Anyone with an Acenden-administered mortgage should check their title deeds TODAY

[CosmosBipinnatus]

Hi, I don't do Facebook so I have started a thread on the MoneySavingExpert forum -

 

The Acenden (administered mortgage) Escape Committee

 

in the section called "Mortgage Free Wannabe" (I can't post links here yet).

 

- Acenden have apparently recommenced selling mortgages on behalf of their new owners.

 

Do join me there. I will post more information on that new thread in a while, eg about the danger signs that indicate that Acenden means to repossess. Everyone's case is unique but there are things we can to help each other get clear of these cowboys.

[CosmosBipinnatus]

Oh, by the way, on the MoneySavingExpert forum my ID is beaujolais-nouveau

[CosmosBipinnatus]

In my opinion, and through the little experience I have, I believe the only way to get back at them is to reclaim the charges back by following the due process as discussed on these forums and ultimately through the court system. As with bank & credit card charges, I can't see how any court in the land can see them as anything other than unfair & unjust. I have been through some hard times with Ascenden, now its my time to get them charges back.

 

I think you are right. Also quote some examples of charges made by other organisations. I seem to remember that the pay-day loan people have been forced to reduce their charges. Perhaps find out what they charge for, eg, missed repayments now. Acenden's charges are excessive by any measure.

[CosmosBipinnatus]

Did Acenden at any time arrange buildings insurance for your mortgage? If so, check how much they insured the lender's interest for. Last year, Acenden tried to insure SPML's interest for six times their exposure. I wrote to them to point out that setting out to make a profit from insurance is unlawful. (My mortgage is quite small but they tried to make me pay for a policy for the whole reinstatement of the property, although a lender never gets involved with reinstatement.) They promptly cancelled the policy.

[CosmosBipinnatus]

With regards to the annual insurance you can't under insure a building, which is an issue I have with them. Their insurance doesn't cover the rebuild cost of my house which I worked out on a reputable online calculator a while ago. If you under insure they may not pay out anything at all. If you insure a building, you insure in entirety. I'm not sure how you can insure just their part or percentage as a mortgage usually cover the whole regardless of loan to value. I may be wrong but it's just my thought on it.

 

The lender only insures their interest, ie the amount still remaining to be repaid on the mortgage. Not in a million years would they pay to rebuild your house: that is still your freeholder's responsibility (or yours, if you own your freehold). If it collapsed in a pile of bricks and dust, they will still require you to pay the rest of your mortgage. If the lender decided that there was no prospect of either you or your estate paying the rest of the mortgage, then the lender would make a claim on their insurance.

 

However, I am intrigued to hear that their insurance cover is not enough to rebuild your property. Is your interest actually recorded on the insurance schedule? The insurance policy that they took out for my leasehold flat was for its entire rebuild cost (six times what is left to pay on my mortgage), although - as I have said - there is no way that I could ever made a claim on their policy.

 

I'm actually paying a lower rate now than I would if I tried to get a High St. mortgage

 

So am I but it does not make up for the work and stress caused by Acenden's lies and incompetence.

[CosmosBipinnatus]

Acenden has been sold to a private equity giant, real estate investor Blackstone. See Twitter for information about the other stuff they have bought recently. Eg in 2010 they bought up the UK healthcare staffing agencies, in good time to benefit from the Coalition Govt's cuts to the NHS. The CEO's earnings "leave the rest of Wall Street in the dust".

 

See also:

Activists Protest Tenant Practices of Private Equity Giant Blackstone Group

democracynow.org / 2015 /2/ 12/headlines# 21214

 

[i can't post links yet - take the spaces out of the line above]

 

In New York City, Spanish activists and local housing advocates gathered at the headquarters of the private equity firm Blackstone Group to protest its treatment of tenants around the world. Following the global financial crisis, Blackstone has been at the forefront of Wall Street’s takeover of the housing market. In the United States, the firm has become the largest owner of single-family rental homes in the country. In Spain, Blackstone has swept up nearly 42,000 rental and mortgaged units. Critics in both countries accuse the company of harassing tenants and driving up rents in an effort to force people out of their homes. ...

 

"The problem right now is that many banks that were rescued with public funds are selling their mortgages to private vulture funds as Blackstone. Many people is facing eviction because Blackstone’s strategy is to raise the prices for the tenants so people is no longer able to pay the rent. So they leave the apartment, and then Blackstone can renegotiate the prices. So they are earning money with people’s suffering."

[CosmosBipinnatus]

Put "giant equity blackstone" into Twitter search and feel your blood run cold.

 

Or "blackstone distressed" , "blackstone distressed mortgage" , "blackstone distressed real estate" , "battered securities energy companies" etc etc.

 

Not to put a too fine a point on it, the UK (and other countries) are a big jumble sale just now, and Blackstone are making the most of it.

[Crapstone]

The lender only insures their interest, ie the amount still remaining to be repaid on the mortgage. Not in a million years would they pay to rebuild your house: that is still your freeholder's responsibility (or yours, if you own your freehold). If it collapsed in a pile of bricks and dust, they will still require you to pay the rest of your mortgage. If the lender decided that there was no prospect of either you or your estate paying the rest of the mortgage, then the lender would make a claim on their insurance.

 

However, I am intrigued to hear that their insurance cover is not enough to rebuild your property. Is your interest actually recorded on the insurance schedule? The insurance policy that they took out for my leasehold flat was for its entire rebuild cost (six times what is left to pay on my mortgage), although - as I have said - there is no way that I could ever made a claim on their policy.

 

 

So am I but it does not make up for the work and stress caused by Acenden's lies and incompetence.

 

I get your drift now and that completely makes sense! The insurance on mine is about £20,000 short of the rebuild cost. The insurance covers roughly about 4 times what is outstanding, but I guess they have to factor in costs, lost interest and 3rd party claims? Why does the insurance cost so much then? I trust they try to thrust Sun Alliance on you too and every year it takes weeks to sort out? They always insist on seeing a new policy several weeks before it is due to end. Of course they aren't going to get it until we shop around to find what's best for us, and as for them being named on it! I've refused point blank and they have to take what they get.

 

I don't have a policy to hand but I'm pretty sure after what you've said that it's all for their own gain, at extortionate rates, that are not made clear to the consumer. You think you're covered, just from the rate, but you aren't! An eye-opener for sure if people do ever agree to their insurance.

Edited March 13, 2015 by Crapstone
Adding

[CosmosBipinnatus]

I have just discovered that SPML failed to "perfect the sale" when my mortgage was securitised with others and sold to Eurosail 2007-5 NP in/around January 2009.

 

 

That is to say, whoever was conveyancing the sale of SPML mortgages did not record the disposition of the mortgage at the Land Registry.

 

 

Which is an offence, and the effect is that the disposition is void; and all Eurosail has is a "valuable consideration" to create a mortgage, while SPML is merely holding the mortgage in trust.

 

That means, I think, that I have been making repayments for years to a company that is not my lender.

 

 

Am going to have to seek legal advice but thought I'd mention it here in case anyone else is affected.

 

 

I think Acenden realised this about a year ago and decided to cover the mistake by trying to create a synthetic reason for repossessing me. But I don't know who they'd take me to court on behalf of: I have no contractual relationship with SPML and, apparently, no contractual relationship with Eurosail despite having paid them so much money because Acenden ordered that I should do so, after the SPML mortgages were securitised.

 

This being Lehman Brothers (everything - SPML, Acenden, the Eurosail SPVs - is Lehman Brothers), I cannot help wondering if the failure to perfect the sale was deliberate.

A way of getting paid twice from repossessions, perhaps, or of making money out of insurance claims.

 

Happily, there is very little left to repay on my mortgage. If this goes to court, I will ask for a money judgement that details exactly how much is to be repaid to whom, so that I cannot be made to pay everything twice and so that Acenden cannot force me to sell my property.

Edited May 13, 2015 by CosmosBipinnatus
Tidy up line-wrap.

[mercyblue]

Yes it is effectively deliberate just read one of the eurosail prospectus's if you have a bit of spare time. Look for title of the issuer. You will find the following there.

 

For so long as neither the Issuer nor the Trustee has obtained legal title, each relevant Legal Titleholder will,

pursuant to the terms of the Mortgage Sale Agreement, undertake for the benefit of the Issuer and the Trustee

that it will lend its name to, and take such other steps as may reasonably be required by the Issuer or the Trustee

in relation to, any legal proceedings in respect of the Loans originated or acquired by it and their related

Collateral Security.

 

The legal titleholder will be what is at the LR and issuer/trustee is the spv.

The spv is not lehman bro's they are separate entities on the Irish stock exchange and Acenden was bought or is in the process of been bought by blackstone. (which I think maybe warren buffets asset stripping outfit)

 

http://www.blackstone.com/news-views/press-releases/details/blackstone-and-tssp-agree-to-acquire-acenden-mortgage-servicing-solutions

 

I don't know what you mean when you say paying twice? Are you actually going to court?

[CosmosBipinnatus]

Yes it is effectively deliberate just read one of the eurosail prospectus's if you have a bit of spare time. Look for title of the issuer. You will find the following there.

 

For so long as neither the Issuer nor the Trustee has obtained legal title, each relevant Legal Titleholder will, pursuant to the terms of the Mortgage Sale Agreement, undertake for the benefit of the Issuer and the Trustee that it will lend its name to, and take such other steps as may reasonably be required by the Issuer or the Trustee in relation to, any legal proceedings in respect of the Loans originated or acquired by it and their related Collateral Security.

 

The legal titleholder will be what is at the LR and issuer/trustee is the spv.

 

The legal titleholder and the beneficiary of the legal charge (the mortgage) are not the same entity, in my case. I have been making mortgage repayments for years to Eurosail (at Acenden's instruction), not to SPML. Therefore, my contract is/was with Eurosail, not with SPML. Except that the failure to record the disposition of the mortgage (legal charge) at the Land Registry has made the transfer void and created, instead, a "valuable consideration" to create a mortgage.

 

SPML gave power of attorney to Eurosail (see mortgage sale agreements) but I never gave power of attorney to SPML. I doubt that any borrower did, if they check the documents that they actually signed (despite what it says in the mortgage terms and conditions document). Even if I had, but I didn't, a power of attorney cannot be assigned; it has to be formally revoked, and a new one signed. So Eurosail does not have power of attorney in my affairs, either.

 

The spv is not lehman bro's they are separate entities on the Irish stock exchange and Acenden was bought or is in the process of been bought by blackstone. (which I think maybe warren buffets asset stripping outfit)

 

I understand that the SPVs were created by Lehman Brothers, with extraordinary foresight (ahem), two years before the crash. Yes, Acenden is being bought by the giant equity group Blackstone, whose CEO's salary leaves everyone else's in Wall Street in the dust. The SPVs do not have to comply with FSA rules.

 

I don't know what you mean when you say paying twice? Are you actually going to court?

 

I don't know yet. At the moment, I doubt that either SPML or Eurosail has the "legal standing" to make any claim against me.

Edited May 13, 2015 by CosmosBipinnatus

[BazzaS]

The legal titleholder and the beneficiary of the legal charge (the mortgage) are not the same entity, in my case. I have been making mortgage repayments for years to Eurosail (at Acenden's instruction), not to SPML. Therefore, my contract is/was with Eurosail, not with SPML. Except that the failure to record the disposition of the mortgage (legal charge) at the Land Registry has made the transfer void and created, instead, a "valuable consideration" to create a mortgage.

 

SPML gave power of attorney to Eurosail (see mortgage sale agreements) but I never gave power of attorney to SPML. I doubt that any borrower did, if they check the documents that they actually signed (despite what it says in the mortgage terms and conditions document). Even if I had, but I didn't, a power of attorney cannot be assigned; it has to be formally revoked, and a new one signed. So Eurosail does not have power of attorney in my affairs, either.

 

 

 

I understand that the SPVs were created by Lehman Brothers, with extraordinary foresight (ahem), two years before the crash. Yes, Acenden is being bought by the giant equity group Blackstone, whose CEO's salary leaves everyone else's in Wall Street in the dust. The SPVs do not have to comply with FSA rules.

 

 

 

I don't know yet. At the moment, I doubt that either SPML or Eurosail has the "legal standing" to make any claim against me.

 

Surely, the body "holding your mortgage" on trust can take action against you (in equity) if you fail to pay.

I doubt the failure to register ("perfect") the mortgage would be fatal to one of both bodies taking action to protect their interest. It is just that SPML can't have first dibs on any equity if the property is sold with negative equity.

 

Normally a subsequent mortgagee takes their bite after a prior (registered!) mortgage. A second mortgagee knows this as the first mortgage is registered at the LR.

If the first mortgage isn't registered at the LR, the first mortgagee looses priority over subsequent (but registered before the first mortgage) mortgages.

[CosmosBipinnatus]

My understanding of my situation (I don't know about that of any other borrower) is that there is no mortgage.

 

If I were to say only one thing, that would be: do your own research. Acenden have told borrowers that they (the borrowers) gave SPML an irrevocable power of attorney. That probably is not true. It is not true in my case. Look at the documents you SIGNED.

 

Yesterday I received a one-and-a-half-page letter from SPML's lawyers in which almost every sentence is misrepresentation, very easily seen off by reference to my bank statements, documents in the public domain, current legislation. But the letter is clearly meant to intimidate me into blindly and mistakenly accepting their version of things which is the wrong version.

 

Do your own research, people. Even the lawyers are going to "throw dust" in your eyes, being untruthful without compunction. You, the borrower, are Acenden's customer (on behalf of the lender, whoever it is), to whom they have a duty of care. But at the moment, they and their lawyers, seem to be treating borrowers as the "enemy".

[BazzaS]

My understanding of my situation (I don't know about that of any other borrower) is that there is no mortgage.

 

 

There may not be a legal mortgage. Legal as in "legal or equitable", if the formalities weren't followed.

 

However, are you claiming that the body that advanced you money to purchase your property, or any successor of that interest, can't take action, in equity, to recover an unpaid sum?.

That the money advanced was gifted to you, rather than advanced to be paid back with interest?

 

It may be that the holder of the beneficial interest doesn't have security over the loan at present.

However, if you defaulted on a "mortgage payment", and they went to court, in equity, and a CCJ / High Court judgement was made against you : they can get a charging order that creates that security?

[CosmosBipinnatus]

Surely, the body "holding your mortgage" on trust can take action against you (in equity) if you fail to pay. I doubt the failure to register ("perfect") the mortgage would be fatal to one of both bodies taking action to protect their interest.

 

Read the rules (Land Registration Act 2002, and the Land Registration Rules 2003). I don't make the rules. If the mortgage disposition is not registered, it becomes instead a "valuable consideration" for the creation of a mortgage.

 

If SPML had noticed before I had paid Eurosail thousands of pounds in mortgage repayments over several years, they might have saved the situation. As it is, SPML let go of the legal charge but failed to register the change at the Land Registry (an offence) so the mortgage transfer becomes void; but - at Acenden's instruction - I stopped paying SPML and started paying Eurosail who have had the mortgage repayments from me, for years, for this non-existent mortgage. If I stop paying, I think Eurosail have to claim compensation from the professional indemnity insurance of whoever did the conveyancing.

 

Incidentally, when SPML first issued this mortgage, they were very hot about reminding my solicitors to register the legal charge. (This was my second mortgage; I had paid off the first one, and the deeds were being stored on my behalf for £1 by the former lender.)

[CosmosBipinnatus]

are you claiming ... That the money advanced was gifted to you, rather than advanced to be paid back with interest?

 

I am saying that they have forefeited the remainder of the mortgage repayments because they screwed up.

 

However, if you defaulted on a "mortgage payment", and they went to court, in equity, and a CCJ / High Court judgement was made against you : they can get a charging order that creates that security?

 

I am saying that - because of the mistakes made by both parties, SPML and Eurosail - I don't think either of them has the legal standing to bring a claim against me. If they do, I might ask them to provide evidence of legal standing.

[mercyblue]

If you look at your terms and conditions that you will have section B transfer of the company rights 7(a) in mine

 

"The company may in its absolute discretion at any time and without notice to the borrower transfer its rights under the loan conditions and/or the mortgage to any person or persons whatsoever"

 

Then it goes on that the same could be done again i.e the sub-prime thing of parceling the loans up and selling them on just in these cases you don't actually want to end up holding the parcel.

I agree with you that you are treated as the enemy the whole point of acenden is to screw people none of these loans were ever meant to run the term or anything near it again you can read that in the prospectus.

[bhall]

I have just discovered that SPML failed to "perfect the sale" when my mortgage was securitised with others and sold to Eurosail 2007-5 NP in/around January 2009.

 

 

That is to say, whoever was conveyancing the sale of SPML mortgages did not record the disposition of the mortgage at the Land Registry.

 

 

Which is an offence, and the effect is that the disposition is void; and all Eurosail has is a "valuable consideration" to create a mortgage, while SPML is merely holding the mortgage in trust.

 

That means, I think, that I have been making repayments for years to a company that is not my lender.

 

 

Am going to have to seek legal advice but thought I'd mention it here in case anyone else is affected.

 

 

 

Paragon Finance Plc v Pender & Anor [2005] EWCA Civ 760 (27 June 2005)

 

109. In my judgment Mr and Mrs Pender's case on this issue is misconceived. It is common ground that Paragon, as registered proprietor of the Legal Charge, retains legal ownership of it. One incident of its legal ownership – and an essential one at that – is the right to possession of the mortgaged property. I can see no basis upon which it can be contended that an uncompleted agreement to transfer the Legal Charge to the SPV (that is to say an agreement under which, pending completion, the SPV has no more than an equitable interest in the mortgage) can operate in law to divest Paragon of an essential incident of its legal ownership. In my judgment as a matter of principle the right to possession conferred by the Legal Charge remains exercisable by Paragon as the legal owner of the Legal Charge (i.e. as the registered proprietor of it), notwithstanding that Paragon may have transferred the beneficial ownership of the Legal Charge to the SPV.

[CosmosBipinnatus]

Paragon Finance Plc v Pender & Anor [2005] EWCA Civ 760 (27 June 2005)

 

109. In my judgment Mr and Mrs Pender's case on this issue is misconceived. It is common ground that Paragon, as registered proprietor of the Legal Charge, retains legal ownership of it. One incident of its legal ownership – and an essential one at that – is the right to possession of the mortgaged property. I can see no basis upon which it can be contended that an uncompleted agreement to transfer the Legal Charge to the SPV (that is to say an agreement under which, pending completion, the SPV has no more than an equitable interest in the mortgage) can operate in law to divest Paragon of an essential incident of its legal ownership. In my judgment as a matter of principle the right to possession conferred by the Legal Charge remains exercisable by Paragon as the legal owner of the Legal Charge (i.e. as the registered proprietor of it), notwithstanding that Paragon may have transferred the beneficial ownership of the Legal Charge to the SPV.

 

I read that but there are three things to point out:

 

1. The mortgage sale agreement between SPML and Eurosail is dated 2008, long after this judgement.

 

2. I think not all the provisions of the Land Registration Act 2002 were at that time in force.

 

3. As failure to "perfect" the transfer is a criminal offence now, I think this judgement no longer serves a useful precendent.

[CosmosBipinnatus]

If you look at your terms and conditions that you will have section B transfer of the company rights ...

 

Yes, I don't have a problem with that.

 

Then it goes on that the same could be done again i.e the sub-prime thing of parceling the loans up and selling them on just in these cases you don't actually want to end up holding the parcel.

 

But, the way things are, SPML could have sold my mortgage on to other people, too. As there is no record in Land Registry records that it has been sold to Eurosail (and, apparently, Companies House have not been notified either).

 

the whole point of acenden is to screw people none of these loans were ever meant to run the term or anything near it again you can read that in the prospectus.

 

I think you are right.

[CosmosBipinnatus]

The other thing people should look for is: if you have been added to Acenden's block buildings insurance policy, check how much the insurance cover is for.

 

If the amount is anything more than the amount remaining to be paid on your mortgage, you may be being set up for repossession.

 

It is illegal to set out to try to make a profit out of insurance, as I pointed out to Acenden last autumn, when they insured the lender's interest for SIX TIMES its exposure (ie six times more than what was left to pay on the mortgage). (After which, they took my property off their block buildings insurance.)

[BazzaS]

 

3. As failure to "perfect" the transfer is a criminal offence now, I think this judgement no longer serves a useful precendent.

 

What criminal offence do you feel had been committed by a failure to perfect the transfer?

 

(Rather than later, as a consequence of the failure, eg them asking for monies you might wish to argue they aren't entitled to)

[bhall]

I read that but there are three things to point out:

 

1. The mortgage sale agreement between SPML and Eurosail is dated 2008, long after this judgement.

 

2. I think not all the provisions of the Land Registration Act 2002 were at that time in force.

 

3. As failure to "perfect" the transfer is a criminal offence now, I think this judgement no longer serves a useful precendent.

 

You may wish to check decisions in more recent cases that follow the precedent set by this case. I have made you aware of it, what you now do is down to you.

 

I wish you well in whatever you do

[CosmosBipinnatus]

What criminal offence do you feel had been committed by a failure to perfect the transfer?

 

I am sure the other side read this forum so I haven't mentioned all the material facts. Everyone needs to read the law. You are allowed to stick up for yourselves.

[BazzaS]

I am sure the other side read this forum so I haven't mentioned all the material facts. Everyone needs to read the law. You are allowed to stick up for yourselves.

 

The "other side" may well read this forum.

If they have committed a criminal offence then them reading which one here won't "undo" the fact an offence has been committed.

 

You have said they have committed a criminal offence : why be shy about saying which?

Otherwise, why mention it at all?