kensington mortgage

[colin1096]

Bit of a silly question but here goes .

 

i have 8 years to run on my mortgage and rung the mortgage company to reduce it to 4 years .

They said they would have to do credit checks and affordability checks on me and my wife but i know our credit history is shocking .

 

Now my question is  ( if they say no )

i have say a direct debit per month for £ 350  and online there is a facility to make a payment .

Could i just keep the DD and make a payment Of £ 350 per month as well online for 4 years would i be any better or worse off.

 

I know in theory this sounds simple but just wondered if it would have any affect .

[BankFodder]

Unless you are on a fixed term mortgage which takes you for the rest of the eight years, then there is absolutely no way that they can prevent you paying it off early. All you gotta do is start making enhanced payments.

Who's the mortgage company?

[colin1096]

the mortgage company is kensington and i am on a capital repayment

 

 

[BankFodder]

Well it's not really my area of experience but I don't see how they can prevent you repaying early unless there is some penalty involved

[colin1096]

ok thank you , the only other thing is , there is also  (Your Total Overdue balance is £376.03. This includes your Payment Arrears balance of £0.00 and Other Amounts Due balance of £376.03 )

 

i have queried this and they think it is some late penalty fees or charges from when i was ge money over 12 years ago which i knew nothing about until i have checked my account online this week .

 

They are going to send me statements because they said they can only look back 6 years and i haven't missed a payment with kensington at all in 12 years .

 

[BankFodder]

Well first of all if there were late penalty fees then they have probably been charged and unlawful rate. Also, if these late penalty fees are not added to the mortgage – which they should not be then they become statute barred after six years. If they were attached the mortgage then they would have been statute barred after 12 years.

However, I suppose that Kensington will want all of it back. The easy thing for you to do would be to pay it all back and then claim back the unlawful fees.

If you get into a fight on the basis that you simply refuse to pay the unlawful fees, then you could find it difficult to pay and to get your mortgage discharged. Best to get a discharge first and then go back and attack them when they have no further hold over you

[colin1096]

ok thanks again , i have written a letter to ge money to see what they say

[CraigMcK]

You would need to check. I know on my mortgage the most I can overpay each year is 10%. I am on a fixed rate however.

I believe most companies have that.
Also check that you don’t have an early settlement. It cost me £3k to close a mortgage down 3 months before the end. But it was that or not selling...

[colin1096]

it says Your repayment type is Capital Repayment
Your Remaining Term is 8 years, 10 months
Your current Interest Rate is 2.35%

 

Monthly payment due         £346.11       

Total outstanding balance:    £33,455.24

 

[dx100uk]

kensington make up their own rules as they go along and always to their benefit.

i bet they are still charging you for the arrears from the time you were with GE.

 

send them an sar. get reclaiming. just wait for them to say oh no too late.

they've been fined by all their regulators SOO many times now they just don't care.

 

there is nothing to stop you making additional lump sum payments.

 

 

[colin1096]

We have a mortgage with GE money which was taken over by kensington Mortgage company in 2016 .

 

Back around 2011 we were struggling some months and would always ring ge money before our direct debit was due and ask if we could pay double the following month . I was self employed so money was up and down. We always paid what we arranged and this sort of continued for about 12 months .

 

Charges were put on my account of £40 some times because of this but they said they would go . Some did and some didnt . Recently about 5 months ago i wanted to reduce my mortgage term but kensington said that the arrears of £376 had to be paid first . I was unaware of these charges even there and i rarely checked my statements .

 

They said it was nothing to do with them , i had to go back to GE money who inturn said it is now kensingtons problem. I went the FOS and below is there response.

Dear XXX XXXXXX

Mr X XXXXXX and Mrs X XXXXXX complaint about Kensington Mortgage Company Limited

 

I’ve now looked at the information we have about this complaint. Although we deal with a wide range of complaints, there are times when we can’t help. Unfortunately, based on what I’ve seen so far, I don’t think your complaint is one we can look into.

 

Complaint

 

You’re unhappy with the amount of arrears that have accrued on your mortgage balance

 

Background

 

You told us back in 2011 you were struggling financially and asked the mortgage company to change the date of your direct debit, as you were incurring unpaid charges between £25 and £40 a time. You said sometime these charges were refunded and on other occasions they weren’t even through the business said they would refund them. You said you paid off £176.06 of outstanding charges on 7 June 2012, however there was still a balance left that was accruing further interest. You said the balance kept increasing until 30 April 2016 when interest was stopped leaving a balance of £376.03 owed.

 

As a resolution you would like these charges removed so there are no arrears showing on your mortgage, which will enable you to extend the term of your mortgage.

 

Kensington Mortgage Company said the arrears balance of £376.03 relates to historic fees and interest incurred on the total outstanding balance when your mortgage was with GE Money and were charged in accordance with the Terms and Conditions of the mortgage. Their records indicate that when your account was with GE Money, statements were sent out to you on a regular basis which detailed the fees applied and notice of fee letters were also issued.

 

The Financial Conduct Authority’s (FCA) Dispute Resolution Rules (DISP) sets time limits as being six years from the event giving rise to the complaint or, three years from when you knew (or ought reasonably to have known) that you had cause for complaint. They didn’t uphold your complaint as the fees were charged over 6 years ago, however they reviewed the account going back to July 2014 to date and identified that you have not been charged any fees during this period.

 

Findings

 

Kensington Mortgage Company has only consented for us to investigate issues within 6 years of the final response letter 23 September 2021, which means I can only consider what happened on your account from 23 September 2015 onwards.

 

When we review cases like this we are obliged to operate within certain rules - known as the DISP rules - and these set out, among other things, what an eligible complaint is and whether it has been referred to us in time to be considered.

 

One of the DISP rules (specifically DISP 2.8.2) states that we cannot consider a complaint if it was made more than:

 

·        Six years after the event complained of; or if later

·        Three years from when the customer was aware, or ought reasonably to have been aware, of cause for complaint.

 

Kensington Mortgage Company said as the events in your complaint date back to  2011 and 2012, these points are all time barred as you were aware of them at the time. Furthermore, you received statements detailing the applicable charge(s). Therefore, this would fall outside of our jurisdiction as you had an awareness back in 2012 that you had cause to complain, but didn’t bring the complaint to our service until March 2021.

 

I appreciate you have said that you had no awareness of the fees and charges until Kensington sent you a statement, however I could see a letter was sent to you on 6 May 2016, from GE advising of the fees and interest charges of £376.03 (attached), therefore you could’ve raised a complaint then.

 

Unfortunately based on the information I’ve reviewed, your complaint about the charges applied to your account prior to September 2015 falls outside of our jurisdiction because its time barred. So, I can only review what’s happened on your account from September 2015 onwards, however, if there are any exceptional circumstances I need to be aware of, as to why you didn’t bring this complaint to us sooner, then I would be happy to review it again.

 

Next steps If you decide that you don't accept what I’ve said, then please let me know by 11 March 2022. If I can’t resolve things then an ombudsman here can look at everything again and make a decision. If I don’t hear from you by that date we might not be able to look at your complaint again. i Just wondered if it was worth getting back in touch with the FOS or just pay up . Thanks in advance.

[honeybee13]

Hi.

 

Are you talking about your previous thread please?

 

HB

[colin1096]

yes i think so   from february 23 2021

 

this kicked it all off and they wouldnt let me reduce the term because of this . This is my final response from the FOS

 

 

 

[honeybee13]

I'm sorry, I omitted to post a link to your previous thread.

 

I can't see your FOS document, by the way.

 

 

 

HB

[dx100uk]

threads merged.

 

is there anything exceptional thats changed in your situation as they ask...

 

as i said before kennys/ge are a very hard nut to now crack

 

 

[colin1096]

My wife's father drowned whilst he was on holiday in 2012 . My father passed away suddenly in 2013 . We suffered financial hard ship in 2012 to 2015 , but did manage to keep up mortgage payments . I had a heart attack in 2021 . We both had covid and both isolated for 6 months in 2021 . I developed diabetes last year . Among other things we still struggle about.  Also with being self employed money is always tight. 

 

Edited February 25, 2022 by colin1096
Mispell

[dx100uk]

Give it a go.