The Real Lowdown on Abbey Flexible Plus LTV revaluation

drbeat

abbeymortgagevictim wrote: »

I reiterate that in my opinion a valuation at any phase of a financial cycle can only be relied on if a professional survey is obtained from a suitably trained operative

Are you sure about that? The suitably trained operatives are also implicated in this whole mess! Why would you want to believe someone who is part of an organisation that rubbishes commercial property prices on one hand and then on the other talks about "shafts of light" with regards to residential property?

abbeymortgagevictim

drbeat wrote: »

I agree with mizzbiz, the way they are going about this is disgusting. They need to accept the fact that it was them that lent the money so take a hit themselves. The OP has taken a hit on the fall in value of his/her property so the banks ought to do the honourable thing and accept their loss too!

Just how on earth can these banks expect a return in confidence from consumers if this is the way they behave when things don't go right! Like with the bank charges they seem to think that it is perfectly fine to notify you of their intention to steal you money without chance of an appeal!

To$$ers!

Abbey are not taking any hit. The borrower still pays the mortgage principal and interest as agreed at completion. However, in addition to this Abbey are taking customers savings.

drbeat

abbeymortgagevictim wrote: »

Abbey are not taking any hit

You're right, they're just taking the pi$$!

abbeymortgagevictim

3under3 wrote: »

In effect they seem to be saying if you overpay your mortgage they will use those funds to maintain the 90% LTV but if you don't overpay your mortgage they will not demand a lump sum payment to maintain the 90% LTV. So in effect treating those who are making an effort to overpay their mortgage less favourably than those who don't.

Abbey have a condition that allows them to demand shortfall payments from all Abbey Flexible Plus customers. However, as quoted on BBC news, they say they are not currently invoking this condition. They have not ruled out invoking the condition in the future. So you are right. At this moment in time they are treating customers who have overpaid less favourably.

Andy20081231

Abbey cannot take money from your savings pot assuming you are not in breach.

Drawdown your max loan into Savings Pot and if they don't enforce the 3 month payback rule you will protect you credit limit.

Generali

I worked in banking for many years and their T&Cs are likely to be pretty watertight and more importantly they have fleets of lawyers ready to obfuscate and delay - certainly I'd be unwilling to enter into a big legal dispute against one unless part of a larger action (eg bank charges).

If you want to complain, if I were you I'd get some advice from the CAB and then go to the Ombudsman or FSA according to their advice.

If you want advice on MSE you'll be better off on the Mortgages board than on here.

neverdespairgirl

abbeymortgagevictim wrote: »

The Land Registry Index is much more accurate in my opinion than Halifax as it reports based on ALL house sales in a period.

that isn't quite right. The LRI excludes newbuilds, sales via court orders, etc. So it's not the gold standard.

However, the LR and Haliwide seem to be showing the same sort of drops, albeit with a lag in the LR figures.

ERSEL

abbeymortgagevictim. I have information for you that might help in your case:

Take a look at the FSA handbook (they won't let me post links on this site because I am a new user so I'm afraid you will have to go to the FSA web site, select FSA handbook and use the date drop-down at the top to select the date relevant to your mortgage):

E.g see COB 5 and COB 2.1

Abbey have sold you what is called a "Contingent Liability Investment Transaction" as defined in Annex 1 of COB 5 in the FSA Conduct of Business Sourcebook Instrument 2001. In this piece of legislation it states that "Save as specifically provided by the FSA, your firm may only carry out margined or contingent liability transactions with or for you if they are traded on or under the rules of a recognised or designated investment exchange."

Your house is obviously not on an exchange and the FSA have not specifically provided for this kind of transaction and hence you should write to them quoting this piece of legislation and asking them for a response. There are many other items under COB 5 that Abbey have broken with this mortgage and if you like you can read through them and list them to Abbey. Also check out COB 2.1 which says communcations must be "Clear, fair and not misleading" they have clearly broken that rule as well.

As an FSA authorised firm it is Abbey's responsibility to be familiar with and adhere to these rules. If you feel they have breached any of these rules you should complain to the specifically quoting these rules and asking for a response. I think you will find they react to you very differently when you do that.

Good luck! And don't be disheartened.

silvercar

Are you complaining that the Abbey has grabbed your savings and won't give them back or that you accept that they have a right to grab your savings but that the valuation they used to calculate the LTV is wrong?

If the latter then surely the answer is to commission your own valuation?

I do have sympathy for your case; the advantage of flexible mortgages and offsets was to allow you to put savings to good use. For someone who is self employed and put next years tax into their mortgage, it will be a real problem if they can no longer access the funds.

Conrad

So why don't you go get a suitably trained operative, I assume you mean a Surveyor, to carry out a valuation and then take it from there.

Check out the 6 core principles that underpin the FSA's 'Treating Customers Fairly' initiative.
If you can demonstrate non compliance with TCF, thats a good start.

One of the 6 principles (or outcomes) is outcome 5;

'Consumers are provided with products that perform as firms have lead them to expect'.

And how about outcome 3;

'Consumers are provided with CLEAR information, and kept appropriately informed'.

Now a key error made my complainants is that they end up spreading thier complaint accross too many people, and no one individual feels the heat.

STEP 1 in complaining to a lender = In writing only (never accept a phone call), specialy delivery / recorded post and crucialy only deal with THE senior mortgage compliance officer and copy in the MD (use thier name).

Good luck