Blenam/Lancashire Mortgage Corp Unfair Charges

[Rigsby121]

I am trying to help a friend. She has had a loan with the Lancashire Mortgage Corporation (LMC) for six years. She fell behind with her payments through no fault of her own. The LMC took out repossession order, which at present has been suspended untill the 25th of this month.


When she requested a settlement figure, she has found charges of 27 thousand pounds including admin charges of over 13 thousand pounds, biulding insurance of over 3 thousand pounds and other charges. She has asked for a breakdown of the charges, but to date has had no responce from LMC.


So, after taking out a 68 thousand pound loan and paying back 58 thousand pound in intrest, she now owes one hundred and seven thousand pounds. This is a brief summery of her troubles. She can no longer cope and is suffering from depresion.


Wondering if it worth a group action against LMC/Blenam for unfair charges?
I am also trying to get The BBC Watch Dog interested in doing a follow up programme. I believe, as a result of the first programe in 2009, Blenam were fined 1.2 million and one of its directors was fined 70K.

[scoobydoo]

Re: Blenam/Lancashire Mortgage Corp Unfair Charges

I am a bit rusty on this I am afraid but I think you can send and SAR ( an official request ) for a breakdown of charges And I THINK that there have been some complaints against this company for excessive charges before.But this is a long winded process and it looks like time is running out?

Do you know on what grounds the possession was suspended ? Has she been given a chance to sell the house ?

[scoobydoo]

Re: Blenam/Lancashire Mortgage Corp Unfair Charges

also it may be worth you reading this thread that has lots of info : http://www.legalbeagles.info/forums/...ssession-Claim

[PlanB]

Re: Blenam/Lancashire Mortgage Corp Unfair Charges

She has had a loan with the Lancashire Mortgage Corporation (LMC) for six years. She fell behind with her payments through no fault of her own. The LMC took out repossession order, which at present has been suspended untill the 25th of this month.

I fear I may have found this thread too late since the possession order was only suspended until today. Tell your friend to ring the Shelter freephone helpline 0808 800 4444 asap to see how she can get any eviction stopped because the lender would still have to make an application to the court for a Warrant of Eviction and she can fight against this. Shelter can put her in touch with a local housing advisor to help. I stayed in my home for 12 years after a suspended possession order was granted because I kept going back to court for an extension for various reasons. It's not impossible to get that SPO varied but she's left it very late. Here's some info from Shelter's website:

http://england.shelter.org.uk/get_ad...ssession_order

With more time she may have been able to use these two cases to prevent the possession order in the first place and I don't know whether she will get a second chance to get her case back into court but there is always hope. I don't know how long ago the suspended possession order was granted because there are strict time limits for requesting an appeal against a judge's decision, but she may be able to do this out of time if there is a good reason. She really needs a lawyer now and the firm in the Blemain vs Thomas case often works on a No Win No Fee basis so no harm in ringing them on Tuesday morning to see if they can help:

http://www.stephensons.co.uk/site/ne..._unenforceable

The other well known case is Blemain vs Bentley:

http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/business/8332124.stm

In both these cases Blemain surrendered and settled before the High Court ruled against them. They didn't want the legal precedent because that would open the floodgates for all those who are/were suffering from Blemain's horrendous conduct.

I'm assuming this is a secured loan and not a first charge (i.e. the principal mortgage). Sometimes the first mortgage lender will step in to help prevent a suspended possession order progressing to full possession in order to protect their own interests. If the property has negative equity or is sold at a knockdown price at auction by the 2nd charge holder then the 1st charge holder is at risk of losing their investment.

There's not much more I can add at this 11th hour in these proceedings except to say your friend is lucky to have someone like you looking out for her at this terrible time in her life :hug:

[PlanB]

Re: Blenam/Lancashire Mortgage Corp Unfair Charges

One more thing to consider: if there were overcharges on the account at the time she was repossessed, and if the amount of those overcharges was greater than the arrears owed which caused her to be repossessed, then she may have a strong case for compensation since in theory she wasn't in arrears with her mortgage was she, so wouldn't/shouldn't have been repossessed? If you follow me

[Rigsby121]

Re: Blenam/Lancashire Mortgage Corp Unfair Charges

hi all thank you for your response,sorry I havenot posted a new update but I am still learning to use the computer and finding it difflicult to use this forum.//////we filled in the form n244 and have a hearing on the six of june to variey the order due to a change in circumstances//////in the mean time LMC have sent through a breakdown of their charges.first she had two loans one for 40.500.00 and one a little later fo 28thousand,will explain more after the court hearing,if my maths are right her charges with management fees telephone charges and letters comes to about 8hunred pounds a month it seems if you are only a penny in arrears they charge you will let you know how we get on again thanksfor your input todate

[scoobydoo]

Re: Blenam/Lancashire Mortgage Corp Unfair Charges

Gosh I wish I was not so rusty on this . Were there not some cases where the courts were unhappy that the charges were actually included in the "arrears" calculation?

[IanM]

Re: Blenam/Lancashire Mortgage Corp Unfair Charges

Gosh I wish I was not so rusty on this . Were there not some cases where the courts were unhappy that the charges were actually included in the "arrears" calculation?

I don't know about any court cases but a lender cannot include additional fees and charges as part of the arrears as declared in court as the "arrears" should only be "the arrears of the monthly payments under the terms of the mortgage".

If they do add fees and charges they are misleading the court into believing the situation is worse than what the truth actually is to gain an unfair judgement and they can get in serious trouble for this so make sure you can prove the actual arrears on paper in court.

[IanM]

Re: Blenam/Lancashire Mortgage Corp Unfair Charges

Whilst on the subject I wonder if a repossession can be overturned if it can be proved that the lender lied about the true amount of the arrears, by adding fees and charges, to gain a possession order in the first place?

[PlanB]

Re: Blenam/Lancashire Mortgage Corp Unfair Charges

a lender cannot include additional fees and charges as part of the arrears as declared in court as the "arrears" should only be "the arrears of the monthly payments under the terms of the mortgage". If they do add fees and charges they are misleading the court into believing the situation is worse than what the truth actually is to gain an unfair judgement and they can get in serious trouble for this so make sure you can prove the actual arrears on paper in court.

I completely agree with that :beagle::beagle::beagle:

[PlanB]

Re: Blenam/Lancashire Mortgage Corp Unfair Charges

wonder if a repossession can be overturned if it can be proved that the lender lied about the true amount of the arrears, by adding fees and charges, to gain a possession order in the first place?

In the case of a suspended possession order then I believe that the borrower would apply for a set-aside of the order or appeal the judge's decision. If the property has already been repossessed and sold then the borrower would seek compensation big time

[TUTTSI]

Re: Blenam/Lancashire Mortgage Corp Unfair Charges

I completely agree with that :beagle::beagle::beagle:

Often the sub prime lenders are now doing this and judges are not taking this into account and go with the lender which is definitely not the correct procedure.

You can challenge the charges but not the legal fees.

[IanM]

Re: Blenam/Lancashire Mortgage Corp Unfair Charges

Often the sub prime lenders are now doing this and judges are not taking this into account and go with the lender which is definitely not the correct procedure.

You can challenge the charges but not the legal fees.

Same again, if the judge does not correctly follow procedure, especially when the evidence is in front of them that the court is being given misleading information by the lender to unfairly gain possession, then surely that is clear grounds to have a possession judgement overturned and the matter investigated?

[scoobydoo]

Re: Blenam/Lancashire Mortgage Corp Unfair Charges

No wonder I feel rusty on all of this - my sticky thread ( top of this forum ) was 2008!( and I am a good few years older with less brain cells) But it looks like someone updated it in 2011. I also remember from another forum I am sure a case against this particular lender being thrown out because of the info they provided in court . It did not actually technically stop the possession but gave the claimant more precious time to sell the property themselves ( always the better alternative to possession)

[Sickofbullies]

Re: Blenam/Lancashire Mortgage Corp Unfair Charges

It is worth asking Lancashire Mortgage Co-for a detailed account of work done for any charge applied to the account exceeding £30.00. The more people that do this the better-Cheshire mortgage co were recently charged by the FSA for overcharging-time Lancashire went the same way.