Kensington Mortgages - Eviction 18th June ** ORDER SUSPENDED **

[diesel85]

Hi all,

 

As you will see I am a "newbie" to this site and it's forums so please go easy on me in terms of judgement :-s

 

My Story:

 

I have had a mortgage with KM for 9 years and for the first 6 of those years I was keeping up with my payments. However, 3 years ago I lost my job and fell into arrears.

 

I have been making payments on and off for the last few years and during this time missed a few more payments. KM has been to court - around January 2012 they were given a possession order.

 

Since then I have been on an arrangement plan with KM and agreed to pay £440.00 per month (Please note my contractual mortgage amount is £382.87 and £57.13 was towards arrears).

 

I defaulted on my last plan in December 2012 whereby I did not make the required £440 payment at all that month due to unforeseen motoring expenses. Since then I have paid the following payments;

 

January 2013 £400.00

February 2013 £400.00

March 2013 £400.00

April 2013 £400.00

May 2013 £425.00

 

In March 2013 and April 2103 I got letters through the post both saying their records showed I was making payments above my contractual amount and if I continued to do so then I would not be charged the monthly £50.00 arrears charge. Both letters did ask me to urgently get in touch and to be honest I knew I had to speak to them as I wasn't paying the agreed £440.00, however, did not mention possibility of eviction.

 

To my surprise I got a letter on 23rd May 2013 advising an eviction date had been set for 18th June 2013.

 

From the 24th May to date I have called KM 16 times (to the cost of £80.00). I have gone through an Income & Expenditure and offered £448.02. They asked for a lot of information in support of my Income & Expenditure and to date I have sent 46 pages on 2 separate occasions detailing and supporting everything, including my unforeseen motoring costs.

 

Every time I have called I have been told I have to speak to the Evictions Team who have never been available. However, on Friday 14th June 2013 I got through to Becky in the Evictions Team (truly one of the nastiest people I have ever spoke to) who asked for more proof - statements for a dormant bank account and advised my account cannot be passed to a manager for a decision until I provide this.

 

So, what I have done is gone to my local County Court and submitted a N244 and have a court date for Monday 17th June 2013 as their was no way I could get the information to them by post in time.

 

As part of my N244 I have gave the Court a copy of the 46 pages I sent to KM, along with my 2 covering letters and explained my difficulty in coming to an arrangement. However, I did forget to include my income &expenditure form in with the N244 and have been told the judge may not accept on Monday.

 

Reason for my long post (sorry about that) is because I am so scared to lose my home and worried the judge will favour in KM. I just wandered what everyones thoughts were on the possible outcome and if anyone had any advice about going to court?

 

Oh, not sure if you need to know this as well;

 

Made a payment of £448.02 (which is what I am proposing) on 14th June 2013 - although they were reluctant to take this payment.

 

Current Mortgage balance £69,000.00 - approximately

Current Mortgage arrears - £5400.00

Mortgage term left - 21 years

 

I would really appreciate any advice or support as am worried sick and haven't been sleeping/eating properly.

[Newborn]

Seems strange that they were reluctant to take the payment you offered, but it may be that if they have now taken it they've possibly accepted your proposal.

 

Are you the sole owner of the property and the mortgage is in your sole name?

[diesel85]

Hi Newborn,

 

Thank you for the reply.

 

The payment was taken by Becky in the Evictions Team and she also said that by me making the payment it would not stop the eviction, so they have not accepted the arrangement and are still proceeding.

 

I am the sole owner of the property, why do you ask? Do you think I have any chance of preventing the eviction form going ahead?

 

I have been on the internet doing a lot of searches and am wandering wether on the basis of the "Cheltenham & Gloucester Building Society vs Norgan" ruling that I can't be evicted? At least that's what I am hoping for.

 

Oh, I have never been to any kind of court in my life, and it may sound silly, but how do I address the judge?

[Ell-enn]

Hi there, you can take a budget sheet along to the court with you and hand to the judge in the hearing - I have affixed the one we normally use , it calculates automatically as you fill it in.

If you have been maintaining payments over the last six months and can show the judge you are able to keep to the payment arrangement you will not lose your home. What did you say at Q.10 of the N244 (I assume you took a copy of it all before handing in to the court?). Did you incllude the Norgan case law ?

When you get to the court ask if there are any duty legal reps attending, if there are approach them and ask for their assistance, they can accompany you into court and support your case.

The hearing will take place in a room with the judge, a representative for the mortgage co and yourself. It is conducted around a table, much like a meeting. As this is your application for a hearing, the judge will address you first, don't interrupt him/her.

Budget Sheet.xls

[Lea_HTH]

You address the judge as 'sir' or 'madam' - depending on their gender. Despite it being your application, the judge won't always address you first - he/she may decide to ask for the figures from the mortgagee's rep first.

 

Your failure to keep to the court order is your issue here, as you state an SPO was granted in January 2012 and you haven't kept to the court ordered payments since December, despite making some payments. So you are £615 behind on the court order (if the payments you state you made above/missed are accurate). Is there anyway you can bring your payments back into line with the court order? That would obviously go in your favour. Are you able to actually afford the payment you offered? If yes, why haven't you made it over the past 6 months? If you can't afford it and have paid what you can afford, then you should ask the judge to lower the previous order so that you can manage better.

 

You CAN be evicted, but if you have 21 years left on your mortgage and arrears of only £5400, then you could get away with paying as little as £22 per month towards the arrears, and if that is genuinely all you can afford (plus the CMI of course), then most judges will allow you to remain in the property. If you can afford more, by all means offer more, but if you can't, or you think it might be difficult, you are far better off asking the judge to reduce it.

[diesel85]

Hi Ell-enn,

 

Thank you very much for your reply.

 

I have completed a budget form this afternoon and have printed 3 copies; for myself, the judge and the KM representative. Will be ok that my Income & Expenditure for this month show's I have £250.00 per month left at the end of each month? This is after my proposal of £65.15p? The reason I have not increased my offer is because the left over amount is because I have been on a job secondment and this is due to end next month and want to propose an offer that I can keep to when this happens?

 

At question 10 of the N244 form I basically referred to the documents I had attached which were the ones I sent to KM and they detailed why I failed the previous arrangement and what I was proposing moving forward. However, I have not referred to the Norgan case law as I wasn;t sure whether to do that?

 

Do you think I stand a chance of getting to keep my home? I have never applied for the Warrant to be suspended before which I hope goes in my favor and I know I can reduce my arrears well before the term of the mortgage and have documented this.

 

Am so scared as don't know what I would do if eviction went ahead - haven;t told any friends or family about this as know that no one is in a financial position to help.

[diesel85]

Hi Lea_HTH,

 

Thank you also for your reply.

 

I think I am confusing myself with the legal jargon. I have never been to court for my mortgage before and the court has never ordered me to pay a fixed amount - I am aware KM have been to court though over my arrears but I have never attended. The arrangement I defautled on was an arrangement made between me and KM, not via the courts. I was referring to a letter KM sent me which reffered to "An Order for Possession" and that's what I meant earlier.

 

Also, as for my income & expenditure - my income is so confusing in terms of changes, hence in the last few months I could only afford my contractrual mortgage amount and concentrated on that.

 

My log book loan (I know it was very stupid to take one out) ended last month, hence, budget form show's £250.00 extra this month, but next month salary goes down by that amount - confusing or what.

 

Does that make my chances better, in terms of not had a court order before?

[Lea_HTH]

If the mortgagee has an order for possession and they have not executed it until now, it is very likely the court suspended the order on condition that you pay the CMI plus X towards the arrears, which was probably the amount you were paying prior to December 2012. The fact that you were not in court doesn't matter in relation to them obtaining the order - it is your choice as to whether you attend the first hearing or not. If the court made a PO of any description, you would have received a copy of it through the post from the court. Ultimately the mortgagee may have got an outright order from the court and came to an agreement with you...which seems to be what you are saying, but that seems less likey than the court suspending the order on terms.

 

If you have a surplus of £250 this month, then you ought to pay that to the mortgagee as soon as you can to reduce the amount you have fallen behind with this year, and explain to the judge that your income goes down next month.

 

I am sorry but you do have a court order - an eviction notice cannot be issued without one. But so long as you can afford to make the payments you offer, it is highly unlikely that you will lose your home, so try not to worry too much.

 

As Ell states - try and see if your court has duty advisers - it's usually better to let someone else speak for you in court as you will obviously be nervous (though if you do have to go in alone, try not to worry too much as the judge will give you an opportunity to speak).

[diesel85]

Hi again Lea_HTH,

 

Thank you very much for your reply - especially so late in the evening.

 

I have made an additional payment of £150.00 (part of the surplus income for this year) last week whilst I was waiting to get paid and when I did get paid on Friday 14th June I made that payment of £448.02p as said earlier - that is the most I can pay this month.

 

Just been looking at old paperwork and looks like you are right, think court made order for possession that was granted in January 2012 and I made my arrangement with KM direct.

 

Will get to court early and ask if their is a duty adviser, but if not will just have to do the best I can.

 

I have forgot to mention that KM owe me £360.00 in incorrect buildings insurance charges which they are in the process of refunding, so that will further reduce my arrears - will mention that to the judge as well.

 

Last question if I may, will the judge look at things like how uncooperative KM have been the past 2 weeks or no point in highlighting that?

 

Thanks again for yours and everyones help and just have to wait for Monday now :-s

 

Worried sick

[Newborn]

Lots of great advice there for you . The reason I asked about sole ownership was just to see if anyone else was involved.

[Ell-enn]

Hi, I think you should take a statement to the hearing along with the budget sheet - I will get back to you later today with a suggested draft. In the meantime, are you able to print off proof of the payments you have made this year (as detailed in your first post), together with the ones you made last week ? you can affix those to the statement to show the judge that you have been trying to maintain payments..

[diesel85]

Hi All,

 

Thank you so much for all the help and advice.

 

I have already printed my budget sheet for next month onwards and have done copies.

 

Have got details of my payments and the authorisation codes and trust that should suffice.

 

This is definitely the 1st time an eviction date and time have been set, and if I am really honest, usually when I have spoke to them previously they have been ok in terms of making arrangements, but something with them seems different this time - as if they wan't me to get evicted.

 

I have been so stupid as well, they have been keeping me hooked since 24th May 2013 about getting an answer and then when I called on 14th June 2013 I was gutted they were pedantically asking for more information.

 

Haven't even thought about what I would do if the judge sides with KM.

 

Is this number; 0800 1300 989 for KM and what about this about a statement?

[Ell-enn]

Hi, you can take a statemenyt to court (with your budget sheet affixed), the statement should include any information you did not put in Q.10 of the N244 (i.e. the fact that the lender kept you hanging on for an answer for almost a month etc) and ask for the Norgan case law to be taken into consideration - I can draft that for you and affix here later.

 

You say you have done your budget sheet from next month onwards - does that mean your left over money has reduced ?

 

Do you know if the amount of arrears they claim you owe, includes any arrears charges ?

[diesel85]

Hi Ell-enn,

 

If you could help me with a statement that would be appreciated.

 

I have spoke to KM on the following dates;

 

24th May 2013

28th May 2013

30th May 2013

3rd June 2013 x 3

6th June 2013

10th June 2013

11th June 2013 x 2 gf

12th June 2013 x 2

13th June 2013

14th June 2013

 

I have also sent them 2 bundles of paperwork/proof, but no arrangement agreed.

 

I am offering to pay £448.02p per month which is £382.87p for contractual amount and a further £65.15p towards arrears.

 

If I understand this Norgan rule then that should be ok shouldn't it?

 

My budget form next month will have a positive balance of £60.01p per month spare - this is after the above offer. The reason I have not offered more is because in reality some of my bills fluctuate., like my mobile bill, I have used the monthly contract amount in the budget but this month will be a lot more due to calls to KM.

 

All I know in terms of my arrears is that the current arrears are £5332.63p which is nearly £600.00 less then when this all started.

 

Not sure if the arrears include charges/interest - most likely they do but thought I would look into this if I can stop the eviction, but guess should have asked KM.

[diesel85]

Hi James,

 

Do you work at KM?

 

If so do you think based on what I have laid out that I can come to an arrangement before court or before the eviction?

 

All I have been told since this all started is that the only people that can deal with my account and make a decision is the Evictions Team, so don't know how you would be able to assist?

 

I can call, but will be tight as got to be in court at 10.00am?

[citizenB]

James1980, sorry - if you are posting as a Representative of Kensington Mortgages, we must ask you to contact admin in order to do so.

 

please use the following email [email protected] (no spaces).

 

Your posts have been unapproved until ST have confirmation that you have made contact.

[Ell-enn]

Hi, affixed is the statement you need to take to court. You need to fill in the info where there are XXXs at the top (obviously remove the xxxs) and print off 3 copies. On your budget sheet write the claim number and your name on the top right hand corner. Affix a copy of the budget sheet to each copy of the statement.Also print off 3 copies of the proof of payment you made on Friday and affix that to each statement also.

 

When you get to court ask if there are any duty advisers there - if there are then approach them and ask for their assistance in the hearing. If there aren't then when you get into the hearing and the judge has finished speaking say to him/her "Sir(or Madam), may I give you and up to date statement" and then just hand it over - give a copy to the representative for KM.

[diesel85]

That statement is brilliant Ell-enn.

 

Am going to make the necessary amendments now and print everything off tomorrow morning.

 

Thank you so much and will definitely let you know tomorrow how I got on.

[Ell-enn]

Good luck, stay positive

[diesel85]

Hi All,

 

First off thank you, thank you, thank you for everyones help - especially Ell-enn. I went to court today and have had the application suspended

 

I understand from previous post's that it is in the interests of other users to explain the process a little to possibly help/reassure others and feel it is the least I can do!

 

First off, felt sick with worry this morning and have been feeling like this since the eviction date was given last month.

 

I got to the court about 45 minutes early but in all honesty my first and only mistake was not asking if the duty officer was available :-s Whilst I was waiting the gentlemen who was representing KM came in and the clerk pointed him in my direction should he wish to approach me which he did not - thank god. We got called into the court chambers and the judge looked like something off TV in terms of his chambers - sounds stupid I know. Anyway, the judge literally spent the 1st 5 minutes reading through my N244 and summarising to myself and the KM rep. He then turned and advised it was my application and to explain what had let to the arrears which I did. I then took that opportunity to give the judge and the KM rep my statement (from Ell-enn) and my proofs of payment recently (again thanks to Ell-enn for the reminder to take those). Then the judge turned to the KM rep after reading the bit about the Norgan precedence and asked the KM rep about my total arrears, mortgage length and then with a look which I can only describe as "what the hell is this guy doing here" being shot to the KM rep he said to the Rep that it was a "compelling" and "exemplary" case and that he would be suspending the warrant and accepting my offer.

 

Truly the biggest weight of my life off my shoulders. The more I have thought about it the more I am thinking this not the end… I am really going to look at my rights in terms of what KM have done wrong etc and start standing up to them.

 

Guess it just leaves me to say… thank you, thank you, thank you.

 

If anyone would like any more info on my experience please ask as it is the least I can offer.

[Ell-enn]

That's great news - well done You must feel so relieved.

 

Thanks for giving us the detail of the hearing.

[citizenB]

Excellent news..