Kensington and GMAC Mortgages

[catherinebear]

Hi there,

 

My husband and I remortgaged with GMAS and settled and were charged a £4,000 penalty charge (we are in the process of getting statements from them) to see how much in advance of the settlement term we were. We then remortgaged with Kensington Mortgages who I must say have to be the worst company I have ever had to deal with. My husband was made redundant and was out of work for a year I am disabled and was in the process of undergoing more back surgery we asked Kensington if they would extend the term of our mortgage to help reduce the payments, they said it was not their policy to do this!! we therefore were threatened with repossession, we had no alternative but to sell. We had the house specially adapted with stairlift walk in shower etc for my disability and asked them in view of the circumstances if they would consider waiving the early settlement fee as there was only 5 months to go but they said no. So now we want to see if we can get our money back. Would love to hear from any other similar people out there with advice ane help. Lets hope we all get our money back. We deserve it!!!!

 

Catherine

[ladymoonray]

I've been watching some consumer debt programmes recently, and Kensington don't come out well in any of them. I really regret remortgaging with them now, and it sounds as if they treated you really badly.

 

I'm just waiting for my early repayment penalty period to be up (or maybe just for it to be declared unlawful) and then I'm going to get some proper advice and switch to a different company. In the meantime, I'm going after Kensington for some penalty charges they made on missed payments.

 

I haven't left Kensington yet, so I can't claim against them for an early redemption penalty. But I'd say definitely go for it! I expect you'll have to take them to court, they're not very co-operative generally, but hopefully it'll be worth it in the end. I'm rooting for you anyway!

 

Don't forget to add on any penalty charges they made on your account as you fell behind with the payments.

 

ladymoonray

 

Nationwide: £2443. Request for payment 4 July 2006. LBA 19 July 2006

Co-operative Bank Visa: £351. Request for payment 22 June, LBA 6 July 2006

MBNA Visa: £476. Request for payment 22 June, LBA 6 July 2006

AA Account with Capital Bank: £80. Request for payment 19 July 2006

Capital One Visa: £160. Request for payment 19 July 2006

Paragon Personal Finance: £120 fees plus £1313.70 early redemption penalty. Request for payment 19 July 2006

Kensington Mortgages: £95. Request for payment 19 July 2006

[DOOLEY]

I have a mortgage with GMAC and I am absolutely certain they have been overcharging me.I am currently having the matter investigated but I have to say they are very unhelpful.

[dolly]

I have a mortgage with GMAC and I am absolutely certain they have been overcharging me.

 

In what way do you think that...the monthly amount?

[DOOLEY]

I am certain when I signed up that there was a discounted mortgage interest rate until April 2006 -they say its 2005.

I have paperwork going back nearly 20 years but I cant find a copy of my mortgage offer-the solicitors want to charge me £50 to retrieve it -which I think is excessive.

[sutee50]

When I've got Abbey under my belt I want to tackle GMAC. They have been charging me £50 per month for not having a Direct Debit in place (which would cost me most months at Abbey as well) as well as other costs. I wish I'd never set eyes on their papers. I've been told that it is a venture capital company, which is why it couldn't care less about people and helping them.

I shall be interested to see how others are getting on.

[gizmo111]

I am certain when I signed up that there was a discounted mortgage interest rate until April 2006 -they say its 2005.

I have paperwork going back nearly 20 years but I cant find a copy of my mortgage offer-the solicitors want to charge me £50 to retrieve it -which I think is excessive.

 

Send a SAR costs £10 and you will have all the info you need for any further claims.

[DOOLEY]

To the solicitors or mortgage company ?.

[gizmo111]

To the solicitors or mortgage company ?.

 

The mortgage company I would have thought - then you will get all relevant information.

[nona]

Hey sorry to hear about everyone's probs. This won't help those already involved with Kensington, but it might help others-when i needed a "speciality" mortgage I was warned against Kensington by a mortgage broker. This was years ago. Any one reading this should avoid Kensington and i think the experience of people on this thread corroborate this.

 

Hope this isn't libellous

Nona

[catherinebear]

Hello everyone

 

Have not heard anything since Kensington's last letter saying they were still looking into it! but it did not sound too hopeful GMAC have replied as well saying that they do not accept that the early redemption charges were unfair. So tomorrow we will be sending 2nd letter to them and after that we will be issuing Court papers! Has anyone had a success with either Kensington or GMAC yet would love to know if they have. It seems really unfair because between the two companies they had stung us with redemption charges of over £11,000!!

 

Catherine and Dave

[catherinebear]

Hi out there,

Has anyone got to the stage of serving Court Papers in connection with early redemption charges if so could use some help as to how to word it if we get no joy with our second letters to Kensington and GMAC!!

Many thanks for all the help out there.

Regards

Catherine and Dave

[zootscoot]

Hi Catherine & Dave

This is what I used for my particulars of claim on an online money claim (which restricts the amount you can say)

I am claiming the return of money taken by the defendant in the way of a redemption penalty charge in Feb 06. This charge relates to my breach of contract in that I terminated the contract before the agreed period. The defendant's charge for our breach is a disproportionate penalty and therefore unenforceable as it is contrary to common law as established in Dunlop Pneumatic Tyre Co Ltd v New Garage and Motor Co Ltd [1915] AC 79. Further, as a disproportionate penalty it is invalid under the Unfair (Contracts) Terms Act 1977 s.4 and under the Unfair Terms in Consumer Contracts Regulations 1999. Para.8 and sch.2(1)(e). I have repeatedly asked the defendant to justify their charges but they have declined to do so.

 

If you tick the box for claiming contractual interest the extra wording comes up for this and you have to enter the amount and dates.

 

If you are doing your claim via N1 you can expand the wording and would need to state that you are claiming the contractual rate of interest and include the amount and daily rate.

 

Hope this helps

 

Zoot

[money...money...money...]

Hi All...

 

I have a few questions,

 

1. I originally took out a mortgage with kensington nearly 2 years ago after about 1 year I received a letter informing me that my mortgage is now with "Mortgage Agency Services" not sure why? Has anyone else ramdomly been moved to these?

 

2. I have been in this mortgage for nearly 2 years now (22months) I'm tied in for 3 years, we are about 75% through selling it because the payments are rediclous, anyway I have been told I have to pay about £16k redemption (6%), am I right in thinking after the sale a can claim it back?

 

3. I have done 2 bank charge claims which were successful, the question I have here is - with the court action, isnt there some sort amount, I think its £5K that your allowed through small claims court, if so what other court and is it riskier?

 

Thanks in advance

[catherinebear]

Hello there

We have received a letter from Kensington on Saturday saying that they do not agree that their charges are illegal!! We have never had our Mortgage company name changed but feel that Kensington are the worst of a bad bunch! When my husband was made redundant we went to the DHSS to see if we could get any help with the mortgage repayments as they had risen so much even the woman in the office of the DHSS said Kensington!!! say no more!

We feel that our only step with this is to proceed to Court (when we have the funds!) does anyone out there have any idea how we word the Court papers in connection with early settlement fees on mortgages? Good luck to everyone and continue to fight the good fight!

Regards

Catherine and Dave

[gizmo111]

Hello there

We have received a letter from Kensington on Saturday saying that they do not agree that their charges are illegal!! We have never had our Mortgage company name changed but feel that Kensington are the worst of a bad bunch! When my husband was made redundant we went to the DHSS to see if we could get any help with the mortgage repayments as they had risen so much even the woman in the office of the DHSS said Kensington!!! say no more!

We feel that our only step with this is to proceed to Court (when we have the funds!) does anyone out there have any idea how we word the Court papers in connection with early settlement fees on mortgages? Good luck to everyone and continue to fight the good fight!

Regards

Catherine and Dave

 

What letters did you send them as your signature says Ombudsman

[catherinebear]

Hi

Regarding my mortgage ERC I took Kensington to the Ombudsman first as we were forced to sell our home last October due to my husband having been made redunant some 18 months earlier and although we had had our property adapted for my disability and I was facing major surgery again in November they showed no sympathy we were 5 months short of the ERC deadline and still they said touch luck! So initially we went to the Ombudsman but quite honestly it was a total waste of time. Then we heard about the site and started to pursue them by letters, next step is the Courts. Bring it on we say!

Regards

Catherine and Dave

[catherinebear]

Hello everyone

 

Spoke to GMAC yesterday said I will have a reply to my 2nd letter from Head Office in next 5 days!! wont hold our breath though. Kensington are obviously going to have to be taken to Court however I am checking the site to see what successes are like as our claim is over £5,000 for Kensington but only £4,000 for GMAC. Thanks to Zoot for the wording lets hope we all get to nail the B..........s for the way they operate against individuals.

Regards

Catherine and Dave

[Les Gunn]

Good luck Catherinebear - i'm at acknowledgement stage on my MCOL - be interesting to see what SPML decide to do, bearing in mind mine is under £5k.

[catherinebear]

Good luck Les will keep watching your thread and keep our fingers crossed that we can nail these b............s

 

Regards

Catherine and Dave

[money...money...money...]

Hi Catherinebear

 

I completed on my house move last Friday (29th) and paid back my £15k redemption fee (which hurt!).

I did send a letter about 3 weeks ago to my mortgage company stating laws etc and they gave me the standard rubbish, saying its "not" a penalty its an agreed fee for leaving early, and that its my fault for not reading the terms properly in the begining and my financail advisors for not advising me correct when the contract was signed !

 

Can some someone send me the letter I need to send to get the ball rolling?

 

Thanks for your help and good luck to eveyone !

[paulpb123]

Hi money,

Here's the prelim letter I sent to Accord mortgages, based on one of Zoot's superb efforts:

 

Request for repayment of early redemption charge

 

Dear Sir/Madam

 

Account Number: xcxxxxxxxx

 

I am writing to request a refund of the early redemption charge of £9750 which was debited to my account when I redeemed my mortgage and changed to a different product on xx/xx/xx. I now understand that this charge is in all likelihood disproportionate to the costs that you actually incured. As such, this penalty is unlawful at Common Law, Statute and recent consumer regulations. Such disproportionate charges are considered to be unfair per se by the OFT who reported on 5th April 2006 and are therefore presumed to be unlawful in the absence of specific proof to the contrary.

 

If you believe that this charge is proportionate to the costs you have incured as a result of the early redemption of my mortgage, could you please demonstrate this by providing a full breakdown of those costs or a pre-estimate of your losses. Please note that I do not require an explanation as to why this charge was made; I am fully aware of the terms and conditions of my mortgage. What I require is a breakdown of your costs in order to reassure me that the charge is justified.

Having taken legal advice on this matter it is very clear, as you will no doubt be aware, that English contract law requires such charges to be a genuine pre-estimate of your losses. In the case of Castaneda and Others v Clydebank Engineering and Shipbuilding Co Ltd., (1902) 12 SLT 498 the House of Lords held that a contractual party can only recover damages for actual or liquidated losses incured from a breach of contract as opposed to a charge which represents a penalty. This was upheld in the case of Dunlop Pneumatic Tyre Co Ltd v New Garage and Motor Co Ltd [1915] AC 79. In addition to this, your charge represents an unfair term of contract which is contrary to the Unfair Terms in Consumer Contracts Regulations 1999 (SL. 1999/2083). 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 also like to bring to your attention 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 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 at Common Law and (in a consumer mortgage) under the Unfair Terms in Consumer Contracts Regulations.

 

The fact that I signed the mortgage offer containing the term relating to the early redemption charge does not make this term enforceable, as I’m sure your legal department are fully aware.

 

I will now give you 14 days to reply to me accepting, unconditionally, my request in principle and letting me know a date by which I will receive payment.

 

If you do not respond, or if you do not respond positively, within this time period, I shall send you a Letter Before Action giving you a further 14 days in which to reflect. While I would like to settle this matter amicably and without the need for court action and the attendant publicity this will receive, you can take this letter as 28 days notice of my intention to issue a claim should you not comply with my request. I believe that these targets are more than sufficient for a large company such as yours with dedicated staff and departments.

 

Yours faithfully,

 

PB

 

Good luck to all ERC claimers!

[money...money...money...]

Thanks for that Paul.......I'll get that sent off and keep everyone up-to-date with how it goes?

[catherinebear]

Hi Money money money

 

Just scanned the letter I sent but see Paul beat me to it good luck with the letter and keep us informed of how it goes. Kensington and GMAC seem to be two of the worst when you look at the site and see how many people are against them. Good luck to everyone and lets fight the good fight and win!!!

 

Regards

Catherine and Dave8-)

[zootscoot]

Hi Money,

 

Could you please start your own thread.

 

15K could push you into the multi-track which could mean going to the High Court in Lodon where barristers will be used. You can state your preference to remain in fast track in your allocation questionairre.

 

Best of luck

 

Zoot