Mis Selling Mortgages

5504vicki

I hope you can help me please.

I have been contacted by a company called Lawcost Legal Limited who apparently have bought out Commitments Protection with regards to mis selling of mortgages.

I did have a PPI claim with Commitments which I was paid out back in 2006.  I also paid Commitments 2 lots of £354 for them to look in to mortgage mis selling for me and never heard anything.  Lawcost have told me that the reason I did not have a response was that the 2 payment of £354 was to pay solicitors to take on the case and then Commitments went in to liquidation so my money was lost.

Lawcost have now approached me as they have all my previous details from Commitments Protection regarding mortgage mis selling going back as far as 2006.  He explained that they were a legal company and went in to thorough detail regarding who the company are. He carried on to tell me that potentially I could have thousands of pounds due back to me and this could be done within 8-12 weeks. 

They gave me 4 possible options to continue with this, they are:

Option 1    I could use a solicitor who would charge approximately £6000 and would take 5 years to process and then solicitors would take 35-40% fees.

Option 2    Try to claim this on my own which would be quite difficult as it is not same as PPI

Option 3    Do Nothing

Option 4    Appoint Lawcost to act on my behalf but they would want an upfront one only fee of £ 1495 including vat.

Obviously with the cost of living crisis Option 4 would not be possible what so ever.  So what I am emailing for is to ask if this is possible to do by myself or would I struggle to do this?

Any help would be much appreciated as I have not got the money to pay upfront but at the same time do not like the idea of having thousands of pounds available for me that I can not get a hold of.

Many Thanks

silvercar

First question, why do you think the mortgage was miss-hold to you?

dunstonh

He carried on to tell me that potentially I could have thousands of pounds due back to me and this could be done within 8-12 weeks. 

I thought all these companies doing these cold calls about mortgage missales had failed or closed down due to failure to get any refunds.   Yours has been the first post in ages about it.

Any help would be much appreciated as I have not got the money to pay upfront but at the same time do not like the idea of having thousands of pounds available for me that I can not get a hold of.

Have you considered that your mortgage was not missold and that you are being potentially missold now? (for clarity, I cannot say you are but it is something to be on guard with)

Their website confirms they are not authorised by the FCA.  It is a requirement for a claims company to be authorised by the FCA unless they fall under the SRA.  However, there is no reference to them being on the SRA and checking the register, they are not appearing on a search on the SRA website.     So, unless I am missing something, I cannot see that they hold the permission to carry out this activity.

...and this activity died a death due to lack of success.   A lot of people lost out by paying firms up front who went on to fail, taking that upfront fee with them.  You have already lost one up front fee.   Do you want to risk another? 

Ever heard of the phrase once bitten, twice shy?

london21

All depends what happened at the point of sale. 

If you feel you was sold a product that you did not need or want etc then can make a claim. 

Annisele

Like @dunstonh, I can't see how this company could possibly be carrying out claims management activity lawfully. And it appears to know that - there's a little note on its website to explain "Lawcost Legal Ltd is NOT authorised or regulated by the Financial Conduct Authority to sell or advise on any financially regulated products including Claims Management Activity". So it's very curious indeed that they seem to have left the OP with the impression they could act on the OP's behalf.

But if they're not doing claims management activity, what are they doing? Again, there's a potential clue on their website. They say:

Your largest asset will more than likely be your house, this may still have a mortgage on it or it could be paid off. Many of these mortgages may have been set up wrong or the Lender may have overcharged you at some point.

We will provide you a link and password to undertake a simple 15 question assessment of any of your mortgages. This will provide you with a 30+ page report on your mortgage. The Mortgage Assessment is done by an Independent Financial Expert Witness on your mortgage. The Expert is looking for breaches of the Mortgage Conduct of Business (MCOB) establishing any potential mis-selling and exposure to risk. The Mortgage Assessment is as it says, an Assessment of the Mortgage to establish any potential breaches.THE MORTGAGE ASSESSMENT IS NOT A MORTGAGE CLAIMYou are not obliged to take the Mortgage Assessment however should you do so fees apply to cover the third-party cost.

If that's what option 4 means, then it sounds like an extraordinarily expensive 30 pages.

It's certainly possible to mis-sell a mortage, and it's also possible for a lender to make a mistake. But it's not like PPI, and the vast majority of mortgages are just fine.

OP - is your mortgage balance behaving in the way you expect? (That is, you don't have paperwork that says you have a repayment mortgage with balance that mysteriously failes to decrease?)

Are your mortgage payments for the amount you expected? (There wasn't some admin error that left you with the wrong rate, or term?)

There isn't an issue with affordability? With the term? With anything else you can thing of?

If all of that is OK, then I'd be astonished if there was much of a claim here.

penners324

You've been scammed once over 'misselling' and now you're thinking it's a good idea to let yourself be scammed again?

If you really think you were missold your mortgage you complain to the mortgage company that missold it then onto the FOS if rejected 

dimbo61

SCAM scam scam 
Please don't give them one penny

ACG

Option 1    I could use a solicitor who would charge approximately £6000 and would take 5 years to process and then solicitors would take 35-40% fees.

Option 2    Try to claim this on my own which would be quite difficult as it is not same as PPI

Option 3    Do Nothing

Option 4    Appoint Lawcost to act on my behalf but they would want an upfront one only fee of £ 1495 including vat.

The first question is - Were you miss sold? To determine that you need to look at 3 things: 
1 - Did you want a mortgage - I am guessing you did. 
2 - Is it working as you expected - I am assuming it is as it is a regulated contract. 
3 - Was it the best product - This will potentially be the part that you are unsure about. What is important about this question though is that if it was not the best product and there was something more suitable, you only have to be refunded the difference. So if for example there was a mortgage that was £5 a month less and you went with a 2 year fixed rate, that would be £5 x 24 months... £120. That would be what you would be entitled to, nothing more, nothing less. 

Options 1 and 2 are complete rubbish. If you were miss sold, you complain to the broker or lender. If they determine it was miss sold they will send you a cheque. That process will take around 8 weeks. 

If they reject your claim, you can then take it to the financial ombudsman. That process may take a little longer. 

You do not need a solicitor (although you are free to use one), it should not take years. If the ombudsman also goes against you, you can then take it to court. 

But in the very first instance, you need to determine if you were actually miss sold. You cant just decide to say you were miss sold like with the PPI thing. Yes PPI was miss sold, but not to the degree that was made out. So I think the only true thing they have said there is that it is not the same as PPI. Everything else seems like sales spiel and your details are on some list of ex claimants. 

It might also be worth asking where they got your details from. 

born_again

Next time they ring, tell them NO, remove you from their list & put the phone down...

Unless you really want to throw £1495 away..


https://www.which.co.uk/consumer-rights/advice/i-think-i-ve-been-mis-sold-my-mortgage-what-can-i-do-agoZa2H4E7R8

sjtoms

After reading this post, I believe that I have been victim of this company's scam. I too was approached and told that Commitments have gone into liquidation and that Lawcost legal were taking up the outstanding customers. On 14.12.22 I paid them £1,495 to continue with the legal work necessary to recover my miss sold mortgage costs. I was given a name and number to call if I needed any updates but it would all be going through in between 8- 10 weeks. 
I continuously ring this company. You cannot get to speak to anyone. I have filled out their online messaging system but never had any reply.
 Who can I complain to about this company? I paid their fee by credit card. Can I get this back?  

ACG

I have just been on their website, under FAQs it says...

What exactly have you sold me?

You have bought the experience of an independent Expert Witness together with the provision of Letter Templates so that you can make YOUR OWN complaint directly to your lender in relation to overcharges and possible mis-sale on your Mortgage.

If the Lender does not respond and is still operating, you can refer to the Letter Templates and write to the Financial Ombudsman Service. In addition, you can also make a complaint against your Broker if you feel that your Mortgage has been mis–sold to you or was inappropriate/unsuitable for your needs. Templates are provided for all scenarios, and you have the option to click on the previously mentioned link to obtain a Mortgage Assessment that might support you in the event of complaining against a mis-sold or inappropriate Mortgage.

People are paying £1,500 to make their own complaint with some templates! 

For £1,500, I would happily write a tailored complaint letter.