The Lending Code

jimang

:wave:Hi everyone


My Wife and i are soon to go to court with the Halifax Bank Of Scotland. This is concerning what we feel are several breaches of the Lending Code.

During December 2009 whilst i was going through a lay off/redundancy situation The Halifax stated that overdraft charges were being increased from £5 per Month to £1 per day. With this putting us in an impossible position we went to the Halifax for help and explained our situation. The Bank refused us any help of any kind and said until the Account went to collections nothing could be done. By this time charges would have accrued so i phoned Head Office from the Droitwich Branch and they offered me no help either.

Once charges began to build up i contacted the Financial Ombudsman as advised by the Halifax. During this procedure a Default appeared on our credit rating. The lending code states this should not happen if the ammount is in dispute, as it clearly was. The FOS made an offer eventually taking off all the charges but we said we would only accept it if the default was removed as in the long term this would cost us thousands. The FOS put our offer to the Halifax but they refused, hence we are now going to Court over breach of contract.

I would be very grateful if you could advise us of our position legally concerning their treatment of us and lack of compliance with the Lending Code.

Yours Sincerely

J Clarke

thechippy

Hi

What amount was in dispute and what were the grounds of dispute.

Generally, no matter what the circumstances, if you don't make the full monthly payments, you are in breach of contract with them, so they can default your file.

meer53

I can't offer any legal advice but after reading your post, i think you might end up paying hefty legal fees. If FOS and the Halifax are letting this go to court they must think they have a chance of winning otherwise they would have increased their offer or agreed to remove the default, i think the offer from FOS was fair, you did incur the charges so the default was correctly applied, i suppose it depends on how much they were when you started the ball rolling with the Halifax. I closed my Halifax account as soon as they announced the fee changes, it's daylight robbery.

jimang

Thanks both for your comments. I just feel if a lender subscribes to the lending code which states, 'a default cannot be put on someones record if the amount is being disputed' ie through the Ombudsman, then the code is not worth the paper its written on. The Lending Standards Board who regulate the code have told me subscribers have to comply, but I cant find a Law stating this. I was just hoping someone knew of such a law, to give us a confidence boost for our hearing.

Regards Jim

Culex

jimang wrote: »

Thanks both for your comments. I just feel if a lender subscribes to the lending code which states, 'a default cannot be put on someones record if the amount is being disputed' ie through the Ombudsman, then the code is not worth the paper its written on. The Lending Standards Board who regulate the code have told me subscribers have to comply, but I cant find a Law stating this. I was just hoping someone knew of such a law

There isn't one, as the code is purely voluntary and is a form of "self regulation" - (i.e. no regulation whatever) that the last kakistocracy used to pretend that they had Done Something rather than admit that they had actually done nothing at all.

jimang

Thanks for your help, do you not think the Lending Standards Board carry any weight at all then, and the lenders can subscribe but dont have any obligation to comply with the code?

Culex

jimang wrote: »

Thanks for your help, do you not think the Lending Standards Board carry any weight at all then, and the lenders can subscribe but dont have any obligation to comply with the code?

I believe that their twisty little minds are such that they may really believe they can twist the skin off a fart, whilst I rather doubt that the so-called Lending Standards Board has any effective means to enforce the code.