Received my bumper pack from my SAR request and contains about 500 pages of stuff plus a CD, after going through this lot I now put the info onto the CISheet which shows total charges of £3806 plus £5013 of compound interest equalling £8820. Ocean Finance charged £1000 for setting this all up which I guess is their secret commission Plus there is another £2000 in legal fee's not added to the account but held in limbo and to be charged at the end of the loan term. My question is do we proceed like we used to when claiming back bank charges and is this the correct letter to use? Dear Sirs, ACCOUNT NUMBER: XXXXXXXXXX I am writing to ask you to refund the charges which you charged to my account in respect of late payment fees to the sum of £ XXXX. I now understand that such fees are unlawful at Common Law, Statute and recent consumer Regulations. In addition your charges appear to represent an unfair term of contract which is contrary to the Unfair Terms in Consumer Contracts Regulations 1999 (SI. 1999/2083). My account falls within the ambit of Regulation 5 of the Unfair Terms in Consumer Contracts Regulations 1999 as I am a consumer. Your charges constitute an unfair penalty under Schedule 2 of the said Regulations, which provide an indicative and non-exhaustive list of terms which may be regarded as unfair. Under paragraph 1(e) of schedule 2 this specifically includes terms which have the object of requiring any consumer who fails his obligation to pay a disproportionately high sum in compensation. I would vigorously contend that this is the position regarding the fees which you deemed fit to apply to my account. I would like to bring your attention to the following statement by The Office of Fair Trading: "A term in a mortgage agreement which requires the borrower to pay more for breaching the contract terms than actual costs and losses caused to the lender by the breach (or a genuine pre-estimate of that) is likely to be regarded as an unfair penalty and to be unenforceable both at common law and (in a consumer mortgage) under the Unfair Terms in Consumer Contracts Regulations. I believe that the charges you have levied of £XXXX far exceed any true cost to yourself as a result of our breaches and any genuine pre-estimate you could conceivably reach. If you disagree, then will you please demonstrate this by letting me have a full breakdown of the costs to which you have been put to as a result of our breaches, in order to reassure us that your charges really do reflect your costs. Thus I am asking that you refund the charges and other fees which have been levied on my account. If you do not respond, or you do not respond positively, within the time limits set out in your official complaints procedure I will enter a formal complaint to the Financial Ombudsman Service. I believe that these targets are more than sufficient for a large company such as yours with dedicated staff and departments. I hope that you will enter into a sincere dialogue with me about this matter and I am writing this letter to you on the assumption that you will prefer to do this than merely respond with standard letters and leaflets. Yours faithfully, XXXX

Hi everyone I just wanted a quick bit of advice. Blemain Finance issued a claim in 2012 and when the matter went to court and the judge was appalled that they were trying to gain possession of a property for such a small amount (1700) and refused to grant them possession. Instead the judge asked that I file a fully pleaded defence on or and that the claimant file and serve their reply. I filed the defence and in March 2013 I received a letter from the claimant's solicitors saying that they have been instructed to vacate the court proceedings. I called the court to find out why and they said because an agreement had been reached. No agreement between us has ever been reached. I have had a solicitor look over the loan agreement and she said that according to the terms therein, that I should pay £399.00 which I offered to them and they refused. I also received a letter from the court saying: "I can confirm that the court received a letter from the claimant requesting that they wish to withdraw all proceedings. This means that the case is now closed. Please note that you will have to seek legal advice if you are going to issue proceedings against the claimant". I received a further claim form for possession of property from Blemain Finance and I have to attend court soon. I now have to respond to this claim and wanted to know whether I could use the fact that they previously withdrew their case as part of my defence. I know from a previous post that Civil Procedure Rules 38.7 might come into effect. Could I possibly use this rule to help me in my defence also? I would really appreciate any advice you could give me.