business of finding out whether we have grounds for a class action.

 

Any takers here ?

Edited by rocket1
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Count me in, although my legal knowledge and expertise is limited, I'll do what I can to assist. From reading the numerous posts on here it would appear very apparent that there are grounds for a class action on a number of issues in relation to the way that lenders hammer borrowers.

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hi rocket1, i am trying to get a number of customers of my lender together to fight back and am in the process of preparing my own case as these big solicitors dont want to rock the boat. i dont know whether its best to approach it lender by lender becuase once a president is set surely other have to follow.

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