Capstones/Acenden/SPML or Whatever They Now Call Themselves

[Lady Python]

I've written on CAG before about the problems my friend has had with these sharks.

 

She was evicted about 2 years ago. As far as I know, Capstones sold her house at market value i.e. they didn't lose and probably made a small profit from the sale.

 

My friend thought that would be the end of the matter. Not so. Shortly after she got a shock in the form of a bill for £30,000 "indemnity insurance". She made an agreement (not sure with Capstones themselves or the debt collectors - DLC) and has been paying £60 per month since. Last week she got a letter saying that the Capstones have now been taken over by Acenden who have taken the debt off DLC and given it to Scotts (debt collectors?)

 

She phoned me and asked if I could get advice on this. Doing a bit of research the other night, I came upon the site Capstone Action Group - and what was in there made ME sit up and take notice. Some VERY interesting things on there. I'm not long off the phone to her (she lives 300 miles away). Unfortunately, she doesn't have internet access hence (again) I'm writing on here on her behalf - not something I particularly like doing as I would prefer to have all the facts first.

 

Looks like she's possibly been another one unlawfully respossessed but I admit to being on shaky ground there as I don't know enough of the ins and outs of what happened exactly.

 

What she wants to know at present, is since she has made no agreement with Acenden and the previous agreement was either with Capstones and/or DLC, since Acenden has now taken that "debt" back and (I think) placed it with Scotts, is that agreement still valid or not (if it ever was in the first place)? It is also interesting to note that they have never attempted to recover this insurance indemnity "debt" from her estranged husband, only her - the easy target?

 

Without going through all her paperwork it is impossible to give as clear a picture as I would like but any pointers in what she should or could do would be appreciated.

 

I do know that the fees Capstone hit her with were astronomical. It all started when her pay was late going in the bank by a couple of days and Capstones literally piled on the charges and fees for a missed payment (2 days late - and I have seen the paperwork for that). On top of that, her husband lost his job and eventually her marriage broke up. She's the one who's been left to deal with everything. Want to help her if I can as she's been a good friend to me for many years.

[dx100uk]

has this ever been to court?

 

insurance and charges...both are reclaimable or can be mis-sold.

 

dx

[Lady Python]

Hi DX and thank you for replying. She was taken to Court for the possession of the house but as far as I know, she has not been taken to Court for this £30,000. I will be speaking to her on the phone tomorrow evening so will ask her then. At the rate of £60 per month, my friend will be paying for the next 41 years and will probably be dead by then (certainly in her late 80s). No doubt this scurrilous company would then chase her family for the balance!

 

It also seems very harsh that her estranged husband (much of her problems stemmed from his gambling habit) has wriggled off without contributing a penny. She is having to survive on her own wage, pay rent etc. and the worry is affecting her health

 

The only saving grace there is her children are adults.

 

My own attitude would be for Capstones/Acenden to sing for it but she's not as thick-skinned as me and I don't want to give her wrong advice either.

 

From what I've read about Capstones both on here and the Capstones Action Group site, it's about high time they were closed down permanently but looking at the information, their tentacles go right to the top of the very corrupt tree

[littledotty27]

Hi There

 

Capstone have changed their name to Ascenden & not been taken over.

Your friend should should complete a subject access request which is a complete history on her account with capstone since the start of the mortgage.

This will cost £10 and you have to give capstone 40days to comply.

Once she has received this go through all the charges,fees,insurance,ppi etc which she is eligable to claim back.

 

Write to them and state you are disputing the amount they are claiming,ask for a full breakdown of how they get to £30k.

 

As far as Scotts go..tell them the debt is in dispute & they will have to put it on hold..they can not go for payment or harrass you when a debt is in dispute.

 

I can guarantee that the whole shambles of the mortgage will have een mis-sold or plenty of breaches in the contract somewhere.

 

Don't let them get away with it...the more you put up a fight...the more they back down & bend over backwards.

 

Good luck

[Lady Python]

Hi There

 

Capstone have changed their name to Ascenden & not been taken over.

Your friend should should complete a subject access request which is a complete history on her account with capstone since the start of the mortgage.

This will cost £10 and you have to give capstone 40days to comply.

Once she has received this go through all the charges,fees,insurance,ppi etc which she is eligable to claim back.

 

Write to them and state you are disputing the amount they are claiming,ask for a full breakdown of how they get to £30k.

 

As far as Scotts go..tell them the debt is in dispute & they will have to put it on hold..they can not go for payment or harrass you when a debt is in dispute.

 

I can guarantee that the whole shambles of the mortgage will have een mis-sold or plenty of breaches in the contract somewhere.

 

Don't let them get away with it...the more you put up a fight...the more they back down & bend over backwards.

 

Good luck

 

Thanks Littledotty27. Just about to phone my friend now - usually phone her when she's at work - she only has a mobile as she can't afford a landline and I can talk to her at length on her work's landline (she works in a independent living house and is on duty all night).

 

It's really awkward though because I don't know enough to be able to help her or even help her in a practical way, like having her over for dinner etc. She lives 300 miles from me. If she lived closer, I'd be able to go through her paperwork with her. She's not even on the internet (she can't afford it) hence I'm go-between.

 

I feel she's been ripped off from the start. I'm just glad I don't have a mortgage (at least not yet) and if I ever do, I'll know who NOT to go to LOL.

[Lady Python]

Just off the phone to my friend.

 

The one thing at the moment she wants to know is if she should still continue paying the £60 per month (this insurance indemnity thing) to Scotts (formerly with DLC) or should she stop paying?

 

She came down here in March last year for a couple of days and I typed a SAR letter for her which she posted recorded delivery. She did get something of a reply. She sent me a copy of it (I've still got it kicking around somewhere - must dig it out). I said at the time I thought it was incomplete as the details on it were very sketchy.

 

Would she be better to get a second SAR (if this can be done)?

 

I do remember on the copy she gave me that there were interest charges, late payment fees and God knows what else. It looked like the interest had interest had interest:|

 

I asked her how on earth she got involved with this company in the first place instead of going to a reputable bank or building society as she'd done in the past. It would seem her ex had a bad credit rating and had a friend who worked doing mortgages for Capstones.

 

The other thing she's wondering about is if she is successful eventually in claiming back the unlawful charges, would her ex, who helped to land her in this mess in the first place, be entitled to half? They are separated (she hasn't seen sight nor sound of him for at least a year) but not yet divorced.

[dx100uk]

pers i think the whole thing is questionable

 

if there not been a sar done and you've got it all

 

then it might be an idea to 2nd send one

 

if it were me!

 

i'd stop all payments to them

 

if the whole things is based on the insurance aspect of the house and nowt to do 'with the house' and what it went to court for

 

its insurance - its mis-sold because they were taken advantage of and its also inflated by unlawful charges.

 

my view only

 

but thats what what i would do

 

if i were writing about it to the fleecers getting paid now

i'd simply write a letter stating from this date on i refuse to make any further payment on an insurance policy and your subsequent charges that was mis-sold in the first place when you took advantage of me when i could not get a mortgage with a normal lender due to adverse credit ratings.

 

dx

[newstarter]

Rght,i agree with dx all the way here.Idemnity insurance in an insurance lenders take out when granting mortgages to what they believe to be high risk customers,what happens is this,the mortgage is granted,the lender then insures themselves against any loss that may occur should the property be repossessed,thus if the house is repossessed and sold at auction or on the open market and there is a shortfall between the total mortgage balance and what the house sold at when repossessed the lender would then claim that shortfall from their insurance company.The mortgage company then chases the lender for the shortfall on behalf of the insurance company or the insurance chase this up direct,or as in your freinds case its passed to a D.C.A who collect on behalf of the lender on a you scratch my back i will scratch your policy.

 

What puzzles me is this,you said in your post at the beginning of this thread that the house sold for its market value and your freind didnt loose out so there was no shortfall,so where does the 30k come from? If Capstone/Acenden have charged a walloping 30k in costs and arrears charges and claimed this on the indemnity which i suspect to be the case,then stop paying now,i cannot stress this enough,pay no more monthly payments to Scotts You need to send a S.A.R to Capstones right a way and heres what you need to ask for

 

(1) Statements going back all the way to the first year of the mortgage

 

(2) copies of all letters and corespondence

 

(3) transcripts of telephone conversations

 

(4) copies of the deeds,mortgage agreement

 

(5) copies of court papers including repo papers from the court

 

(6)copies of corespondence between the lender and their solicitors

 

Your friend will need to ask for every scrap of information they hold about her and the acount,and i mean everything.

 

Next step,write a letter to D.L.C sending them a S.A.R request asking for all information they have on your freind and her account,in particular the paperwork and corespondence between themselves and Capstones,and the indemnity provider.Furthermore your friend will need to write to Scotts advising them that this outstanding balance is in dispute as new information relating to this debt has come to light,(remind them of their obligations regarding balances which are in dispute if they make any threats.There will be little else we can do till you get all that info,however you could ask your freind to start doing some digging aropund the house for any missing,lost paperwork,and a trip to the local county court might not go amiss,make some enquiries and ask for print outs of anything they have on file regarding the repo,its alot of letter writing i know but you cannot act untill you get the full facts concerning what has been going on here.

[littledotty27]

Definately do not pay Scotts a bean! Take dx and newstarters advice. A lot of us here have been fighting them for 5years or more...the aim is not to give in and not back down...and I would certainly address where they get the 30k figure from.

[Lady Python]

What puzzles me is this,you said in your post at the beginning of this thread that the house sold for its market value and your freind didnt loose out so there was no shortfall,so where does the 30k come from? If Capstone/Acenden have charged a walloping 30k in costs and arrears charges and claimed this on the indemnity which i suspect to be the case,then stop paying now,i cannot stress this enough,pay no more monthly payments to Scotts

 

As far as I'm aware, it does look like they've done exactly as you say and it's my feelings too but without knowing everything and going through everything with my friend there's not much else I can tell you.

 

I absolutely think she should not pay another penny to this bunch of corrupt sharks. I'm afraid, had this been me (thank God it's not) then they would have been told to "Foxtrot Oscar" in no uncertain terms.

 

Anyway, I will be handing over this thread to my friend. She texted me this afternoon. She's managed to save up and purchase a second hand PC and a dongle. so she'll be able to explain things better than me being carrier pigeon LOL. She's not computer savvy but at least has managed to set up an e-mail so I'm going to send her the link to this thread and walk her through the registration process. It might take a day or two as she's working tomorrow. The job she has involves her living-in the days she's on duty.

 

I really hope she can get this sorted out - and that goes for all of you because what a nightmare to be in. Sometimes I'm glad I don't have a mortgage and live in a council house although my dream is to one day own my own house (in my mid 50s and not getting any younger though so doubt there'd be many willing to give us a mortgage).

 

Will be watching (and commenting) on this thread so I'm not going to disappear altogether