Reclaim Mortgage Arrears Charges. NEW CAMPAIGN.

pacemaker

Thank you Martin I really need this help I have been going round in circles with my Lender. I know that they have done things wrong on my mortgage and I consulted a solicitor, because it was about something my son did to us but after spending no end of money trying to sort it out We are still no further forward yet they still keep piling on the charges and and will not chase my son who is on the mortgage with my partner and myself. Its all the more frustrating because we are both disabled and I am now a pensioner. We have cleared most of the arrears and just can't clear the rest and they keep piling on the charges and adding them to the debt. We have been sick with worry. I might at least be able to get them to stop doing it especially as they left a loophole on our mortgage.which we have been told is bad practice but not illegal they think!

Tripledrop

So where is the incentive for me to pay my own mortgage on time if that's the case ?

If I know I'm not going to be penalised I might aswell go on holiday for a few months, let the interest accrue, and just before being taken to court, pay the lot off with the Christmas bonus at no extra cost to me. Great !

People seem to want everything both ways as far as banks are concerned. Help with a nice new car loan, just stretch the amount they'll lend because I want that nice house, can I have a bit more because I need a new fridge/plasma/DVD, but when it all hits the fan suddenly they've been robbed/cheated/conned/missold etc etc when really they should have taken more financial responsibility in the first place.

I don't see that charging someone £25 asking them to pay up what could be £7,8,900 pounds is unreasonable. I'm sure if it were the other way around and someone owed me that sort of money I'd think £25 was too cheap !

I'm going to start a campaign to get Inland Revenue late payment/tax return charges refunded ? I wonder how far I'll get . :rotfl:

I'm sorry, but I really don't agree with this. This is very close minded and unfair on the majority of people. I worked for a mortgage company as a mortgage advisor until recently (GMAC - redundancies!). Sure, there may be a few people like you describe, but the majority of people don't make their payments because they are suffering financial hardship (possibly due to lenders lending too much, but that's another discussion!). Some lenders not only charge £50 for a late fee, but every month they will charge the same until the debt has been paid off.

Due to the fact that the customer is suffering financial hardship, sometimes they can only just afford to pay over the £50/mth charge. I have seen 1 missed payment take the best part of 2 years to be paid off, and every month £50 more is paid back in charges.

Also, if you miss mortgage payments, your credit is severely affected. Miss between 3 and 6, and repossesion proceeding start. Then try to get a loan to pay it off!

It would be fairly stupid to go through this, just to go on holiday etc

Anyway, if the charge is deemed as unfair, it actually doesn't matter at all whether the customer did it on purpose or not, it's UNFAIR!!

We'll wait and see...

If the mortgage companies can get away with it through calling the fee an "admin" fee (which they do already with the valuation & admin fee), then why can't the banks with credit cards and bank accounts? I don't understand the difference...

I wish you would start a campaign to stop folk blaming everybody else when they aren't able to manage their own finances.[\quote]

I can see what you're saying, but if a court finds the charges unfair, then why not? They make a fortune out of charges, for not actually doing very little. Also, if the banks (and brokers) and encouraging higher mortgages, it's not always that people can't manage their own finances.

danm

I can see the whole reclaim this that and the other campaign coming back to bite.

Lenders may as well scrap all the admin charges and just stick 50bps onto mortgage rates.

The business they are in needs to make a return for shareholders. They can either earn revenue through admin charges on those borrowers that fall foul of the terms and conditions they were in the posesseion of up front. Or they can hurt everyone buy just upping their interest rates across the board.

i know what i'd prefer

TotallyBroke

What happens if the charges are not even consistent. When I signed my mortgage contract the fee was £25. Then suddenly it went upto £40 (I didn't agree that) then one month they only charged me £20 the month after back to £40 the month after that £30. So how can admin charges be so different. Bearing in mind the only bits of paper I get from my mortgage company are the annual statements in September that I would get anyway

tommy5dollar

It's not about getting rid of charges, it's about making them fair. It it costs a mortgage supplier £25 because you didn't pay on time then fair enough but the chances are it costs them more like 25p! This is unfair... I know you can say "but you should pay on time" but then you obviously don't work in business! Business is designed around not paying on time, most businesses never pay anything on time, the mortgage suppliers just view it as another means of extracting profit.

traceye

traceye wrote: »

Hi

Can you explain please if the following scenario fits into this, and if I should write and try and claim this back.


On the 1st of the month the mortgage tries to come out of the bank.
There is not enough money in the bank to pay for it, so they send a letter saying that they will retry and take the money on the 12th. They charge £25 for this (and add it on to the mortgage amount). If the money is still not there on the 12th, they charge a further £50 for this, and another £10 for writing me a letter telling me so. All of which, the money is added back onto the loan.

Is this covered in this claiming back ? Shall I write to them and give it a go? Whats the worst that could happen ???

Hope someone can help! Thanks:money:

Does anyone know if this is covered?

dunstonh

but the chances are it costs them more like 25p!

Whilst the physical transaction itself may cost 25p. If you include the cost of staff, computers, call centres and all the other associated costs, it does stack up much more. Too often people focus on the cost of pressing a few buttons. They dont focus on what it has cost to be able to press a button and the cost of those that press the button and the location of the computer where the button is pressed.

With overdraft charges already being rebadged as admin charges and the average customer paying more when borrowing, the same will no doubt happen to mortgages if it follows the same route as overdrafts. Some pay less, some pay more but more people pay than those that did in the past.

homer_j_3

Its unchartered waters to be honest Traceye. You can give it a go, I would imagine a polite get lost will follow and you will have to try your luck in the small claims court.

Will the Claims Court listen to the case whilst the argument over bank charges are heard, I do not know.

To me, I agree with the fact that these companies must make profit, I also agree that its not right to make it off those who have the least money etc. The problem with this whole scenario is that everybody knows someone who has encountered financial hardship through no fault of their own and also know people that manage to find enough money to smoke 20 a day and have a friday and saturday night in the pub etc.

From the lenders viewpoint, they can't separate their customers into 2 and you can argue that if the charges are illegal then they should not be allowed to be charged.

It will rub the noses of those who pay their mortgages on time each month but like someone has mentioned, the consequences of mortgage arrears can be just as serious regardless of the amount being charged.

I don't believe that we should be in a culture where we try and claim for everything but I don't believe in a culture where massive corporations should be able to write the law as they see fit either.

I think this whole idea of claiming your mortgage arrears charges will end up where the bank charges are and you may get lucky if you strike early or the lenders may get away with saying, we will see what the OFT case brings.

A lot of viewpoints and considerations aren't there.

homer_j_3

dunstonh wrote: »

Whilst the physical transaction itself may cost 25p. If you include the cost of staff, computers, call centres and all the other associated costs, it does stack up much more. Too often people focus on the cost of pressing a few buttons. They dont focus on what it has cost to be able to press a button and the cost of those that press the button and the location of the computer where the button is pressed.

With overdraft charges already being rebadged as admin charges and the average customer paying more when borrowing, the same will no doubt happen to mortgages if it follows the same route as overdrafts. Some pay less, some pay more but more people pay than those that did in the past.

I agree Dunston - Kensington have their Collections team about 8 miles from where I live and they have about 30 people (may have gone up now) chasing missed payments. That is from 9am to 8/9pm at night 5 days a week and 9am-5pm on a saturday.

The cost of this together with team leaders etc and the separate teams for when it gets past the early arrears stages this increase the team up probably to about 40-50 people.

It is very different to a bank sending a letter to say, we have paid your electric but you had insufficient funds for this and them automatically taking it back out of your next salary etc.

As I said previously - miss 1 month and there will not be a whole lot of work involved but when you hit 3 months, there will be a lot more work involved and then when it goes to litigation and then repossession - more admin work.

Brighton-Knight

Hi. I was wondering if someone out there might be able to tell me if I'd be able to pursue mortgage arrear fees that were applied to my deceased mother's mortgage for when she fell behind having been diagnosed with terminal cancer. I am executor of her estate of I have already obtained grant of probate - the mortgage company have already been sent copies of these.

Thanks for your help.