The stress is horrendous, i took ill and landed in hospital for a couple of months, due to the stress of all this i decided to drop my fight for the sake of my health and paid it in full. In short 5k loan i paid back £21,322.38. 

On another note though i got an ambulance chaser call me regarding blemains hidden commision to broker and she was telling me they have had lots of success against blemain (together). I may look into this one day when i feel ready to do so. 

All the best to anyone fighting these crooks

bigmac

Hello all, I am recovering and getting better and just wanted to post up that due to my health problems and being unable to work I sold my house and settled my blemain account in full. I hope everyone who continues to fight this lot get a happy ending but for me it had to end early.

I settled paying just under £12000 which was purely charges and interest and it is good to no longer have the harassment from them.

I may one day return to this but hope you understand my reasons for settling.

Xx

They are relentless and see no wrongs in anything they charge you for, back in court myself in a few weeks, all the best.

Hi all, I'm home recovering but may not work again, selling my house and trying to end the blemain hell that I have endured for nearly 10 years now. Thx for all the get well messages.

Hi Jellie, i hope your still around as i see you have had no replies. this company are the worst and will charge for anything and everything they think they can get away with, please send a SAR to them and whilst waiting on the reply read, read, and read again about Blemain, this will not be quick to sort but if your committed to fighting back you will do ok.

Just an update; Court is ongoing and I have a solicitor to represent me as per the judges request.

I am requesting the judge to make an order under section 140(b) (1) of the CCA 1974 for the contract being used unfairly by Blemain (various reasons which I will go into if successful)

If the above fails I am challenging the fees applied to the account as they are penalty fees using the monarch route and OFT guidelines on debt and arrears collecting.7

I am challenging the building insurance and legal costs applied to my account and require evidence such as payments made to both claims as per the FOS.

Other issues such as hidden commission paid to the broker may come into it as I had no dealings whatsoever with bespoke and certainly didn't get independent advice from them acting as my fudiciary as to wether or not Blemain was a suitable lender for me, not to mention the interest rate argument.

It's always good to show by way of an I & E that finances are what they are and you have done the best that you have been able to under the circumstances.

However a call on how the judge acts is a gamble and will depend if the judge has a sympathetic ear.

I'm sure if you can show you have made contact and paid to your best ability that you stand a chance.

Have you had details of the account in question,

if not send a Subject Access Request to see what can be challenged and claimed back as blemain are the worst culprits I've ever known of for ripping consumers off, you may be pleasantly surprised.

In the mean time search the forum and read up on other blemain cases.

Thx dx I will take a more in depth look over next couple of days.

I intend to find out at court

It is widely accepted within the industry that the commission paid to brokers is often covered in the way of higher interest rates. My rate was 17.9% which is high for a secured loan.

Looking at the broker side of things having had received commission from the lender without disclosing the amount or indeed notifying me of it then the impartiality of the broker acting as my fiduciary can be questioned and the commission paid seen as a bribe.

I think there is a case to answer here regarding an unfair relationship but coupled with the fact that the broker I contacted who was advertised as u uk company (freedom finance) was actually not the broker and the broker fee and commission went to bespoke finance based in gibraltar and as they are not within the jurisdiction of the uk regulatory bodies. This was not something I consented to or had any knowledge of till my SAR came in. This in itself throws weight to this unfair relationship argument.

Any thoughts?

The problem with the building insurance payments they take is that they require blemains name to be noted as interested party on your insurance. Without this they don't care if you have other insurance.

This was prior to 2012 when they changed policy and no longer require to be noted as an interested party.

I have had limited success so far with this particular fight.

They did remove some as there was no proof supplied within the SAR of them asking me to provide proof.

The other years I in tabs to fight at court with proof of my own policy.

It is not illegal to have two insurance policies

just illegal to claim on both unless they share any claim costs.

Point is no one would pay for two as there is no benefit.

Fighting a repo hearing but will update when done. They are that bad you couldn't script it

They are the masters of smokescreens, did they itemise which charges and how much of that total was interest?

The charges relating to letters calls are before 2010 if i recall correctly that has now been changed to collections being one charge per month, when asked how it costs £35 per call or letter they claim it is to pay for the collection team. Insurance for building is where they charge for block insurance on their insurance, as you havent supplied details of your insurance

Hi Wungus,

i have been in the same boat and been in court,

yes for charges only,

so they will continue to court even if the payments for the loan have been paid they will pursue for the charges,

i have had a lot of charges removed including interest but there are many more remaining.

Now at court stage and intending to go to strict proof over these charges, will update.

Hi Wungus

They consist of:

Building Insurance - £959.18

Building Insurance Block Policy Charge - £130

Dishourned Reciept Charge - £35 x 5

Letter - £30 x 5

Collections Telephone - £35

Monthly Charge Arrears - £42 x 13

Visit Costs - £100

Land Registry Priority Search Legal Charge - £6

Land Registry Office Copies - £4 x 2 (on the same date?!?!)

Issue of Possession - £49

Online Issue Fee - £100

Court Preparation Fee - £57

Legal Costs - £162

The block building insurance is a payment they take from you for them to insure your building for the loan per year, its called block because they dont actually have insurance for your home just one insurance to cover all customers. They used to demand their name be put on the insurance policy but have since changed that.

Letter and collections telephone charges where what they used to charge customers till they swapped them for monthly fees as you have both then i suggest your loan period covered both time scales.

Visit cost of £100 are when they claim all communication has failed and they send collectors to your door apparently after mailing you and you werent home so they take a picture of your home for proof. (nice earner)

Legal costs well think of a number and thats what you pay basically.

Yes these amounts do not add up to the balance you apparently owe that is because that balance they claim you owe includes compound interest on all those charges you mentioned. Even after all the payments agreed are made and the contract is paid the outstanding balance made up of charges and interest still accrues at the contractual rate.

I would like to challenge them on many things but the one that really annoys me is how they can still charge contractual interest on the charges even after the contract has been paid in full and terminated.

Hi Saraho, your situation is similar to mine, broker payment was made to a company we had nothing to do with and is now out of business.

Hi all, i decided to put together a complaint (32 pages) and send to the FOS, they have taken best part of a year to get back to me and basically a total waste of time there. I am now back in communication with Blemain and the ball is up and running again so to speak. Will update as and when anything changes.

Happy to help where i can, keep us posted.

Hi John,

blemain are experts in adding costs to accounts,

your statement which you say you have may not actually show your charges which have been applied to the account,

only the payments you have made and where payments were due and missed if any and

then a running outstanding balance figure which includes any charges you have incurred.

im sure on that statement it will tell you what i have just said and then it will go on by saying if you wish to know of any charges

and interest that may be accruing on your account then you should contact us.

Call them and ask for the "list of costs and charges" which they will send to you separately.

It would be advisable for you to send them a SAR and a CCA request in the meantime as it will save time later.

Why did you question charges over £30? surely if a charge of £30 is on your account for say a telephone call then that would be seen as a penalty charge

sorting inbox right now.

Been reading up loads on Blemain and found lots of interesting stuff,

found a few things in the terms and conditions too that im sure can be proven Unfair

given the opportuniity in court.

My fear is at some point they realise this and drop the case leaving me with a charge on my house.

They do make mistakes and lots of them and i hope they pay for it.