Victoria vs Kensington

[hulsevictoria]

Right.

 

In May 2004 I bought a house. I had a mortgage with Kensington. They initially charged me interest of 6%.

I was doing up the house and it needed re-wiring, plastering (a lot of work).

During this time I was bedding down in my parents house since my property was unfit to live in.

Kensington increased my mortgage from £390 to £550 per month. The claimed I was renting out the property because they had "unreturened mail" from my address.

This happened in Febuary. I phoned them to ask why my payments had gone up and they told me it was because I had come to the end of my discount period.

I went along with this...untill..... In May one year after I bought the house my payments went up to about £640 per month. I phoned them and they said that I had come to the end of my discount peroid and in Febuary they had increased my mortgage payment because they belived I was renting out my property due to "unretured mail" (This means that they had sent me a letter and I had not responded).

 

Because I was doing the house out I had put all the mail to one side.

 

I was livid. I had finished work on the house but could not afford the payments. I had to rent the house out because I could not manage to raise £640 a month on my own.

I then had to sell the house to an investor at a bergin basement price.

I would never have sold the house if they haddn't increased the payments.

 

I lost my job in Febuary but still scraped the money together to pay the mortgage company and they were scr*wing me the whole time. I was under the impression that I was at the end of my discount period at this point.

I did not have enough money in the bank account one month and it all started from there. Extra charges, late payment fees, penalty fees, I got another job within weeks, but had to pay all these charges on top of the increased mortgage payments.

 

Anyway, I have loads of paperwork from the mortgage company breaking down the costs.

In June they were thretening me with court action, I have all the paperwork to prove it. I am currently going through the paperwork breaking down the costs. I need to know what I can claim back and what I cant.

 

I'm going to print the breakdown of costs on this forum in my next post. It's just taking me a bit of time to go through it.

 

I have council tax bills to prove no one was living there, I have bills from the electrician and builders to prove work was being done on the house.

 

The figures I have given are off the top of my head. I have to go through the paperwork to find the exact figures ...and this is a frightening prospect. I paied them what they were asking without question.

I dread to think how much they had off me. But I'm going to face up to this now.

 

I have all my statments from my bank to show what's going into and out of my account.

I have all the paperwork, now I just need to get down to it!!

 

I'm angry....I LOST MY HOUSE!!!!!!!!!!

It's the first time I have even let these emotions come to the surface.

Since I was forced to sell my house I've been telling myself it was my fault and I wouldnt let myself dwell on it not for a second.

 

But I am Angry now! I'm going to use this anger constructively.

 

Please bear with me while I get the numbers together for my next post.

[lesser1010]

Absolutely Disgraceful What They Think They Can Get Away With.use The Courts System To Teach Them A Lesson.i Would Have Thought The Onus Was On Them To Prove You Were Subletting And Not On You To Prove That You Weren't

[jamorgan]

Hi Hulsevictoria

 

You have brought tears to my eyes and anger listening to your post it's just soul destroying what companies like Kennsington think they can get away with but we must try and bring these down a peg or two.

I feel your anger and upset, same has happened to me and my husband

6% initial rate discounted and then Kennsington kept putting the rate up untill we were paying 9% a month. We couldnt aford the £1,000.00 a month interset only payments so we had to get out and got stuffed for £7350.00 exit fee.

 

Keep the faith hun, this site will help you out no end as it has me.

I am a waiting a court date from my local court

Bring it on I say,

 

Morgy x

[hulsevictoria]

Jamorgan,

just hearing that I am not the only person who has been taken to the cleaners by Kensington makes me feel a little better.

I'm sorry this has happened to you too.

 

They forced me to rent the property out to cover the cost of (I think it was)12% interest. Thats a 6% hike. I cant remember exaclty what the figure was off the top of my head. I know it was double fugures.

 

I'm worried that I might not have a case because I had to rent the house out in the end. It was only for a month or two while I was in the process of selling it. Can they use this against me? I dont know.

 

I remember one month I was £900 in arrears. So I wouldn't get charged a late fee I wanted it in their account straight away. They told me they would only accept cash, since they couldn't gurantee my card payment would go through in time. I got their account number, went down to the bank and put £900 in cash into their account directly. I was so desparate not to get any more charges.

 

jamorgan ...keep in touch seeing as were dealing with the same company. I want to know how you get on.

 

I'm going through the late fees they charged me between 22/07/04 and 01/10/05 its £581.98 showing up in the "Arrears" column.

 

There are 6 columns

 

Date

Transaction

Expected payment

Debits

Credits

Arrears Balance

 

They have debited £20.00 for the transaction "Returned D/Debit fee"

 

Does this mean they have put money into my account for something?

If it means they have taken it out of my account what are the credit payments for?

 

I'm not an accountant but debit and credit mean money in and money out, they cant both mean money out?

 

Sorry I will post them properly in the next few days.

[zootscoot]

"Returned D/Debit fee"

 

This is a fee they charge when your direct debit payment has been returned to your bank account and is therefore reclaimable.

 

Best of luck with sorting this one out. Once you have worked out what charges you are claiming click the link in my signature to find a preliminary letter for use with mortgage accounts.

 

Zoot

[hulsevictoria]

Ok this is my redemption statement from Kensington mortgages (Skipton) on 31 March 2005

 

 

 

---------------------------------------------------------------------------

Redemption Statement

 

Account number:*********

Borrowers name: hulsevictoria

Security Adress:*****

 

Redemption Figure

The ammount required to redeem this account as at **th April 200* is £58,267.91 Please read the following Statement and the attatched Notes to the redemption statement.

 

Compleation date: **th July 200*

 

Detailed Statement

 

A breakdown of the redemption figure is given below:

 

Starting Balance: £53420.00 Dr

Redemption fee: £125.00 Dr

Sundry Debits: £118.75 Dr

Early Repayment Charge: £3264.29 Dr

Interest £3395.67 Dr

Total payments: £2055.80 Cr

 

Redemption Figure: £58,267.91

 

 

 

 

Please see attatched

 

Account number: ***********

 

Note

1. Daily Rate £14.83

2. Early Repayment charge £3,624.29

 

--------------------------------------------------------------------------

 

 

Then it goes on to give me nine notes on the redemption statement and tels me wht the END1 form is all about and what I need to do next.

 

I also have a breakdown of legal fees which I can understand. it is as follows.

 

-----------------------------------------------------------------------

 

The following is a list of fees that may be incured from any action taken against you.

In accordance with the General Mortgage Conditions, any such costs are debbited to your account as arrears

 

Letter before action issued £90.13

HM Land Registry Official Copy Fee £4.00

County Court Fee £30.00

Possesion Hearing Application Fee £323.88

Possesion Hearing Aujourned £30

Possesion Hearing attended £143.00

Possesion Hearing restored £30.00

Warrant application fee £172.25

Warrent re-issued fee £82.25

Warrent cancellation fee £70.50

Solicitors fee to set up your

application to suspend warrent £76.38

Agents fee to attend your

application to suspend warrent £70.12

Possesion fee £82.25

Possesion cancellation fee £29.38

 

-----------------------------------------------------------------------

 

THIS NEVER ACTUALLY GOT TO COURT OK. It did come pretty close.

But I'm wondering why they sent it.

 

 

Then I have a transaction history from 01/12/04 to 28/02/05 which is when they told me the discount period on my interest was up. I asked for this.

 

 

Ok now my question do I still need to ask them for a breakdown of costs or is the Redemption Statment I gave enough to go ahead with calculating the ammount I want to claim.

What is my next step?

[mark-uk]

Sorry im lost, i cant find the first letter you send to kensington for your ERC claim, also do you claim charges back at teh same time or is it 2 seperate claims, one for the ECR and one for the charges etc.

[hulsevictoria]

Hi, I have not sent any ERC's to kensington yet.

When I sold my house last year I asked forr a load of litreture, including transactions, statements, redemption penaties.

I have about fifty pages of litreture from them which I got when I sold my house.

I only started last week thinking about making a claim, and now I'm going through the litreture trying to sort out what they owe me.

I have not sent and ERC yet.

If you want a template you can click http://www.consumeractiongroup.co.uk...lates-library/ Moneyclaim online click here

https://www.moneyclaim.gov.uk/csmco/login.jsp

 

Hope this helps.

 

What I need is a someone to tell me the stages of claims and what letters I need to send.

[hulsevictoria]

Stupid me, I should have clicked on the link on ZootScoots signeture first, all the steps are set out along with all the templates, It all makes sense now.!!!

Right, I am going to start with my Subject access request.

I think this is the beest place to start.

I can see exactly how much I paid them then.

Right here I go. This is the start of the claim. Wish me luck.

I only hope the fact I was renting out my property for the last two months won't come back to bite me.

[ED1237]

Good luck Victoria,

 

I have already filed against Kensington and am waiting for them to acknowledge the claim. Stick with it and don't let them off a penny

[catherinebear]

Hi Victoria

 

Welcome aboard the bus that is going straight to the pockets of Kensington to get our money back for all of us indivudals who have been dealt such a rotten deal by these b......s!!

 

We like you remortgage with Kensington and then 12 mths after the initial payment Dave was made redundant I was facing very major surgery on my spine and they did what any considerate mortgage company would do put the payment up by another £300! We asked them to consider letting us extend the term of the mortgage but oh no it was not their policy. We took our complaint to the Financial Ombudsman and although they sympathised with us there was nothing they could do. Until we found this brilliant site. Like you we were forced to sell our house or be repossesed we were homeless until we were very luckily rehoused by a Housing Association in Norfolk! Kensington could not have cared less I remember going to the offices of the Social Security for the first time in my life and the lady behind said Kensington say no more!!! We like you had made our home a wonderful one and it was made worse by the fact that it used to belong to Dave's Mum and Dad and Dave had lived in that house all his life. We had adapted it for my disability and they just said tough luck. Anyway less of that on this site you will make many friends who are all there for one another anything you need to know just ask and we will try and get you the answer. Welcome and good luck to you.

Catherine Bear:)

xx

[hulsevictoria]

Catherinebear,

 

Grrrrrrrr!!!

Kensington make me angry.

Not the "Scream out loud, and hit the wall" type angry, but the "simmering long term" type anger that makes me get down to business. Normaly I procrastinate and bury my head in the sand, mabye that is why I got myself into problems in the first place.

But not any more......

I'm getting on to this now! I have printed out the temlplate and I'm typing up my letter!

The more I hear other peoples storys, the more angry I get. And yours has to be the worst I've heard yet. Probarbly because you tried to negotiate with them. What's the point,... you get through to some "customer service representitive" who knows nothing and has the power to do nothing, and you cant scream at them because they are useless.

 

I feel for you, I realy do.

Bring it on as they say.

[hulsevictoria]

ZootScoot. I have a question.

In the last two months I had the house and I was in the process of the sale. I was behind with the payments and they sent a man to my house. He was a financial care consultant.

I was renting the house out from 21st May 2005 and this letter was given to the tennants.

 

-------------------------------------------------------------------

Ref: ACAL/MC

17th June 2005

PRIVATE AND CONFIDENTIAL

 

Miss ****** ********

* *** Road,

********,

*******,

******,

*** ***.

 

Dear Miss *****.

 

Re: Your mortgage with Kensington Mortgage Company

 

The Financial Care Consultancy Limmited has been instructed by your lender to meet with you to discuss the matter of the arrears on your mortgage account.

 

In an effort to assist you with possible financial problems you may be experiencing and agree on a plan of action to bring your account up to date, I called to visit you today and I am sorry you were not available.

 

I will be pleased to revisit you at a convenient time and would therefore ask you to contact me on 079** 279147.

 

I look foreward to hearing from you.

 

Yours Sincearly

 

 

Mike Chislett

Counsellor

 

---------------------------------------------------------------------

 

My question is this.

This Mike Chislett, probarbly met the tennants I was renting the house out too.

He probarbly informed Kensington I was renting the house out, which they claimed I was in Febuary but I was not.

 

It was only while the sale went through I rented it out. Will this affect my case, since they will have Mike Chislett to back them up.

 

I diddn't bother following up this visit since I was selling the house anyway.

[zootscoot]

Hi Hulsevictoria,

 

If you have let your house out that simply means you are in breach of the terms of the contract. For this they can claim damages for any loss that they have incurred. As far as I can see they have not suffered any loss from you breaching the contract so I wouldn't worry too much about that. If your mortgage with them has finished you no longer have to fear any kind of repercussions from this action. They may well try to use this information to intimidate you but there is nothing that they can really do about it now.

 

So do carry on with your claim and don't let this put you off.

 

All the best

 

Zoot

[hulsevictoria]

Well I sent out my Subject Access Request on the 23/11/06 and I am still waiting for a reply. That's about the long and the short of it.

Just keeping you informed.

[00765]

Kensington have done a similar thing to us.

 

My husband lost his business earlier this yr & we had to sell our home, the mortgage having been with Kensington.

 

Just before completion I received the following statement

 

Starting balance £273913.38

Arrears Charges £250.00

Solicitors Costs £500.00

Redemption Fee £145.00

Sundry debits £298.75

EARLY REDEMPTION CHARGES £16771.98

INTEREST £14702.73

 

Kensington took over £31,000 in charges.

 

Right now i can't even think straight to know what to do. We were supposed to use the funds to pay off debts which now continue to mount.

 

Could someone please give me the wisdom of their advice.

[paulpb123]

Hi 00765,

Welcome to the mortgage forum. Looks like you have a massive claim here. Am I reading correctly? You can certainly claim the 16.7k early redemption charge, and the interest on it. I'd also question the sundry debits and find out about the solicitor's fees. Best way to get going is to start your own thread; it keeps your progress neatly in one place. Once you've done that you'll get loads of help. Have a look at some of the other ERC threads for some inspiration.

All the best,

Paul

[hulsevictoria]

OK. Did I forget to send a copy of my pasoprt or driving Licence off, because they have returned my cheque for £10.00 and told me to provide Identification. A stalling tactic I think, but...ok, if that's what they want. I'll send them my driving licence and pasport copies off along with another letter.

Kensington.... Barnacles on the arse of progress. That's what they are.

[00765]

Thank you Paulpb123.

 

Sorry hulsevictoria if i hijacked your thread a little. All the very best with your claim

[ukaviator]

I would be very careful sending anything to them with a signature on. If they want confirmation of who you are, ask them to send the information to the local branch or office near to you. You can then provide ID then.

 

Uk. . .

[hulsevictoria]

OK. I'll make an anonymus phone call first to find out where the nearest office it, and explain to them that I would be happy to present my passport and driving licence there.

Just out of curiosity, why is it a bad Idea to send them any details with my signiture on it? What could they use it for?

 

Has anyone else had this problem getting their SAR from Kensington? or is this just a new tactic by them?

[hulsevictoria]

Wait...one minute....

Stop and think here pickle (to myself)

 

I might go through the redemption statement they sent me, and assess what I can claim from the statement.

I was only requesting the S.A.R - (Subject Access Request) because I wanted to follow the proper procedure. I guess I dont realy need the S.A.R - (Subject Access Request).

Question 1: Do I have to request the SAR to see what I can claim back?

Question 2:Is it a good idea to get the SAR anyway, so they can't throw any nasty surprises at me in the last minute? i.e I have all the posible information to hand?

[hulsevictoria]

OK Here is a copy of the letter they sent me regarding the proof of ID.

 

4th December 2006

 

Dear Miss ****

 

Re Account Number *********

 

 

We have recently received your subject access request under the Data Protection Act 1988.

 

A full Data Subject Acess Request will include copies of all correspondance, diaries, transactions etc, in regards to your account. Please be aware that a lot of information will be provided, much of which may be irrelevant. It may be that you require some specific information and that a partial Data Subject Access Request may meet with your requirements. Should this be the case please confirm the items you require on the form enclosed. (no form was enclosed)

Please note under the Data Protection Act 1998 we are entitled to a period of 40 days, in wich to provide the information. The 40 day period does not begin until we receive the following items:

 

1. Proof if identity (e.g. Driving licence, birth certificate)

 

I am returning your cheque with this letter, please send this back along with your proof of identity should you still require the Data Subject Access.

 

Should you wish to discuss this matter further please contact me on the number 0870 556 10 40 quoting extension 2925.

 

Yours sincearly

 

 

Thea van Dyke

 

Compleiance Analyst

 

Shall I just send off the S.A.R - (Subject Access Request) letter with a few ammendments enclosing a copy of my passport, Driving licence and another cheque, or should I try another aporach?

 

What is a complience analyst? is it someone who ensures they company comply with the law?

 

I know they have 40 day's to comply. I told them this in the original S.A.R - (Subject Access Request).

They told me to fill in the form attatched. But there is no form.

[ukaviator]

Hi

 

I would be very careful sending anything to them with your signature on. If you call them and ask the data request be sent along to your local branch or office for your collection would be better. You have a contact phone number,so request that happens.

 

Uk. .

[HAIRYLADDER]

Hi HV

 

1) Kensington do not have branch offices, they are a 'centralised lender'. In other words they are not like a Halifax or Woolwich in that you can walk down your local high street and discuss matters. Kensington or 'KMC' for those of us in the industry receives its business from intermediaries or packagers (or both). Given that you have sold your property ( your post 8th November 2006 19:59) I think that what they are asking is reasonable. All firms have a duty to protect, and rightly so, customer information.

 

Compliance Analyst - where do I start. There are numerous job titles for compliance (eg compliance officer, manager, analyst, assistant) and what it may cover (eg data protection, FSA regulation, CCA regulation), however one thing is common, anybody working in compliance will be employed to advise the firm on an interpretation of the rules. For most firms this will mean, to a large extent, compliance with FSA regulation as most mortgages are (as from 31st Oct 04) regulated by this authority.

 

Hope this clarifies