GMAC Reclaim charges

[larry12]

i have just received all the doc`s from GMAC on behalf of my son,even though he increased his payments to pay of the arrears they have been charging him £50pm arrears fee, when he has not been in arrears they charge him £30 unpaid DD fee I intend to claim all of those charges back,is there any problem with that?

Also on his file there is a £100 fee for instructing there solicitor this seems a lot of money just to send an instruction, then there is a charge of £678.75 solicitors cost, I know they went to court to get a repossession order this was granted ,however since that time i have been able to ensure his mortgage payments were made, that is why when we arranged to increase the monthly payments to clear the arrears i thought this extra was paying of the arrears i now discover it is just paying the £50 Arrears fee Do you think i could challange the solicitors fees?

[Bona]

Some people have sucsessfully claimed money back from GMAC I am just about to start but I doubt if you will get the solictors fees back that amount seems average for the ist case for repossession it wil include all the disbursmance that they have to have . but arreas fees and dd charges are probally ok

[theonetrickpony]

Have finally received reponse from Gmac - 1 day before deadline for non compliance claim! Letter prepared to send on monday to claim back rip-off charges. Has anyone successfully got arrears charges & bouced fees back from gmac yet?

 

I am claiming for unpaid dd fees and arrears fees/litigation fees - yes £50 pm it seems they called it whatever they felt like at the time. Not bothering to go for the solicitors costs as i think that will go nowhere at this stage. Am going for the items that i am confident of getting refunded then will make another claim later (hopefully) when the ERC debate is decided!

 

capital one £828.62 mcol raised 26/2/07

SPML £1989.72 LBA 16/3/07

Bank of Scotland mortgage £?? SAR 16/3/07

Prestige Finance £330 LBA 16/3/07

GMAC £2465 LBA 19/3/07

Welcome Finance £??? SAR 01/2/07, LBA (NON COMPLIANCE) 13/3/07

Capital one (husbands) £??? SAR 31/1/07, LBA (NON COMPLIANCE) 16/3/07

Barclaycard £??? SAR 10/2/07

Forthright Finance £??? SAR 12/3/07

LLoyds TSB business a/c £296.77 LBA 21/3/07

LLoyds TSB current a/c £??? SAR 10/1/07

LLoyds TSB husbands a/c £??? SAR 10/1/07

[zootscoot]

There have been about 4-5 successful claims from Gmac including on e about a week ago. They do tend to pay out just before court and may try to counter claim and multi track.

[larry12]

I have just received a letter from Kensington (is there a thread for them?)they claim there charges are fair and my son agreed to be bound by them when he accepted the mortgage offer and in fact there fees are comparable with others in there markets are in accordance with the FSA regulators and the UTCCR (what is that) that also say should i issue court proceedings they will vigorously defend and will seek an order to recover there costs of defending this action.

i am only claiming back charges applied to this account including costs they have added for solicitors

I am not claiming ERC

what do you think? can they claim costs to defend this action?

[tonycee]

They will all have their own "in house" legal department,. as Mortgages are much more complex than bank accounts..I cant see how solicitors fees will be high, if at all, untill court. I will watch with interest as im only a couple of weeks away from starting my own claim(s). Possibly 3 so i am picking up as much experience as i can first....

Good Luck to you all....

[larry12]

I dont belive they can claim costs back in the small claims court on the fast track system (under 5K) that is the idea of the county court

[larry12]

I am trying to find a Kinsington Mortgage forum is there one?

[tonycee]

Are Kensington not the sub prime division of Halifax . I will have a dig out later..

[mrsfoot]

Larry

 

Kensingtons claims are in this forum as we do not have specific forums for each mortgage company sop here is fine.

 

I am a little confused as you say ion post 1 that you are claiming on behalf of your son against GMAC and in post 5 it is Kensington. Have you got 2 claims on the go for your son?

 

If your son is still with the mortgage company you are cl;aiming from then please be aware that we do not advise this due to the fact some may be less helpful in the fututre should he need them to be.

 

Your right about small claims. Most claims under £5k stay in small track and these do not generally attract costs orders. However be aware that this is not 100% of the time. If the claim is bordering on £5k the Defense may ask for it to go to fast track and costs are awarded in the majority of cases.

 

You mention that you dont know what UTCCR is. This is Unfair Terms in Consumer Contracts regulations. You really need to read up on this as you will have to show how these regs apply to your sons claim.

 

Solicitors fees are not a default charge. Many people are risking losing a lot of money which many can ill afford through being uninformed. You can only claim back charges which have been applied to the account through a breach on your part. So if your son has missed a payment and they have applied £50 to the account, this can be reclaimed. Use this rule of thumb "if its been added to your account as a slap on the wrist for doiing wrong then it can be reclaimed".

The solicitors fees do not come under this rule, although you can ask for the bill to be disclosed if and when it gets to court. Disclosure is normally only in fast and multi track but if you have an allocation hearing you could ask the Judge to make this as part of an order. The worst he can say is no!

 

To round up:

1. Read and understand the UTCCRs

2. Check each charge applies to the rule of thumb

3. Identify each charge and which clause in the contract it applies to e.g charge of £30 for a letter may be linked to clause 3.1 of the contract.

 

Hope this helps

[larry12]

Thank you this is most helpful

yes there are two claims one for GMAC and one for Kensington i take the point of the solicitors costs and will drop them from my claim i have had a letter from them both now saying the charges are fair so the question is "can i reclaim these charges" if so i will issue court proceedings.

As a retired businessman i have a lot of experience dealing with county courts and industrial tribunal's addition i have a son who is a solicitor however i would point out this is not his field of law but he would help me in court

where on the forum is the info regarding the unfair terms

[tonycee]

Im not sure which one you need.

 

http://www.consumeractiongroup.co.uk/forum/statutes-library/40-unfair-terms-conditions-contracts.html

 

http://www.consumeractiongroup.co.uk/forum/statutes-library/33-unfair-contracts-terms-act.html

[Bona]

with regard to solicitors costs, ask for invoices the solicitors will have invoicesd gmac they will pass the amount straight to u gmac are vat registered and can claim the vat back therefore they should not pass that amount on to u

[larry12]

I have asked for the solicitors accounts to enable me to have them accessed by the law society or the courts

[Bona]

how much are they for, we have a costs hearing on 6th August the Judge will make a decsion on what is reasonable that then will be binding on GMAC so it might help you

[larry12]

Larry

 

I Have all the details of the charges on both accounts (GMAC & Kensington) I intend to claim back just the unpaid D/D charges and the £50 per month arrears charges that have been applied to there accounts even though they agreed to pay back and extra £75 towards the arrears (so in effect they were only paying £25 from the arrears account) I am also claiming back the VAT from the solicitors costs because they will have claimed that back through the normal course of business. They seem to want me to go through the Ombudsman as opposed to court?

In light of recent events am i able to issue court proceedings? and can you help with any other info that may help including the relevant unfair trading regs

[larry12]

how much are they for, we have a costs hearing on 6th August the Judge will make a decsion on what is reasonable that then will be binding on GMAC so it might help you

Please let me know how it goes you can contact me by email

[Bona]

Will do we are preparing for the hearing at the moment they have instructed counsel to appear with the costs clerk a bit over the top what are they worried about!!!!!!!!! its only a costs hearing