Help with a Landmark Mortgage Debt

jimmythedog

I was wondering if someone could point me in the right direction. We had a DMP with Step Change for approx 10 years after consolidating several loans to one affordable monthly payment. Over the 10 years, we managed to save and pay off lump sums off all but one of the debts. The remaining debt on the DMP was with Landmark. We closed the DMP and decided to make the repayments direct to Landmark each month. Within a few months, the monthly repayments went from approx £220 per month to £300 per month due to the bank of England interest rates rising each month.

Last year, at the start of year, the debt was at £28k. We paid a total of £4k including additional deposits throughout the year off the debt. At the end of the year, the remaining balance was £28,100. So in effect, we'd paid £4k off the debt but the balance had gone up. 

We challenged this with Landmark. They themselves raised a complaint on our behalf and then a few months later told us they are doing nothing wrong and it is what it is. They advised us to up the payments or take out a loan elsewhere to pay off the landmark loan. I told them this wasn't possible because while we were on the DMP with Step Change, Landmark were the only company from all the debtors to record monthly "missed payments" on our credit files and we couldn't get credit anywhere else without paying horrendous interest rates due to the "poor credit rating" we now have. Landmark insisted that because we failed to make the monthly contracted repayments when on the DMP and instead paid an amount which was agreed between Step Change and Landmark, they recorded this with the credit reference agency's as missed payments. We accrued arrears of almost £8.5k with Landmark when on the DMP.

We really are stuck with this. I just checked the remaining balance this morning and it has now gone up to £28.5k - We paid £4k off this last year with saving and hard work and it was for nothing. The thought of paying another £4k this year is absolutely sickening to us. We tried online to get a loan to repay the arrears but were knocked back. We don't want to go back onto a step change DMP as they will only hold the interest when on the plan and it'll take 30+ years to repay. A note worth noting, we took this £30k out in 2005. It was part of a "together loan" with Northern rock when we took out our first mortgage. The debt was then passed to NRAM and then Landmark with no say from us. 

Any help would be really appreciated.

sourcrates

Is this a secured loan or unsecured, I`m suspecting unsecured as otherwise it couldn`t have gone into a DMP.

Brie

Do you know what interest you are being charged on this?  My rough estimate suggests it's something like 18% in order for the amount to increase over the course of the year despite paying them £4k.

jimmythedog

sourcrates said:

Is this a secured loan or unsecured, I`m suspecting unsecured as otherwise it couldn`t have gone into a DMP.

Hi there, yes that's right it was an unsecured loan that ran alongside the original mortgage taken out in 2005. It was to enable us to purchase items for the house and do any repairs etc

jimmythedog

Brie said:

Do you know what interest you are being charged on this?  My rough estimate suggests it's something like 18% in order for the amount to increase over the course of the year despite paying them £4k.

Hi, I've just checked and the interest rate is 17.39% Variable

jacksonreed003

Felling really sorry about the situation you are going through but can't do anything about it. I would give one idea to talk to a financial advisor who might suggest alternative repayment plans or negotiate with Landmark on your behalf. Again, felling really sorry.

fatbelly

Raise a formal complaint and tell them you require their final response within 8 weeks.

Read this and point out the sections they have not kept to.

https://www.handbook.fca.org.uk/handbook/CONC/7/?view=chapter

Refer their final response to the FOS

stymied

Have you already made a CCA request?

fatbelly

It may not have been a cca-regulated loan. I think only loans up to 25k were covered in 2005. However, let them tell you that.

sourcrates

NRAM used CCA regulated paperwork for these loans, even though at 30k, they were not supposed too.

This led to a court case which decided NRAM were in the wrong by using such wording, and as such loans over 25k were to be treated as being CCA regulated.

This was going to cost them millions as they had not been sending regular statements, as per CCA rules, so were not entitled to charge interest on the loans etc etc.

Ultimately the court of appeal found in NRAM`s favour, that loans over 25k were not to be treated as being CCA regulated despite them using paperwork that said they were, thus avoiding a large pay out to their customers.

fatbelly

Thanks. I'm surprised I missed that train of events but the conclusion is that you can't do a s77-79 request, then?

You can still make a complaint re unfair practice though. See how they react on that one.