Mortgage claims

[peppaandgeorgearedicks]

Shamelessly posting here for traffic.

Have any of you lovelies used trusted mortgage claims? Or similar? They are telling me they can pursue a no win no fee claim against my mortgage provider. The allegation is that it was mis-sold.
It was interest only with no repayment vehicle sold in 2007. I used the bank's non advised level of service.
They are telling me it won't cost a penny if they don't win, and any fees will be taken out of the claim. They use a solicitor to handle the case.

My dad always tells me if it sounds too good to be true then it usually is... but it don't want to totally dismiss it either.

Any experience here? TIA

You have nothing to lose but also potentially not a lot to gain - if their fees are taken out of the claim you may not be left with much. But that might be a risk worth taking depending on the sum you think you could recover.

Bear in mind that they might have a solicitor overseeing the claims but the bulk of the work done by a paralegal. That isn’t necessarily a problem as many paralegals are extremely competent. But it’s worth really bottoming out what the situation is.

I would agree with your dad on this one.

If you used the banks non advised service then they didn't sell you anything, you chose and bought it.

The letter confirming the mortgage is very likely to have pointed out clearly that you'd need some way of repaying the balance at the end of the loan. If you chose it yourself, in what way was it mis-sold?

I cannot see the downside to applying on the basis of no win no fee. Loads of people have been surprised by payouts. Some companies will take up to 25%, but if you would not otherwise do it yourself so what.

I have sent off some forms this week, although I don't honestly expect anything because I think I have always been wary of that type of insurance.

Thanks all
Yes we took it in the knowledge that it needed to be repaid. However we completed the sale in April 2007... literally on the cusp of the financial crash, so we are in negative equity.
We also borrowed at a time when the banks were chucking money at anyone who asked!
We had a joint income of around £38k and borrowed £200k!!!
The plan was to live here for a couple of years then sell up and move on because house prices were still rocketing.
That didn't go to plan obviously!
There was irresponsible lending but there was also irresponsible borrowing on our part. We were 23 and wetting ourselves to be homeowners!!

I'm thinking I've got nothing to loose... they said they will take between 18% and 35% of any payout.
I'm just really weary of it all hence why I posted here for some mumsnet wisdom

Level 3 or non-advice mortgage means that YOU CHOSE NOT TO TAKE ADVICE FROM THE LENDER.

They will, on all correspondence, have written sonething along the lines of 'your home is at risk if you fail to make mortgage payments'. On an interest only mortgage they will have written to you at least annually to ensure you have a repayment vehicle.

Good luck with any claim

@StrongerThanIThought76 no there was nothing annually aside from the standard statement.
I'm really dubious and would be surprised if we got anything... BUT if these guys are no win / no fee then what's the harm in trying??

You weren't missold. You chose not to take advice so any error is your own.

Why would you make a claim when you know they've done nothing wrong?

Losing value is a risk of home ownership, you can't throw your toys out the pram because things didn't go your way 🙄

Hang on... I'm not throwing my toys out of the pram at all!!! I accept full responsibility for the debt.
But this company have contacted me. They've told me that because of the age of my mortgage, the type of mortgage and the negative equity that there may be a claim for compensation in it.
They are telling me that it may have been mis-sold and that's what they will investigate.

I'm saying that I'm dubious and asking anyone whether they've had any experience of this.

They are saying no win no fee... nothing to loose right? Why wouldn't I??

I remember someone doing a no win no fee with ppi but then owning the company as the amount was based on the total PPI sold over the duration of the entire mortgage....so please double check that if you do go with them that they will not take from any future saving or leave you with a hefty bill!

I know it’s not the same at all but I claimed back ppi on my credit cards and wasn’t mid-sold anything about those. I knew everything about what I was taking out but still managed to claim money back when everybody else was. I would assume it’s the same type of thing. Maybe you weren’t ‘missold’ but if somebody is going to try to get you some money why not try and see what happens?

On what grounds are they saying it was mis sold to you? Nothing you have said indicates it was. You have stated knew the terms at the time.

Many, many people were sold those barmy mortgages. There hasn't been an indication that they will be ruled as generally having been mis sold in the same way PPI was. Maybe they will be, but they haven't yet - it would be all over then news wouldn't it.

@Isleepinahedgefund see that's the thing... apparently it's the new PPI!
Rewind 10 or 12 years, you probably would have said the same about PPI
They loaned 2 kids 5.2x their joint income. Looking back, that was crazy!!
They told us not to worry about a repayment vehicle because the property value would continue to increase!

You have nothing to lose by putting a claim in but I would highly doubt you will get anything out of it. However, after working in endownment complains for 12 months years ago they were just paying out to everyone regardless so worth a go.

How does this company know what kind of mortgage you have, when it was taken out and that you're in negative equity?

Be very very careful OP. Read absolutely everything in the contract before you sign it. Make sure you totally understand exactly what you are potentially getting into.

What would be the absolutely worst case scenario? They lose the case on your behalf but you owe them legal fees and court costs?

You can do the claim yourself - I have done twice ( once for myself on old mortgage and for my mum on a credit card ). You can find a template for your letter on google then follow it up 21 days later. That way you pay no fees.

Look at which.co.uk there is a good template letter on there.

What Pumpkin says - you should be able to do this yourself using the bank’s complaints processes, following up with the ombudsman if necessary.

These companies tend to just use template letters etc to open a case with the bank on your behalf- you don’t need any specialist knowledge to do this yourself.

Honestly I think anyone who tries to claim money back when they haven't been miss sold anything is a pretty crap person. Think of the bigger picture here, banks and other businesses have made loads of people redundant because they are paying out a fortune for claims because everyone jumps on the band wagon. And it isn't the people at the top who earn the huge bonuses who are impacted it's the people at the bottom in the call centres who are getting near minimum wage who are got rid of. Or they don't get a bonus this year (which is probably only an extra £500 or so normally anyway) because the company didn't make enough of a profit etc. Just because you made some stupid choices and took out a mortgage you can't afford. Why should the 20 year olds who are now working those jobs suffer because of your stupidity?

People are so grabby these days and never willing to step up and accept something is their fault. Why should someone else pay for your mistakes? You know you weren't miss sold anything as they didn't advice you. Yes they lent you a huge amount of money but they did the same for everyone at that time. Do you expect them to pay off everyone's mortgage - seriously! The attitude people are brought up with now is disgusting and greedy. Remember who you are affecting with these choices and the money that is going into your pocket is coming out of someone else's (and it ain't the big people at the top!)

It's no different to all the people who put in false whiplash claims after bumps in their car. They see the £5000 in their bank account and that is all they care about - happily forgetting that insurance premiums for everyone go higher because of this trend!

If someone has been genuinely miss sold something or injured so they can't work they should 100% claim, but people like the op and the pp above who openly admit they weren't miss sold anything are wrong in making these choices. Think of the bigger picture and not just yourself for once!

@helpssausages
Well said!

If you go on Martin Lewis Money saving expert website, there will probably be guides & templates to submit a claim yourself.

If you did get a payout you would get 100% of it. There is no need to pay a 3rd party to do it.

I work in a bank & these companies even ring my office phone to discuss claims. They tell everyone they have a claim. Just like how when u have a car accident u get an influx of calls from no win no fee companies. You didn’t take any advise, there is nothing really to claim against.

Totally agree with helpsausages.

You chose to use an advise free service. In your 20's you were not 'just kids' you were an adult.

In 2005 we decided to remortgage our house. In the two years we had owned it, it had almost doubled in value so we took about £20,000 extra on the mortgage and fixed the interest for 5 years. A couple of years later the bottom fell out of the market and interest rates dropped. We missed most of the time many were saving from the very low interest rates and when we came to try to sell after the fixed period ended we didn't have enough equity than we needed. We ended up staying for 6 more years than we planned (so 11 years after we first remortgaged) and if we hadn't have part exchanged for a new build we would never have been able to move.

The builder paid us £14,000 more than they resold our property for so we had enough equity for the deposit on our new home. Had we waited and sold for what the builder got we would have only had £12,000 equity which wouldn't have been anywhere near enough to get what we needed.

So do we have a case to complain to the mortgage broker? We took his advise and guidance that A, a 5 year fixed term was a great idea and that B, our house was worth £90,000+ so increasing our mortgage to £70,000 was no big deal.... of course we don't!

We were adults, we made our own choices and we had to live with them. Yes it was hard living in a damp two bedroomed house with two kids of different genders and we worried we wouldn't be able to move before our kids really did need their privacy but that was on us. We made the wrong choices based on the information we had at the time and that was on us and no one else.