Southern pacific (SPML). Mortgage Late Payment Fees reclaiming

[angnnig]

Hi all,SPML (CAPSTONE) have recently tried to evict us from our home ,which we narrowly escaped.*see my other thread on here*.They are trying it on again.They now are saying that we owe £35 on top of our £3,400 in arrears and that we are in breach of the suspended repo order on us.We dont know were this £35 has come from as we are paying the agreed monthly amount on time.We have worked out that they owe us £4351.73 in charges this includes admin fees,arrears managment fees ,interest on arrears fees,litigation fees ,early statement fees and legal costs.We have now had enough of these threats from them and are considering taking them to court to try and get the repo order on us lifted on the grounds that capstone owe us more in unlawfull fees than we owe them in arrears,but we are wary of doing this as the court might not accept all the charges we are claiming are unlawfull and that thier could be a shortfall and we might still owe capstone.Any advice greatly appreciated ,thanks.regards angnnig

[DanDesperate]

One question though when I spoke to Kensington they say the charges they are repaying only relate to people on 1st Charges not 2nd or 3rd charges on the house....... so extortionate charges become fair if they are not the 1st charge on a property ??

[angnnig]

Hi all,We are in the procces of claiming back all the unlawfull charges back from SPML .We have written to SPML and asked for the charges back and put our complaint to the FOS.SPML have sent us a letter back refusing to pay the £2,600 they owe us in Admin fees,arrears management fees ,interest on arrears fees ,early statement fees and the latest litigation managment fees.They have made a pathetic attempt to break down thier fees and offered to pay £100 of the £2,600.I know that we should now send the template letter back refusing this ,but we are unsure how to go about complaining to the FOS and how to word our letter to the FOS ,are thier any template letters for this .We even contemplated going down the court route but wouldn,t have a clue how to fill the court forms out .Any help would be appriciated ,thanks.regards angnnig

Edited October 12, 2010 by angnnig

[angnnig]

Bump

[angnnig]

Can anyone help please,regards angnnig

[sutton6344]

You need to write back and accept the £100 as an interim payment.

The choice is yours whether to go down the FOS route or the court route.

I would personally prefer the FOS as they make a decision on what is fair and reasonable rather than any legal arguments, simply keep the wording simple and relavant.

The court route will be quicker than the FOS but is riskier.

[angnnig]

Ok thanks for your reply ,kind regards angnnig

[Blossomandebony]

Anngnig,

 

I have just received a substantial refund via the FOS route regarding mortgage arrears fees that I felt were unfair.

 

The FOS adjudicator saw that I was making payments regularly and stated that it was unfair of the mortgage company to debit arrears fees when I was plainly making a decent attempt to come out of arrears. They did not return specific charges like retuurned dd fees though.

 

If you want further info I can give you the exact wording of the FOS settlement letter, it may help with your form.

 

Cheers, BAE

[angnnig]

Hi BAE,It would be great if you could do that for us,Thankyou .Were pleased for your sucsess against your mortgage company, Well done. kind regards angnnig

[Blossomandebony]

Hi,

 

This is the interesting part of the FOS Adjudicator's judgment which they sent to my mortgage lender, (who then had to either accept the FOS's conclusions or send further documentation etc to refute the findings. And yes,they accepted the Fos's conclusions):

 

I appreciate that an account in arrears requires further additional work to maintain it. However, I would expect to see evidence of this. Further, where it is clear that an individual has attempted to make payments and maintain them, then I believe it would be unreasonable to continue to levy charges.

 

This is just part of the 3 page conclusion the FOS made in my case.

 

Remember, even if they initially refuse your claim, you can disagree with their conclusion and ask them to examine it again.

 

The statement above, which states the mortgage lender needs to provide evidence that it costs xxxx amount to maintain an account in arrears, is very important. Has a financial institution ever provided such evidence??? - NOOOO!!!

 

Hope this helps.

 

BAE

[angnnig]

Hi BAE,Thankyou for your message.I have sent in my complaint, but i haven,t sent in details of my payment history with spml to the FOS,do you think this would help if i did this.we have missed quite a few payments to SPML,but always caught them up apart from the main arrears,which now are the same amount as they owe us in charges,do you think i should also send copies of the charges that spml have done us for?Thankyou again .for your help x

[Blossomandebony]

i haven,t sent in details of my payment history with spml to the fos,do you think this would help

 

Hi,

 

Yes, it may help and can't do any damage!

 

Once you have received confirmation of the person who is dealing with your complaint at the FOS, you can simply forward the extra info onto them.

 

Stressing and showing the positive steps you took to come out of arrears can only add weight to your claim. If SPML charged you on months when you made payments you have a chance the FOS will make a favourable judgment on these charges.

 

BAE

[UnmoderatetheNet]

You need to write back and accept the £100 as an interim payment.

The choice is yours whether to go down the FOS route or the court route.

I would personally prefer the FOS as they make a decision on what is fair and reasonable rather than any legal arguments, simply keep the wording simple and relavant.

The court route will be quicker than the FOS but is riskier.

 

Does anyone know what to put in a letter accepting the poxy payment they intially offer as an interim payment. i want to be careful not to say that I am accepting this a final payment and will pursue them for the rest of the fees.

[angnnig]

We have finally had a reply from the FOS on the SPML charges and they have come to the conclusion that in thier opinion based on all the information we provided and SPML,s evidence,that they wont uphold our complaint against SPML and that they are well within thier rights to charge us all the fees they want to ,as we were aware that fees might be applied to our account if we fell into any arrears,The FOS are a waste of time in our opinion.

[UnmoderatetheNet]

I'm really not getting this.

 

KENSINGTON MORTGAGES were fined in April this year. FINED FOR UNFAIR CHARGES, HAS EVERYBODY CONVIENTLY FORGOTTEN THIS FACT.

 

The FSA stated that FEES WERE UNFAIR:

 

The lender imposed three types of fee that were unfair or excessive:

 

• a fee if someone's direct debit bounced, which was charged no matter how many times the direct debit had been bounced before

 

• a fee for three or more cancelled direct debits that was higher than the the real administrative cost incurred by the lender

 

• a fee for early repayment of a mortgage that was also levied on the accumulated arrears fees and charges that had been imposed on the borrower.

 

Check the posts BELOW 'the mortgage lender needs to provide evidence that it costs xxxx amount to maintain an account in arrears, Has the financial institution ever provided such evidence?

 

You need to push the mortgage company on this point £50 for bouncing DD are they seriious?

 

Look, even if they initially refuse your claim, you can disagree with their conclusion and ask them to examine it again.

 

This time post your arguments and let us help:sad:

[angnnig]

Hi Umoderate,Thanks for your reply,unforunatly our scanner/ printer doesn,t work and we cant afford to replace it, so we cant post the reply the FOS has sent ,They have basically said that because we fell into financial hardship it is our fault and that SPML have done thier upmost best to try to help us and sent letters and tried to phone us which we have so called ignored.They also said that spml were well within thier thier rights to try and evict us twice ,because we didn,t keep to payment arrangements,Firstly we have always tried to keep in contact with SPML,mainly in writing because we dont trust a word they say on the phone,SPML even lied and told the FOS that we phoned them up once and said that we couldn,t afford to pay our mortgage due to the renovation of our house.I cant believe they can get away with blatent lies .spml also told the FOS that we said that we put on our original application form that we earned £41,500 from my partners self employed income,this is a blatent lie also,it isn,t anything near that.Thier is no mention from the FOS that the fees are exsessive ,they even seem to agree with SPML .They even stated in thier reply to us that "AS YOUR PAYMENT HISTORY DOES NOT SHOW YOU CONDUCTED THE ACCOUNT SATIFACTORILY ,MY VIEW IS THAT THE FEES HAVE BEEN APPLIED IN A FAIR AND REASONABLE MANNER ,YOUR ARREARS CONTINUED TO ESCALATE AND THE FEES WERE APPLIED BECAUSE THE ACCOUNT WAS IN ARREARS AND WARRANTED ADDITIONAL ADMINISTRATION ,I AM THEREFORE UNABLE TO RECOMEND A REFUND".the fos had no sympothy whatso ever for my partner being ill and that is why we fell into financial hardship which led to going into arrears with our mortgage.Any help with this would be greatly appriciated .The FOS have give us until the 16th of this month to give an explanation as to why we disagree and any additional evidence to support our case.regards angnnig

[UnmoderatetheNet]

There is another path open to you and that is the court.

 

This does require a bit of work but gererally its a small amount and with the support on here is not a huge a task as you would think.

 

Its something I will probably have to do as myself.

 

This route has huge success based on the fact that a mortgage company defending action would have to produce an actual figure for the cost to them.

 

TO DATE NO MORTGAGE COMPANY HAS EVER STEPPED FOOT IN COURT TO PRODUCE ACTUAL COSTS OF FEES.

 

They usually bottle before this stage.

 

Please repost your problem on LEGAL

 

http://www.consumeractiongroup.co.uk/forum/forumdisplay.php?170-Legal-Issues

 

Good Luck

[angnnig]

Hi Umoderate,Thanks for your reply,unforunatly our scanner/ printer doesn,t work and we cant afford to replace it, so we cant post the reply the FOS has sent ,They have basically said that because we fell into financial hardship

it is our fault and that SPML have done thier upmost best to try to help us and sent letters and tried to phone us which we have so called ignored.They also said that spml were well within thier thier rights to try and evict us twice ,because we didn,t keep to payment arrangements,Firstly we have always tried to keep in contact with SPML,mainly in writing because we dont trust a word they say on the phone,SPML even lied and told the FOS that we phoned them up once and said that we couldn,t afford to pay our mortgage due to the renovation of our house.I cant believe they can get away with blatent lies .spml also told the FOS that we said that we put on our original application form that we earned £41,500 from my partners self employed income,this is a blatent lie also,it isn,t anything near that.Thier is no mention from the FOS that the fees are exsessive ,they even seem to agree with SPML .They even stated in thier reply to us that "AS YOUR PAYMENT HISTORY DOES NOT SHOW YOU CONDUCTED THE ACCOUNT SATIFACTORILY ,MY VIEW IS THAT THE FEES HAVE BEEN APPLIED IN A FAIR AND REASONABLE MANNER ,YOUR ARREARS CONTINUED TO ESCALATE AND THE FEES WERE APPLIED BECAUSE THE ACCOUNT WAS IN ARREARS AND WARRANTED ADDITIONAL ADMINISTRATION ,I AM THEREFORE UNABLE TO RECOMEND A REFUND".the fos had no sympothy whatso ever for my partner being ill and that is why we fell into financial hardship which led to going into arrears with our mortgage.Any help with this would be greatly appriciated .The FOS have give us until the 16th of this month to give an explanation as to why we disagree and any additional evidence to support our case.regards angnnig

[42man]

Did you get your mortgage through a broker ?

[angnnig]

Hi 42man,yes we got our mortgage through a broker, online,regards angnnig

[42man]

Only reason I ask is that you should read up about secret/undisclosed commissions !!

[Ell-enn]

Do you have copies of the letters you wrote to SPML regarding the arrears ? - that will prove to the FOS you did communicate with them.

[angnnig]

Hi Ellen ,Thanks for your reply.Unfortunatly i cant find any copies of the letters we sent to SPML apart from one,We lost some files and think they may have been in them.We are considering going to court but we are unsure of wether or not its worth carrying on with the FOS,any advice would be greatly appriciated,thanks regards angnnig

[angnnig]

Hi 42man,Thanks for your tip,is thier a thread on here about the secret commissions,regards angnnig

[42man]

A couple of threads here to read through - http://www.consumeractiongroup.co.uk/forum/showthread.php?155866-G-E-Money-and-Secret-Commissions and this one - http://www.consumeractiongroup.co.uk/forum/showthread.php?223150-Secret-undisclosed-commissions...