Repossession Claim.

mark1969

Hi all. I posted this on another thread over the weekend, but in retrospect I think this might be a more appropriate place to put it.


I'm hoping for a bit of advice. We have a normal repayment mortgage with one of the big four high street banks and due to unemployment have fallen behind with the payments. Because of this, in June, I contacted the bank by telephone and in a swift five minute call they agreed to accept a slightly higher monthly payment to clear the arrears. The lady said if it has to go further then we would probably capitalise the arrears and went on to explain what that meant (9basically tack it onto the end of the mortgage). They confirmed this new repayment plan by letter.

All good so far. Then in August we went away for a couple of weeks caravanning and through various confusions, missed the payment. In october I checked the bank statement and saw that Octobers payment had been made. However, this was incorrect and looking back on it I can only assume I was looking at the statement for 2008 by mistake, but the fact is, I thought it had been made. November came and things got tough (wife loss half her hours at work in September, down now to ten per week) and we couldn't make the payment. I was just about to contact the bank to explain this,when last week (Monday) we had a letter from the bank's solicitors saying they were taking repossession proceedings and to contact them. I was about to do this (it took a couple of days to consider our options and what to say etc) this when on Saturday we had another letter from them giving a court date for repossession in four weeks time! Given the timings they must have applied for hearing about the same time they sent out the first letter.

They appear to be treating the pre-action protocol with contempt. There was no effort to contact us to offer capitalisation, payment holiday, deferring interest, offering different type of mortgage etc as a means of avoiding repossession as per the protocol, but the thing that really shocks me is only four days between us receiving the letters. They were dated seven days apart, but the protocol says they should be at leastfifteen working days apart, (in practice then, about three weeks.)

One other thing. In the first letter they mentioned that they'd sent us a default notice in april and that the six months had now expired. We know nothing of this, don't have it or even remember receiving it. If this thing was sent what exactly was it? The first letter this week also shows a statement of the account and under the 'amount expected' every month, it shows the original amount, not the amended amount from June which included extra to pay off the arrears. It looks like the solicitors are totally unaware of the arrangement, or possibly just ignoring it because we have missed a couple of payments....

Anyway what should we do? Telephone them, yes, but the letter came Saturday and the office was closed.

Also, just how binding is the pre-action protocol, because these people are running roughshod all over it. Is it just another of those industry voluntary things that they all sign up to in a fanfare of cameras and headlines, but never do intend to implement?

One more thing, I've just been granted jobseekers allowance (back dated to initial clam end Sept) so can I halt proceedings if I claim under the government's the Support for Mortgage Interest scheme?

Thanks for reading!

Mark.

not_tonight_josephine_2

so you agreed a repayment plan in June to deal with your arrears, failed to keep to it a few weeks later and have not attempted to contact the bank to explain/discuss your options in the following 3 months? It sounds like it's not just the bank who is at fault for a lack of communcation, surely you expected them to take some kind of action when you continued to miss your agreed payments?

On a more practical note, try contacting these people for some advice on your options

http://mortgagehelp.direct.gov.uk/

mark1969

not_tonight_josephine wrote: »

so you agreed a repayment plan in June to deal with your arrears, failed to keep to it a few weeks later and have not attempted to contact the bank to explain/discuss your options in the following 3 months? It sounds like it's not just the bank who is at fault for a lack of communcation, surely you expected them to take some kind of action when you continued to miss your agreed payments?



Did actually bother to read what I'd written?

I was under the impression that I was only ONE month in arrears and was just about to contact them when I got the first letter threatening repossession follow four days later by the court date. Yes, I'm partly to blame, I never denied that, but that doesn't change the facts that the bank is completely
ignoring the protocol.

Do me a favour. If you can't even read the question properly don't bother offering 'advice'. Thanks for nothing.

not_tonight_josephine_2

mark1969 wrote: »

Did actually bother to read what I'd written?

Yes, that's how I know you have been in arrears since August and not contacted your lender to discuss?

The pre-action protocol does place an obligation on your lender to follow certain steps, yes, and they should give you 15 working days notice of their intent to start court action. This means you should be able to apply for an adjournment but only until they have complied with the requirements of the protocol. There is also an obligation on you to take reasonable steps to discuss your situation with your lender - this is the part you do not appear to have complied with.

As stated in my previous post, you should be contacting somebody like the advice bodies listed here for advice.
http://mortgagehelp.direct.gov.uk/what-are-my-options.aspx#getFree

DVardysShadow

mark1969 wrote: »

... Did actually bother to read what I'd written?

I was under the impression that I was only ONE month in arrears and was just about to contact them when I got the first letter threatening repossession follow four days later by the court date. Yes, I'm partly to blame, I never denied that, but that doesn't change the facts that the bank is completely
ignoring the protocol.

Do me a favour. If you can't even read the question properly don't bother offering 'advice'. Thanks for nothing.

I bothered to read it and I think that not_tonight has actually given a fair summary. In essence, I feel that you have put some spin on how you described the situation and not_tonight has undone the spin.

Yes, there does appear to be some breach of protocol. But you don't appear to have helped yourself quite how I would have gone about it, and the whole thing is not quite so out of the blue as you suggest. In mustering the arguments as to why you are not being treated right, you need to beware of not deluding yourself - I didn't think you were until I read your response to not_tonight. Sympathy from here is not going to save your home. Following not_tonight's link may help you.

mark1969

If I'd wanted to be judged I'd have gone to a priest, you sanctimonious kunts.

dmg24

mark1969 wrote: »

If I'd wanted to be judged I'd have gone to a priest, you sanctimonious kunts.

You are not a very nice person. People have tried to help, you have just been plain rude.

SouthCoast

Help is available.
See posts #2 and #4.

Radiantsoul

I think that you need to figure out what you can afford to offer the bank and check the links people have provided. I can imagine that it is a stressful situation, but the fact is you have made an arrangement with the bank that you haven't been able to keep to. The bank is likely to get a possession order(although it may be suspended based on receiving payments).

Your opinions are likely to be
1. Sell yourself, although it may be too late
2. Let the bank repossess
3. Come to an agreement with the bank for payments, but they are going to expect substantial payments and not token payments.
4. Get someone else to loan you money to pay the bank/sell some other assets

I think complaining about minor errors of procedure by the bank will not help in a major way. It is not clear which option is best and you need advise on what to do in terms of getting rehoused if the worst does happen.

SouthCoast

And advice from Shelter on repossession:

http://england.shelter.org.uk/get_advice/repossession

Wutang_2

mark1969 wrote: »

Hi all. I posted this on another thread over the weekend, but in retrospect I think this might be a more appropriate place to put it.


I'm hoping for a bit of advice. We have a normal repayment mortgage with one of the big four high street banks and due to unemployment have fallen behind with the payments. Because of this, in June, I contacted the bank by telephone and in a swift five minute call they agreed to accept a slightly higher monthly payment to clear the arrears. The lady said if it has to go further then we would probably capitalise the arrears and went on to explain what that meant (9basically tack it onto the end of the mortgage). They confirmed this new repayment plan by letter.

All good so far. Then in August we went away for a couple of weeks caravanning and through various confusions, missed the payment. In october I checked the bank statement and saw that Octobers payment had been made. However, this was incorrect and looking back on it I can only assume I was looking at the statement for 2008 by mistake, but the fact is, I thought it had been made. November came and things got tough (wife loss half her hours at work in September, down now to ten per week) and we couldn't make the payment. I was just about to contact the bank to explain this,when last week (Monday) we had a letter from the bank's solicitors saying they were taking repossession proceedings and to contact them. I was about to do this (it took a couple of days to consider our options and what to say etc) this when on Saturday we had another letter from them giving a court date for repossession in four weeks time! Given the timings they must have applied for hearing about the same time they sent out the first letter.

They appear to be treating the pre-action protocol with contempt. There was no effort to contact us to offer capitalisation, payment holiday, deferring interest, offering different type of mortgage etc as a means of avoiding repossession as per the protocol, but the thing that really shocks me is only four days between us receiving the letters. They were dated seven days apart, but the protocol says they should be at leastfifteen working days apart, (in practice then, about three weeks.)

One other thing. In the first letter they mentioned that they'd sent us a default notice in april and that the six months had now expired. We know nothing of this, don't have it or even remember receiving it. If this thing was sent what exactly was it? The first letter this week also shows a statement of the account and under the 'amount expected' every month, it shows the original amount, not the amended amount from June which included extra to pay off the arrears. It looks like the solicitors are totally unaware of the arrangement, or possibly just ignoring it because we have missed a couple of payments....

Anyway what should we do? Telephone them, yes, but the letter came Saturday and the office was closed.

Also, just how binding is the pre-action protocol, because these people are running roughshod all over it. Is it just another of those industry voluntary things that they all sign up to in a fanfare of cameras and headlines, but never do intend to implement?

One more thing, I've just been granted jobseekers allowance (back dated to initial clam end Sept) so can I halt proceedings if I claim under the government's the Support for Mortgage Interest scheme?

Thanks for reading!

Mark.

I am prepared to bet five pounds this fella has spent his arrears money on drink.

Its a given - look at all the tell-tale signs.