Challenging Southern Pacific (Acenden) Mortgage Arrears Fees in Court

[stegly66]

I have a couple of questions I'm hoping someone can offer some advice with.

 

 

I have a secured loan with Southern Pacific (Acenden) for £5500 taken out in 2006

and is due to finish at the end of April.

 

 

In 2007 I was made redundant, got in to approximately £400 of arrears

and was taken to court and ordered to pay the full monthly payment plus £20 per month towards the arrears. T

 

 

his I did but Acenden added a £30 arrears fee each month to the arrears,

hence I had no chance of ever repaying these arrears.

 

 

The situation is that I now owe £12k which is due to repaid at the end of April

and is made up entirely of fees, charges and interest.

 

 

My questions are,

 

1. Does anyone thing there is any point going to court to challenge Acenden on the basis

that they have frustrated the order of a court (or whatever the legal terminology maybe)

as by them adding charges to the arrears I could never repay the arrears as directed by the court.

 

2. Does anyone know of any company that would be able to offer legal help

(rather than just the generic advice you get from National Debtline etc.)?

I have approached a local solicitors (in Bolton) but they want my to pay £500 up fron

t just to look at the papers before deciding if they could help which I'm not in a position to pay.

 

Any advice appreciated.

[martin2006]

Hi Stegly and welcome to CAG.

 

I had a case with SPML around 7/8 years ago but that was to do with ERC, they are a difficult nut to crack and at the time, i was unable to see the case through with the threat of being landed with SPML's costs.

I put my family first and let it go for the sake of 3.5k

 

Yours is different though as yours relates to default sums and it just the same process as claiming them back from Credit card accounts.

 

First thing to do is get all the statements together, send a SAR if you havent done so already so you get all the info relating to the agreement, apr etc aswell

 

Anything like monthly arrears fees, interest added to fees, home visit charges, failed dd charges etc can all be reclaimed, as long as the total claimed falls under 10k it can be kept in the small claims track so costs neednt be a big worry.

 

let us know where you are upto with the info you will need and we can go from there

 

Go nail em!

[stegly66]

I now have details of all the charges (£3480).

 

How do I go about reclaiming them?

 

Do I just send a letter asking them nicely?

 

And what percentage of the charges should I be asking for as obviously they're allowed to charge something,

 

just not £85 every month just for being in arrears. Thanks

[bs0lth]

I just want to say good luck, I've had so many run ins with these sharks, I will follow this thread with interest, I might at one stage go back and revisit things.

[dx100uk]

£5k loan from 2007

now £12k!!

 

 

you've been had blind.

[dx100uk]

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

[martin2006]

In your case stegy i might be tempted to break this up into separate claims or just keep the claim below the 10k small claims track limit

[stegly66]

Quick update..

..Acenden wouldn't look at my complaint as I've already complained before and they've given me their answer,

i.e. they've done nothing wrong and they can add charges to the arrears and they're fair.

 

I've complained to the Financial Ombudsman and they've said that Acenden's final response to my my complaints was over 6 months ago and therefore thay can't do anything unless Acenden agrees.

 

They have written to Acenden and they have refused so the FO said that there's nothing they can do.

 

So, shafted on a technicality.

[martin2006]

If youve had a final response stegy and cant go to fos then your only ciurse of action is via small claims court

[dx100uk]

fos will never agree with a debtor against a bank on penalty charges.

not their bag

the FCA might but court is your route.

dx