Mortgage Express Meeting?

Mortgage Express Meeting?

23:03 PM, 26th March 2014, About 10 years ago 5

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Before they went bust, did Mortgage Express seek to arrange “review” meetings with you? Mortgage Express Meeting

Did you have a Mortgage Express account manager before they went bust?

Do your other mortgage lenders seek to arrange review meetings?

These are of course loaded rhetorical questions!

OK, I confess, I have become a cynical old sod, just like the long in the tooth landlords I met 25 years ago when I first became a property investor myself. Do all landlords end up like this? LOL

Anyhow, just so you know ……

Mortgage Express are no longer a bank, they are run by a company called UK Asset Resolution “UKAR” which is wholly owned by the Treasury. When the owners of Mortgage Express (Bradford & Bingley) went bust the Treasury used tax payers money to take over the mortgage book. UKAR was then created to recover as much as that money as quickly as possible. Funnily enough, that’s when Mortgage Express account managers began to appear and when they first started contacting borrowers to do reviews. Very few people had a problem with this at first because they thought Mortgage Express was still a bank and they were only acting in the way that commercial banks act. Oh what naivety! Ever since then, Mortgage Express have been creating carnage and to a great degree most of it has gone unreported – until now!  The Daily Mail recently ran this article on the subject.

At Property118 we have been onto Mortgage Express for years!

The articles we’ve published and the subsequent discussions can all be found here >>> http://www.property118.com/tag/mortgage-express/

There is only one reason for your Mortgage Express account manager to request a meeting, they want you to repay your mortgage or find a way to force you to. Perhaps worse, they maybe seeking to gather evidence to call in your loans or to appoint an LPA receiver!

Why would anybody agree to meet them?

You have no obligation to do so and nothing positive can ever come out of it. They can’t lend you more money, they can’t extend your loan term, they can’t reduce your interest rates and they are certainly not going to be sympathetic, regardless of your circumstances.

Don’t feel compelled to meet them either, regardless of how ‘persuasive’ they might try to be.

If Mortgage Express request a meeting you should ask them why they want a meeting and what the consequences of declining a meeting might be. Then ask them to confirm what they have said in writing. If you don’t like the answer you might need professional help.

I do not recommended any Mortgage Express borrower to agree to a meeting with Mortgage Express without being represented by a qualified Solicitor or Barrister.

If none of the following apply you probably have absolutely nothing to worry about:-

  • arrears of one or more monthly payments
  • no insurance
  • arrears on ground rent or service charges
  • you arranged your mortgage with back to back bridging finance (AKA same day remortgage or daylight bridge)
  • the term of your loan has expired
  • unauthorised use of property differing to that which was intended / disclosed at time loan agreement was signed
  • unauthorised works (extension/loft conversions etc) – Lender nearly always requires notice of proposed works and reserves right to withdraw lending at discretion
  • multi-lets where no consents are in place

….. but that’s still not a good reason to meet them, unless you have nothing better to do of course!

If you are at all worried about correspondence you have had from Mortgage Express I offer a service to review it and advise you for a fixed fee of £395 inclusive of VAT – see below. I can’t guarantee to pull a rabbit out of the hat but I can guarantee an honest and independent appraisal of your circumstances and refer you to right people to help you do what’s best for your circumstances.

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Comments

BigMc

10:32 AM, 27th March 2014, About 10 years ago

Additional point of which to seriously beware if you hold multiple ME mortgages. Most ME mortgages contain one of the strangest clauses I have ever come across. If you redeem an ME mortgage early ME can exercise a right to force redemption of any or all your ME mortgages.
I queried this through my solicitor at the time of purchase and we were advised the clause was only intended for exceptional circumstances where they suspected persons in financial difficulty might effectively asset strip by selling any properties which held equity then walk away from the remainder in negative equity.
Whilst that may have been true then, UKAR can now use it to force early redemptions.
So think twice before redeeming early for any reason.

Mark Alexander - Founder of Property118

17:32 PM, 27th March 2014, About 10 years ago

Reply to the comment left by "Mike McDonagh" at "27/03/2014 - 10:32":

Hi Mike

They call it their "Right to Consolidate".

We ran an article about it back in Feb 2013, see >>> http://www.property118.com/mortgage-express-right-to-consolidate/36168/
.

Martin S

11:59 AM, 30th March 2014, About 10 years ago

Reply to the comment left by "Mark Alexander" at "27/03/2014 - 17:32":

It seems that Mortgage Express and their appointed henchmen are now not just targeting those with multiple mortgages with them. I had a phone call an hour ago (Sunday morning) asking if I was who I am, then stating who they were. It didn't click with me who they were until they mentioned Mortgage Express, then the penny dropped. Everything I had been reading about was coming my way!

The fellow started to talk about wanting to do a survey, at which point I pointed out that if he wanted to request anything, then he would have to do so in writing, and at that point I braced myself for salesman style tactics to extract information, but it didn't happen, and he agreed to do so. Maybe this was because I informed him that I had read about what was going on, and therefore aware of the situation.

Things must start to be getting tight at UKAR, as we only have the one mortgage with Mortgage Express, obtained through The Money Centre in 2005, and have had the mortgage since without problems, missing no payments whatsoever in the intervening 9 years, and don't fall into any of the above categories, so why we suddenly appear on their radar I don't know.

The mortgage is Interest Only, but we have been overpaying monthly for a number of years so as to reduce the outstanding figure, and clawed back some of this money from them 18 months/2 years ago to help refurbish another property, which they couldn't refuse, as it was part of the mortgage agreement.

Are they following up other single mortgage holders? Obviously trying to frighten off as many people as possible. Watch this space, and thanks to Property 118 for keeping us informed.

Mark Alexander - Founder of Property118

22:39 PM, 30th March 2014, About 10 years ago

Reply to the comment left by "Martin S" at "30/03/2014 - 11:59":

It's very strange that you were called on a Sunday. However, based on what you have said then you should have nothing to worry about. If that changes though, you know where I am 😉
.

Mark Alexander - Founder of Property118

14:15 PM, 26th January 2015, About 9 years ago

Reply to the comment left by "Helen Landlord" at "26/01/2015 - 13:48":

Hi Helen

As I have never had loans with Northern Rock I'm afraid I am not sufficiently familiar with their T&C's to pass further comment.
.

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