Your House Being Repossessed? - It's Never Too Late

[Ell-enn]

I remembered! letter affixed

Mortgages Charges letter.doc

[letsdothis]

I remembered! letter affixed

 

Thank you, letter gone off, Recorded Delivery of course. ;-)

[esbdoris]

I have a bridging loan of £30k that has gone wrong and we are being repossessed on Monday 23rd August at 10.00. my hubbie does not know a thing and I am distraught - any one out there can give me some advice. I had approached for a loan two weeks ago and was told my credit rating would not allow any money and a chap at Easierdebt told me he would help me. He has left it until today to get £200 from me only to tell me at 17.23 that Link Lending solicitors Lightfoots would not revoke the order.

[Ell-enn]

Has there been a court hearing for possession? if so, did you attend?

[esbdoris]

yes, I did go but the judge went in favour of Link Lending

[esbdoris]

In brief we took out the brigde loan through Fastmoney and the required amount was £160,000 but they advised me to take out £210,000 of which they would then pay back the loan over the six months and at the end of the six months they would arrange a mortgage for us.

 

At the end of the six months as we had not paid the loan ourselves the recession had hit and no one would give us a loan. By the time we managed to get Santander to take on the mortgage the interest arrears were over £20k but Santander would only lend up to £210,000 the original amount of the bridge. The arrears built up due to not being able to get a mortgage as was advised.

 

Link Lending were not prepared to take the £210k offered and it took a lot of persuasion to get them to accept this. I was then battling to get them to reduce the interest arrears and struggling to pay the high mortgage payments we then had with Santander who became our priority to keep our home.

 

At the time of all this my husband was on very good money and bonus/overtime pay but due to the recession and the take over of his garage his weekly payments are very low now.

 

I love my husband so much and this would destroy us - we have been married 31 years and I have been a shopaholic

[Ell-enn]

Can you give some background to this please. Why did the judge favour Link ? did you put in a defence to the claim for possession?

[letsdothis]

Thanks Ell-enn for your help on here.

[esbdoris]

the judge said she agreed with Lightfoots as this was a bridge loan and the term had come to the end. but this is all interest charges from the time the bridge ended when they promised to get us another mortgage and then did not. We paid back the original £210k when we finally got our mortgage through Santander but by that time the interest was growing daily. We found it difficult to make payments due to our new mortgage payments

[Ell-enn]

Is the mortgage with Santandar up to date?

did you make an offer of payment (i.e. a monthly amount towards the arrears?).

Is there any equity in the property?

[esbdoris]

We did make an offer at one stage but Santander was at the time our priority and there is equity. The house is worth £320k approx and our mortgage is now £220,000.

[Ell-enn]

Did you put in a written defence for the hearing you attended, if so what did you say?

 

Is the Santader mortgage up to date?

Would you be able to make small payments towards this debt ?

[esbdoris]

We explained the situation with our mortgage and that I had been off work with illness and so had my husband. We had been promised a loan but was refused. Therefore the judgement stated that no more hearings were to be called for unless we had definite funds to pay off the loan in place.

[Ell-enn]

Are you now in a position to make any monthly payments towards the loan?

[esbdoris]

I will do anything to prevent this eviction on Monday but they will not accept any payments but the full £30k. The bailiff is booked for 10.00 but the court does not open until 10.00 so even if I go with an N244 form I could come back to the locks being changed. I have two dogs as well and no where to go

[Ell-enn]

The court might actually open before 10 am - our local court desk opens at 9 am (bailiffs office at 8.30am,) but hearings don't start till 10. You would need to have a very strong case to have the eviction stopped, but it could be worth a try.

 

Are Santander aware of the situation?

When did you receive the eviction notice?

[esbdoris]

Our court office does not open until 10.00 and it is impossible to get through to the bailiffs office. We received the notice two weeks ago but as I was still trying to get a loan and then had this Liam Schweitz from Easierdebt advising me he would do everything to help I believed him and he strung it out until today and then said he could do no more until I gave him some money. I was desparate therefore I left work early and desposited £200 into my bank which he took off my card at 17.00 and then phone me at 17.23 to say there was nothing more I could do - this is what he wrote to the bailiffs office

 

I write with reference to the above case which I believe has been warranted for repossession on Monday 23/08/2010 at 10am.

 

I work as an appointed representative of Easier Debt and at this late hour I have been presented with this case (please find attached our authority to deal with the matter on the occupants behalf).

 

We respectfully request that repossession proceedings are put on hold in light of the fact that it would appear the bridging loan from Link was mis-sold by a brokerage called Finance Now. The bridge was sold on the understanding that the customers would remortgage at its closed date, however at the time the product was taken and at the closed date this was not a solution that would have been open to the Johnsons. Hence the bridging product from Link was a vehicle that Mr and Mrs Johnson were unable to at any point repay. We feel this constitutes an unfair contract and has brought us to today.

 

We have lodged a complaint to the Financial Ombudsman Service (FOS) today, and would ask that until the outcome of that is known, a repossession would be most unfair. Mrs Johnson, who deals with the household finances, has not had the efficacy to deal with this matter prior to today due to mental illness, and I would respectfully ask that this is also taken into account.

 

In the interim period whilst we attempt to garner a verdict from the FOS Easier Debt will gladly make repayment proposals for the debt in case of the unlikely outcome that the complaint is not upheld.

 

I have attempted to call Lightfoots on 01844 268401 begin_of_the_skype_highlighting 01844 268401 end_of_the_skype_highlighting and have sent them a copy of this email, I have also attempted to contact Brentford County Court however the line has been busy for the last hour please could you call me or email to acknowledge receipt of this communication.

[Ell-enn]

So this guy took £200 from you and then wrote an email to the bailiffs office after 5pm when it closed ? That's disgraceful. He has done nothing that you could not have done yourself. What did he promise he would do when you first contacted him?

[esbdoris]

he wrote to the bailiffs office at 11.44 and to Lightfoots. He just told me blank that I would never get a loan and that his company would help me with my debts. I told him about the intended repossession and it has gone from there with the promises. He said he was waiting for my forms that did not turn up. I then tried to fax them and scan then but finally got them to him this morning when he said he could now work on my case and the rest is as stated....

[Ell-enn]

I think the only thing you can do is to look through your local paper or yellow pages for solicitors who are open on Saturday mornings - ring round and perhaps you can find one who will see you as an emergency. Take all paperwork you have relating to the loan and also the court proceedings. A solicitor may just be able to do something before 10am on Monday.

I'm so sorry that Easierdebt wasted precious days and money when you could have been getting proper legal advice.

Also, you really must sit your husband down tomorrow and tell him the situation - please don't leave it any longer, I'm sure that after over 30 years together your relationship is strong enough to weather this.

[citizenB]

rocco1010 has been moved to a thread of his own.

 

http://www.consumeractiongroup.co.uk/forum/showthread.php?274504-rocco1010-Urgent-Help-required-Repossession-date-26-August-2010

 

Any help would be appreciated.

[letsdothis]

Thank you, letter gone off, Recorded Delivery of course. ;-)

 

Just a little update on the claiming back of the arrears charges.

 

As I had heard nothing and the 8 weeks has passed, I rang the OC today on their free phone number of course. They initially said that they could not find my letter, and when I told them that Joe Bloggs had signed for it on xx/06/2010 it was immediately found as an electronic attachment to my account.

 

I have had no reply or even an acknowledgement as at today, and the agent could not offer me a suitable explanation. I had to firmly state that the charges were unlawful and if they did not refund the full amount then I would go to the FOS which would cost about £500 to them.

 

The agent spoke to a supervisor who said that they would contact the solicitors dealing with it, and get them to answer my letter asking for the charges back. I rang the solicitor and they said we will email the OC and get them to deal with it. Anyway after a lot of hassle, I rang the OC again and made a formal complaint about them not acting on it, and I have been told that someone will contact myself within the next 24 - 48 hours.

 

I also stated to them that the Judge had made an order for X amount per month, to be be paid off a total of X amount arrears over X amount of months (The remaining mortgage term) As they are still charging me £50 a month management fee, there is no way that the arrears could be paid off at the rate that the court ordered as they are swallowing £600 a year for doing sweet FA - So the gloves are now off and if necessary I shall go back to court and let the Judge rule how to pay it in future.

[letsdothis]

It would appear that my request for return of the unfair charges has now been declined by the OC and there is a letter in the post explaining the reasons as to why.

[Ell-enn]

When you receive that letter you need to write a letter of complaint to the FOS enclosing a copy. They will then take up your complaint with the lender.

[letsdothis]

Thanks Ell-enn

 

I will do, looks like they are going to get hit with an approx £500 bill for being so stubborn then. Shame.