Repossesion Set For 11am 6th April Any Help Please.

[sponderela]

Hello,

My Mortgage is with Kensington and i have £14925 arrears. I think now i have gone through this process 7 times and scraped by at the last minute. i usually pay them a small sum and make an arrangment to pay the monmly payment plus a large extra amount which i cannot afford. They always want silly money, my monthly payment is £650 which i can afford but they make me aggree to an extra £500 a month which i dont pay and it all goes wrong again. Last time about a month ago i offered them £1000 lump which they refused so i said i would pay another £1000 a week later which i knew i could not get but it stopped the repossesion for a while. I have been to court a couple of years ago and had them stopped and the judge told me i had had enough chances and i dont want to see you here again. Help ???.

[BankFodder]

I think one of the things that you will have to do is to go through all your statements as quickly as possible and find out how much you have paid in charges, administration fees etc etc. All of these charges and administration fees will most likely have been levied at an excessive rate and therefore they are unlawful. That would mean that they are not a legitimate part of the arrears debt. If you were lucky enough to find that a substantial amount of the arrears is comprised of unlawful charges – then you could have a chance of going to the court and ask for an emergency appointment with the judge to have the repossession suspended pending a hearing.

 

This would not be done automatically – and you really would have to convince the judge. However we could help you as much as we can.

 

However if you do not have all of this information then I'm not too sure what we can do.

 

It would especially help if you could show that in fact a lot of the money that you have been paying so far is comprised of charges – because in fact the FSA requires that payments go first of all to settling the mortgage and mortgage arrears and that charges should only be added on at the end. In any event, the FSA has held that charges must not be levied at a rate which exceeded administrative costs. I expect that with Kensington you have been paying as much as £30 or £40 or even more pounds per charge. Several companies have suffered huge fines as a result of this kind of behaviour. In fact I think Kensington was fined a few years ago.

[sponderela]

Just checked a couple of my statmenys and they are charging me a £50 monthly arrears fee also i did not know this but they are charging me £61 a month for buildings and contents insurance. Will this help me.

[BankFodder]

Go back Over your statements and identify every charge or administration fee .have they for instance charged you for counsellor visits which might not have occurred? You need to see how much he can all add up to. Make sure that you don't ignore any interest which they might charge you on those charges. How long has this been going on for? If it has been £50 a month for two or three years – and if they have been adding interest to those charges then it could add up to quite a lot. The buildings insurance is quite normal and has nothing to do with this.

 

If you are not able to come up with a sum in unlawful charges are which make a reasonable dent in the outstanding amount, then I'm not too sure what you will be able to do at this late stage. I'm sorry to say that if this is the seventh time that you have been through this, then probably you need to have taken a structured approach to the problem much earlier than now.

 

Go and find all your statements and start doing your calculations.

[Ell-enn]

Hi - I remember helping you last time when you were due to be evicted within 24 hours (you were registered as Sponderella then), unfortunately you didn't come back on the thread to let us know what happened in court.

 

As Bankfodder says, unless you can come up with some documented information regarding the charges on your account, then you are going to have a very hard job convincing the judge to suspend eviction for a seventh time.

 

What happened in court last time? you said in your statement at that time that you had £2k to pay towards the arrears - did you pay it? is that what stopped the eviction ?

[sponderela]

Last time i paid the £2000 and promised to pay another £1000 7 days later whic i did not because i did not have it and it was a way of gettint them off my back.

[sponderela]

So far i have found at a quick glance £1450.00 of charges many are £50 monthly arrears fees but also agents fees and solicitors costs from £32.50 up to £131.00. It does say on a letter i found that the fees will be added onto the mortgage balance.

[Ell-enn]

Hi, I cannot stress to you how difficult it is going to be to get a judge to allow you to keep possession of your property at the seventh eviction notice. Have you considered selling the property and moving to rented?

 

I believe that your only hope would be to try and convince the judge that you are selling (and that won't be easy either), and admit that you cannot maintain mortgage payments.

[sponderela]

Is the unlawful charges bit a no go then ?, can a judge halt an eviction for you to sell your house?

[Ell-enn]

To be honest your problem would be convincing a judge that you hadn't paid your mortgage installments because of the charges, you would only be able to argue that the arrears are not correct, the fact that you have arrears is still obvious.

 

You can ask a judge to consider allowing you to stay in a property if you have it up for sale and can make payments while it is being sold, but you would need documentary evidence from an estate agent that it was actually for sale.

[BankFodder]

That's not a bad start. There will be interest on this also which they will have charged you.

 

You need to work out if your repayments have been applied to your charges as well as the mortgage shortfall. If they have been levying interest on the charges - as they probably have then it is probably the case that some of your repayment has been applied to the charges and this is unfair.

 

The solicitors costs of £131 may be fair but you need to know more.

 

You say that this is at first glance. I suggest that you start getting down to business and have a thorough look and also work out what info is missing - if any.

 

I notice that Ell-enn has been helping you a lot on previous threads but it seems that each time the heat is off, you disappear until it catches up with you again.

 

I'm afraid that it seems to me that you have brought this on yourself. We can only really help people who are serious about their situation. It is very difficult to help people who just want a quick bail-out from time to time.

If you want to stand a chance then you are going to have to put your figures together. The read this http://www.fsa.gov.uk/pages/consumerinformation/product_news/mortgages/protect_arrears/index.shtml

 

also read this:- http://www.consumeractiongroup.co.uk/forum/content.php?700-Hot-news-for-anyone-who-has-suffered-mortgage-arrears-charges-irresponsible-lending-or-other-unfair-lender-conduct and the linked attachments.

 

You will have to download an application notice N244 from the court website and you will have to complete it and be at court tomorrow morning with figures, printouts of the FSA final notices, the FSA rule. You will have to ask the court for an emergency appointment with the judge.

 

You will have to explain to the judge that you believe that they should have been given judgment for the entire sum and that they have breached their FSA statutory duty and that you need a further 2 months stay to obtain all of your data under the DPA and then have a hearing to determine what is the true extent of your arrears. You might be able to say to the judge that if it had not been for them loading up your payments with unlawful charges, that you could have coped with the mortgage. Only say this if it is true.

 

If yo can pull this off, then come back here and we will try to help you. However, you may not manage it - there's a real chance - and if you do it might only be delaying the inevitable.

[Lea_HTH]

Notwithstanding the advice you have received thus far regarding the charges...continue to follow that advice, but in addition, please answer the following questions.

 

Have you made a stay application yet?

How much is the property worth? Is there any equity?

How much is the outstanding mortgage?

Is the property in your name only?

Do you have children in the house?

What is your income? (Sorry - don't like to ask this question, but you're virtually at the exit door to your own house, so I'm sure you'll forgive me - I want to help, but I want to give you a realistic prospect of keeping your home and can only do that with real figures.)

Have you previously been represented in court - either by a solicitor or by a duty advisor?

 

I am trying to figure out why anyone would have allowed you seven stays and not actually carried out an income and expenditure with you to see if you could actually afford the amounts you were offering. Do you have other debts? Have you been advised to seek assistance with financial issues?

 

An eigth stay is a rarity - not impossible, but definitely a rarity. You will need a really good plan for going forward and a very sympathetic judge. What will not go in your favour is that there is no evidence that anything you have said previously has been taken seriously by you. I understand desperation makes people make daft promises, but when those promises turn into hot air - the end result in a possession hearing is an outright possession order.

 

Please answer the questions, and once I have the figures I'll give you some idea of your likelihood of success if you put in a stay application.

[BankFodder]

Is the unlawful charges bit a no go then ?, can a judge halt an eviction for you to sell your house?

 

If there has been a breach of statutory duty then a decent judge may be prepared to use this to give a person in difficulty a last chance. It is a question of levraging the judge's sympathy for the underdog and this kind of lender behaviour might help

[sponderela]

I have not made a stay application, ? what is it

There is plenty of equity about 40k

80k outstanding mortgage

In my name only no children in the house.

My income about £1500 per month but goes up and down.

I was represented in court by shelter once years ago.

The order is dates aug 2006 so this has been going on for over 5 years that means 5 years of charges.

[sponderela]

If there has been a breach of statutory duty

 

What is a breach of statutory duty ?

[BankFodder]

What is a breach of statutory duty ?

Lenders are obliged by certain acts of parliament to act in a certain way. If they don't then they may be in breach of their statutory duty.

 

I think that you should make the preparations that I have suggested here but also the questions laid out by Lea are very sensible and you should come back with those answers too.

I don't think that we can help you any more until you see what you can do tomorrow - but it will take a lot of work. It is up to you now

[sponderela]

printouts of the FSA final notices, the FSA rule.

 

What are these ?

[BankFodder]

I have told you what to read and given you the links. You now have to do the work.

[Lea_HTH]

One final question - how many years left to run on the mortgage?

[Lea_HTH]

If you have had seven stays you will have had to make seven stay applications - Ell-en is likely to be the person who will be assisting you with completing the forms, so pay close attention to what she asks you to do.

 

Firstly, start taking some personal responsibility for your situation - the phrase 'they make me agree' grates because it implies you have no choice in the matter. You do. You could have sat down, done an income and expenditure form, and found out exactly what you could afford to pay towards the arrears and you might not have been in this situation an eighth time. Sound harsh? It's meant to - when you go into court with your stay application the likelihood is the judge is going to tell you precisely the same thing - in probably harsher terms. So be prepared.

 

What you need to do next:

 

1. Create an income and expenditure sheet - be honest about EVERYTHING you are currently paying out - this is no time to pretend that things are rosier than they are. You have only two priority payments - the first is Council Tax, and the second is your mortgage. They are in that order because you can go to prison for non-payment of CT, the worst they can do for non-payment of mortgage is to evict you. Any other debts you have that are not secured on your property are unimportant - my advice regarding those sort of debts is to visit your local CAB and ask someone to assist you with writing letters to reduce the monthly payments to an affordable level so you can use as much money towards the mortgage and arrears as possible. You need to maximise your income.

 

2. Once you have your I&E completed, you will be able to see precisely how much money you have left to offer to the mortgage company towards the arrears. Once you have that figure, and you have answered my final question about length of mortgage, I will be able to work out whether you have sufficient time left on your mortgage to allow you to repay.

 

3. Add up every single charge and additional interest added to your account - you will need to deduct this from the arrears that they state you owe as they are not allowed to add charges to arrears and claim them as such during possession proceedings. (Beyond this calculation I have no interest in the charges - please refer to BankFodder's advice in his lengthy, informative posts above for help in reclaiming those). In my view, beyond removing them from the arrears, at this stage of the process, they won't help you much unless they substantially wipe out a large proportion of the arrears.

 

4. Be prepared for your stay application to fail - you have had so many chances and frankly appear to have not stuck to any of your previous promises. My suggestion is that you pack up your stuff, ready to move on the morning of 6th April if your stay application fails. It is unlikely, given this is the eighth stay that the mortgage co. will cancel the bailiffs prior to the hearing. You may get a hearing tomorrow and if it fails, they will almost certainly evict on the given date.

 

You still have a very small chance (dependent on whether the judge is sympathetic and wants to give you a final chance), but it is a small chance, particularly since you do not have dependent children in the home.

 

Have you considered taking in a lodger to help make the payments? This is something else that could be put in your stay application, but only if you can actually get someone in.

 

I'm not hopeful for time to sell - if the judge is minded to strike out your stay application, he is extremely unlikely to allow you further time - this isn't a possession hearing - it's a stay application, so unless the property is on the verge of exchange of contracts there's not a lot the judge will feel obliged to do to assist you further.

 

My suggestion is that you stay up as late tonight as is necessary to complete all the paperwork and gather all your evidence. You should be ready with it all at the court office by 9:30 am tomorrow morning to make your application. Any later and you will be running the risk of not getting a hearing tomorrow, which means the eviction may happen on Wednesday before you've had a hearing.

[Ell-enn]

I have to log off now but if you need me to help with a statement for the N244 I will be on line again in the morning from around 8am - 10 am. You should have completed the budget sheet as per Lea's advice above and then let me know how much you can really afford to pay towards the arrears each month in addition to the normal monthly payment.

[sponderela]

Hi

Been to the court and they have given me a hearing time of 10am tomorrow morning, 60 mins before the eviction. I have checked my statements and they have been charging me interest on the fees etc because they have been adding it onto the mortgage balance they even state in a letter i found that was the case. Is it worth me calling them and trying to talk to them about the hearing tomorrow, obviously they will send a representative.

 

Thanks for you help so far.

[BankFodder]

Fax a letter to them to let them know that you have been granted a last minute hearing. Tell them that you will be informing the court that they have been told about the hearing and that therefore they should not act without hearing from you or the court.

Give them the court phone number and case reference so that they can call the court to confirm.

Send your faxed letters to all parties so that no one can say that they weren't told.

 

Then call all parties and make sure that they have received the fax. If there is any doubt then get their fax number and fax them again.

 

If you have a court document which confirms the hearing then fax that as well.

[sponderela]

Fax a letter to them to let them know that you have been granted a last minute hearing. Tell them that you will be informing the court that they have been told about the hearing and that therefore they should not act without hearing from you or the court.

Give them the court phone number and case reference so that they can call the court to confirm.

Send your faxed letters to all parties so that no one can say that they weren't told.

 

Then call all parties and make sure that they have received the fax. If there is any doubt then get their fax number and fax them again.

 

If you have a court document which confirms the hearing then fax that as well.

 

Shal i tell them why, the charges, the interest on the charges and quote the FSA info etc etc.

[BankFodder]

Well of course!! you have to explain to the judge what the objections are. You have to show the judge the FSA rulings and their decisions. You have to explain to the judge why he should accept that they have broken the law in the way that they have dealt with your business.

 

Did you think that you were going there for a chat and a cup of tea?