old Bank of Scotland offset Mortgage dispute ,now failed at the Ombusman ?

kenthill

Hi Guys
I took out a bank of Scotland offset mortgage aprox 7 years past , this is the type of mortgage where you are fixed to 0.5 percent above base and only pay this interest on the balance as you can add money in at any time taking the balance down when times are good and are given are given a cheque book to take the money back out if you need it back up to the value first borrowed , it was a great mortgage at the time when the banks where desperate to throw money at us , but when the crunch came along and the base rate plummeted the banks then hated this type of mortgage and that is still the case today as I am only paying 0.5 above base .
When 3yrs ago my marriage split I applied to have my ex wife removed from the morgage taking it on myself which I did on 6 other BTL mortgages without any hassle , the Bank of Scotland agreed that it would change this to my name only after I went through all the usual steps , proof of income etc ,after doing all this , I received letters telling me there was no prob and it was all under way and I left it in the capable hands of my IFA but after a lot of calls and letters, One Year later the bank decided to tell us they could not proceed with this and that I would have to take out a new mortgage at a much greater rate of interest , in other words they are trying to get this mortgage of 400k of there books as they dont want this type of mortgage at all as it costs them money . and they had the cheek to offer me £500 in compensation for all my IFA and Lawyers hassle as well as my time , which I duelly refused and took this case up with the Ombusman imediately .
After a further 2 years at the Ombusman being told by them that I had a very strong case as nowhere in my original morgage offer did it state I could not change to single status and my finances all checked out etc , I have now received notice stating I have been unsuccesfull in this case . My Lawyer and my IFA cannot beleive this .
My IFA has another case going on at the moment with the exact same problem so there must be hundreds more cases like this out there where the Bank of Scotland are trying to force people out of this type of mortgage .
Has anyone out there came across this at all ?

holly_hobby

What basis and explanation for a rejection did FOS give in their decision/final response correspondence (which I presume you had already escalated from Adjudicator to Ombudsman) ?

Holly

kenthill

Sorry I have only got this news today and I am seeing my IFA on Friday to get a complete update on this ,so I will post the reasons after that meeting .But yes this went right to the top with the ombusman , I reckon the banks are putting some pressure on as these cases could cost them a lot of money if they set a precedent on this .
Thanks for your reply

holly_hobby

Yep, if you can post up what their take on this was that will help establish if this has any legs (what reason did BOS originally give YOU for their wish to tsf you to a different mge product, as a result of the TOE ?

Did they state it was LTV, due to the material change or income/risk based as there was only now 1 salary and mortgagor ?

The T&Cs are important here too, as usually it will give the lender leave to make fundamental/exceptional circumstance business decisions that do break a contractual agreement ie mge agreement.

Of course the Ombudsman decision, although full and final in respect of FOS's involvement, is not legally binding or legally based - you do have leave to refer this through the judicial process ... although the costs of course may well outstrip any headline saving !

Have a chat with your adviser, and come back with a bit more meat on the bones for us, and we'll give our opinion on how we see it here.

Hope this helps

Holly

Thrugelmir

as nowhere in my original morgage offer did it state I could not change to single status

Picked this out.

Why would you expect your mortgage terms and conditions to state this?

and my finances all checked out etc

Also this.

There's no obligation on any business to enter into a new contractual arrangement. Likewise there's no obligation on you to accept an offer.



You say a year past when matters changed. Much has changed since the crash in 2008. If nothing else the senior management at the banks has changed. In particular the heads of risk management. Who in conjunction with the board set policy for underwriters.

No one is being forced out of their mortgages. However if circumstances change and a new application is submitted. Then current lending criteria will apply. This has always been the case. (Except for those banks which subsequently paid the penalty).

BOS of course is part of HBOS which was 48 hours from going under. Until a marriage of convenience with Lloyds and a £25 billion treasury loan salvaged the situation. So blame Lloyds for the tighter lending regime.

dunstonh

I think the main problem is that this is a commercial issue and the FOS doesn't have a remit to interfere with commercial decisions. Only if it is discrimination or a failure or breach of contract.

We need more details but the jist of it appears to be that a mortgage type you had was not available to you as you didnt meet criteria when you wanted to make a change.

Was this mortgage on a residential property or buy to let? Was the mortgage originally a residential mortgage?

After a further 2 years at the Ombusman being told by them that I had a very strong case as nowhere in my original morgage offer did it state I could not change to single status and my finances all checked out etc , I have now received notice stating I have been unsuccesfull in this case .

The FOS are notorious for telling people they have a case when there isnt one (either on obvious cases or where they are not in any position to make such a judgement). You see this all the time. It is almost script like as it the wording people use in their feedback tend to use similar wording (you have case, its something we would like to look at etc)

Detail is going to be key here.