excessive mortage fees!!

graham74_2

hiya there all.
i'm not sure if ive got this in the right place! sorry if i havent, but i was just wondering can we claim back excessive charges to mortages like we did with bank and credit card account charges? just noticed that ive had a few £31 charges unpaid direct debits.
(funny thing is more often than not when i didnt have the funds in my bank account to pay my mortage, it was because the bank took there charges that they had given me for unpaid direct debts from the previous month for non payment of my mortage. some months it was a circle of the bank taking there charges from my account and leaving me short of funds to pay my mortage, i spoke to them afew times about this and basically just got told that it was my fault i had got the charges for non payment. and they was within there right to take there charges from my bank account, but my aguement was, they'd take there charges in the morning of the day my mortage went out from my account, then there wasnt enough money left to pay for my mortage, just a circle that took me months to brake out of )

anyway. has with excessive charges with bank accounts and to credit cards accounts, where it was agreed that it shouldnt cost more than £12 to send a letter to say that i had a unpaid direct debit.
so with these charges on my mortage can we do the same, and relaim the difference? £31 minus £12 =£19 refund

also can anyone give me any advice on the following charges to my mortage if they are excessive or not?
these are as they appear on my statements, some of them i not sure what they are for!

1- capital repayment £233.48 WHATS IS THIS??
2- Receipt transfer £233.48 also WHATS THIS??
3- First stage arrears £10
4- second stage reminder £30
5- Arrangment fee £36
6- home visit £94
7- letter before action £85
8- issue of summons £130
9- hearing instruction £170
10- solicitors fee £80.50

any help would be great.
thanks all

graham74_2

OOOOPSSS
and another thing that i forgot to ask for some advice on, is.
on 3-2-2012 i recieved a refund of £652.93 from tsb for a capital payment that was made to my mortage a number of years ago, and they hadnt recalculated my mortage when the payment was made, they said they had made a mistake and refunded me, plus intrest.

the letter that i recieved then goes on to state, please NOTE that my policy for payment protection had been cancelled from 4-7-2006
ive been through all my letters from the tsb, and i believe that theyve never contacted before to say that they was going to cancel my insurance on my mortage. so according to the letter it looks like i havent had any insurance for the last 6 years!

any advice on how i should go about tackling this problem with the tsb? not good to find out 6years after they had done it that they had cancelled my policy!
cheers all

dunstonh

can we claim back excessive charges to mortages like we did with bank and credit card account charges?

You cant claim back "excessive" charges any more. That boat has sailed apart from a few areas where goodwill offers are made and if you are willing to go to court on credit card charges.

has with excessive charges with bank accounts and to credit cards accounts, where it was agreed that it shouldnt cost more than £12 to send a letter to say that i had a unpaid direct debit.

The £12 applied to credit card charges. Not bank charges.

so with these charges on my mortage can we do the same, and relaim the difference? £31 minus £12 =£19 refund

No. Mortgage arrears charges are not credit card charges.

also can anyone give me any advice on the following charges to my mortage if they are excessive or not?

None of them.

any advice on how i should go about tackling this problem with the tsb? not good to find out 6years after they had done it that they had cancelled my policy!

The only reason an insurer would cancel the policy would be if you told them or you didnt make the payments (bounded direct debits for example). In these cases you are written to a number of times. It doesnt just stop without notice.

graham74_2

The only reason an insurer would cancel the policy would be if you told them or you didnt make the payments (bounded direct debits for example). In these cases you are written to a number of times. It doesnt just stop without notice.[/QUOTE]


thank for clearing those bits up.
has for my insurance ive been back through all my old paperwork and statements, and i have nothing that says anything about cancelling.
the letter that ive just recieved, state that my insurance has finished,
states on it...please NOTE that you policy was cancelled on......blah blah blah
i did get behind on my mortage when i lost my job. i informed the bank of my situation at the time but they wasnt very helpful. they just kept adding the charges onto my account! mybe cause i missed afew payments that why they cancelled my policy?
but it states in the letter please NOTE. has if they are just informing me now,
why would they put please NOTE that your policy was finished on such a date, if they had already informed ne?

plus if they had written to me a number of time i would of still had a least 1 letter from them has i save everything. mybe miss place 1 letter from them, but not a number of letters from them, i wouldnt of done that,
anyone think that mybe i have grounds to complain here??

dunstonh

mybe cause i missed afew payments that why they cancelled my policy?

That is probably what happened. Premiums have to be kept up to date. One missed premium and the policy will end. However, they write to you 2 or 3 times to give you a chance to put it back in force. The letters come from the insurer not the bank.

why would they put please NOTE that your policy was finished on such a date, if they had already informed ne?

Maybe they didnt know it had stopped and only just found out. Could be any range of reasons to be honest.

anyone think that mybe i have grounds to complain here??

Jumping the gun. Plus, you may not like the outcome if you did complain.

Lets say the insurer decides you are right, they could then ask you to pay all the premiums you have missed and they will put the policy back in force with no health declaration. Maybe it would just be better to start a new one now and not pay the back payments. Plus bank life assurance policies are expensive. So, you would almost certainly get it cheaper on the whole of market.

If you say you keep letters and you have none from the insurer then is it possible that the insurance company didnt have your current address? Sometimes people forget to update the insurers as they get very little post from them over time.

graham74_2

anyone think that mybe i have grounds to complain here?? Jumping the gun. Plus, you may not like the outcome if you did complain.

Lets say the insurer decides you are right, they could then ask you to pay all the premiums you have missed and they will put the policy back in force with no health declaration. Maybe it would just be better to start a new one now and not pay the back payments. Plus bank life assurance policies are expensive. So, you would almost certainly get it cheaper on the whole of market.

If you say you keep letters and you have none from the insurer then is it possible that the insurance company didnt have your current address? Sometimes people forget to update the insurers as they get very little post from them over time.

they should have my address to keep me informed, has ive lived at the same address for 38years, ive had a mortage on the property the last 12years since i brought the house off my parents. so it shouldnt of been hard to contacted me.
but surely they can not ask me to pay for a policy and back date any payments, for a service that they havent provided me with for the last 6years.
if i had try'd to have made a claim on my policy in the last 6years thinking that i still had it, i bet the insurers wouldnt of paid me a penny, they would of most likely of just said sorry for the mix up, but you have no policy with us, and we are not paying you a penny off us!!
i agree it would be best to start a fresh with a new policy.
but what if i was ill and unable to work in the last 6years. i wouldnt of got a penny from a policy that i thought i had.
i struggled and got behind on my mortage when i was working due to cut backs at work like a lot of people on here.
but if i was unable to pay my mortage for whatever reason and was relying on that policy, i could of been right up sh£t creek so to speak.
thats whats bugging me most that if something serious had happend in the last 6 years i could of possibly of lost my house.

dunstonh

but surely they can not ask me to pay for a policy and back date any payments, for a service that they havent provided me with for the last 6years.

You have no cover. A complaint would be that the cover lapsed without your permission. So putting it back as if it never had been cancelled would see you having to pay the back premiums. Asking to have the cover and not pay for it during that period is having your cake and eating it. Hence why going for a new policy will likely be better unless you have become uninsurable.

if i had try'd to have made a claim on my policy in the last 6years thinking that i still had it, i bet the insurers wouldnt of paid me a penny, they would of most likely of just said sorry for the mix up, but you have no policy with us, and we are not paying you a penny off us!!

If it was an error that they were responsible for then they would pay out and deduct premiums from the claim. If the error was not theirs then they would quite rightly reject it.

but what if i was ill and unable to work in the last 6years. i wouldnt of got a penny from a policy that i thought i had.

You cant complain about hypothetical situations. What matters is your situation. It is quite easy to be mis-sold and be no worse off or even better off. You dont get a penny in those cases. Hence starting with a new policy now from the whole of market means you have got away with 6 years of premiums not being paid and now can pick up a cheaper policy.

thats whats bugging me most that if something serious had happend in the last 6 years i could of possibly of lost my house.

All this assumes the insurer is at fault. Chances are they are not. Also, you do have to look closer to home. You pay the premiums each month. You should reconcile your account weekly/monthly. How did you not notice it wasnt being paid for 72 months? Your budget remains your responsibility. It may be worth you getting a money program for your computer to track your spending and regular bills. They are brilliant pieces of software. I have used Microsoft Money for over two decades. They dont make it any more but you can often find it on ebay. There are others including a free open source one as well.