The Filth & The Fury
When the appalling and universally reviled Capstone Mortgage Services went on a publicity overdrive announcing their ‘rebranding’ as Acenden Mortgage Servicing Specialists there was an outcry of disbelief from this site and others in response to Mortgage Strategy’s gushing PR piece on this futile exercise in dodging accountability. Accountability for what , you may ask.
Well, accountability for the appalling abuses of consumers perpetrated by Capstone (silently sanctioned by that awesome and fearless defender of the consumer’s interest the FSA) for starters.
The author of the piece, Robert Thickett, (Mortgage Strategy’s editor) has come in for some stinging criticism for THAT alleged article of financial news reporting, perhaps nowhere more so than on this post/thread
But thanks to the feisty efforts of one of our contributors he now says he wants to do a piece on the experiences of ordinary consumers at the hands of the moral (and no doubt lawful) vacuum that currently operates out of St. Johns Place, High Wycombe
Mad Maria42 took such umbrage at Mr Thickett’s piece that she decided to contact him directly and give him a piece of her furious mind and she wasn’t the only one to vent her spleen over Mr. Thickett’s awful PR blurb.
So after that quick potted history of this filthy and furious episode we should cut to the quick. Here’s what Mr Thickett has to say for himself. The tentative inquiries raised by him and the suggestions for framing the angle of this new piece give wide scope to EXPOSE any number of their dirty tricks designed to relieve you of your equity and your family of their home.
Hi
Thanks for your email – and don’t worry about the forums, I’ve read all the other stuff and I doubt it could get worse. What I want to do is a feature on arrears, the changes that the FSA have made and whether companies are now following through.
Obviously I want to broaden it out and speak to other firms as well – people who have used HML, ie GMAC-RFC and Kensington. I know you have already given me a blow by blow account of what happened. But I’d like to also feature the forum that has been set up and the fact that the guy on the forum is trawling through the latest data out from the regulator to see where Capstone is in breach.
If you could get whoever is running it to ring me that would be ace or even just email me.
No worries if not as I will still do the feature as the charges to arrears are pretty major and useful for our readership to know. I also want to know about the unfair clauses they speak of in securitisation contracts (ie not able to switch to interest only) and how they are enforcing that. But I will also let you know what I am using from you – I will go to Capstone for comment as obviously your account contradicts its claim of ethical treatment. But I will also run through with you what I will tell them about you. I hope this is okay.
Let me know what you think and no worries about the forums. Those things, by their nature, are for people to get very angry and vent their fury. I wont look at them, but the rest of the posts are incredibly useful.
Thanks again for emailing and I will be in touch soon.
Robert
I don’t think this is an opportunity we should pass up. Please comment freely on your experiences at the hands of this desperate bunch of outlaws.
15 Comments for “The Filth & The Fury”
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Let’s get the ball rolling.
Robert could you ask them for a detailed explanation of their forbearance policy in accordance with the CJC protocols?
Ask them if they will disclose the Mortgage Administration Agreements between themselves and the various SPVs to finally establish whether they are permitted to exercise forbearance under the terms of their agreements.
Check this out…
g) Additionally, the consumer defendant of this type of mortgage product is unfairly discriminated against. The securitisation covenants prevent the administrator from observing the range of consumer protections available such as waiving, reducing or refunding charges or observing the CJC pre-action protocols, by for example switching to interest only or modifying the date of payment due. It cannot have been the intention of the regulators that some mortgage holders would benefit from these additional forms of support and others would not, through no fault of their own. Indeed the FSA has criticised this particular model of securitisation.
The defendant’s regulated loan has been securitised and sold on to an unregulated third party (SPV). One of the main reasons for arrears is unexpected and unplanned for circumstances such as a temporary drop in household income which then triggers oppressive and unfair charging regimes.
Whereas in a mainstream agreement defendants could change from repayment to interest only, extend the term or numerous other modifications to get them out of trouble the effect of securitsation means these suggested options in the pre action protocols and the FSA regulations MCOB 13 Rules are not available. This further unfairly penalises a borrower and leads to an uneven distribution of justice in similar cases.
(THE SIMPLE FACT IS THAT YOU HAVE AN UNREGULATED ENTITY THE SPV PROHIBITING BY CONTRACTUAL AGREEMENT A REGULATED ADMINISTRATOR CAPSTONE FROM BEING ABLE TO CONSIDER OR IMPLEMENT A REGULATED CONTRACT MCOB RULE. THIS HAS TO BE A FUNDAMENTAL DEFENCE.)
Further, if you are in arrears usually you cannot afford the loan due to changed circumstances so the alternative to pay the contractual payment plus payments towards arrears in many cases is not viable and the end result will almost certainly be repo unless the loan can be modified by extension,temporary or permanent conversion to interest only etc.
But the scum are prohibited from this because of income stream to the noteholders.
If the scum deny securitisation disclosure has to be granted to prove otherwise, otherwise why won’t they modify the loan? This is a much stronger argument than the wrong claimant is bringing the claim when you are close to eviction. The fact is you were never told this on entering the agreement which you believed would have all the benefits of regulation.
Robert, how on earth is Amany Attia able to claim that there is a great deal of support from Capstone for borrowers in difficulties when it does NOT square with the reality of them being unable (and in any case unwilling) to support these very important initiatives from which many other consumers of mortgage products have derived real benefit?
1. Ask her for a direct standard rate phone number to the Loans Modification Team, so we can publish it here.
2. Ask her to put a name to the Treating Customer’s Fairly Champion, so we can also publish it here
3. Ask her for the approximate numbers of Capstone’s customers who have had their loans modified and what modifications were made.
4. Ask her to state the exact numbers of customers who have utilised the mortgage rescue scheme with Capstone’s assistance.
In answering the above see if she is willing to provide some verification. After all, if she wishes to put some steel into her claims of being “absolutely” fair, then this should not prove a burden at all. She was very happy to allocate her time to you last month and indeed was willing to speak at length.
Well. It is August. So I suppose he could be on holiday. Doesn’t engender much confidence that he was going to keep his word though does it?
..jackal.
TMH
The jackalfinder general knows a filthy apologist for the scum when he sees one.
I spent a year working for Capstone in High Wycombe in their possessions team. Having a surveying background i have to say, the way they price their stock once in possession is DREADFUL! At the busiest point they were taking about 500 cases a month into possession with a 30 man team in possessions. My surveying background tells me that setting a market price or doing a desktop valuation can take anywhere from 30 minutes to 2 days, checking numerous sites and speaking with local surgeyors and agents. Capstones staff were set targets on how many accounts to work a day! If they did not work the taregt ’60′ accounts they were punished. Of the 30 members of staff about 5 actually had industry background, the rest were un-qualified customer service agents! If properties did not after 3 or 4 weeks prices were reduced without any explination on so many cases, aslong as the staff hit their 60 accounts a day thats all the management seemed to care about. I believe there will be lots of borrowers taking legal action for undersold homes!
Hi Badger.
Thank you for those insights. They are greatly appreciated. Would that be 60 per day for the whole team of thirty or sixty per day for each individual member of the team.
Badger the more information you can provide on this the more it will help those who have been repossessed and undersold,could we provide this information to the Mail they may be interested,your id is of course confidential and anonymous and your insight very much appreciated,please any more of the same.
cms the figure correlates with the repo figures we have ie over a 100 a week.
. Let’s suppose there are a team of 30 under pressure from management to process sixty repo valuations a day. That’s then 2 each per day for a process that would according to Badger vary and might take up to two days for a single valuation. The pressure to do this from management clearly implies a steady stream of work at that rate or in plain English an ever increasing pile of repossessed properties to process. We can’t say that Capstone at their busiest were repoing 300 properties a week because we don’t know that. But what we can say with confidence is that the valuers like badger here were expected to process 300 repossessed properties a week and this pressure resulted in inaccurate valuations to the further detriment of the repossessed borrower. How evil is that?
Badger.
an appeal.
You clearly are a good sort and were obviously not enamoured by Capstones practices which you experienced first hand as a former employee of theirs. If there is anything further you wish to share in confidence away from the public forum please email borrowers trust@gmail.com. Your confidentiality will be totally respected and assured.
Sorry
That should be
borrowerstrust@gmail.com
Badger. there has been a very important development which I can’t share on the open forum please contact via the above email or at least confirm whether the email you listed on posting is a valid and genuine one.
Badger
Thank you so much for your valuable insight into how this company works. I am sure there are some decent people like you who have worked for Capstone, if only temporarily, and testimonials like this are hugely useful to our cause.
I know it must be difficult for you to blow the whistle in case it affects your career. I salute you for your courage so far.
But trust me, there is a big story blowing here with many many rightly aggrieved Capstone customers and the people behind this website take confidentiality very seriously.
Please, please, please email borrowerstrust@gmail.com with any more information you can share with us.
Thank you once, twice, three times again for your courage in speaking out.
Interested in the members of parliment who had an indirect interest/persuasion in the lehman bros rip off,especially when Barclays had a vested interest.Well check out this link “http://whoknowswho.channel4.com/stories/Banks_and_government%3A_who_knows_who_” and see how many of our trusted peers where tending to thier own pockets….
And just to confirm my previous post check out this list of paresites “http://think-left.org/2011/08/24/britain-under-siege/”