DLC and Hillendens

[Moonrose]

The ongoing saga with my friend, Southern Pacific, DLC and Hillendens continues.

 

She had her house repossessed last year and they are charging her £29000 for an "indemnity" insurance - even though the sale of the house cleared the mortgage.

 

She sent a CCA to DLC asking for the CCA relating to her remortgage (this is the friend who has lost everything). They promptly dumped it onto Hillendens.

 

She has sent me copies of what they sent to her. In the whole thing, I cannot see anywhere that has a signature on it. It looks more to me like an offer of a mortgage rather than the agreement itself.

 

They are still taking an extortionate amount of money off her every month which she cannot afford.

 

She was also under the impression that this mortgage was a repayment mortgage, i.e. the type you pay off the interest, then the capital sum.

 

I pointed out to her, that, according to the paperwork, it very much looks like it was an endowment type of policy. I'm wondering if she has been mis-sold (I'm using "she" rather than "them" as she and her gambling addicted husband who's done a runner are soon to be divorced).

 

I'm wondering what her next move should be. She doesn't have internet access so I'm helping her out as best I can with this.

 

The company the mortgage was with is Capstones which belongs to Southern Pacific.

 

She's certainly been left in the lurch with a huge amount of debt to try and clear on a not very big wage. She really is struggling and I don't see why he should get off without paying anything. She has no idea where he's gone.

 

If anyone can help me to help her, I know she would be very grateful.

[Deb T]

When was the remortgage taken out and what amount was it for?

 

The limits on the consumer credit act 1974 were amended in 2006, the limit used to be 25k, anything more and it was not covered by the act 1974) but the 2006 act removed the limits for personal credit but not for business)

[postggj]

Why Are They Charging For The Indemnity Insurance When That Would Have Been Included In The Mortgage Which You State Has Been Cleared By The House Sale

 

Or Am I Reading This Wrong

[Deb T]

Also, who are taking an extornionate amount of money from her? and does she no longer own her own home?

 

As for somebody 'getting off without paying' presumably you are referring to your friends ex partner? Was it a joint mortgage? if the debt was jointly owned the dca's will usually go for the source that they can find/bully into making payments which appears to be your friend.

[Moonrose]

My friend's on the phone right now.

 

Mortgage was for £94,000 and taken out 2006.

[postggj]

Please Explain This Indemnity Insurance Ref My Question In Post 3

[Moonrose]

Postggj. That's what I would have thought but it seems this "indemnity insurance" is over and above that. It's quite difficult for me to get to grips with this as I'm basically being the messenger.

 

At the moment my friend is paying £60 a month for this "indemnity" thing as that's all she can afford so they are now trying to get her to pay the whole £29,000 in one hit or they are going to take her to Court. They stopped her Direct Debit so she's been paying by Postal Order £60 per month.

 

DebT. It's Capstones that are charging her this amount every month.

 

Think I'm probably going to have to scan the documents she sent me minus her personal details so you can see what she's dealing with as I'll probably get it all wrong.

 

She now lives in a housing association flat.

[postggj]

Mortgage Indemnity Fee/insurance In 1.5 % On The Value Of The Property, Being 75% Loan To Value

 

So It Would Be £1500 On A £100,000 Mortgage

 

How Can It Be £29000 On A £94000 Mortgage

 

Mif Is Added To The Mortgage, Not Kept Seperate

[Deb T]

Please Explain This Indemnity Insurance Ref My Question In Post 3

 

 

Usually the indemnity insurance (if taken out by the lender) covers any mortgage shortfall (doesn't appear to be one here though) in the event of a repossession but then the insurer (subrogation) pursues the homeowner for the amount they paid out?

 

Methinks clarification is required

[Moonrose]

As my friend's still on the phone and I need to type up a lot more than there is here, give me an hour or so and I'll post again with more info.

[postggj]

I Agree But The Op Has Stated The Sale Of The House Covered The Mortgage

[Moonrose]

There is much more to it but having her on the phone is making it very difficult to think and type. Back shortly

[Deb T]

Probably a little more to this than what is currently being offered by the OP, two years ago her friends home was looking at negative equity and them owing Capstones (who are not a mortgage company in the true sense of the word) a lot of money etc....

 

No signature on a mortgage agreement was a couple of years ago a forged signature from her friends husband?

 

http://www.consumeractiongroup.co.uk/forum/mortgage-companies/112047-info-capstone-mortgages-please.html

[postggj]

Ill Catch Up Tomorow Moonrose

 

Please Give As Much Detail As You Can As Ime A Bit Confused

[Moonrose]

Probably a little more to this than what is currently being offered by the OP, two years ago her friends home was looking at negative equity and them owing Capstones (who are not a mortgage company in the true sense of the word) a lot of money etc....

 

No signature on a mortgage agreement was a couple of years ago a forged signature from her friends husband?

 

http://www.consumeractiongroup.co.uk/forum/mortgage-companies/112047-info-capstone-mortgages-please.html

 

Yes Deb T. This has been ongoing for some time. Friend has now got off the phone so I can fill you in with more details as best I can.

 

Either she's been extremely naive or has stuck her head firmly in the sand.

 

Here's the cruncher. She also sent me copies of her bank statements relating to the house

 

They got the mortgage in the November of 2006. They were late with the first payment of just under £600. Without going and getting the paperwork she sent me, to save time I'll just be approximate. She was only a few days late with the payment, something about either her or her hubby's pay not going in the bank on time.

 

Going back to her previous house, before she moved from Wiltshire to Co Durham, she had a mortgage in her own name on that, sold the house for a tidy profit, at least £70,000 - and all that money's gone. They took out a mortgage for the house in Co Durham with the same bank she had the original mortgage from but for some reason, after a couple of months (fell into arrears perhaps?) switched to Capstones. I think they remortgaged with Capstones because his debt had started to come to light. He had a gambling addiction and was in debt with loan sharks - the type who barge into your house and slap you around. I told her to go to the police at the time but she didn't. I think she didn't want to believe her hubby had taken her for a ride.

 

When they still lived in Wiltshire, she phoned me up one night in a panic saying she thought her bank card had been cloned as there was £5000 missing out of her account. I told her to look closer to home but she wouldn't hear of it. She admits now I was probably right and he'd helped himself, which, of course, he had.

 

Anyway, I digress.

 

They then got whacked for interest, late payment fees (which I think were OTT) etc., so the money they had put in the bank to cover the mortgage was swallowed up with these charges. That started a downward spiral or robbing Peter to pay Paul and looking at the statements, all they ended up paying was interest charges and fees.

 

She also discovered that her hubby had been convicted of fraud some years ago long before she met him and had spent time in prison. This came out when he lost his job for stealing. Frankly, if it had been my hubby done that, I would have kicked him out!

 

So, to the best of my knowledge (and I feel she's still not telling me everything), in effect they never paid the mortgage at all, only being able to pay Capstone's late payment fees, interest charges, bank charges for unpaid direct debits and got into one serious financial mess.

 

The upshot of course was they lost the house and finally split up. She rented a private flat and got housed by the local housing association last year. He is nowhere to be seen. She did hear recently that he'd been seen down here in Wiltshire by one of her friends that lives here. Seemingly he has a sister who lives not too far from me but I'm not sure exactly where and I don't really want to get that personally involved. My friend lives in Co Durham.

 

Just before she went off the phone, she clarified (!) one point. The £29,000 it would seem is the interest accrued over the past 4 years.

 

It is a very complicated thing and, to be honest, I'm totally confused myself and wish she'd sort things out for herself and not rely on me but she's been a good friend to me for many years so I'm trying my best. She can't afford to put in internet access or get a computer. I told her to go to her local library as there are computers you can use there and come on here herself but she can't or won't do that.

 

She has been to Citizen's Advice but they weren't very helpful.

 

Anyway, from the copies she sent me from Capstones/DLC/Hillendens, I can't see anything remotely looking like a proper mortgage agreement with signatures, witnesses etc. on it.

 

Also she is convinced they were sold a repayment mortgage and not an interest only (which I would have thought would have been the same as an endowment mortgage - correct me if I'm wrong) so wonder if she would have grounds against Capstones for mis-selling.

 

He's b*ggered off and left her to pay everything, which as it was a joint mortgage, they're obviously chasing her. If it were me, I'd be pulling out all the stops to find him and get him to pay his share.

 

I've told her to get a good divorce solicitor but she says she can't afford one. I've told her to apply for Legal Aid but that seems to fall on deaf ears.

 

To be honest, I'm getting fed up with it myself. She gets a threatening letter in (and she has more debt than this - the usual debt collectors letters most of us are familiar with), she'll ring me up in a panic, sometimes as late as 2 in the morning. In fact, it would be fair to say that at times she drive me nuts but we've been friends for many, many years and I don't like to see her getting in a state.

 

I was once, many years ago, in a very similar position but I came out fighting and won the day in the end so I do have a lot of sympathy for her but just wish she would take onboard what I try to tell her and get things sorted out.

 

What I'll do is get the document's she sent me scanned and put on the forum. I did this once before but it came out so small it was almost impossible to read so if anyone can tell me how to do this so it's readable I'd be very grateful.

 

I'll take the documents into work tomorrow, photocopy them and blank out her personal details.

 

Sorry if I'm confusing everyone - I'm confused myself with it all and thank you all for your patience

[Deb T]

Use Photobucket, http://photobucket.com log an account, post up the details to your photobucket account and then post a link here to the documents ...or, I'm sure a kind Mod would allow you to send them the documents and they'll post them for you?

 

In the absence of any agreements being posted up it seems as if it's a concoction of late payment fees/charges + interest? resulting in

a possible shortfall?

 

On the face of it it sounds like the lender ramped up the fees/late payment charges/repossession fees as they inevitably do and whilst the house sale on paper may have cleared the actual mortgage amount there may still have been a shortfall because of all the fees added? if this is the case then the lender may also be entitled to claim interest on the shortfall of 6 years worth? depending on the amount of the shortfall it can be quite an amount? Of course it may be possible to attack some of these fees/late payments etc and to scrutinize the DCA's activity to see what/if they've also attempted to add their bit.

 

See here for a demo of somebody taking on a lender re fees etc

http://www.consumeractiongroup.co.uk/forum/mortgage-companies/238365-landy-c-g-mortgage.html

 

Does your friend have a final statement from the lender?

Edited April 22, 2010 by Deb T

[postggj]

Ime Just Shooting In The Dark So Keep With Me

 

The House Sale Should Have Included Any Fees/charges

When The House Is Sold The Contract As Such Ends, The Only Exception Would Be If There Was Any Shortfall

 

Even In That Case, I Cant See It Being 29 K In Charges.

 

How Can A Creditor, Even By A MortGage Allow An Account To Be In Arrears For 4 Years And Rack Up Interest/charges Without Being Defaulted And Terminated

 

You Need A Full Statement Of Account,

Send Dlc The Request, By The Way, Dlc And Hillesden Are The Same Company

 

Me Thinks Dlc Have Been Racking Up The Charges And Interest On This

[Moonrose]

Ime Just Shooting In The Dark So Keep With Me

 

The House Sale Should Have Included Any Fees/charges

When The House Is Sold The Contract As Such Ends, The Only Exception Would Be If There Was Any Shortfall

 

Even In That Case, I Cant See It Being 29 K In Charges.

 

How Can A Creditor, Even By A MortGage Allow An Account To Be In Arrears For 4 Years And Rack Up Interest/charges Without Being Defaulted And Terminated

 

You Need A Full Statement Of Account,

Send Dlc The Request, By The Way, Dlc And Hillesden Are The Same Company

 

Me Thinks Dlc Have Been Racking Up The Charges And Interest On This

 

Methinks you could be right. My friend came down here for a couple of days a few weeks ago and we run off the CCA templates from here and she sent them off by Recorded Delivery. What she got back was just an offer of a mortgage. No signed documents or anything like it. The CCA went to DLC who dropped it like a hot potato, telling her to write to Southern Pacific (who own Capstones. Worth mentioning that Southern Pacific have a very dodgy past. Think there's a thread about them elsewhere on here).

 

The letter she got back came from Hillesden. I'll copy that too and put it up. I haven't been able to do much about it today as I've been very busy at work so will try and get the info up over the next day or two.

 

Deb T. Good point. Not sure if she has a final statement from the lender or not but will find out. Will contact her later this evening.

 

I also think they've racked up fees/charges too. It is also bad that her (almost) ex is getting away with not paying a penny and she's having to do all this herself

 

I suppose the only thing to be grateful for is all her family are grown up so no kids involved.