Reclaiming mortgage arrears and imposed 'debt counselling' fees

steveh66_2

Hello all

apologies if these questions have already been posted and answered a dozen times or so elsewhere. But here goes...due to my wife having to take a cut in her hours and so therefore less coming in, I unfortunately built up a couple of months' arrears with Kensington Mortgage company about five months ago (we took out a second loan with them a couple of years back to try and consolidate our debts; how I wish we'd been able to muddle through instead). As a result they've been applying a £50 arrears fee to our account every month which has probably added an extra three hundred or so to our debt, excluding the interest of course, despite my paying extra each month to reduce these. Then, about a month ago my car needed urgent repairs (no car, no getting to work as it's a fifty mile round trip) so I was forced to pay less to them that month. I received a letter informing me that they were sending a 'debt counsellor' around to "formulate a solution to this problem", listing the cost of this as just under a hundred quid, and a cancellation fee if I declined of, I believe, just under seventy. Naturally I immediately wrote off to them using recorded delivery but heard nothing back until knock knock, there he is on my doorstep. He was friendly enough if a little insistent that I receive 'counselling' but I reiterated that I'd already declined his visit and immediately wrote again to KMC explaining again that I'd wrote to them and heard no reply, and didn't need the 'service' as we've put the house on the market to try and sort ourselves out. I received a letter back saying this wasn't their problem, they didn't receive my original letter, and lo and behold there was a cancellation charge on my statement.

Irrespective of whether they received my letter or not (and I've requested an investigation from Royal Mail), this supposed service was imposed so can I pursue a refund of the cancellation charge, as well as the monthly arrears fees? This smacks of KMC trying to squeeze all they can out of someone when they're down, and from what I've read on these boards, is pretty consistent behaviour. More worryingly, though, if I do seek a refund through polite requests at first then, undoubtedly, an application via MCOL, will it be heard under the current waiver, and as we're still in arrears (though we're managing to stick to an eye-watering repayment plan) are KMC likely to call in the mortgage?

Help