Mortgage fee's for being in arrears

Gregm

Hi

I am fairly new to this site and have recently filed a claim against my bank for a refund of fee's in the small claims court.

This has lead me to thinking if I can do the same with my mortgage.

I lost my job a few years ago which caused me to get into rather large arrears with my mortgage. Fortunately now I am back on my feet income wise but still have mortgage arrears and a suspended reposession order to pay £50/month off my arrears.

My concern is, each month I am in arrears the mortgage company is charging me £50 which is added to my mortgage. Is this not a penalty in the same way bank charges for returned direct debits are?

If so, what would happen if I tried claiming these charges back, could my Mortgage company 'cancel' my mortgage? I have a colourful credit history and getting a mortgage was not easy and this could lead to bigger problems.

Thanks for any advice

bigbadbri

I had the same problem also with both mortgage and secured loan where i was expected to pay £100 of arrears each under a court order, and i was furious that they still added charges. I spoke to both companies and explained my situation but they were not interested.

I eventually remortgaged and got everything paid back. I immedietly searched the internet to find out if i could get this back after i heard about claiming the bank charges back, and after a lot of searching on the :reclaiming bank charges board i found quite a few posts that stated it could not be done, but if you do find some way of claiming i'd be glad to hear of it.

Cheers

Mr_helpful

I think that having breached the terms of your contract you expect the bank to pay back charges is somewhat cheeky. Why didnt you take unemployment insurance. You say you have a colourful credit history, I wonder how you feel when someone doesnt honour their commitments to you

moneywise22

Mr unhelpful thats a bit rude. Gregs past history is none of anyones business. It could be that circumstances developed beyond his control as does sometimes happen and the banks expect it to happen in a few cases which is why they insure against bad debts and are fully covered in the event of any loss to them. In my experience mortgage companies add on ridiculous charges in addition to interest and recover costs which really do not help the situation of the person paying the debt. I am not saying that not fulfilling your obligations is ok, just that sometimes situations change and despite best efforts to pay debts it is not always possibe. Mortgage companies thrive on people who get into trouble so they can whack on loads of charges, do not try to assist, do not give extra time, do not even consider each case individually, they just go straight to court to force people to get into more debt to pay THEM what they ask for. They do not even provide proof of these charges they have incurred (such as admin costs) and do not even show how they have been calculated.
Its time you opened your eyes. It is obvious Greg is trying to pay his debts, he is not avoiding them!

Mr_helpful

Moneywise
We all suffer from unexpected things and whether someone pays a mortgage or not is largely down to attitude. Yes I have been unemployed with a mortgage during the 60's and early 90's when interest rates were very high. What did I do? I went and got other jobs I have even swept the streets because it enabled me to pay the bills. I put the TV away as I had more important things than the TV licence to pay. Facing poverty was one of lifes best lessons. Once I got straight I have never looked back.
He says getting the mortgage wasnt easy due to credit so its probably not the first time its happened. In these days unemployment insurance is always worth looking at unless you are self employed
Dont get me wrong I believe he is trying to get on track but trying to get the charges back is I think having a laugh. He must have been a few months over due or there wouldnt have been a repossession order there.
Yes Mortgage companies do have some mad charges and if you read my other posts you will realise I am one of the few brokers on this site who has spoken out against them. However in this case I think the lender is fully entitled to make charges.

Gregm

Thanks to all the responses.

bigbadbri - I thought that might be the response I would get. I just thought as these fee's are penalties they, like the banks would not be able to make a profit from them.

moneywise22 - Thanks for that, but then if I post on an open forum I do/should expect all opinions.

mr helpful - Thanks for your opinion and I would like to respond to some of your points.

think that having breached the terms of your contract you expect the bank to pay back charges is somewhat cheeky.

You don't have a choice but to accept these charges, in the same way with the banking charges most banks charge simular fee's so if you don't agree to them you basically can't get a bank acount/mortgage anywhere. Please correct me if I am wrong.

Why didnt you take unemployment insurance.

I did initially, but when I lost my job I considered my options, do I go unemployed or try self employed. As years earlier I had been unemployed for 9 years I didn't like the look of that option so I decided to go self employed. This made the unemployment insurance pointless and I cancelled it.

I went and got other jobs I have even swept the streets because it enabled me to pay the bills.

Unfortunately due to personal circumstances which I prefer not to discuss on a public forum such as this, I could not get street cleaners job or labouring etc, be it for 'health and safety reasons' or pure descrimination (it does still go on). I am extremely limited to what jobs I can get (I will try anything).

He says getting the mortgage wasnt easy due to credit so its probably not the first time its happened

The credit history was my fault I accept that, down to my ignorance if you like, got decent job after 9 years unemployed and spent beyond my means, started putting bills of to 'next month' and as I am sure many people here will know things start to snowball. Now after a couple of poor years self employment is starting to pay dividends and debts are being cleared.

Thanks to all for your responses.

Greg

Mr_helpful

Greg
thanks for clearing things up. When presented with limited info people can jump to wrong conclusions. I admit you dont get too much option on fees but the a lot of things are all roughly the same price in the major supermarkets and iff you want them you get stuck with the payments.
Unemployment insurance I think I would have claimed on just while I set my business up> Its difficult to start earning straight away from scratch.
But sorry mate I still think you will be on to a loser trying to claim back the fees especially if you upset the lender at least get back to square one before you try.

Gregm

Looking back I think you are right about claiming the unemployment insurance while starting my business. This was another of my many mistakes.

I will say that I have learned a lot on the past few days from reading this site, and if my claim for bank charges is successful then I will use that money to clear my mortgage arrears. At that point I will get an upto date credit file and try clearing it as quick as I can, I am sure many are for silly amounts. I then plan to try to remortgage away from my current lender (GMAC) which shouldn't be a problem as I have about 50% equity in the property. If I manage to do all of that then I will seriously look at attempting to claim back the fee's from them as I will have nothing to lose.

Thanks again for your input.

Tootsie_Roll

moneywise22 wrote:

Mr unhelpful thats a bit rude. Gregs past history is none of anyones business. It could be that circumstances developed beyond his control as does sometimes happen and the banks expect it to happen in a few cases which is why they insure against bad debts and are fully covered in the event of any loss to them. In my experience mortgage companies add on ridiculous charges in addition to interest and recover costs which really do not help the situation of the person paying the debt. I am not saying that not fulfilling your obligations is ok, just that sometimes situations change and despite best efforts to pay debts it is not always possibe. Mortgage companies thrive on people who get into trouble so they can whack on loads of charges, do not try to assist, do not give extra time, do not even consider each case individually, they just go straight to court to force people to get into more debt to pay THEM what they ask for. They do not even provide proof of these charges they have incurred (such as admin costs) and do not even show how they have been calculated.
Its time you opened your eyes. It is obvious Greg is trying to pay his debts, he is not avoiding them!

One of the most inaccurate posts I have ever read on this site.