Urgent Help Needed - Eviction out of blue

[sixofspades]

Thank you for all your help and support Ell-enn. We couldn't have done it without you and even the judge remarked that we'd obviously had some good legal help. The judge was a lovely woman and I hope she presides over the review if it goes ahead. She made me feel very at ease, especially as she let us in to state our case 45 minutes before we were supposed to be there.

 

And I surprised myself by just how confident I felt in court - to the point where I was somewhat disappointed that Kensington didn't turn up. But going forward, we'll be keeping a record of our expenditures for the next three month for the review.

 

Btw Ell-enn, with regards to chasing up the charges and fees imposed by Kensington, are you able to offer any insight in addition to Letsdothis as to what is reclaimable on the following?

 

Lender's Interest Only policy (no idea what that is)

Monthly arrears fees

Interest debit

Property Insurance

Returned Direct Debit fees

Solicitors costs

 

I plan on running this past our money advice caseworker at CAB too. Every penny we're entitled too off Kensington - I want it back. They've almost destroyed my family this past week. Now I intend to give them a headache .

[letsdothis]

Hi

 

You can only claim for the following:

 

Monthly arrears fees

Returned Direct Debit fees

 

All the rest are not reclaimable.

 

Lender's Interest Only policy (no idea what that is)

Interest debit

Property Insurance

Solicitors costs

 

However, if you go the FOS route, along with the 8% stat interest, it is remotely possible that they may ask the OC to repay the monthly arrears and returned direct debit fees with interest as what the OC would have charged you. Although you should only expect to recover the charges and the 8% stat interest. Anything else would be a bonus.

[sixofspades]

Ok then, that's what we'll be going for. Thanks again.

[Ell-enn]

Hi, you don't need to have their property insurance no matter what they say!! they will be charging you well over the odds for that. Get some quotes off the internet for the same cover and then tell them you want to cancel as you were not given the opportunity to search the market for a better deal. You only need to fax them a copy of your own insurance.

[sixofspades]

We actually have our own insurance with Barclays and have just updated it last week. We received the policy today and will be posting a copy off to them (Reordered delivery) as soon as my printer gets some more ink in it.

 

We've actually had the Barclays insurance for about a year but my mother took it out and we've discovered throughout all of this that she'd forgotten to send the policy paperwork to the mortgage company. Because my father "took care" of the mortgage, she was none the wiser and didn't realise it had to be sent off.

[Ell-enn]

When you do send it to them, make sure it's by recorded delivery or they could say they never got it! Also, ring them and ask for the correct address to send it to, sometimes it's a different address to that of the arrears dept.

[sixofspades]

Ok but I think I might just nip to the local library tomorrow and fax it through. I'm not sure the court action will prevent them from charging us for their cover again at the end of July.

 

I'm not sure what to put in the cover letter though if I'm honest. Will I just have to tell them to cancel whatever policies they have on the account and replace them with the one attached?

[Ell-enn]

Here you go..........

 

Dear Sirs,

 

Re: Account No: XXXX - Buildings Insurance

 

Having taken advice we are aware that we are not obliged to take the buildings cover provided by yourselves and that we should have been given the opportunity to search the market for the required cover.

 

We have sourced our own buildings insurance which meets your criteria, and therefore require you to cancel the insurance you are currently charging us for.

 

Please confirm that cancellation has taken place.

 

Yours faithfully,

 

 

 

XXXXX

 

Enc

 

 

Hope you are all relaxing this evening knowing that your home is safe:)

[letsdothis]

Hope you are all relaxing this evening knowing that your home is safe:)

 

I have a bottle of red to help me celebrate their success.

[Ell-enn]

I have a bottle of red to help me celebrate their success.

 

I'm having a long cold gin & tonic

[sixofspades]

Wow. Thank you again Ell-enn. I'll get that insurance sent off tomorrow.

 

I'd love to be able to say we're feeling nothing but elation over securing the safety of our home but we're still haunted by what plunged us into this precarious position unexpectedly. That is still a road we have left to travel. The family has our home back but the emotional wounds these events have caused will need time to heal.

[letsdothis]

At the end of the day, you are a family.

 

People do different things under pressure. At least you still have your family and your home. Sometimes they make sense other times they do not.

 

Things will get better, however your prority has to always be your family.

 

Best wishes to you all and patch things up as best you can. One problem has now gone away.

[sixofspades]

Rest assured, I will be making CAG one of my regular internet haunts so that I can offer the help I can to anyone who finds themselves in the same situation. And I hope this thread does the same. So much has been done for me and my family that for me to simply leave this forum would be something I couldn't accept.

 

And it's odd because when I've been asked by my family and the CAB who the mysterious Ell-enn who is helping us save our home is, all I could do was respond with was "A person who lives in Yorkshire (ish)". That is a response I no longer want to give and so sticking around to keep in touch and to get to know each other is what is going to happen.

 

And that goes for my family too Ell-enn. They'll will be in touch to thank you.

[Ell-enn]

That's the spirit of CAG and Letsdothis, who has given you good advice, is a perfect example - he too was in a similar position to yourself very recently and found this site just in time. He is now helping others which is greatly appreciated. Glad to hear you want to help too.

 

The more the merrier in the fight against these sub prime lenders, they don't play fair and that's why I do what I can to make sure they don't win!

[sixofspades]

So now that I've got some more ink in my printer, I'm going to be following through on these unlawful charges tomorrow but I've a question before I kick it all into action.

 

The mortgage account is held by my mother and father rather than just one person. I noticed that the template letters that I have to do all this do not take this scenario into account.

 

Should I just alter the template letter slightly so that it refers to both my parents or will I have to send two separate letters for each of them? I'd rather do the former as I have a suspicion that if I do the latter, it'll cost £20 for two subject access requests.

[letsdothis]

Just one name / request will do, you could get both parents to sign the letter if you wanted to though. I wouldn't bother tbh just one signature should be fine.

[sixofspades]

Thanks for the info Letsdothis. I just hope Kensington don't start being difficult about it - I've just read a post where Capstone refused to send a subject access request on the basis that the letter asking for one wasn't handwritten but they kept the £10 fee anyway!? Can companies even do that? Surely that can't be allowed?

[letsdothis]

Companies can do what they want, but if you do a SAR then they have to follow your request.

 

People say to print your name, but on this occasion I would get a parent's signature, as it is quite obvious there is an agreement and that it is enforceable, otherwise you would not have had all the hassle recently.

 

Send the SAR, signed by a, or both parent/s and enclose the £10 postal order.

 

They have 40 days to provide the information, if they don't then raise a complaint with the ICO - Play them at their own game, they didn't care at all what hassle they gave you and your family, why should you care about them?

[sixofspades]

I got that subject access request sent off today (recorded delivery no less). I also tried to fax off the new buildings insurance but true to form, Kensington had their fax machine permanently engaged so that got posted too (rec del again - I'm not taking any chances)

 

However, we've just received the agreement with regards to our proposal and Kensington have included a payment schedule that has me a little confused because it looks like Kensington are taking our £589.67 contractual monthly payment + the additional £300 towards arrears (totalling £889.67) and applying the whole sum to the arrears in a rather sneaky way. The schedule doesn't imply anywhere that the £589.67 contractual monthly payment is being used to pay the mortgage and is instead being applied to the arrears.

 

The repayments come with the following instructions. Keep in mind that the Judge ruled that we start payments on the 30th of August, not the end of July.

 

If your payments are made by Direct Debit, the arrangement amount will be collected from your bank on the next due date. Your Direct Debit is due on the last working day of each month and where the schedule states the 1st as the payment due date the Direct Debit will collect this amount on the last working day of the month prior to this date. Please ensure that there are sufficient funds for your Direct Debit to collect.

 

Now have a look at the attached file to see what I mean....

 

....can anyone explain why on the 1st of each month, Kensington are ADDING our contractual monthly payment amount onto the arrears and then subtracting it once we pay on the 30th?

[letsdothis]

The repayments come with the following instructions. Keep in mind that the Judge ruled that we start payments on the 30th of August, not the end of July.

 

You pay as per the Judge ordered you to, otherwise you are technically in contempt of court. The court have decided that you pay on X date. There is nothing the OC can do to you now.

 

As long as you pay the amounts on the dates the court told you to, there is nothing else that can happen to you.

 

The only possible retalitory action the OC can do, is what they did to us, put our monthly payment up. Then you would pay the new monthly payment on the date the court said, as well as the amount towards the court said, on the date that they also stated.

 

How the OC does their accounts is irrelevant for now.

[sixofspades]

My concern is that Kensington still think they're running the show and are maybe working their accounts so that they can claim later that we've not paid our contractual amount (because they're going to add it and then subtracted it from the arrears total).

 

Since the ruling on Wednesday, we've not had anything from the courts to confirm what happened via post or otherwise. I can only assume that the same can be said for Kensington (who may not even know a ruling was made as they faxed the court to cancel and didn't turn up). Is it normal to not have heard anything back from the ruling? I guess I'm feeling a bit left in the lurch.

 

Regardless, we'll be hitting the payment dates. The Judge ordered a review/hearing in 3 months but I suspect Kensington are going to try and get in first with a review on their own terms, not the courts (because of them being unaware of a ruling). Naturally, I'll be telling them to go and jump if they try that and to see them in court but I can't really back that up if the court don't provide us and Kensington with documentation of the ruling.

[letsdothis]

In 3 months, when you go back to court as long as you can prove that you have paid the monthly payment and the arrears on time, then I doubt very much will happen.

 

I pay our monthly payment and arrears by debit card direct to my OC's solicitors, and get an email confirming it has been paid along with the authorisation number.

 

Just keep proof and then if they ever say you missed a payment, then you can tell the Judge they must be mistaken, look here's copies of everything we have paid.

 

My court order didn't come through for weeks, but I made the payments as and when the court said they were due. I do not give a damm what my OC does now, as I know I have kept to my side of the deal.

 

Try not to worry, the court is in charge now, not the OC

[GLADSTANES]

Sixofspades

 

As others have confirmed the Court is now in charge and NOT your lender.

 

Provided you pay as directed by the Court there is nothing the lender can do.

 

Naturally you will keep records of all payments to your lender from now on.

 

It may be worth checking your legal rights, e.g. your access to evidence of payments, in this whole matter simply because the mortgage is in the names of your mother and father only.

 

All the very best.

 

GLADSTANES

[sixofspades]

Yes, everything going forward is being recorded. I do have third party authority on the mortgage account meaning I am able to discuss it with the lender, the restriction being that I cannot action anything on it. Evidence of payment isn't a problem whether I'm confirming it with Kensington or seeing that it has been actioned at our end via direct debit

 

I've not updated the thread in a few days as there hasn't been much to report. The original eviction day came and went and I've been making sure all the priority debts are in order. A new bank account is being opened specifically for this purpose.

[sixofspades]

Feeling a lot more relaxed about the situation at the moment. Since I last posted, all arrangements and direct debits have been set up and the Kensington staff have been surprisingly helpful and sympathetic. Not letting my guard down though.

 

One thing I did ask of Kensington though, after they confirmed receipt of our new buildings insurance policy, was if they'd also received my father's Subject Access Request (both were sent recorded on the same day and I have proof of delivery printed off). The buildings insurance was noted on the mortgage account as received but there was no record of the Subject Access Request. I suspect they're going to drag their heels during the 40 days they have to respond but should they decide to just not bother, where do we stand legally?

 

Can anyone offer any advice on that?