blemain..took our house and more..advice please

jubaxt

hi,

Here goes..borrowed 25000 from blemain as a 2nd mortgage in 2007. long story short...hit financial difficulties and ended up having the house repossessed in february this year. one big problem was blemain pushing for larger payments and snowballing bank charges.

We have just received our closing statement and theyve added 13k interest and 13k in charges alone.
In one instance they charged £395 monthly management fee 3 times in 6 weeks.another..£4000 solicitor fees altho no-one can tell me what for. It doesnt help that they just list their charges as charge1 etc and give no explanation as to what it is. Even people in customer services cant understand what each transaction relates to.

In 2007 we were charged £190 for some charge items for example but then they reviewed their tarriff and so we paid £35 for the same charge from 2008.

They have also added home insurance twice, already had it from elsewhere but they wont listen.They then add £125 admin fee for this...it goes on. I have successfully claimed bank charges and ppi for family members but dont know where to start with this..what, if anything, can I challenge?

I lodged my complaint on july 12th and have, surprisingly for blemain, received confirmation that it has been placed.I would appreciate advice on where to start with this. We are both earning reasonable salaries now but have lost our home,partly because of this cowboy outfit. I realise that claiming excessive charges may be inappropriate as we are probably not seen as a hardship case but surely, companies can't just add charges as they feel fit?

please folks...advise me on this..I have been on the edge due to this company.

jubaxt

someone?..advice please

dancingfairy

Maybe a SAR (subject access request)? would this give you access to all statements etc? have you got access to all statements?
I'd guess go through all the statements one at a time,make copies of them and highlight all charges you don't understand/agree with and them write to them asking them to explain/justify each one?
What exactly was in your complaint to Blemain? If they don't respind/sort out the problem you can take it to the financial ombudsman who will make a decision.
What exactly are you trying to achieve? an apology? extra charges to be written off? the debt to be written off?
Hopefully othes will give you more structured ideas than my off the top of my head thoughts.
df

jubaxt

thanks for your response. I have the list of charges and have gone through it with a finetoothed comb.

We are looking at a refund hopefully. Twice they have taken £130 for charges which state £13 on the tarriff of charges for application to suspend.

They then took £380 3 times in 6 weeks in "monthly management fees"

they threw in £4059 for solicitors costs in 2009 but no-one knows why

£190 each time for court prep fees but these were then reduced to £54 on the tarriff in 2010

They then added £3000 in solicitors fees when the account was settled.

Phone call/ letter charges were £30 a throw in 2007.the list goes on.........
:mad:

magpiecottage

This is a consumer credit issue and regulated by the OFT rather than the FSA.

However, the complaint has to be dealt with in accordance with FSA rules and you can complain to the Financial Ombudsman Service if you do not get a satisfactory response within eight weeks from the firm receiving it.

Whether FOS decided in your favour would depend on what was or was not considered reasonable by it. That we do not know.

suffeing

my advice to you and anyone getting involved with this terrible company make sure you add legal cover to your home insurance this will help fund your fight against them when it turns bad "and it will" they are after your equity and will not stop untill its drained. I know because its happend to me. do not instruct a solicitor untill you have informed your insurance co. or it will be invalidated. keep a log of all phone conversation as blemain do!
P.S if you are having problems with this loan outfit speak up dont suffer in silence

Wywth

jubaxt wrote: »

hi,

Here goes..borrowed 25000 from blemain as a 2nd mortgage in 2007. long story short...hit financial difficulties and ended up having the house repossessed in february this year. one big problem was blemain pushing for larger payments and snowballing bank charges.

We have just received our closing statement and theyve added 13k interest and 13k in charges alone.
In one instance they charged £395 monthly management fee 3 times in 6 weeks.another..£4000 solicitor fees altho no-one can tell me what for. It doesnt help that they just list their charges as charge1 etc and give no explanation as to what it is. Even people in customer services cant understand what each transaction relates to.

In 2007 we were charged £190 for some charge items for example but then they reviewed their tarriff and so we paid £35 for the same charge from 2008.

They have also added home insurance twice, already had it from elsewhere but they wont listen.They then add £125 admin fee for this...it goes on. I have successfully claimed bank charges and ppi for family members but dont know where to start with this..what, if anything, can I challenge?

I lodged my complaint on july 12th and have, surprisingly for blemain, received confirmation that it has been placed.I would appreciate advice on where to start with this. We are both earning reasonable salaries now but have lost our home,partly because of this cowboy outfit. I realise that claiming excessive charges may be inappropriate as we are probably not seen as a hardship case but surely, companies can't just add charges as they feel fit?

please folks...advise me on this..I have been on the edge due to this company.

Hi, you will have to allow up to 8 weeks for the company to respond formally to your complaint, after which time you may be able to ask the FOS to investigate.

You are absolutely correct in that a company cannot just add charges as they feel fit. Charges may only be applied in line with the terms you agreed with.

Monthly management charges typically relate to extra work a lender has to undertake relating to arrears cases. The legal fees may possibly be related to either the legal actions required to have the loan secured on your home originally, or more likely for legal action the company may have taken in pursuing your debt, including the eventual reposession and subsequent resale of your home for failing to keep to the agreed repayment plan. But again you are entitled, on request, for an explanation of what the charges relate to but as I said, this may take up to 8 weeks to be given.