Company charging solicitors fees before action

[Penfold72]

A company is charging us over £10k in solicitors fees for 'responding' to a complaint & Pre Action letter for historic incorrectly applied & excessive mortgage arrears fees of £3600 We sent a complaint waited 8 weeks put a complaint into FOS several months later sent a PAP letter They did not give the information we asked for after 3 months. Some information about justifying the costs of these fees that they can fairly charge were not answered. They never responded agreeing to ADR with the FOS I sent several emails chasing up this information. Their solicitors stated that due to COVID restrictions that they we would have to contact them rather than the mortgage provider to answer the complaint. We were shocked to learn many months later that costs were charged to our account for £10k which are disproportionate to the PAC amount sought. No court action was ever issued. In our mortgage contract it states 'cost incurred of legal proceedings' However no court action was issued. It seems as though they are using these costs as a 'bargaining tool' to drop the FOS case Can they legally charge these solicitors fees? They have yet to respond as to what these solicitors fees are for and they state they have been correctly applied. The FOS action is still ongoing after 17 months Are our mortgage providers legally justified in charging us. If they took us to court would they win? Seems contrary to what PAP is trying to prevent

[Penfold72]

[cosmetics]

how can i claim an online website ?