welshperson3 v blemain finance - 140A Unfair relationship -started court proceedings

[welshperson3]

Hi sillygirl

On the matter of complaint i will first have to get a good supply of ink cartridges for the amount of complaints i have.

In no particular order complaints to the following.

Law society

court

FSA

FOS

Information commissioners office.

im not up on the ministry of justice, but will now check it out thanks.

wp3

[cupcake68]

Hi WP

 

Did Blemain actually give you an outstaning balance on your account when you sent an SAR?

 

They refused to with mine because I had not paid their fee of £250!!!!

 

Without payment they will not disclose!

 

Cupcake

[patrickq1]

i hope you have reported the refusal to the ICO FSA AND FOS preferably they have put this in writing but if not ring the agencies mentioned and speak directly with them, they will help ?

patrickq1

[welshperson3]

No they didn't send the outstanding balance in response to my SAR,

then i sent them a letter before action and listed things i wanted they then sent out list of charges and balance of account.

they also sent out in writing that they wont send me a copy of the underwriting sheet.

i have it in writing that they are refusing to comply.

wp3

[cupcake68]

Ah! I see!

 

Thought you must have been special!! LOL

 

Cupcake

[welshperson3]

Monday will be spent on the phone to the relevant authority's, and i will get the complaints up and running.

This company is running with total disregard for any rules or regulations.

[welshperson3]

CUPCAKE68

There are rules about settlement figures, hope this helps.

How do I get a settlement figure?

Under Section 97 of the Consumer Credit Act 1974, the debtor is entitled to know how much he/she has to pay in order to clear the debt. The request should be in writing. Give the creditor enough details to enable them to identify the agreement, including the agreement number. Title the letter 'Request for Early Settlement Figure'. An example of a request letter is given in this leaflet. If you are up-to-date with your payments, some companies will provide a settlement figure over the telephone.

I wrote to my creditor over a month ago asking for a settlement figure but have not received a response. What are my rights?

The Consumer Credit Act 1974 requires the information to be provided within 12 working days from receipt of your request. If the creditor fails to provide the information requested, they cannot enforce the agreement against you until they do; and if they do not send you the information for more than a month, the creditor commits an offence. If this happens to you, contact Consumer Direct for advice.

How much rebate am I entitled to?

Regulations lay down two different formulas for calculating the rebate. What formula should be used will depend upon when you took the agreement out. A new formula was introduced for agreements entered into from 31 May 2005, but this does not apply immediately to agreements entered into before then. Most companies use computer programs to calculate the rebate.

Will my credit agreement give me any information about early settlement?

All credit agreements entered into after 31 May 2005 will have a section headed 'key information' which will contain information about early settlement. Creditors have to show the figures that would be payable for early settlement when ¼, ½ and ¾ of the repayments have been paid. The information shown will be the sum needed to settle at that stage, taking account of the payments made up to that date. The rules allow the creditor to show this information as the amount for every £100 or £1,000 borrowed rather than for the total loan, so check the figures carefully.

Can I have the figures checked?

Yes. Some trading standards services have a computer program that can check the figures are correct. Contact Consumer Direct to ask whether your local trading standards service would be able to check the figures. If they are able to do the check, you will need to:

• obtain the settlement figure in writing and
• send all the documents relating to the agreement to them by post or by fax

Please note that they will not normally check settlement figures over the telephone.

The settlement figure is greater than my original loan - can this be correct?

Loans are made up of capital advanced and interest. Depending on how many payments you have made, the settlement figure may well be higher than the original loan. This is most common with long-term loans, where early payments are more interest than capital. The rebate is on the interest outstanding, not the capital left to pay.

I am in arrears with my repayments and have incurred penalty charges - can I have a rebate on these charges?

No. The settlement figure is for paying off the original loan. You are not entitled to a rebate on any charges incurred for late payment, non-payment or administration fees that have already been charged (e.g. broker's fees or arrangement fees).

The settlement figure provided by the creditor is too high - what are my rights?

If you feel the figure is wrong, trading standards may be able to check the statement and give the correct figure. Contact the creditor and dispute the figure. If they continue to refuse to correct it, then contact Consumer Direct for advice.

I obtained a settlement figure and paid the creditor. They have now contacted me and said the figure was wrong and I owe them more money - what are my rights?

The Consumer Credit Act 1974 binds the creditor to any statement they provide to the debtor. This means that if they charge you less than they are entitled to, and you pay in good faith, the creditor must apply to a court for the extra money. The court will decide if you have to pay the money that the creditor is claiming. If you receive such a request for extra payments, contact Consumer Direct or your local Citizens Advice Bureau for advice.

Example of Letter Requesting Early Settlement:

White's Financial Services Ltd

36 High Street

Anytown

Anyshire AN1 1AA

01 September 2010

Dear Sir/Madam,

Request for Early Settlement Figure

Credit Agreement No: 123456789

On 10 January 2008, I took out the above agreement with you for the purpose of purchasing a car. I now wish to settle the agreement. I would be grateful if you send me a settlement figure for the above loan, in accordance with Section 97(1) of the Consumer Credit Act 1974 and the Consumer Credit (Early Settlement) Regulations 2004.

I look forward to hearing from you in due course.

Yours faithfully,

Mr A Brown

Also they are not following rules on how they calculated the early payment on my agreement, the FSA has recently fined a few company's for this, and i will be brining it up in court.

wp3

[cupcake68]

Thanks WP

 

I wish you all the luck in the world. These people have given me so many sleepless nights since I actually read the very small print of their agreement. We breach so many of their conditions just by living I have been terrified of them finding out!

 

Is your agreement regulated? Mine is not because it is well over 25k

 

Cupcake

[welshperson3]

FROM BLEMAIN FINANCE WEB PAGE

 

Q. What does a fee/charge relate to?

A. There are two types of charges that may be incurred. An administration fee that relates to services provided and arrears and litigation charges that relate to non-payment of your account. Full details can be found on our Tariff of Charges.

 

Now my question is if a administration fee covers services provided

 

Is a phone call or a letter part of the service if so then why is it charged for separately at £35 a go.

AS they say there are two types of charges, arrears are clearly stated to not be a service charge then there is only one thing that they can be, and that is a unlawful penalty.

 

wp3

[cupcake68]

I believe they also charge you £35 if you make the phone call to them too!

 

Cupcake

[welshperson3]

My agreement is fully regulated.

 

You have a unregulated but the unfair relationship is still there for you.

 

In 2 weeks time i will have some news hopefully good,then i will post up every Little detail and if it helps others then all the better.

 

wp3

[magiciansgirl]

Hello, that's just nonsense. I asked them for a statement of all charges last year using the form on their website and I got a reply without a charge. They are legally required to reply to you. Report them to the ICO for non-compliane with an SAR and tell them you are doing so.... the ICO are good. You could also tell them you are doing this and also writing to the Kind regards, MG

[patrickq1]

if you would care to explain what's NONSENSE then we can make SENSE on whats what ?

[magiciansgirl]

Apologies; I was replying to the poster Cupcake about Blemain but accidentally did not reply with the quote:

Did Blemain actually give you an outstanding balance on your account when you sent an SAR?

 They refused to with mine because I had not paid their fee of £250!!!!

 Without payment they will not disclose!

Kind regards, MG

[welshperson3]

I think the above is what magic ia talking about.

They dont list this charge in the tariff of charges.

[frettful38]

Truly said. Here is Blemains latest letter I received with a Tariff of Charges

http://i450.photobucket.com/albums/qq223/sophiak_bucket/BlemainsTariffofCharges.jpg

[patrickq1]

i was of the belief the standard nominal charge is £10.00 for a SUBJECT TO ACCESS REQUEST ...

PATRICKQ1

[patrickq1]

confirmation of payment history ? £58.00 cheek of it

DATA SUBJECT TO ACCESS £10.00 well it seems they are in breach of their own T& Cs ..

[welshperson3]

Below are some of the figures from company house about blemain finance profits.

 

Taken in perspective with with what the fines the OFT are handing out to the likes of,

(G-mack £2.8m) (swinton £770,000) (Kensington £1.2m)

 

BLEMAIN FINANCE

 

Turnover for 2008: £159,746,000

Turnover for 2009: £165,977,000

 

Profit for 2008: £56,650,000

Profit for 2009: £68,792,000

 

Now the difference in turnover between 2008 and 2009 is approx 6 million pounds but the difference between the profit for 2008 and 2009 is over 12 million pounds, so on this extra turnover of just 6 million they made 12 million.

And i am sure that we all can agree that this had nothing to do with the fact that interest rates fell to an all time low in 2009.

blemain didn't drop the interest rate but i am sure they wouldn't keep them artificially high just to make more money. (OR WOULD THEY?)

 

Turnover per employee: £491,056.21

Profit per employee: £203,526.63

Number of staff: 338

Total spent on wages: £10,655,000.00

Average staff pay: £31,523.67 *

 

Number of directors: 22

Directors' remuneration: £2,467,000.00

Increase over last 7 years: 111.4%

Highest paid director's salary: £709,000.00

 

Now along comes the OFT finds out they have been naughty and gives them a piddling Little fine and tells then to pay back what they took, as in the case of g-mack they pay back less then ten percent of what they took.

 

in lay mans terms it is like being charged £20 to park the car, but if you don't pay and then you get caught you get a fine of 50 pence.

 

once they get caught bye the OFT a fine of 2 million on a profit for one year 68 million is no real deterrent, it is only the fact of losing their license if they carry on after the fine is what stops them.

 

WP3

 

 

[frettful38]

Below is a letter that I wrote to Blemain questioning my interest rate loan. My loan is a variable interest rate loan.

I am writing in response to your previous letter dated 21 June 2010 regarding the interest rate policy on my loan agreement with you and would now like to raise a formal complaint and have answers to the questions I raise below.

In essence, what your response is saying is that you can do as you please with regards to the interest rate you charge me, as long as you state it is for the good of your business.

Can you please explain the mechanism within which you calculate my interest rate?

Can you also provide the calculation by which you decide my interest rate both current and going forward?

You will have taken my loan on board day one at a given margin above your cost of funds, can you please disclose that and also disclose the margin above your current cost of funds as of today's date? If there is a difference (which their must be as your funding costs have reduced) can you explain and justify why this is the case?

I note from your accounts that during the last 2 financial reporting periods, the reductions in your borrowing costs have allowed you to significantly increase your profits from £8m pa up to £40m pa in the last filed accounts. It is clear that you have done this through a manipulation of existing agreements by not reducing customer APR in line with your own cost reductions.

My loan with you is stated as variable. As funding costs have reached an all time low and are only likely to increase in the future, can you outline the circumstances within which my APR would decrease? The OFT Guide to Secured Lending is categoric in how costs to customers should be increased and you have increased the underlying interest rate on my loan by failing to operate a variable rate agreement within the spirit and understanding of term.

Under the guidelines issued by regulators, I am entitled to the right to be able to budget for my current and future commitments. As your funding costs will only increase in the future, can you outline the circumstances within which my interest rates will be increased?

Without satisfactory answers, I will conclude that not only are you operating in breach of UTCCR and the OFT Guide to Secured Lending, I will also state that your contract with me is unfair in terms of the "unfair relationship" test.

I look forward to your response.

Yours sincerely

This is the response or one of their responses I received:

http://i450.photobucket.com/albums/qq223/sophiak_bucket/BFresponsetointerestrate1-1.jpg

http://i450.photobucket.com/albums/qq223/sophiak_bucket/BFresponsetointerestrate2-1.jpg

[frettful38]

Ocean Finance were my broker, they have written and advised me that they had not given me any advice regarding the loan.

 

Now,

 

Blemain Finance are saying that they had no part in arranging the loan nor did they give any advice. Unless I am nuts I can't understand how I got this loan. Both sides are not taking responsibility for any advice.

 

I have a undisclosed commission case also on top of all of this but there are so many flaws in the agreement that I know that I have a good case for unfair relationship. The Declaration of Income & Affordability that me and OH signed to pay x amount each month do not tally with the payments on my loan agreement with BF.

 

BF are saying that this was done by OF but I am afraid that is not a good enough excuse as this is mis-representation. You tell a borrower each month you will be paying x amount each month but when it is time to pay the sum is more than you agreed to. My agreement does not even state what my interest rate is linked to, e.g. BOE, LIBOR, or tracker etc etc and this the OFT say should be on the agreement.

[welshperson3]

Below is a letter that I wrote to Blemain questioning my interest rate loan. My loan is a variable interest rate loan.

I am writing in response to your previous letter dated 21 June 2010 regarding the interest rate policy on my loan agreement with you and would now like to raise a formal complaint and have answers to the questions I raise below.

In essence, what your response is saying is that you can do as you please with regards to the interest rate you charge me, as long as you state it is for the good of your business.

THEY ARE TELLING THE TRUTH, Or partly truthful there is case law to show they can do what needs to be done ( for the good of the business ) so if the business is failing and they put up interest rates this is allowed,but to use this to make a huge profit in times of recession then i think it becomes unfair.and hopefully so will the judge.under unfair relationship they will have to show it was needed and not just a case of profiteering

Can you please explain the mechanism within which you calculate my interest rate?

Can you also provide the calculation by which you decide my interest rate both current and going forward?

You will have taken my loan on board day one at a given margin above your cost of funds, can you please disclose that and also disclose the margin above your current cost of funds as of today's date? If there is a difference (which their must be as your funding costs have reduced) can you explain and justify why this is the case?

I note from your accounts that during the last 2 financial reporting periods, the reductions in your borrowing costs have allowed you to significantly increase your profits from £8m pa up to £40m pa in the last filed accounts. It is clear that you have done this through a manipulation of existing agreements by not reducing customer APR in line with your own cost reductions.

Do you have a copy of this ( from £8m pa up to £40m pa in the last filed accounts)

I have one for the (JERROLD HOLDINGS) But i would love a copy of one for blemain.

My loan with you is stated as variable. As funding costs have reached an all time low and are only likely to increase in the future, can you outline the circumstances within which my APR would decrease? The OFT Guide to Secured Lending is categoric in how costs to customers should be increased and you have increased the underlying interest rate on my loan by failing to operate a variable rate agreement within the spirit and understanding of term.

Under the guidelines issued by regulators, I am entitled to the right to be able to budget for my current and future commitments. As your funding costs will only increase in the future, can you outline the circumstances within which my interest rates will be increased?

Without satisfactory answers, I will conclude that not only are you operating in breach of UTCCR and the OFT Guide to Secured Lending, I will also state that your contract with me is unfair in terms of the "unfair relationship" test.

I look forward to your response.

Yours sincerely

This is the response or one of their responses I received:

http://i450.photobucket.com/albums/qq223/sophiak_bucket/BFresponsetointerestrate1-1.jpg

http://i450.photobucket.com/albums/qq223/sophiak_bucket/BFresponsetointerestrate2-1.jpg

Today i received a letter in the post from blemain,

I was all excited was this the response to my CPR part 18 request ??

Was this to be the response to the court order my self and the court are still waiting for from them ??

my hopes were shattered when i opened it to find a all new Default Notice,

And this one is not your standard computer generated Default Notice ( I MUST BE SPECIAL )this one is hand typed and nearly correct.

Now i have another dilemma, obviously this agreement is in dispute as it is going to court.

Issuing a DN while a account is in dispute is a no no i think but i will have to check it out.

WP3

[patrickq1]

http://www.lexology.com/library/detail.aspx?g=947b477c-7811-4538-9f73-3f8833bb8fa4

[welshperson3]

update

 

They are sending a barrister from London gough square chambers no less.

 

I just hope she appreciates a nice day out in wales, away from all that smog.

 

received a skeleton argument and i think they could have done better but what is apparent from it is that they are going down the line of trying to bull**** the judge.

 

my paranoia about posting things up in advance is now quite well founded as this is a quote from part of the skeleton.

 

"country to the advice provided on certain consumer action websites an invalid default notice does not amount to an unlawful rescission of contract which gives a counterclaim for damages."

 

on the issue of charges they think they are a bank , as they are relying on the OFT case.

 

they're arguments are not strong, at all as long as the judge is up to scratch and doesn't let them baffle him with bull**** all should be ok.

 

wp3

[Gallahad]

I am sure we are all hoping you get a fair minded judge that knows his stuff so the best of luck WP

G