SPPL(Capstone) - Charges + contractual interest

[DoublesWhenDo]

Hi all,

 

New thread to report on my claim for refund of charges + contractual interest.

 

I am at LBA stage and this is going today, Keep you posted

[DoublesWhenDo]

I received reponse this morning for prelim and it states a few points and encloses terms and conditions.

 

My claim was for charges + contractual interest and I have a couple of questions.

 

1) when replying with my LBA do I answer to any of their statements?

2) if it doesn't offer me the claim amount do I just send LBA and ignore their reply?

3)this was termed as a mortgage, £22000 secured, does this change any factors (i.e. as opposed to claiming from a bank account)

 

 

They are stating why they charged me for 'arrears management fee £65.00' (there was some manual intervention, emails, calls + letters etc. These ranged from 3 items upto 8 per month, don't see how they can charge the same amount for differing amounts of contact??)

 

They have also intimated that I claim the charges AND interest are unlawful, again do I have to answer this point in my LBA??

 

I understand the reason I claim for contractual interest and this is for the judge to decide and to also have a fallback of 8%, should the judge again, decide that the 12% contractual NOT be fair.

 

Any comments welcome, Ta

[SHERLOCK]

whoops sorry

[caro]

Could you please provide more detail about your claim. If it is for over £5,000 including contractual interest I would think twice about claiming it. Penalty charges are unlawful though, whether they are imposed by a bank or anyone else.

[DoublesWhenDo]

Hi Caro,

 

the claim totals £750.00 and interest accrued @12.3% is £181.

 

The charges consist of unpaid direct debit fees £25.00 (8no.) and the arrears management fees £65.00 (8no.).

 

The arrears months were as follows....not sure how much info is needed?

 

MANUAL INTERVENTION NOTES RECEIVED: T = them contacting me, M = Me contacting them

 

June 2004 - T x 3 M x 1

July 2004 - T X 3 M X 3

Aug '04 - T X 5 M X 4

Sept '04 - T x 5

Oct '04 - T x 1 M x 3

Nov '04 - T x 1 M x 3

Dec '04 - T x 1 M x 3

Jan '05 - all these notes were to & from SPPL and their solicitors (solicitors fees paid upon redemption) re. possession hearing.

Feb '05 - M x 1

Mar '05 - T x 2 M x 4 (this was redemption stage).

 

These include emails, calls to advise of payment and messages left on my home phone. Can £65.00 really be justified and can the contractual rate be claimed on arrears fees?

 

Would I be best to avoid complications and claim just the 8%, have read the mortgage comps are a little more forward in defending!

 

Many thanks

[caro]

I think I'd be inclined to claim the charges and if they can provide you with a breakdown of exactly what the manual intervention cost them, you can always adjust accordingly.

 

My personal view on contractual interest is that for straightforward claims there is no basis for it in law, and I think this is straightforward. However your claim is well within the small claims limit of £5,000, so the decision must be yours. I would advise that it might complicate matters, but I know that others disagree with my view.

[DoublesWhenDo]

Hi Caro,

 

I sent the LBA in January and SPPL reply stated that their understanding of my complaint was that fees and interest rate applied to my account are unlawful at Common Law, statute and recent Consumer Regulations. (is this correct as per template?)

 

They enclosed for reference, a copy of mortgage arrears statement, tariff of charges booklet, application form and mortgage offer.

 

Also summary of arrears fees and unpaid direct debit fees and each of these charges are applied as per T&C of your mortgage.

 

I am thinking now of sending a new LBA (leaving out the contractual interest) giving a further seven days to supply the breakdown of fees. Will this suffice pre-MCOL?

 

Can they ask for costs at all?

For information the agreement says Southern Pacific Personal Loans Ltd.

This was a secured loan regulated by the CCA 1974 that they refer to as a mortgage (not sure what relevance this may have).

 

Hoping to use your reply for the go ahead in writing the Letter and stating my requirements, Many Thanks.

[gizmo111]

HAve a read here , a little way down there is some info on secured loans.

I have moved your thread into the mortgages forum.

[caro]

Thanks for the help Gizmo. Much more your area of expertise than mine.

[DoublesWhenDo]

Hi again,

 

So if I have got my head around this I claim from them all of the above, give them another chance to pay and/or give me a breakdown of their costs.

 

Still not 100% sure if a mortgage company can ask for costs in small claims or not???

[caro]

The advantage of the small claims court is that costs are not awarded on either side. You can't ask for costs, and neither can they. It is down to the judge to allocate which track claims go to, but generally under £5,000 is allocated to the small claims court.

[DoublesWhenDo]

Thanks Caro, will send them LBA, one last chance.

[DoublesWhenDo]

Taken the plunge and opted to go with claim + contractual , 14 day LBA with up-to-date schedule of charges sent today to Mr. Coleby (litigation)

 

Thanks for your help

[jalex_uk]

I just received a Judgement in Default for £3.5K (they didn't even file an Ack of Service, let alone a defence!) for a penalty charges + contractual interest + 8% stat interest from my local court, against SPPL.

Can't quite believe they let this get through, but going to give them 3 days to send me a cheque or I will be sending it to the bailiffs

These people are complete bozos.

[DoublesWhenDo]

Hi Jalex, thats wonderful news...........enjoy the dough, when u get it

 

did u also claim for arrears management fees?

 

you seem clued up jalex judging from your posts but I can't find your threads??

[jalex_uk]

I claimed for every charge I could find that wasn't an actual mortgage repayment .. I just called them to ask when they were going to pay me to hear them completely surprised I had gone to court and obtained a judgement! Obviously the left/right hands don't know what they're doing here. I wouldn't be surprised if they tried to get it set aside for whatever reason, but as far as I'm concerned I served the claim on them at their Registered Office address, as shown on the bottom of their most recent correspondence to me in April 2007. My loan was originally with SPPL in 2001. As you know, SPPL are part of Capstone (or at least managed by them) now, so all correspondence has been with Capstone though, who have written to me using SPPL stationery, with the SPPL Registered Office address in Broadgate, London.

I expect they'll try to use some pathetic excuse about that not being their address or something, but it won't wash: its the company's registered office, and they used that stationery only 2 months ago to write to me, so they can't really come up with any excuse as far as I'm concerned.

 

Will be interesting to see what happens here.

 

No I didn't have a thread on this actually, but I may start one if they try to set it aside and it goes to court in the end

 

Where have you been writing to - Capstone in High Wycombe, or the SPPL Registered Office address in Broadgate London?

[DoublesWhenDo]

Isent my prelim and LBA to High Wycombe.

 

Got a reply from Tom Coleby (litigation) on SPPL notepaper, so sent my 'last chance' to him @ 6 broadgate, London.

[jalex_uk]

That's the right thing to do, I'm sure, as its their registered office. To be on the safe side, you might want to send the Claim itself personally rather than through the Court (you can do that, so long as you inform the Court that's what you've done). That way you can send it by Recorded Delivery and they can't deny receiving the claim in future.

Or at the very least do what I did, which was to write to them at Capstone informing them I had issued a Claim which had been sent to their Registered Office.

Good luck!

[DoublesWhenDo]

mr coleby asked for evidence to show the charges were unlawful, don't know why, but I sent the letter with reference to Casteneda, unfair terms and OFT statement.

 

I wasn't even given the courtesy of a reply.

 

Was waiting my payout from A&L b4 commencing with SPPL.

 

I took the claim form by hand to courts for A&L claim, could copy the claim form for SPPL and send to Mr. Coleby (special delivery, just in case the court claim form doesn't find its way)

 

anything to avoid hassle l8r on