Paid off HALIFAX mortgage in 1996 but they are still billing me

leeds_123

I am writing on behalf of my elderly mother. She had a mortgage for 25 years with the Halifax. She finally made her last payment in 1996, so she owed nothing. She decided to keep her deeds with the Halifax and also agreed to keep her building insurance with them as well. In 2001 she decided to change her building insurers to Lloyds TSB and informed Halifax in writing that she was cancelling her insurance.

Please note that at this point she had been mortgage free for 5 years!!

The next year (2002) she was sent a new mortgage statement (from the Halifax) with a years worth of insurance premiums added! So they had created a mortgage statement with her missing premiums as what she now owed on the mortgage. She wrote back stating she was no longer with them as insurers and had paid off her mortgage in 1996.
This has being going on every year since 2001, she now currently 'owes' the Halifax over £2500 in unpaid insurance premiums which have suddenly become a mortgage as they appear on her mortgage statement from the Halifax - even though she paid off her mortgage in 1996.
Halifax even asked Lloyds was she paying contents insurance with them, they told the Halifax that she had indeed been an insurance customer of theirs since 2001.

The incredible thing is Lloyds bank owns both of these banks, or they are both of these banks.

Can anyone help us get this banking incompetence publicized, as I am sure we will not be the only people this effects. Her original mortgage in 1971 was for £5500, so now apparently owes them over £2500!!

dunstonh

The incredible thing is Lloyds bank owns both of these banks, or they are both of these banks.

They cannot communicate with each other. So, one wouldn't know what the other id doing.

Can anyone help us get this banking incompetence publicized

Your spell check is on American. You may want to change it to British. Best thing to do at this stage is complain to Halifax. The average bank staff member doesnt appear to be able to resolve it. It's a very strange complaint probably caused by a legacy issue that a typically inexperienced bank clerk with poor training wouldnt be able to resolve. However, the complaints team should be able to.

opinions4u

First of all she would have reduced her mortgage balance to £125 in 1996. Not pay it off in full. So the mortgage account remained open.

This is because they had announced their intention to float on the stock exchange and issue every mortgage customer 200 shares in Halifax plc.

By clearing the debt fully she would have missed out on shares worth, at the time, in the region of £1,500.

As for the double insurance issue, submit a written complaint asking for all premiums and interest to be cancelled backdated to 2001 - confirming LTSB as the insurer.

They'll probably write off the £125 as a gesture of goodwill.

plane_boy2000

I've had a few issues with bank of scotland mortgages which the call center are unable to resolve. On one occasion I was advised by a member of staff to raise it as a complaint as my account was a mess and she could not reslove it.

As soon as it became a complaint it was quickly resolved and I was compensated, so my advice would be to just ring up and ask to open a complaint. Hopefully this will see it quickly resolved for you