Standard Life to Barclays - breaking contract?

Thrugelmir

lornaprice wrote: »

As a matter of interest, the letter from Standard Life arrived the other day quoting the clauses in our contract that allowed them to do this. We duly fished our contract out and looked them up only to discover that the clauses didn't exist. A phone call to SLife revealed that they had issued a new contract in 2010 (not sent to us). So, they rewrite the contract in their favour just before they sell the business. Great.

Have you ever read the documents that are issued with your annual mortgage statement? Contract clauses are regularly updated to comply with changes in legislation.

Darkstar

My conversation with Standard Life was along the lines that yes they can make these changes but all contracts must be mutually agreeable and I would only accept their change if they accepted mine, I.e. remove the ERC. Which they agreed to do. However finding an alternative mortgage is proving difficult.

lornaprice

Thrugelmir wrote: »

Have you ever read the documents that are issued with your annual mortgage statement? Contract clauses are regularly updated to comply with changes in legislation.

We didn't agree to these changes, which are sweeping to say the least. In fact, we didn't even receive a copy of the new contract. As I say, I am no lawyer. It is now for the ombudsman to decide.

paulo12

Hi I am another SLB customer that is far from happy with this. Reading through the posts in this thread, the thing that I find really surprising is that nobody has mentioned the fact that in March 2010 when informing customers of the takeover proposal, which was subject to High Court approval SLB/Barclays issued this statement.... "The transfer will not affect your cash savings or mortgage accounts, the way in which you use them, or the quality of the customer service you experience." This was followed in June 2010 (after the High Court approved the takeover) with.. " As we said in our previous letter, the transfer doesn't affect the operation of your savings and mortgage account(s) or the way you manage your money" This is clearly a blatant lie given the latest developments. Does nobody else have these letters ? I do. I have naturally raised this with SLB/Barclays who despite the obvious evidence still have the nerve to claim that they did not lie in making these statements ???? As for the changes themselves, I think that they change the mortgage beyond recognition and are totally unacceptable, especially given that the only reason they have offered for the changes is that their computer sysytem "won't allow them" to continue running the facilities that they are removing. I'm no IT expert, but a computer is a tool, it does what you tell it to, so sort the computer out Barclays. I don't consider this a legitimate reason to make sweeping changes to contracts that they chose to buy. No-one forced them to do this, they wanted to, so the least they should have to do is honour them. I referred this to Laura Whately, a financial/consumer journalist for The Times newspaper, who agrees and published the story in The Times yesterday. She is keen for anyone else who is upset by this to contact her, so please do so (troubleshooter@thetimes.co.uk) Barclays have behaved in a disgraceful manner here and should not be allowed to get away with it PS Sorry for the lack of paragraphs - I did lay it out properly, but for some reason appears in one block once posted.

stephencg

This is the substance of my and my brother's complaint to the Financial Ombudsman on this subject.

" Standard Life is switching the administration of our buy-to-let mortgage to Barclays and has given notice that we will no longer be allowed to overpay/draw down the overpayments from the buy-to-let mortgage. The reason given is administrative difficulty because Barclays software cannot cope with this facility.

We argue that this facility is a fundamental term of the mortgage and cannot be unilaterally varied by Standard Life or the purchaser of the mortgage, Barclays, merely for administrative convenience.

Even if Barclays can argue that something in the small print of the terms and conditions legally justified such a unilateral variation (which is hard to believe) it seems clear that using such a provision is so unfair to us as to constitute grossly unreasonable behaviour. No external circumstance has forced Barclays into this situation; it is their choice to adopt a software system that cannot cope with the mortgages they operate; they have had more than two years to prepare for the change.

A contract is a contract, and a mortgage is a mortgage. When we made this contract, we knew that it might be sold, or that the administration might change. However, we were sure that the contract we took out would not be changed under such circumstances, still less in a fundamental way.

If we cannot retrieve the surpluses that we regularly put into the account, we shall be forced to accumulate them outside the mortgage, in a savings account. Such a savings account will pay a much lower rate of interest than the interest we save by overpayments on the mortgage.

We believe that it is in Barclays' administrative power to put us back into the same position as before (for example, they apparently administer similar offset mortgages for residential customers). Failing that, any costs associated with this move, which is apparently designed to provide more economical computerised administration, should be borne by Barclays, and not by us.

Thrugelmir

stephencg wrote: »

This is the substance of my and my brother's complaint to the Financial Ombudsman on this subject.

" Standard Life is switching the administration of our buy-to-let mortgage to Barclays

A Buy To Let mortgage is an unregulated agreement so the FO has no jurisdication in your case.

In plain English you've entered into a business rather consumer agreement.

stephencg

Thanks.

If so, then its the small claims court, I guess. The question will be if they can vary a fundamental term, or not.

Thrugelmir

stephencg wrote: »

If so, then its the small claims court, I guess. The question will be if they can vary a fundamental term, or not.

High Court as its a matter of principle of law. Hope you've got deep pockets.

stephencg

I cannot understand why you posted what turns out to have been merely supposition as if it was factual information.

You were so emphatic that I completely believed you, withdrew my complaint and began exploring other avenues. I don't even understand why I bothered to check, because I was so totally convinced, but I did call the Ombudsman to check.

It turns out that your information is completely misleading. They do deal with buy to let mortgages. In fact they cover business issues in general, unless you are a large business.

Of course, there's nothing wrong with making a mistake. If you'd given me your view as a warning, with advice to doublecheck, I would have no complaint. But you pretended your information was factual, and it isn't. I'm furious.

LadyMoney

A successful result for me. SL have waived the Discharge Fee as a goodwill gesture (no ERC applies) following my 'feedback' on the transfer of Business to Barclays.