HL interactive/Santander **SUSPENDED**

[scorpio stu]

Thanks again,

I haven't made the offer of £250 a month off the arrears,I have said that we will be able to pay the new mortgage amount of £251 but have held back with the offer of the arrears amount until I get the figure from Santander in writing. I don't want to leave myself short again.

Just sending the solicitor an email,what do you think ?

 

 

In 7 days our rate will be changing as I have already stated. As you work for Santander I am sure they can give you the figures of what our new full payment is expected to be and the rate it will be . I cannot believe that Santander have not yet given you that information. I have also not received a notification letter from them which I find surprising.

I have taken some advice and would like to quote something regarding paying the arrears off.

Cheltenham and Gloucester vs. Norgen

The Norgen ruling which still stands and is used in many repossession hearings was a judgment that centred on two parts,the first part involves what money is due,and the second part refers to what can be defined as a reasonable time to pay what is due, lenders had always argued that the sum due when a default has taken place was the whole sum of the mortgage and any arrears should be paid back over a term of not more than 4 years,the appeal court judges in the norgen case ruled that the sum due can only be the amount that would have been paid had no default occurred they further ruled that the starting point for paying back sums due i.e. arrears should be the term that the mortgage has left to run,this is statute .

Kind regards

 

Mr and Mrs S Levine

[scorpio stu]

Im off to bed..chat tomorrow,thanks again your a star

[newstarter]

Section 5.2 of the mortgage pre action protocol the lender and the borrower should take all reasonable steps to discuss the arrears and possible ways to pay the arrears off.Tha does not mean accepting a ridiculous one sided offer or nothing.

[newstarter]

Thats good stu lets them know you are doing your homework.goodnight if you need any help whatsoever you can usually find me on here most days and evenings,if not me ellen is fantastic much better than iam at this but im doing my best.

[newstarter]

A good startting point here may be to send in a S.A.R.S subject access request to Santander under the dislosure laws they must provide all information held about you and your account,that includes arrears charges added to the account,this will cost you 10 pound,send it recorded delivery,they must send the information to you within 40 days.Im sure charges would have been added to your account,i woul;d start off with this because firstly you can find out what if any charges have been added to your account or more importantly findout if any charges have been added to the current arrears figure,secondly by doing this you are putting your account into dispute which means any possession hearing would be ajourned untill such time as you had recieved the paperwork from Santander and had chance to look through it,inform their reps that you have sent this request to Santander,in fact it would do you no harm to send the reps a copy as well.This for me would be a good starting point,it wouldnt mean that any action would be halted but it would mean an ajournment.Also speak to your lenders reps and make them an offer to pay off the arrears at over a suitable period of time at an amount you can afford,not an amount that they want to hear,then all you can do is wait for santanders next move,but remember to keep up with the normal monthly payment as well.

[scorpio stu]

Just waiting for a chap to turn up from a debt agency through work. With regard to the above post will I be ablt to claim back any charges they have added or what is the point in it.Sorry if that sounds a bit negative but I am not sure what they are used for thanks

[newstarter]

H stu you may be surprised at how the charges add up and yes you can claim them back by adding up the charges ,sending a letter demanding those charges be refunded or you will be complaining to f.o.s i was refunded 800 pound in charges believe it or not so its well worth chasing up.

[scorpio stu]

Well we had the debt councillor round the other night and he was extremely thorough.To be honest,as much as it's embarrasing at the age of 45 to share all your debts with a stranger it was also quite liberating. We hope to hear from him within the next few days and get the ball rolling. With regards to the mortgage,we still haven't had the letter from the Abbey regarding the rate change in December and they said they sent it out at the begining of November so they are now sending another one. I emailed the solicitor with some of the previous posts details and strangely they havent got back to us yet,I'm very shocked.

Hopefully the next week will be th turning point and we can start to get something sorted out,if your interested I'll keep you posted.

Stu

[scorpio stu]

We now have a court date for the 19th January for possession proceedings in respect of our property.

The mortgage has now gone down from £1788 at 6.34 % to £1196 and 4.24 % as the two year fixed rate has finished. We can comfortably pay the full mortgage amount plus an arrangment for the arrears but have been told by Santander today that they cannot stop the hearing and to speak to their representative outside the court ?

[scorpio stu]

Arrears currently stand at approximately £16,000

[scorpio stu]

Anyone ?

[Ell-enn]

Hi there, I assume you have the possession claim from the court? there should be an N11M defence form with the documents. You need to complete that and send back to the court at least14 days before the hearing and I can help you complete the form. The most important part of the defence form is Question 23 - and I can draft the statement for that part if you need me to.

 

As this is the first time you have received a claim for possession from the lender and are able to make payments going forward - there is no way the judge will give possession to Santander, so please try not to worry too much.

 

In the meantime you should write to Santander/Solicitors outlining your proposal and stating your disappointment that they have not considered your offer (include a budget sheet - I can let you have the one we normally use) - if you need help drafting the letter, let me know. A copy of this letter can be included with your defence to the court (along with copies of your other correspondence to them) and this will show the judge you have done your best to come to an arrangement and they have not considered your situation.

[newstarter]

Stu,could you post some details up about the particular mortgage you have with Santander 4.24% seems high to me ,now that your out of the 2 year fixed rate.

[scorpio stu]

Apparently this is the standard variable rate for the Abbey now which is what we have reverted to.

Ell-enn Thanks as well,the letter we have recieved just states that there is a repossesion hearing,11am at Bow county court on the 19th January. There were no other forms with the letter other than a statement of our mortgage account from the start which was two years ago. We are getting help from the Debt advisory network through the civil service benevolent fund.They have put the formal offer in writing but have not yet had a response. Santander are refusing to speak to us and just advise us to contact their solicitor HL Interactive. The debt advisory network have also written to the Abbey and they have not responded to them.

[Ell-enn]

OK, well you have plenty of time before you have to prepare a defence. If you don't receive possession forms from the court you can just enter a defence statement and we can help you write that.

 

I would check with the Debt Advisory Service if they sent the formal offer by recorded delivery - if not, it is likely that Santander will simply say they haven't got it - you would be amazed at how often lenders "cannot find" letters, but when they have to sign for them they know they have to reply.

[scorpio stu]

Unfortunately they did not send it recorded. A full budget sheet has been completed by DAN and I am waiting for the copy to be emailed to me.

With regard to the forms you mention should I have recieved them or not at this stage ?

[scorpio stu]

My wife has just called me in a panic and said we have now got form N11m delivered today. we have been given a web address and user name / password to do it all on line.

[Ell-enn]

OK, firstly don't panic - we can deal with this. Secondly - DO NOT enter anything on line there is very little space to put a proper defence in, and they have a habit of getting "lost" in the system. You need to hand deliver your defence to the court when we have got it ready - it doesn't need to be there until the first week in January, so we have plenty of time to get sorted. Also, as you have the advisory service acting for you - you might find that they withdraw the possession claim.

 

There is no need to do anything at the moment. Ask the DAN to fax the proposal to the solicitors/Santander and get proof of receipt.

 

I know it all sounds very scary at the moment, but please believe me - if you have an income and can make payments going forward you will not lose your home.

[scorpio stu]

Thanks,yes it is very scary and makes everything very real. Could I just ask you as you seem very well informed are you a solicitor or someone that has dealt with this many times.

I'm sorry if it offends you for me to ask but feel the need to.

Many thanks

[Ell-enn]

Hi there, I'm not a qualified solicitor, although I have studied this particular area of the law. I have helped in over 200 repossession cases on CAG and pretty much know all the tricks lenders pull (and also how to deal with them!). I also understand that, as this is your first experience of repossession proceedings, you will be feeling extremely stressed and scared - I'm sure many Caggers who have been in your situation will empathise with how you feel and give support, that's the great thing about CAG - we all support each other

 

Have a read around some threads in the repossession forum going back over some months, and you will see that many people who come on here for help are in a very desperate situation and have faced eviction on several occasions. This should give you some confidence in what can be done, and as I said earlier - you have an income and can offer payment towards the arrears each month so there is no way a judge will take your home away.

[scorpio stu]

Thanks I will,and I have noticed how much support is on here. I have had to tell my line manager that I have to go to court in January and have explained the situation to him. He was very sympathetic but as one of the staff is going to court the senior management have to be informed but they will not be told it is me at this stage as that is not their business.

I hope we can get this sorted out asap

[scorpio stu]

Hello again,

I hope you are having a nice Christmas.

Just to update you on the position we are in.

Court date set for 19th January 2011

Santander have now agreed to our offer of the full mortgage payment plus an extra £100 a month to start to clear the arears. They also state in their letter that after 6 months they MAYBE able to look at capitalising the remainder of the arrears so they are paid off over the remaining 18 years of the mortgage. Unfortunately we are still having to go to court on the 19th as they say they are unable to stop it. We are really happy about the lenders agreeing to our proposal but are confused about a couple of things.

 

The wording on the solicitors letter that 'this arrangement will be secured under a suspended order' . Then on their email it states 'Suspended Court Order '

Am I right in thinking that when this does go to court it will be called a suspended repossesion order ? I also thought that if it is suspended court order then we wouldn't have to go ?

Will we still have to fill the court forms they have sent both of us or as Santander have excepted the offer I don't have to fill the forms in ?

Can you see the confusion.

 

Thanks again for your help

As a foot note on the letter it also states that if you do not maintain payments we have been instructed by our client to continue with litigation action on this matter ?

[newstarter]

What they mean is they have agreed to your proposal but they still want it to go to court to get a suspended order which means you pay whats been agreed,no problems,however if you default on the agreement their solicitors can pick up where they left off.If i were you i would still go to court on the day bringing the said paperwork with you just in case but all this court appearance will be for is to just dot the I,s and cross the T,s,pretty straight forward really,thats a good result for you and a good start to the new year,well done!

[newstarter]

P.S i wouldnt bother filling out all the forms you have from their reps you have an agreement now in place now and as i said the court appearance will be just a formality.

[Ell-enn]

Hi there, you should definitely attend the hearing otherwise you won't know what's being said. As for them being unable to stop it -that's rubbish - they can withdraw any time they like before the hearing date. They're making sure they get a suspended order which means that if you default on the payment arrangement they can issue a warrant for eviction without a court hearing. You should take a statement to court a week before the hearing stating that an arrangement has been agreed and therefore the hearing is not necessary - I can help you with the wording for that.