Secured Loan Charges after eviction

[stillstanding]

Hi all, I'm new to this forum but could do with some advice if possible.

In 2006 my wife and I took out a secured loan for approximately £7000. To cut a VERY long story short, after repossession last year we've managed to redeem the loan and get our house back at a cost just short of £24000 (final payment not including payments previously made). Is it possible to claim back charges in a similar way to bank charges, if they were excessive? I've tried searching across a number of forums but still feel unclear about this.

Many thanks for any help.

[di30]

Re: Secured Loan Charges

Hi all, I'm new to this forum but could do with some advice if possible.

In 2006 my wife and I took out a secured loan for approximately £7000. To cut a VERY long story short, after repossession last year we've managed to redeem the loan and get our house back at a cost just short of £24000 (final payment not including payments previously made). Is it possible to claim back charges in a similar way to bank charges, if they were excessive? I've tried searching across a number of forums but still feel unclear about this.

Many thanks for any help.

Hi and welcome.

I take it you mean Payment Protection Insurance (PPI)?
You are entitled to make a reclaim, it makes no difference to what I am aware of in any circumstances, even if the loan is no longer active and if still active and so on.

If you were sold PPI within a loan, and it was one of those costly policies that would only protect you for 5 years of the loan - where left protected for the remaining of the loan, this is straight away a good reason to make a reclaim.
This is enough to make a complaint, because it's also possibly the case they did not discuss the policy in detail with you, the full cost etc..

You may have other reasons as well, for example if the above did not apply to you....

Pre med condition(s) at the time the policy was sold to you.
Maybe you already had protection in place, for example: employer.
They pressurised you in taking out the policy.
The list is endless.

What you do to make a reclaim is, pursue the arranger of the policy, by writing a letter or a reclaim questionnaire (the questionnaire was issued by the Financial ombudsman service (FOS) to use to make the complaint to the business that mis sold you the policy. (Although a little different to that of the FOS complaint questionnaire, such as if you were to complain to them later on).
Remember to keep copies as well.

This here is if you want to use the template letter, delete what does not apply to you and add anything that may not be included on the template letter.
http://forums.all-about-debt.co.uk/s...ead.php?t=6720

Or:

The reclaim - complaint questionnaire here:
http://www.financial-ombudsman.org.u...stionnaire.pdf


Do you still have any of the related paperwork of this loan, such as the application/Credit agreement etc?

Hope the above helps.

[stillstanding]

Re: Secured Loan Charges

Hi Dizzy Di, thanks for responding to my post

Sorry I should have been clearer in my post. I actually meant charges, eg missed payment letters/calls £30 a shot, insurance charges, debt management etc. I have some of the information to hand though I'd need to dig out the initial credit agreement.

To give a little more information. The loan was with Blemain Finance, though we also had a company called Monarch involved for a time, my understanding is its the same company.

I can't help feeling that we've been totally robbed. When we took out the loan it seemed affordable, but circumstances changed and it spiralled way out of control resulting in us being repossessed for £1000 arrears on the court order (though on the day of repossesion I offered to clear this). After we were repossessed we managed to raise money to clear the debt and charges. They initially rejected our offer to pay it all off and we had to involve a solicitor to write to them threatening legal action on the basis of our right to equity of redemption. At this point they responded by saying it was a 'mistake' and we should not have been told we couldn't redeem debt.

Finally the debt was redeemed, property handed back and we thought the was the end of it. Unfortunately a few weeks later they sent a default notice for £400 building insurance and an amount for property management, both amounts added were applied after redemption and a the default notice was served within a day, with more charges.

We had a couple of letters afterwards still adding charges and then suddenly they stopped. this was a few months ago. So where we stand now I'm unsure, other than I'm left feeling that we just haven't had a fair deal here.

hope that makes some sense?

[PlanB]

Re: Secured Loan Charges

Hi all, I'm new to this forum but could do with some advice if possible.

In 2006 my wife and I took out a secured loan for approximately £7000. To cut a VERY long story short, after repossession last year we've managed to redeem the loan and get our house back at a cost just short of £24000 (final payment not including payments previously made). Is it possible to claim back charges in a similar way to bank charges, if they were excessive? I've tried searching across a number of forums but still feel unclear about this.

Many thanks for any help.

Oh dear Blemain Finance are becoming a regular feature on here all of a sudden

£7k is the sort of sum you would expect to raise as an unsecured personal loan not requiring a charge on a property. Do you still have your original credit agreement and associated Ts & Cs (from 2006) to see what the contract said they could charge you in interest, admin costs for letters, late payment fees and any legal costs?. Paying back £24k does sound rather excessive.

I'm curious to learn how you got your house back after repossession Was there no mortgage with a first charge which would have been redeemed when you completed on the sale, and if so how did you get the house 'unrepossessed' Were there court possession proceedings brought by Blemain or was it seized by a Receiver without a court hearing or an opportunity to file a defence which you could have done if Blemain had taken you to the county court?

I notice you refer to "property managment" charges which implies that the property was let at one point (after the "repossession"?) which can happen when a Receiver takes over the property and rents it out as an option to selling an asset. You also mention £400 for buildings insurance and I wonder whether that was put in place by a Receiver too since you say these bills came after you had redeemed. Did they specify the dates of the insurance cover or the period of "property management"?.

Once you have paid off any arrears on the debt you can usually wrestle back the property out of receivership but when that happens the original contract/loan/mortgage stays 'live' unless you've paid it all off - sounds like you did although further sums were requested later

Perhaps the first thing to establish is whether you were actually "repossessed" and/or whether you may still have a relationship with Blemain. More info would be good

[stillstanding]

Re: Secured Loan Charges

I'm curious to learn how you got your house back after repossession Was there no mortgage with a first charge which would have been redeemed when you completed on the sale, and if so how did you get the house 'unrepossessed' Were there court possession proceedings brought by Blemain or was it seized by a Receiver?

I PlanB, thanks for taking the time to respond

We were repossessed after failing on a suspended order. Family loaned us the money to redeem the loan including all charges in full (not as easy as it sounds in anyway..). The day we deposited the money into their account, they didn't initially didn't acknowledge that the money had showed up but suddenly came up with a further £300 estate agent fee that they'd forgot to add.Feeling I had no choice I paid this into their account immediately, at wich point they accepted that the loan was redeemed and told the estate agent to release the keys back to us.

I notice you refer to "property managment" charges which implies that the property was let at one point (after the "repossession"?) which can happen when a receiver takes over the property and rents it out. You also mention £400 for buildings insurance and I wonder whether that was put in place by a Receiver too. Once you have paid off any arrears on the debt you can usually wrestle back the property out of receivership but when that happens the original contract/loan/mortgage stays 'live' unless you've paid it all off (sounds like you did).

The insurance was an annual thing they charged us, I think it may have just been triggered at that point and nobody checked to see the account should be closed? not sure. Not sure about the other but the house was not rented out, we got it back within 4 weeks. Yes we did pay off the loan in full.

Perhaps the first thing to establish is whether you were actually "repossessed" and/or whether you may still have a relationship with Blemain. More info would be good

Yes it was a repossession (otherwise those guys who drilled down our door were being well cheeky ), No, there shouldn't be any on going relationship, We paid the debt and and all costs/charges requested in full.

thanks again for your help, my head is spinning. I'll try to dig the original agreement out.

[PlanB]

Re: Secured Loan Charges

Sorry your head is spinning perhaps I asked too many questions
Hats off to you for getting your home back. That's a brilliant story with a Happy Ending
Now you want to see if you can recover some of the money they robbed you of

[transformer999]

Re: Secured Loan Charges

If you wait a sec I will post up a letter Blemain sent me a while back about charges....I think you all will see that it is full of lies and maybe they had contradicted themselves big time as they quoted me a case in there...but when I questioned them about it...they said they had no info in their system about it..back in a few minutes with that letter..

[stillstanding]

Re: Secured Loan Charges

Haha, No, as is possibly evident, I'm not the brightest of sparks when it comes to things financial..

It is a happy ending compared to many in similar situations I know, but the emotional toll has been massive and its not quite over yet, we're still up to our necks in it and still owe 24,000. will have to sell the house to get straight, so a big hit. Thankfully our main Mortgage company have been very decent with us and our arrears there are in order, no idea what to do with Blemain now.

[transformer999]

Re: Secured Loan Charges

I am sure that letter below is just a standard letter that Blemain send to all their customers....but as they quoted me a case I did ask for info on that...maybe quite a while later but one would have thought they would have that information on their systems.

[stillstanding]

Re: Secured Loan Charges

Thanks Transformer999, I've got to go offline for ten minutes but very much looking forward to reading brb

[transformer999]

Re: Secured Loan Charges

Haha, No, as is possibly evident, I'm not the brightest of sparks when it comes to things financial..

It is a happy ending compared to many in similar situations I know, but the emotional toll has been massive and its not quite over yet, we're still up to our necks in it and still owe 24,000. will have to sell the house to get straight, so a big hit. Thankfully our main Mortgage company have been very decent with us and our arrears there are in order, no idea what to do with Blemain now.

Well don't you worry if you have no idea...as we all have plenty...... and that is why we are all here to put our idea's together....

[stillstanding]

Re: Secured Loan Charges

I am sure that letter below is just a standard letter that Blemain send to all their customers....but as they quoted me a case I did ask for info on that...maybe quite a while later but one would have thought they would have that information on their systems.

Thanks for that Transformer999. They sound pretty sure of themselves don't they. I presume if that's true its possibly the end of it, though its interesting there's no info on that case? trying to google it but nothing much coming up. Thought it was interesting that they commented on him having to pay fees, to put you off attempting similar? perhaps not that confident of it then? lol, lots of questions

[transformer999]

Re: Secured Loan Charges

You will find that you will get a lot of help on here SS...and type my name T999 for short...save you time....

Is it possible you can scan a copy of your agreement up....hiding all personal details and reference numbers?

[stillstanding]

Re: Secured Loan Charges

Hi T999

(thanks for the name change, though i'm not quite as keen on my abbreviation ) I haven't got a scanner at home unfortunately (and better half is still going through the stuff for our original agreement..) as soon as I have it though I will try to scan it at work

thanks again for the support, this is a great forum, glad i found it

[stillstanding]

Re: Secured Loan Charges

Sorry, just a little more info, some of the charges applied a couple of months after we redeemed the loan were:


Buildings Insurance Block Policy Charge : £16
Professional fees : £360
Buildings Insurance : £482
Monthly Charge AUM : £67


This seems to be for 'Asset Management' after repossession judging by the overleaf Tariff. This is what I meant by property management, my apologies I was posting from memory previously. We're going through everything now to try to get some order to it, but they were as of March claiming £1,900 from charges they randomly applied after redemption. Now I've looked into it I'm now more terrified it could all happen again..

How can a company apply charges after you've redeemed a loan? Surely that does end the relationship?