KEY POINTS:
Many struggling investors in failed property investment company Blue Chip have loans with a company which is linked to Lombard Finance.
Lombard Group, through its wholly-owned subsidiary Lombard Mortgages, owns 100 per cent of Tasman Mortgage Group which supplied Blue Chip investors with finance for apartments and townhouses.
Lombard Group also owns Lombard Finance.
Blue Chip clients who are defaulting on their loans are being hit with big payment demands from Tasman as the crisis around the property and finance sector bites harder.
One Blue Chip couple have watched as their Tasman mortgage climbed from $265,000 to $268,000 in just 29 days after being hit by default and high interest charges.
Investors who can't keep up with their Tasman payments are being charged a penalty interest rate of up to 14.45 per cent.
Lombard Group manages a $500 million loan book through Lombard Mortgages, which also owns the ex-Hanover Group United Home Loans book.
Tasman was the preferred lender for Blue Chip clients because it was at one time wholly owned by Blue Chip.
Creditors are claiming more than $70 million from the Blue Chip empire which specialised in selling apartments and townhouses to people in their 50s heading towards retirement.
Lombard owned 70 per cent of Tasman until last week, with the remainder held by Blue Chip's Australian Stock Exchange listed entity.
But on March 28, Lombard Group said it had bought Blue Chip Financial Solutions' remaining 30 per cent stake in Tasman Mortgages, a company that arranged loans for a number of Blue Chip clients in order that they could invest in the local franchise's products.
