Reclaiming mortgage fees

[Kafka]

I sold a house this summer after a long legal battle with the lender and I'm now looking at charges that are reclaimable from the period 2008-9 mainly. These are:

1. Monthly arrears fees £25
2. Customer contact fee (monthly) £25
3. Non-DD fee £40
4. Returned DD £30

I'm getting some conflicting details regarding which of these are reclaimable. Can anyone advise please?

[Kafka]

Re: Reclaiming mortgage fees

:boink:
Bumping this up because there's someone else dealing with a similar issue at the moment.

[Kafka]

Re: Reclaiming mortgage fees

I sold a house this summer after a long legal battle with the lender and I'm now looking at charges that are reclaimable from the period 2008-9 mainly. These are:

1. Monthly arrears fees £25
2. Customer contact fee (monthly) £25
3. Non-DD fee £40
4. Returned DD £30

I'm getting some conflicting details regarding which of these are reclaimable. Can anyone advise please?

Still looking for ideas on this.
My understanding is that 1,2 a,d 4 are penalties and that 3 gets through as a service charge, providing you paid some other way, but is reclaimable if the didn't pay at all.
Is anyone familiar with recent claims like this?

[Kafka]

Re: Reclaiming mortgage fees

I've had real problems finding relevant info for this anywhere. So desperate I even looked into CAG :behindsofa:
Surprisingly, I haven't found any real cases of reclaims from recent years, despite there being discussions about what is reclaimable. For that reason, I'm trying to construct a solid case as an example of how this can be done.

The authority for reclaiming seems to cover the usual penalty arguments, and also the FSA guidance on reclaiming unfair charges, but that is usually vague and insipid stuff, when they should be setting the lead here with clear guidance. Also, a lot of the stuff is about exit fees and that doesn't apply to me.

I have charges from late 2008 - last year, falling into the following categories, which I'll discuss in turn in another thread.

1) Returned direct debit
2) Monthly arrears fee
3) Customer contact fee
4) Arrears letter charge
5) Non direct debit charge

[Kafka]

Re: Reclaiming mortgage fees

1) Returned direct debit
£30 a pop and I regard these as straight penalties for the usual reasons.

2) Monthly arrears fee
Two years worth of these (£25) that always appear alongside 3) Customer contact fee. They both stop appearing during the last two years before the sale.
Again, I regard these as straight penalties for default.

3) Customer contact fee
£25 and as with 2), they don't apply to every month, or to every month with contact. I would argue that they are punitive because they weren't applied consistently. I could check up to what contact there was to separate them that way. This is probably the least clear of the five.

4) Arrears letter charge
£30 for these and they only appeared a few times after 2) and 3) had stopped being applied, following a repo order. As I recall, the FSA identifies these as being reclaimable because if it costs £10 to send a letter but they charge £30 its unfair. What they typically don't say is why they think it costs £10 to send a letter or how much you should reclaim.

5) Non direct debit charge
A run of these at £40 per time in the last stages after the other charges had fallen away. Again, there is no consistency and they weren't applied for the preceding three years when DDs weren't used, so again, they are not representative of genuine loss.
From what I have read these class as admin charges so can't be challenged as default charges. However, they can only be applied where the lack of a DD incurs some unspecified costs, so they shouldn't be applied if no payment was made that month. In this case, the majority were applied when that cannot have caused any loss, so reclaimable as unfair and irrelevant.

The eventual sale period was a very long one of about three years, owing to several factors but mainly due to the house being in the line of a road scheme. That dragged out everything because it could only be sold to the Govt under a Blight Notice, which requires a protracted statutory process that added to the problems.

What strikes me is the way that the charging regime changed over the period in blocks, with no consistency throughout of the costs they will maintain were genuine losses incurred at the time. I propose to use this charging profile to argue in the claim as well as addressing each type of charge.

I would be grateful for any thoughts on this before I start work on the claim.

[Kafka]

Re: Reclaiming mortgage fees

Just flying this one again as I want to start moving with this one now. If there's no other input I'll frame the arguments myself.
:lb:

[dogtired]

Re: Reclaiming mortgage fees

I subscribed @Kafa as fees from our provider are similar.
We have now raised a complaint about them and a possible miss sell as the broker recommend a provider ( TML) who " got" a self certification mortgage with a firm called Kensington.
Turned out that they were part of the same group but each had fees that were added on, they are also on LIBOR rate which has always been higher than the base rate.
When we had problems they were very slow in responce and then took us to Court ( fees again) now back on track but it's been hard, would be very interested in how you go on with this.

[Kafka]

Re: Reclaiming mortgage fees

There's been no other interest and I'm surprised that I can find little info anywhere, despite this being quite a big issue. I'll have a think about a prelim letter to them to test the water re a request for breakdown of costs charged then see how it goes.

[dogtired]

Re: Reclaiming mortgage fees

There's been no other interest and I'm surprised that I can find little info anywhere, despite this being quite a big issue. I'll have a think about a prelim letter to them to test the water re a request for breakdown of costs charged then see how it goes.

Surprised at the lack of interest .
Will keep my eyes on your progress.

[Kafka]

Re: Reclaiming mortgage fees

I'm looking again at this one with a view to filing a claim when I can get clarity on what can be reclaimed.

The issues are all spelt out above, and I would appreciate any advice.

Thanks.

[Diana M]

Re: Reclaiming mortgage fees

Who was the lender?

Di

[Kafka]

Re: Reclaiming mortgage fees

Derbyshire Home Loans, which is a branch of Nationwide BS. The mortgage wasn't taken out with them but it was sold to them.

[dogtired]

Re: Reclaiming mortgage fees

Hello, [MENTION=66]Kafka[/MENTION] ,, took ours to FOS who were utterly useless, despite clear evidence of the links with TML and Kensington they rejected our complaint.

[harrysheard]

Re: Reclaiming mortgage fees

Just come across thread, posting to keep eye as had similar experiences...use plural but same firm
Mortgage with woolwich...leasehold flat 99 year lease...freeholder charging extortionate charges...complain solicitors letters sent freeholder contact woolwich...I appraise them of situation....year on year same thing happens...become unemployed...woolwich start repossession action I complain regarding amount stated I owe (fsa) the investigation takes almost two years turns out woolwich had made payments to freeholder without prejudiced... along with late payments fees ect, repossession still dragging on I attended two hearings where case suspended (they did not provide all info requested) year later they engaged another firm of solicitors I attended hearing explain what had happened previous they deny having dealt with FSA or being aware of payments with out prejudice judge said they should have carried on with previous case......Barclays take over woolwich they reinstate previous case another hearing (by this time they had worn me down suffering COPD/depression) Judge granted repossession. I was using firm solicitors for DWP hearing appeals ect one of the legal advisors brought the flat from me (feel this was not complete legit but obtained better price) asked for breakdown of account under freedom of information then I found out about all the charges including solicitor fees for the repossession started by new firm of solicitors....all this took place between 1997-2002/3..think charges amounted to over 3000.00 some levied in 1993 these without prejudiced and had interest paid on them over the years.....