Taking Lenvi / Help to Buy to Court?

Financially_Backwards

Hi, I'm now having to refer Lenvi to the Financial Ombudsman regarding their handling of a remortgage request (without additional lending), and I'm starting to panic about the prospect of going to court, for an ever increasing sum of money.

Back in August I started the process to change my mortgage, with my SVR kicking in around December. I wasnt made aware of the 6-8 week timescale to get a deed of postponement by my solicitor or mortgage advisor, but it was still doable on time. However, I was totally unprepared for how bad Lenvi are at handling cases. Having sent my application, and the redemption statement I just needed to pay. I emailed a couple of times with "so when do you want my fee" and got nothing back. Begrudgingly I called them and got that sorted, time lost... 1 week. My solicitor then sent them the deed.

Having been told it takes 6-8 weeks I calmly waited, and after 6 weeks emailed them to get an update. Once again no reply. So on week 7, I called them.

Amazingly... they said "who are you exactly?" or words to that effect. They had no idea my records even existed on their system, and openly admitted they'd fumbled it (which I have a recorded copy of!). The next day they said "oh we want a different deed" which they could have said 8 weeks ago if only they'd looked. So an updated deed was sent, and I emailed a few more times to ask if everything was satisfactory - which got no replies of course.

A few weeks later (by now time is critical) I ask for an update and this time they say "Errr your redemption statement is out of date" which would have been clear to them immediately, but they didn't think to say anything for 5 weeks.

I'm not out of the woods yet, as my mortgage offer expired, I went onto my SVR, and we're now starting again a third time because now they keep rejecting the deed on technicalities that they dont bother explaining when they have the chance to (Eg: we want our template, but with Barclays seal - their last response to my solicitor just said they wanted barclays seal but didnt mention the template).

During this I went via their complaints process. They blamed me, saying I should know what is required. They totally ignored the fact they didn't reply to around 10 emails, and that they initially had misplaced my records.

It's now with the ombudsman but I'm not confident I'll get anywhere. I'm about £1500 out of pocket as I've now paid 3 SVR rate mortgage payments plus my latest mortgage offer is quite a bit worse than the initial one I was given. I'm worried, I have no experience of taking companies to small claims and the stakes are getting higher. Any advice is appreciated.

ACG

Do you not have a responsibility to limit your losses? 
Can you not switch products with your current lender and work out the difference in rates? Rates have come down in the last 2-3 months arginally so that might reduce the losses from £1,500. 

Financially_Backwards

Hi @ACG - I've already looked at this option. The best available product from my lender

a) doesn't meet my needs because in a year I plan to move house, and they have a penalty whereas the product I'm moving to doesn't

b) the interest rate is higher and results in an increased interest payment of £1300 over 2 years - so in other words I can stick to my guns and have a chance of losing £1500 or accept a guaranteed loss of £1300.

Financially_Backwards

Bump, I urgently need advice

ACG

Financially_Backwards said:

Hi @ACG - I've already looked at this option. The best available product from my lender

a) doesn't meet my needs because in a year I plan to move house, and they have a penalty whereas the product I'm moving to doesn't

b) the interest rate is higher and results in an increased interest payment of £1300 over 2 years - so in other words I can stick to my guns and have a chance of losing £1500 or accept a guaranteed loss of £1300.

But your £1,500 is guaranteed stop point so you can evidence you have limited your losses. 
he £1,300 is growing each month. 

To go to court you need to send a letter before action and give them 14 days, you then need to fill out a small claims court claim form. That will likely be 6 months before it gets to court (it was the last time I started the claims process). 

Thats £750 pm by the looks of it, so your looking at £3k. 

Obviously this depends on what the ERC will be. 

Eperr1984

We have been going through the same thing since June 2024. We have now paid £900 extra each month on our mortgage since then because they cannot seem to get the deed sealed, despite having all the correct info. Have had another email today to say they now want ANOTHER redemption statement. It's a vicious circle- I don't think it will ever end!
Our mortgage offer has expired during this period and we had to pay even more money to get a broker to find a new offer urgently. We have complained and complained but we get no response. I have referred to the Ombudsman who pushed it back to Lenvi to give them 8 weeks more to respond. We are now nearly £10,000 out of pocket. 

Marz79

Financially_Backwards said:

Hi @ACG - I've already looked at this option. The best available product from my lender

a) doesn't meet my needs because in a year I plan to move house, and they have a penalty whereas the product I'm moving to doesn't

b) the interest rate is higher and results in an increased interest payment of £1300 over 2 years - so in other words I can stick to my guns and have a chance of losing £1500 or accept a guaranteed loss of £1300.

I have been through the same with them.  Fo we get any compensation???  Maybe we should sued them together ??