Repossession payback £50 month then £75 fees???

jbindebt

Just got my annual mortgage statement today. We survived repossession (just) and arranged in court to pay £50 per month off £4000 arrears. Statement shows "admin charges" at £75 per month. When queried was told it's for all the work we have to do writing letters and calling you and checking your direct debit was made. After pointing out we don't get letters or calls from them it was agreed, "Yes you are actually very good but we have to treat everyone the same." ???? Worth a call to the ombudsman???

opinions4u

If the fee is published in your lender's tariff, there is nothing you can do about it.

Write a nice letter to the chief executive by all means. Pursue it with the Ombudsman by all means. I just don't see you getting support.

Martin Lewis would be more popular with me if he championed this issue rather than the bank charges one.

Please will you name and shame your lender.

Monthy arrears fees for customers who are complying with a payment arrangement are an absolute disgrace.

itsakidsworld

I would not give two monkeys what their terms and conditions said. I would write a strong letter, not a nicey, nicey one and explain exactly how you feel. When doing this make the point of how this extra £75 a month admin is an absolute disgrace given your current financial situation and that it is robbery of the first degree. Explain that this £75 should be used to help clear your arreas and if you default this payment then sure an admin charge may apply but not £75, maybe £15 at the most- and that is ONLY if you default.

When you call these clown you always speak to the monkey and not the organ grinder so get that letter wrote and make sure it is delivered by recorded post.

Mention in the letter that you will be taking action through your solicitor if an agreement cannot be reached and although it shows you to the public, go to your local newspaper if you feel confident. Write all the points you wish to make and then keep re-writing until your letter is exactly how you want it. Never swear or make negative remarks- make strong, positive remarks of how and why you are writing this.

I would never accept this agreement regardless of what was said. The law is there to be challenged. The normal working person understands the law better than the so called big wigs- Remember "greed creates poverty" as the world is now seeing and this is a typical example of why.

Do not give in!!!!!!!!!!!!! It is your money. They lent you cash to buy a property, it does not mean they own you and your life!! Challenge this to the highest level and you will get a result.

gizmo111

The principle of reclaiming these is the same as bank charges - which lender areyou with?

jbindebt

Sorry for the delay in replying all. I actually thought there was no point fighting this but you have all given me the boost to at least speak up. what really annoyed me at the time was that when I complained I was told " I understand your concerns but at least your debt is being paid off" to which I replied "Yes but in 80 months time I'll be worse off and still owe you the same amount of money," to get "no, you misunderstand, in 80 months your debt will be paid, you will owe us fees which are a different matter." Every word of that is true!!!

jbindebt

Oh yes, these are the nice people at Rooftop Mortgages who have taken me through the repossession process "as it is procedure" and also added £100 to instruct a solicitor, £379.50 Solicitor fees for what I believe was four letters and £875 arrears management fees since last July. At my lowest point I was paying £1100 per month instead of £1300, never had a "full non-payment but hey, according to them "its the system".

happybroker

this is shocking behaviour....write a formal complaint letter and send it by recorded delivery so that you can make sure they have it.

Ask them to explain to you how the feel treating you this way fits in their "Treating Customers Fairly" policy. TCF is a big thing with the fsa and so should be with Rooftop.

Outline in you letter exactly what you expect of them, the stopping of these charges so that you can actually reduce the amount of arrears you owe them for instance, and also that they confirm to you that they are not prepared to enter into further correspondence on the matter if they are unwilling to comply so that you can refer the matter to FOS.

I'm guessing to get £4,000 in arrears (or £3k if this includes the charges you mentioned) this has been going on for quite some time if the most you underpaid by was £200? If if has you may find them a little less co-operative.

Dan_1976

Let em get this right, they are charging you £75 a month becasue your in arrears.

I actually think this is legal, although clearly a very harsh and pants way of making people pay up!

I know Northern Rock do it so it is not just the sub prime lenders that are up to it.

I would contact either CCB or National debt line for some advice. They will give you a nice letter template, they work I have used them!

jbindebt

Sorry happybroker. Just to clarify, for the last thirteen months weve been missing the Mortgage by just under £300 per month. Thankfully that was the one thing the judge appreciated, every month without fail my entire salary went to the mortgage company, I just didn't have any more to give! the £4000 figure does not include any fees or the recent court charges. They'll be tucked up nice and safe until I pay the Mortgage and then Wham!!! Our advice at the time was "Sell it" and start again by all our friends and I know they meant well. What they never thought of was that as the market collapsd we were then £30000 in negative equity and it seemed to make more sense struggling on rather than giving up entirely.As it turns out things are on the up but it is this "sucking you dry"mentality that seems ludicrous. Pay me some money, we charge you even more, and we have a cow to milk for as long as we like!! Argh

itsakidsworld

Have you wrote a letter and sent recorded post yet? You appear to have done all you can to stay afloat and you get admiration for that. However the fact is these companies do not give two monkeys about you or your state of health so you have to play hard ball with them!

Wahtever they throw at you throw it back with an explanation. You may lose but at least you go down fighting!

Trust me it really does work!

Mrs_Bumble

In the 13 months when you were underpaying the mortgage did the lender make contact with you and try to make arrangement with you? Or was contact avoided? If contact and an arrangement were made impossible then the lender had no alternative to go to court to try to get an arrangement in place.

Now is the £75 per month for the period of time that no arrangment was in place or is it for the period of time since the arrangement was in place? Now if it was for the period of time that no formal arrangement was in place and they tried to make contact etc then the £75 per month would be a justified charge that is published in their tariff guide and I suspect that for each month that you underpaid the mortgage that you also received a letter that advised that you were in arrears and a fee was going to be applied and should have also enclosed a statement of charges.

Did your annual mortgage statement also show an extra entry for the court costs of actually obtaining the court order?

Now if they are charging the monthly fee now that they have a court order in place with an arrangement to pay, I would query that because I can't see how that is justified now that the order is in place and it is not something I saw in practice when I worked in collections.

If you have access a legal helpline with your buildings and contents insurance then you can try and give that a call, or check when a solicitor will be available via your CAB or give these guys a call http://www.communitylegaladvice.org.uk/

but as I have stated above if the monthly charge was being applied before the arrangement was made via the order then I don't think that you will have grounds for complaint.