Ge Money mortgage arrears - new help now needed

[dillon21]

Hi i to am having big problems with GE we have racked uo arrears of over £5000 a lot of these charges for instance the letter today says we have a fee of £350 and this is not the first time i have asked foe all the options but they wont budge im feeling at my wits end we can pay some but thay will not meet us half way also the charges are just crippling us please can anyone help me i dont know where to turn next

[cher69cher69]

Hi Ruthill

Because I dont know the exact details of your circumstances it is hard to advise because i dont know if they have taken you to court already, or what the letters have been saying.

 

So what I would do is STEP ONE.

If you dont have all your statements to date then write to them and ask them for a SAR (SUBJECT ACCESS REQUEST) it is your right to ask for this under section 7 of the data protection act 1998 if you both signed the mortgage you will have to send in two (one each) and enclose a £10 fee for each one. The SAR will include all your statements how much they have charge you, what for and when. They have 40 business days or (8weeks to comply fully with your request. If they fob you off threaten them with reporting them to the Information Commissioner who will order full compliance from them fine them, and warn them about future conduct.Tell them you will only deal with them by letter not telephone. This is your RIGHT!!!

 

STEP 2

The next thing I would do is write a complaint letter to Ge Money and adress it with the heading (complaints department) detailing all your greivances. They have 8 weeks to respond to this letter.

Also state you will not discuss anything by telephone in future only letters as you have written proof of everything they say to you.

 

STEP THREE

Then I would write a complaint to the FSO (Financial Services Ombudsman)

you can do this online and print it off but the space for your complaint isnt big enough so attach a sheet of paper to it and put in detail once again all your greivences.About how they have treated you badly and how they are levying you with all these ridiculous charges. On this put Urgent on the envelope.

IMPORTANT

And finally dont forget to keep a record of the chq numbers you send to GE Money, and also any letters you send to any of the above you must send by recorded delivery or special delivery so it can be tracked and you know it has been signed for so you know they have recieved it and they cant try and fob you off by saying they havent because you have proof.

 

All these things will start the ball rolling if they try to take you to court as the court for an ajournment to give you time for the company to send you the SAR you are waiting for.Because you are entitled to have all the information you need to hand in court for your defence if it comes to that.

 

There is a template letter link somewhere on here for the SAR .I will try to find it and post it on here it is originally to do with Capstone mortgages but you can just change the company name to GE Money .

 

I must impress upon you that with these people you need to get on and do these things above so make it your priority and do this TODAY!

 

Hope this helps to get you started with the complaints process.:)Cher69

[cher69cher69]

Catchy Capstone Monkey Step One: The Subject Access Request Capstone Mortgage Services

 

Hi Ruthill

the link above is the template SAR letter okay just amend the company name.

Take care hun Cher69:)

[dillon21]

Hi Cher69Cher69

Thank you for your help much appreciated i have monthly arrears statements but not sure how long they go back we are going to try to make the full payments from this month god knows how but i feel if we are doing that it will go in my favour should i speak to them about the charges or just go ahead with the subject to access request at the end of May we come to the end of a fixed 3 year rate so hopefully it will drop a bit I have been making payments of £700 a mth they should have been £1172 we only have about 71/2 years left so to lose our home at this stage would just abut finish me I have health issues GE did ask me to send in proof of this which i haven't done i thought maybe i would send them photocopies of all the letters I have when i went in for my operations but haven't done yet what do you think I am in receipt of DLA don't know if this is relevant to any arrangements or not. One thing when the guy fixed our mortgage 3 years ago he took into account that i got DLA even thou I told him I didn't actually receive the money as i have a car instead

[Dougal16T]

Good morning all,

 

Just poking my nose in again....

 

GE are notorious for not complying with the Mortgage Arrears Protocol. This is a procedure under Civil Procedure Rules which MUST be adhered to by the Legal Department of lenders. These are extracts from the Protocol:

 

The aims of this Protocol are to –

(1) ensure that a lender or home purchase plan provider (in this Protocol collectively referred to as ‘the lender’) and a borrower or home purchase plan customer (in this Protocol collectively referred to as ‘the borrower’) act fairly and reasonably with each other in resolving any matter concerning mortgage or home purchase plan arrears; and

 

(2) encourage more pre-action contact between the lender and the borrower in an effort to seek agreement between the parties, and where this cannot be reached, to enable efficient use of the court's time and resources.

 

2.2

 

Where either party is required to communicate and provide information to the other, reasonable steps should be taken to do so in a way that is clear, fair and not misleading. If the lender is aware that the borrower may have difficulties in reading or understanding the information provided, the lender should take reasonable steps to ensure that information is communicated in a way that the borrower can understand.

 

3 Scope

 

3.1

 

This Protocol applies to arrears on –

(1) first charge residential mortgages and home purchase plans regulated by the Financial Services Authority under the Financial Services and Markets Act 2000;

 

(2) second charge mortgages over residential property and other secured loans regulated under the Consumer Credit Act 1974 on residential property; and

 

(3) unregulated residential mortgages.

 

3.2

 

Where a potential claim includes a money claim and a claim for possession this protocol applies to both.

 

Initial contact and provision of information

 

5.1

 

Where the borrower falls into arrears the lender should provide the borrower with –

(1) where appropriate, the required regulatory information sheet or the National Homelessness Advice Service booklet on mortgage arrears; and

 

(2) information concerning the amount of arrears which should include –

(a) the total amount of the arrears;

 

(b) the total outstanding of the mortgage or the home purchase plan; and

 

© whether interest or charges will be added, and if so and where appropriate, details or an estimate of the interest or charges that may be payable.

 

5.2

 

The parties should take all reasonable steps to discuss with each other, or their representatives, the cause of the arrears, the borrower's financial circumstances and proposals for repayment of the arrears (see 7.1). For example, parties should consider whether the causes of the arrears are temporary or long term and whether the borrower may be able to pay the arrears in a reasonable time.

 

5.3

 

The lender should advise the borrower to make early contact with the housing department of the borrower's Local Authority and, should, where necessary, refer the borrower to appropriate sources of independent debt advice.

 

5.4

 

The lender should consider a reasonable request from the borrower to change the date of regular payment (within the same payment period) or the method by which payment is made. The lender should either agree to such a request or, where it refuses such a request, it should, within a reasonable period of time, give the borrower a written explanation of its reasons for the refusal.

 

5.5

 

The lender should respond promptly to any proposal for payment made by the borrower. If the lender does not agree to such a proposal it should give reasons in writing to the borrower within 10 business days of the proposal.

 

5.6

 

If the lender submits a proposal for payment, the borrower should be given a reasonable period of time in which to consider such proposals. The lender should set out the proposal in sufficient detail to enable the borrower to understand the implications of the proposal.

 

5.7

 

If the borrower fails to comply with an agreement, the lender should warn the borrower, by giving the borrower 15 business days notice in writing, of its intention to start a possession claim unless the borrower remedies the breach in the agreement.

 

A lender should consider not starting a possession claim for mortgage arrears where the borrower can demonstrate to the lender that the borrower has –

(1) submitted a claim to –

(a) the Department for Works and Pensions (DWP) for Support for Mortgage Interest (SMI); or

 

(b) an insurer under a mortgage payment protection policy; or

 

© a participating local authority for support under a Mortgage Rescue Scheme,

 

and has provided all the evidence required to process a claim;

 

(2) a reasonable expectation of eligibility for payment from the DWP or from the insurer or support from the local authority; and

 

(3) an ability to pay a mortgage instalment not covered by a claim to the DWP or the insurer in relation to a claim under paragraph 6.1(1)(a) or (b).

 

7 Alternative dispute resolution

 

7.1

 

The court takes the view that starting a possession claim is usually a last resort and that such a claim should not normally be started when a settlement is still actively being explored. Discussion between the parties may include options such as:

(1) extending the term of the mortgage;

 

(2) changing the type of a mortgage;

 

(3) deferring payment of interest due under the mortgage; or

 

(4) capitalising the arrears.

 

I know it is dull and boring - BUT it is very important, because non-compliance by the Lender with any of this WILL go against the Lender in any Court proceedings

I have personally suceeded in stopping GE in its tracks on:

(a) Their first application for possession

b) Their second application for possession

and when they were finally granted a possession order following my divorce (the best thing that ever happened to me!!) then I also managed to get the Bailiff appointment application dismissed, and following their second aplication for a Bailiff appointment, which was successful I also managed to get that appointment stayed and finally dismissed by the Court.

 

What I do know is this: You will either need a good solicitor, and it sounds as if you will qualify for help under the Legal Aid scheme, or if you are going to do the paperwork (and legwork) yourself then it will be very stressful and time consuming....BUT the Courts are very much on the side of the Borrower in Mortgage possession cases. There are lots of people on this site who will be pleased to help - I know because they helped me!

 

Best wishes to all - apologies for a lengthy post......

 

Dougal

[dillon21]

Hi Dougal thanks for your reply my situation up till today is i have sent them the full monthly payment for Maythe last letter i received was dated 27th May saying they note my account is £5,438.48 in arrears and have 15 days to rectify this otherwise will be passed to legal department i have not yet spoken to them waiting to see what you guys say about what i should say to them. i can post up what is on the monthly arreaes statement if it would help one thing would fees and charges have been addes already or are they added at a later date

Thanks

[Dougal16T]

Good evening,

 

Basically I think it is time to send GE Money full and frank details of your situation together with insistence that they must follow the Mortgage Arrears Protocol.

More in the morning...in full!

 

As always best wishes to all

 

Dougal

[dillon21]

This morning i received my new monthly payment from GE i was on a fixed term for 3 years now go to a variable intrest rate of 1.49% the payments go from £1,166.61 to £1,024.90 must admit i thought it would drop below this amount also in the letter it states they have made afurther change to your monthly instalment to include repayment of your fee balance of £1,586.79 what does this amount mean

[HomerJSimpson]

This morning i received my new monthly payment from GE i was on a fixed term for 3 years now go to a variable intrest rate of 1.49% the payments go from £1,166.61 to £1,024.90 must admit i thought it would drop below this amount also in the letter it states they have made afurther change to your monthly instalment to include repayment of your fee balance of £1,586.79 what does this amount mean

 

 

It means the cheeky b@rsteward$ are adding their (questionable) fees of £1,586.79 to the amount of your loan. They will then continue to charge you interest on their charges for the remaining term of your loan. Nice little earner for GE.

 

Maybe time to go and get those charges back.;-)

 

HJS

[Dougal16T]

Good morning,

 

My apologies for the delay - now then, let us turn the spotlight firmly on GE Money:

 

Firstly I am puzzled by these questions:

 

1. Have you sent a Subject Access Request under the Data Protection Act to GE Money yet?

If not do so NOW. All correspondence MUST go First Class Recorded delivery, the you will have hard evidence that they have received your letter.

 

2. Have you written to GE Money and provided them with FULL details of your health problems yet?

If not do so NOW. All correspondence MUST go First Class Recorded delivery, the you will have hard evidence that they have received your letter.

 

 

3. Do you have any written evidence that the person who arranged your loan considered your DLA as income?

If not contact the Broker and send them a Subject Access Request too. Ask specifically for FULL details of the income that they have taken into account when determining your loan and your suitability for it. THIS IS VERY IMPORTANT. All correspondence MUST go First Class Recorded delivery, the you will have hard evidence that they have received your letter.

 

4. I see you had a 3 year 'fixed rate' with GE - that is I think unusual for them, but I may be wrong. Can you confirm that you still have the same account number, now that the payments have changed? THIS IS IMPORTANT.

 

In the posts on your thread 'cher69cher69' has been successful - BUT it took a long time - 12 months I think -GE will cave in, but only if you persisit and do not take 'No' for an answer!

 

Do not go to the Ombudsman - no teeth! (In my opinion!)

 

This is 2nd letter I had to send to GE Money to get my SAR request details from them, you are welcome to copy and amend it if you wish - note: I had to send a further letter to them (this means it took them almost three months to respond - BUT this is good evidence for any Court hearing!!, which I discovered when the DJ found in my favour against GE!)

 

GE Money Servicing Ltd

Customer Service Department

Croxley Green Business Park

WATFORD

Hertfordshire

WD18 8YF

 

For the attention of Karen Blundell

 

1st class recorded delivery 30/4/2009

 

Dear Miss Blundell

 

Re : ACCOUNT NUMBER XXXXXXX/KG

 

Data Protection Act 1998

Subject Access Request

 

In my letter dated 20th April 2009 I enclosed the fee by way of Postal Order made payable to GE Money, the PO number is 1039214220, and is for the sum of £10.

 

This is an extract from my earlier letter dated 20/4/2009:

‘I enclose the statutory maximum fee of £10. You have 40 days in which to comply. Furthermore, if I discover that you have levied disproportionate penalties against me, then I shall be reclaiming them, and also reclaiming the enclosed £10 DPA subject access request fee.’

I know you have received the Postal order as it was in with my letter which you have responded to, and I must remind you that the ‘clock is now running’, on my request, that is to say you have 30 days left from the original 40 days which you are allowed in which to respond to my request fully under the Act.

 

I am sure you will deal with my request promptly.

 

Yours sincerely,

 

 

I hope this all helps, look forward to hearing your progress - remember they are bound by the Law - they think they are not.....but I know differently!

Best wishes to all

 

Dougal

 

[dillon21]

Hi Dougal

sorry i have not replied been poorly had op this week but feel up to getting on with this now i will get all the paper work out and let you know whats what should i speak to ge and tell them i am going to make a claim for the charges that have been added to the arrears or just send them the claims

R

[Dougal16T]

Hi Ruth,

 

Delighted you are better. If you need any help with GE please let me know, although there are plenty of us here who are more than able to assist!

 

Very best wishes for a continuing recovery and good full health!!

 

As always

 

Dougal

[dillon21]

Hi just thought I would update my husband as been dealing with GE they have taken all our outgoings and income to see what we could afford each mth they say they will cancel the court hearing until they reach a descion. We have said we could easily pay half the mortgage each mth if the term could be extented I am a little worried that we have not returned the court papers because we have not been able to see anyone at the CAB got to ring tomorrow could we get the hearing set for alater date to give us more time now I feel well enough to deal with it again. Although they say they will cancel we are still getting papers fron Eversheds solicitors the last was a service of copy of witness statement on which they intend to rely at the hearing the guy in the solotions Department at ge did say he would speak to them Monday and tell them it was cancelled and for me to ring him Tuesday to confirm this had been done if this did go to court how would we be looked upon if we could pay Half each mth if the extented the terms would that go in our favour. Also a very unsavoury point but when my husbands father passes away heS 80 now my husband will inherit a good sum of money woul this be worth a mention to anyone we couldnt ask for any now its all tied up with land etc and just wouldnt put him in that position just wondered if it was worth a mention or not. I have deleted that last comment 3 times but have decided to see what anyone thinks i feel bad for even thinking it but if a mention to a solictor could help then i would mention it

[Dougal16T]

Good morning Ruth,, (and everyone),

 

Just a quick thought, the Mortgage Arrears Protocol has a view taken by District Judge Peter Jolly which contains this statement:

 

Section 36 of the Administration of Justice Act 1970 gives (the Court), power to adjourn, stay, suspend, or postpone the date for possession in any instalment mortgage of a dwelling house (see Royal Bank of Scotland plc v Miller [2001] EWCA Civ 344, [2002] QB 255) if default can be made good within a reasonable period of time. A time-order regime operates for regulated agreements under the Consumer Credit Act 1974.

 

A reasonable period

In Cheltenham and Gloucester BS v Norgan [1996] 1 All ER 449, the Court of Appeal held that it was reasonable under section 36 to take account of the whole of the remainder of the original term of the mortgage over which to make good the borrower’s default.

 

There is no doubt in my mind that the Court will follow this line. In my own case against GE the Court did exactly that, and the view of my District Judge concurred with that of DJ Jolly.

 

Just a warning note (nothing to worry about in reality), but Eversheds are a useless shower to put it politely. If they say they are going to cancel proceedings MAKE SURE you telephone the Court yourself and check that this has been/is being done.

 

As always my very best wishes to everyone

 

Dougal

[angel2010]

Hi

 

To cut a long story short I have battled with GE over arrears and asking for their help for over 2 years, a few months ago I dealt with the customer solutions team who agreed a reduced rate for 3 months. We still could not make December's payment and now I just think they will re possess. I am going to be going after them for charges and also I feel I may have been mis sold the mortgage originally by the I Group *but thats to look at later. Whats frustrating is that our rate drops as from 23rd January and the payment will be nearly £300 lower per month, we could then afford to rent out the house.

 

Any ideas or help??

[angel2010]

Anyone? Went back to payplan who GE said we had to work with but due to a drop in income we have no spare money for other creditors so payplan cannot help and will no longer communicate with GE?? I thought that was the whole point. Spoke to a very rude person at GE, everyone I get to know leaves the company, very interesting, who just said they needed a payment.

 

My question now is if by an chance I can borrow some money from family which may settle some of the arrears would GE agree to this??

[HomerJSimpson]

Take the **** that are GE Money to court and get all their arrears charges, counsellor visit charges and failed direct debit charges back.8-)

 

It's easy to do and Eversheds (GE's solicitors) are hopeless.

[angel2010]

Ok,so we have had ongoing issues and arrears with GE Mortgage for a while now.

 

From February this year this year the mortgage came off its fixed rate and our payment has come down by nearly £400 per month. We are managing the new payment but since last September have been dealing with GE Customer Solutions to try and sort out the arrears issue. It would seem they are not keen in offering any capitalisation of arrears?

 

We are uptodate with all utilities but we do have a loan, and a large credit card to pay off, GE will not come up with a solution until we put the loan and credit card onto payplan. BUT we are paying everything, ie we can pay the mortgage, the bills, the cc payment now due to the reduced mortgage payment.

 

I understand them when they say due to our past history they will not offer any other repayment plan but my partner really does want to go on DDM plan as the loan is fully paid in a few months releasing another £192 per month, and he wants to try and retain some credit history.

 

So my question is what do we now do about GE? Can they really refuse any plan unless we do this? We are not building up anymore arrears now as we can make the payments.

[angel2010]

Ok,so we have had ongoing issues and arrears with GE Mortgage for a while now.

 

From February this year this year the mortgage came off its fixed rate and our payment has come down by nearly £400 per month. We are managing the new payment but since last September have been dealing with GE Customer Solutions to try and sort out the arrears issue. It would seem they are not keen in offering any capitalisation of arrears?

 

We are uptodate with all utilities but we do have a loan, and a large credit card to pay off, GE will not come up with a solution until we put the loan and credit card onto payplan. BUT we are paying everything, ie we can pay the mortgage, the bills, the cc payment now due to the reduced mortgage payment.

 

I understand them when they say due to our past history they will not offer any other repayment plan but my partner really does want to go on DDM plan as the loan is fully paid in a few months releasing another £192 per month, and he wants to try and retain some credit history.

 

So my question is what do we now do about GE? Can they really refuse any plan unless we do this? We are not building up anymore arrears now as we can make the payments