Reclaim of charges on mortgage

[MoonHawk]

Hi

 

I am in arrears with Paratus AMC (Previously GMAC) whom I gather to be difficult to deal with.

 

As part of their pre-action they have kindly forwarded me the complete statement of the account.

 

In it I have noticed that there are a large number of fee items and wanted to know if anyone can advice which ones can realistically be claimed against as unlawful charges:

 

Unpaid DD Fee (£30)

Arrears Fee (£50)

Non Payment by DD Fee (£30)

 

Thanks for any assistance

[dx100uk]

all of them

 

 

http://www.consumeractiongroup.co.uk/forum/showthread.php?296108-Hot-news-for-anyone-who-has-suffered-mortgage-arrears-charges-irresponsible-lending-or-other-unfair-lender-conduct

[MoonHawk]

That was quick

 

Thanks DX

 

A couple more questions have arisen as I am going through the fees. Note that the account started in Oct 2005.

 

1) There is an amount in 2006 stated as "Standard Solicitors Fees" for over £300.

I have no idea what this is or even why it was added to the account.

 

 

Can this go in the charges?

Or if not can I reclaim interest as I did not have a choice to settle it at the time if it was valid.

 

2) There seems to be an attempt to address the fees with two entries (Re-Dress Interest £35 and Re-Dress of Fees £444).

This is was short as the total up to that point is £2500 without the above solicitors fees.

 

 

Shall I just enter these as a negative in the spreadsheet?

 

Thanks

[dx100uk]

That was quick

 

Thanks DX

 

A couple more questions have arisen as I am going through the fees. Note that the account started in Oct 2005.

 

1) There is an amount in 2006 stated as "Standard Solicitors Fees" for over £300.

I have no idea what this is or even why it was added to the account. - did they ever litigate? or start court proceedings

Can this go in the charges? no if they did do court

 

Or if not can I reclaim interest as I did not have a choice to settle it at the time if it was valid.

 

2) There seems to be an attempt to address the fees with two entries (Re-Dress Interest £35 and Re-Dress of Fees £444).

This is was short as the total up to that point is £2500 without the above solicitors fees.

 

Shall I just enter these as a negative in the spreadsheet? yes then blank the relevant int cols

Thanks

 

 

dx

[MoonHawk]

Thanks again for the assistance DX. Cant remember it going to court. To be safe I will leave it off the sheet and ask them to explain it.

 

Onwards

[MoonHawk]

Modified letter to be sent tomorrow. Any feedback would be greatly appreciated.

 

Dear Sirs,

ACCOUNT NUMBER: XXXXXX

 

Thank you for your correspondence received from XXXX, acting on behalf of XXXX, dated XXXX.

 

With the above letter XXXX supplied a printout of a schedule of payments received on the account. In reading the schedule we have noticed two payments on the 12th November 2009, for ‘Re-Dress Interest’ and ‘Re-Dress Of Fees’. We have had no explanation as to what these payments were for or from whom.

 

Further investigation on these payments has led us to understand that they were in response to the rulings in 2009 for unfair charges on financial accounts. If this was brought to our attention at the time, we would have investigated this further and would not have accepted the payment, as it is below what we would deem fair, given the total of charges previously applied.

 

We also now understand that according to the The Mortgage Conduct of Business rules, FSA had announced a similar ruling on excessive mortgage charges which exceed actual administrative cost to the lender.

 

We are also disappointed to see, in the provided schedule, that the same charges were continued to be applied following this date, thus ignoring the advice of the ruling.

 

We are therefore writing to ask you to refund the charges which you charged to my account in respect of Arrears, Non Payment By DD and Unpaid DD fees, to the sum of £ XXX (the Re-Dress payments have been removed from this total) . We now understand that such fees are unlawful at Common Law, Statute and consumer Regulations.

 

In addition your charges appear to represent an unfair term of contract which is contrary to the Unfair Terms in Consumer Contracts Regulations 1999 (SI. 1999/2083). My account falls within the ambit of Regulation 5 of the Unfair Terms in Consumer Contracts Regulations 1999 as we are consumers. Your charges constitute an unfair penalty under Schedule 2 of the said Regulations, which provide an indicative and non-exhaustive list of terms which may be regarded as unfair. Under paragraph 1(e) of schedule 2 this specifically includes terms which have the object of requiring any consumer who fails his obligation to pay a disproportionately high sum in compensation. We would vigorously contend that this is the position regarding the fees which you deemed fit to apply to my account.

 

We would like to bring your attention to the following statement by The Office of Fair Trading:

"A term in a mortgage agreement which requires the borrower to pay more for breaching the contract terms than actual costs and losses caused to the lender by the breach (or a genuine pre-estimate of that) is likely to be regarded as an unfair penalty and to be unenforceable both at common law and (in a consumer mortgage) under the Unfair Terms in Consumer Contracts Regulations.

 

We believe that the charges you have levied of £ XXX far exceed any true cost to yourself as a result of our breaches and any genuine pre-estimate you could conceivably reach. If you disagree, then will you please demonstrate this by letting me have a full breakdown of the costs to which you have been put to as a result of our breaches, in order to reassure us that your charges really do reflect your costs.

 

Thus we are asking that you refund the charges and other fees which have been levied on this account. If you do not respond, or you do not respond positively, within the time limits set out in your official complaints procedure we will enter a formal complaint to the Financial Ombudsman Service. We believe that these targets are more than sufficient for a large company such as yours with dedicated staff and departments.

 

We hope that you will enter into a sincere dialogue with me about this matter and we are writing this letter to you on the assumption that you will prefer to do this than merely respond with standard letters and leaflets.

 

Yours faithfully,

Edited December 16, 2015 by MoonHawk
Added paragraph in red to the letter

[dx100uk]

ok.

 

 

MCOBS might well be worth a mention too?

 

 

dx

[MoonHawk]

Thanks, I will add a paragraph (see the original post - new paragraph in red)

 

This is the letter I am looking to send to their solicitors.

 

Dear Sirs,

 

Thank you for your correspondence and the schedule of payments, sent on behalf of your client, XXXX, dated XXX.

 

In your communication you have given notice of your intention for court proceedings over the non-payment of the alleged outstanding balance on the above mentioned account. As such you and your client are obliged, under the Civil Procedures Rules, to work with the other party, in order to ensure the claim is dealt with expediently and fairly, avoiding an unnecessary burden to the court's resources. Part of this includes provision of information to ensure that all parties are on an equal footing.

 

Please find a copy of a letter sent to your client requesting a refund of £XXX of unfair charges applied to the account, which we were unaware fell under the rulings of 2009, and your client failed to inform us that these applied to mortages.

 

Because this amount would being the total of the arrears into question, I kindly request that you hold any further action on the above account until the complaint in the letter has been addressed.

As already mentioned, I welcome your assistance in this to avoid an unnecessary burden to the court's resources.

 

Yours faithfully,