Santander - mortgage penalty fee charges

[100mel]

Reading on the site it would seem that we can reclaim mortgage arrears fees - does anyone have any good template letters for these that maybe has worked for them?

 

Abbey decided to charge me late payment fees on a payment they had lost at £40 a time

 

thanks

[100mel]

Has anyone any experience of making a claim for mortgage arrears fees in the county court? Are there any POC available anywhere on the site. Can anyone point me in the right direction please. I am actively considering this for Abbey Santander

[dfitz24]

I have recently started te process of reclaiming mortgage arrears fee's fom abbey. So far I've managed to get statements and have fired off a letter requesting the charges be repaid. So far I've had no response. I have got to say though that they managed to 'lose' 3 letters just requesting a list of charges despite 2 of them being sent recorded delivery so Im not holding out much hope of them getting my latest one.

 

Not sure if you have come across this but this is what prompted me to make my claim and leaves me feeling pretty confident about reclaiming -

 

http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/business/8615870.stm

 

It seems the FSA have cracked down on a few now. Hopefully my confidence isn't misplaced! Obviously I'm not at the county court claim stage yet. Have you gone through their complaints procedure with this yet? Was it dismissed by Abbey?

[100mel]

Yes I wrote to them on several occasions and received absolutely no response so I made a complaint to the FOS some months ago and it doesn't seem to be going anywhere hence I am thinking that a claim in the county court might be necessary

[Helford]

I took on Abbey Mortgages over two years ago for unfair arrears and failed DD charges. Abbey settled upon receipt of court date. Abbey appointed their muppets (DLA Piper) to put in a defence and tried to frighten me off with a counter claim of £5,000 etc. All hot air!

 

Abbey couldn't wait to send me their cheque!

[dfitz24]

I'd like to think that it wouldn't need to go so far as going to court considering that the FSA seem to be taking action against lenders with some pretty big fines. As far as Abbey are concerned I'll be calling and pestering their customer services tomorrow. The only way I got my mortgage statements from them to work out my charges in the end was by faxing them my letter. Then calling constantly until I knew the fax was in the right hands at their end (in my case the archives team - old mortgage).

 

I'm thinking that I'll be pointing to the FSA fines that have been handed out within pretty much every communication to them -just as an extra prompt!

[100mel]

I took on Abbey Mortgages over two years ago for unfair arrears and failed DD charges. Abbey settled upon receipt of court date. Abbey appointed their muppets (DLA Piper) to put in a defence and tried to frighten me off with a counter claim of £5,000 etc. All hot air!

 

Abbey couldn't wait to send me their cheque!

 

May I ask on what basis they thought they could raise such a counter claim?

 

Did you use same POC as bank charges in your claim?

[Helford]

DLA Piper asserted that the mortgage carried a clause allowing the Abbey to reclaim from myself all costs and expenses and the costs of defending any legal proceedings (Yes, including defending themselves against Mrs Helford and myself) and they then stuck a caveat on, 'Such costs not to exceeed £5000'. We pressed on regardless!

 

I just 'tweaked' the bank charge reclaim letter at the time.

[100mel]

Santander have charged me mortgage arrears/late payments fees of £40 a time during a period of financial hardship of which they were fully aware.

 

I have complained to the FOS but they have upheld the charge as "reasonable".

 

My question is can I do anything further? Can I issue against them in court? If so what would be correct POC? Does anyone have any experience of doing this with a mortgage lender in court?

 

Help gratefully received

[Blossomandebony]

Hi,

 

1ooMel, you may get more advice if you put your thread in the 'Mortgages' Forum.

 

The claim form part will be quite simple,something like:

 

This is a money claim for the return of charges and associated interest applied to the Claimant's mortgage account, number XXXXXXXXXXXX by the Defendant.

 

Now for the Particulars of Claim:

Below is a template which you can adapt to your circumstances - copy, paste, edit!

 

I would suggest you should also add a whole new paragraph to the POC regarding the recent FSA fines etc, of which you will know more than me!

 

 

 

IN THE XXXXXX county court

 

 

BETWEEN

 

 

 

XXXXXXXX

 

 

Claimant

 

 

 

 

 

and

 

 

 

 

 

GE Money

 

Defendant

 

 

 

 

PARTICULARS OF CLAIM

 

 

 

 

 

The Agreement

 

 

1. The Claimant entered into an agreement with the Defendant on X/XX/XX, whereby the Defendant advanced a sum to the Claimant under a mortgage account, Account no XXXXXXXX

 

Summary

 

2. Throughout the course of the Agreement, the Defendant has added numerous default charges to the Account for the Claimant’s failure to make the minimum payment on the due date and / or if a payment is returned. (Full particulars are set out in the attached schedule of charges sent to the defendant on XX/X/XX ).

 

3. The default charges were applied in accordance with the standard terms of The Agreement, which were:

 

a). A penalty payable on breach of contract and thus unenforceable: and or

 

b) An unfair term under the Unfair Terms in Consumer Contracts Regulations 1999 (“The Regulations”) and therefore not binding on the Claimant.

 

4. The Claimant is accordingly entitled to repayment of the sums wrongly added to the Account.

 

 

The Charges

 

5. The Charges consisted of various amounts of £XX, £XX and £XXX. For each of these charges, the defendant merely sent out one electronic letter to inform the claimant of the charge, which I estimate at costing approximately £1.00.

 

(Add any further details here on what GE money actually ‘do’ when you’re in arrears, eg phone call, letters. You are basically attempting to prove that their costs are much lower than the charges!!!)

 

6. The amount of the Charges exceeded any genuine pre-estimate of the damage that would have been suffered by the defendant in relation to the Claimant’s transgressions. This is confirmed in law in the case of Castaneda and others vs Clydebank Engineering and Shipbuilding Company. Ltd. (1904) when the House of Lords held that a contractual party can only recover damages for actual or liquidated losses incurred from a breach of contract. This was confirmed in Dunlop Pneumatic Co vs New Garage and Motor Co. Ltd. (1915), which held that a penalty clause is void in its entirety and therefore unenforceable.

 

7. Therefore the Charges were punitive and a penalty and thus unenforceable at common law.

 

 

 

 

 

The Unfair Terms in Consumer Contract Regulations 1999,

 

8. At all material times the Claimant was a consumer within the Regulations.

 

9. At all material times the terms of the Agreement providing for the Charges were unfair within regulation 5 of the Regulations in that contrary to the requirement of good faith they caused a significant imbalance in the parties' rights and obligations to the detriment of the Claimant.

 

10. without prejudice to the burden of proof, the Claimant will refer to the following matters in support of the contention that the terms are to be assessed as unfair as at the time of the conclusion of the Agreement, and of each revision to the Standard Terms.

 

(a)The terms relating to Charges were standard terms; they would not be individually negotiated.

 

(b)The Charges were a penalty for breach of contract.

 

©The Charges exceeded the costs which the defendant could have expected to incur in dealing with late payment or returned payment.

 

(d) Accordingly the Charges were a disproportionate charge incurred by the Claimant for their failure to meet their contractual obligation and thus within the ambit of Schedule 2 (1) (e) of the Regulations and indicative of an unfair term.

 

(e) As the Defendant knew, the Charges were of subsidiary importance to the customer in the context of the Agreement as a whole and would not influence the making of the Agreement.

 

(f) As the Defendant knew, the Claimant had no means of assessing the fairness of the Charges.

 

(g) Hence, the effect of the Charges would be prejudicial to the customer who incurred them, and cause an imbalance in the relations of the parties to the Agreement by subordinating the customer’s interests to those of the Defendant in a way which was inequitable.

 

11. without prejudice to the burden of proof, the Claimant will contend that the terms imposing the Charges are not core terms under regulation 6 of the Regulations, and will rely on the following matters:

 

(a) The assessment of fairness does not relate to terms that define the main or core subject matter of the Agreement.

 

(b) The assessment of fairness does not relate to the adequacy of the price or remuneration as against the goods or services supplied in exchange (in other words, whether or not the relevant services were value for money).

 

12. By reason of the said matters the terms were not binding under regulation 8 of the UTCCR 1999 Regulations.

 

13. The Defendant wrongly applied Charges and interest to the Account, estimated at totalling some £ XX.XX between X/X/X and X/X/X. The defendant attaches a copy of the schedule of charges sent to the defendant on X/XX/XX.

 

 

 

The claimant’s attempts to settle the dispute:

 

 

14. On, XX/X/X, XX/X/XX and X/XX/XX, the Claimant requested repayment of the sums wrongly applied. (put details of GE’s response here)

 

 

In Conclusion:

 

15. Therefore the Claimant claims:

 

(a) Payment of the said sum of £XXX.XX plus the amount of interest accrued between XX/XX/XX(date of first ever charge) and X/XX/XX,(date of last charge), which the claimant estimates at £XX.XX. Total £XX.XX

 

(b) Interest of £XX.XX, pursuant to the County Courts Act 1984 (s69) at the rate of 8%, and claimed up to X/X/XX, and thereafter at the daily rate of £X.XX to the date of judgement or sooner payment.

 

© Court costs.

 

 

 

 

I believe that the facts stated in these particulars are true.

 

 

 

 

Dated

 

Charges £xxx.xx

 

Interest on charges £xxx.xx

 

Interest at 8%, under s.69 County Courts Act 1984 £xxx.xx

*(and at a daily rate of £x.x until date of judgment)

 

TOTAL £ xxx.xx

 

Hope this helps.

[100mel]

After months of correspondence with Santander over mortgage penalty fees charged to my account I now need to reclaim via court - can someone point me to an appropriate letter before action to use and court POC's as I cannot seem to locate

 

thanks

[100mel]

I am about to start the reclaim process with Santander on some mortgage arrears charges. I will for sure have to issue a court claim - can anyone advise how I cost for the interest on those charges and the distress caused to me during the period - effect on credit record, their incompetence in dealing with paperwork and not setting up direct debits up correctly etc

[caro]

See if there's anything here to help you. http://www.consumeractiongroup.co.uk/forum/content.php?757-Interest-Tutorial-and-Spreadsheets

[100mel]

I have just written to Santander concerning mortgage arrears charges - I have received the usual letter that they are looking into my complaint

 

I wondered if anyone had been this way before with Santander and how long to wait before using court claim?

 

If I do do they ever defend and what is the basis of their defence?

 

Any advice gratefully received

[ikle pickle]

I would be really interested in this template myself, so uping

[100mel]

I wrote to Santander in respect of mortgage penalty charges on my account as per advice on the site - they refused point blank.Can someone advise on my next move please?

[dx100uk]

several threads merged on same issue

 

please keep to one thread per issue

 

thanks

 

dx

[citizenB]

Mel, what exactly have you done so far in respect of reclaiming the mortgage charges ?

[100mel]

I have requested and received full statements, scheduled all the charges and using the template letters on here written to Santander requesting refund - amount involved is nearly £700. They have refused any refund

[100mel]

So do I now go for a court claim? Advice gratefully received

[100mel]

So do I assume from lack of any responses that such fees levied are legal and it is not worth my while attempting a court claim?

[ims21]

Have a look here

 

http://www.consumeractiongroup.co.uk/forum/showthread.php?296108-Hot-news-for-anyone-who-has-suffered-mortgage-arrears-charges-irresponsible-lending-or-other-unfair-lender-conduct

 

Also, for POC's I see a draft has been posted earlier in the thread....amend to suit your case

 

ims

[100mel]

Can I make this claim via MCOL or via the new claim procedures

[dx100uk]

do think there is enough room for the poc via online

 

use N1

details around post 10 here

 

dx