Acenden - They make us PAY for thier mistake!

Mick_X

I could do with some serious legal/financial advice on a company called "Acenden (Acting on behalf of Southern Pacific Mortgages Ltd)"

They admitted in logs that they made a mistake in that their system miscalculated the CMI (repayments) on our loan after we fell into AND cleared our arrears.
Then it was a miscalculation in the interest at the START of the loan.
The Financial Ombudsman found it to be charges added to the CAPITAL of the loan and interest applied to them.
NO-ONE seems to be able to explain this shortfall that they "found" after the loan was active for 5 years and then transferred to a management company after Southern Pacific Mortgages Ltd had it!

Now, they demand that we pay well over £7,000 in interest, on top of the £1654.50 in charges because it was all added to the capital of the loan without notification to us, the borrowers.

Who can advise me...the Financial Ombudsman Services won't hear the complaint at all, the company are now refusing to discuss the issues whatsoever, and we are now stuck with a massive bill for their incompetence, that we feel we should NOT be paying!

PLEASE HELP!

BrassicWoman

your post is hard to follow. please do a step by step ie
- we borrowed £x in month/year at interest of % over 12 years...
- we were unable to pay month/year - month year..


and so on

D_M_E

Have you been getting annual interest statements?

You borrowed £X to which it appears that they added fees and charges.

They then applied interest £Y to (£X+fees and charges)

They then wrongly calculated the monthly instalments required to pay back the total.

You made some payments then fell into arrears, missing some payments.

A bit later, all arrears were cleared by you - did this include any charges for going into arrears?

They now want far more interest than the original agreement allowed for.

Have you made a written, formal complaint to the company about your problem?

Mick_X

The issues is simply this:
We feel into arrears, and after a time, managed to clear the arrears.
When we cleared our arrears, we were informed that all fees, charges and interest were included in the sum we paid to bring the account up to date.
Several years later we were told that there was going to be a shortfall on the loan of some £5,000 due to the following:

1) Miscalculation of interest at the start of the loan
2) System error with this calculation of the CMI (monthly payments) after arrears cleared
3) Ombudsman said that the shortfall was fees and charges ADDED to the capital of the loan as a result of the arrears, of which were were lead to believe by the loan company had been cleared

After an investigation, the company has now refused to investigate this shortfall any further, and referred us back to the ombudsman who have already closed their investigation.
We are currently facing a bill of some £7,000 of which the ombudsman uncovered £1650 owing in fees and charges relating to said arrears.
It appears that the company has charged interest on said fees and charges which has brought the sum up to (now) £7,000.
From what we understand, interest cannot be charged on fees and charges, however the company have stated all of the above-mentioned reasons for this shortfall, which are down to miscalculated interest on the loan itself.
However, we are more likely to agree with the ombudsman's findings and have already asked to clear the fees and charges, but the company are now refusing to address this issue at all.
We don't feel that the dates are relevant, but need advice on whether the company is actually allowed to do ANY of this at all?

kyrast75

Just to clarify I am Mick X's wife... We made a complaint that went unanswered originally, then they tried claiming we complained about something totally unrelated to the original complaint, so we complained to the FSA, and the Ombudsman. After lots of time going back and forth, we got a final response to say that the ombudsman's final investigation uncovered the sum of £2585 was outstanding after fees and charges were applied to the arrears. We paid off the £935 or whatever it was, that at the time we were told would clear all the arrears and associated charges etc, however as this occurred in 2007 (payment made to clear arrears), there is no call log to check. So the amount outstanding on fee's and charges was £1650, and that has been added to the loan without our knowledge and interest has been being charged for some time. However we were initially told that the £5000 shortfall was miscalculation of interest on the loan itself..this was relayed to us in 2010 and we were told to pay extra per month to clear it or clear it in a lump sum at the end of the loan ..we opted to clear it at the end of the loan...at no point were we told that it had been added to the loan and would be accruing interest. (more fool us for not even thinking it would be). However as stated we found out a few months ago only what the ombudsman final investigation was....it was quite a shock. So we contacted the loan company to discuss the £1650 that the ombudsman had found was outstanding and they refused to discuss it at all...we tried the complaints department and then collections who after explaining it all, informed us that they couldbnt even find when this had been added to the loan as it wasnt showing on any statements. It appears that there is no paper trial to prove this money was added to our loan...we are so miffed at knowing that this is still accruing interest as we should not be paying interest on fees and charges..let alone that fact that they added them knowing our financial situation....some of the fees and charges added where because they took us to court after refusing to accept the offer of extra payments on the loan to clear the arrears which was accepted by the court as it was literally all we could afford or we couldn't eat. (we offered an extra £20 a month, they refused it, judge agreed it was all we could afford, we even filled out and expenses form that we sent them) these arrears happened due to my husband being in an Collision that put him out of work for a bit, we paid the arrears out of our compensation (via the MIB). Anyway my husband is now medically retired as a result (this happened in late 2007/early 2008) we dont even know if we had PPI we could have used as there doesn't seem to be any paper trial about this either way...there is no mention of it on the loan agreement....there seems to be a lot of missing paper work and lack of paper trial.....NIGHTMARE doesnt cover it...we have two ASD kids too and the stress this is causing is affecting them too as they are picking up on it. We have just recieved all the paperwork requested via a public access record and we will be going through it soon..(once we get the kids something that will occupy them for several days!!!) We did not pay for the usual £10 access fee and are now worried that they may have added this to the loan too.

DCFC79

Kyrast

Just the messanger here but you need to put some paragraphs into the text, it will make it easier for others to read.

kyrast75

Sorry had a bloods drop when typing this

AndyPix

kyrast75 wrote: »

Just to clarify I am Mick X's wife...


We made a complaint that went unanswered originally, then they tried claiming we complained about something totally unrelated to the original complaint, so we complained to the FSA, and the Ombudsman.


After lots of time going back and forth, we got a final response to say that the ombudsman's final investigation uncovered the sum of £2585 was outstanding after fees and charges were applied to the arrears.


We paid off the £935 or whatever it was, that at the time we were told would clear all the arrears and associated charges etc, however as this occurred in 2007 (payment made to clear arrears), there is no call log to check.


So the amount outstanding on fee's and charges was £1650, and that has been added to the loan without our knowledge and interest has been being charged for some time.
However we were initially told that the £5000 shortfall was miscalculation of interest on the loan itself..
this was relayed to us in 2010 and we were told to pay extra per month to clear it or clear it in a lump sum at the end of the loan ..


we opted to clear it at the end of the loan...at no point were we told that it had been added to the loan and would be accruing interest. (more fool us for not even thinking it would be).


However as stated we found out a few months ago only what the ombudsman final investigation was....it was quite a shock. So we contacted the loan company to discuss the £1650 that the ombudsman had found was outstanding and they refused to discuss it at all...


we tried the complaints department and then collections who after explaining it all, informed us that they couldbnt even find when this had been added to the loan as it wasnt showing on any statements.


It appears that there is no paper trial to prove this money was added to our loan...we are so miffed at knowing that this is still accruing interest as we should not be paying interest on fees and charges..let alone that fact that they added them knowing our financial situation....


some of the fees and charges added where because they took us to court after refusing to accept the offer of extra payments on the loan to clear the arrears which was accepted by the court as it was literally all we could afford or we couldn't eat. (we offered an extra £20 a month, they refused it, judge agreed it was all we could afford, we even filled out and expenses form that we sent them)


these arrears happened due to my husband being in an Collision that put him out of work for a bit, we paid the arrears out of our compensation (via the MIB).
Anyway my husband is now medically retired as a result (this happened in late 2007/early 2008) we dont even know if we had PPI we could have used as there doesn't seem to be any paper trial about this either way...there is no mention of it on the loan agreement....there seems to be a lot of missing paper work and lack of paper trial.....


NIGHTMARE doesnt cover it...we have two ASD kids too and the stress this is causing is affecting them too as they are picking up on it.
We have just recieved all the paperwork requested via a public access record and we will be going through it soon..(once we get the kids something that will occupy them for several days!!!)


We did not pay for the usual £10 access fee and are now worried that they may have added this to the loan too.

Just press the return key now and again.
No one is going to read a massive wall of text

sourcrates

kyrast75 wrote: »

We did not pay for the usual £10 access fee and are now worried that they may have added this to the loan too.

Hi,


No, under new Data protection laws, SAR`s are now free, so no worries on that score.

Is this is a secured loan, or unsecured loan, i`m assuming its secured ?

It appears to be quite a complex issue, and looks to of been caused by bad communication from the company itself, and the initial mis-calculation of interest.


You say you now have all the paperwork, my advice, go through it with a fine tooth-comb, check it against there version of events.

Why did the FOS close their file on this ?

Usually there are various stages of escalation, right up to the chief ombudsman herself, also if you have new evidence, they will re-open a case (within specific timeframes) if you ask them too.

kyrast75

AndyPix, try staying awake and not having a fit let alone worrying about pressing the enter key etc.......
if you had a problem like low bloods you would know how difficult it is to concentrate on anything at all.
I understand that it may be a bit difficult to read, but it is far more difficult to type when trying not to have a fit that would put you in hospital.
When a blood drop occurs things like spelling, spaces and paragraphed text is not really a priority.

kyrast75

Thank you, going through the paperwork is the next stage..we had the ombadsman involved more than once...hubby deals with the majority of it as I am usually dealing with other things like making sure everything is set in place for the kids coming home from school etc.