Portman - can they do this?

ktm_hansi

When my son was born I set up a Young Savers account with the Portman. The account was set up with myself and my now ex wife as trustees on the account

For the past 10 years I have been putting monthly savings into the account (no money to date has been put in by my ex wife). When I last went in during 2005, I tried to change this account to a sole signatory. I was told this could not be done without the second signatory, but that nothing could be done without the passbook anyway, so the money was safe. The account was registered to my address.

I learnt about two weeks ago (when my standing order was returned) that my ex wife walked off the street and into Portman building society and reported the passbook lost. She managed to close the account (about £2000 in there) with only her signature and moved it to a new account in my son's name (without my consent). I have not been informed about these changes at all.

My son's future savings has now gone towards a week's holiday in Greece for my ex wife (without my son) and other personal luxuries. He regretably will not see any of it!

Has the Portman breached its own terms and conditions and has anyone got any advice about what we can do to get the money back?

debbie42

If the account was for either you or your wife to sign then I doubt you've got a case. Lost bank books do happen, and, if your wife was a signatory then she could (theoretically) do as she did. I would have thought the bank should have advised you about that, though.

thumshie

http://www.portman.co.uk/savings/1599MAR_0906.pdf
section 18 looks the important parts..

• unless you tell us otherwise (when the account is opened or
later), we will accept instructions from one of you for all purposes
relating to the account, including withdrawing money (this excludes
registering a lost passbook or renewing a maturing bond).
• where you previously told us that you will operate the account
together, we need the consent of all of you to allow just one of
you to operate the account alone;

So it depends wether your account had the request that both parties were needed, having two trustees would not automatically require both consent.

dunstonh

As a trustee she has a legal obligation to ensure that the money is used for the beneficiary. By using it for herself she has commited fraud. You may wish to consult with a solicitor.

However, make sure you mean trustee and not signatory.

baby_boomer

dunstonh and thumshie make some valid points.

Surely the original question should read, "Can my ex-wife do this?"

From Portman's point of view, she's still the boy's mother, a trustee and a signatory from what you say. Can you imagine the inevitable MSE outrage against any bank or building society if they had deprived a legitimate trustee of access to her son's account :eek: . Does your son also live at your ex-wife's address?

I suppose there are two lessons for divorced parents from this.

1) Don't take the word of branch staff on anything - get it in writing.
2) If you've put the money into a joint account on a singe signatory, withdraw the lot and put it into a trustee account with you as the sole trustee.

debbie42

thumshie wrote: »

http://www.portman.co.uk/savings/1599MAR_0906.pdf
section 18 looks the important parts..

unless you tell us otherwise (when the account is opened or
later), we will accept instructions from one of you for all purposes
relating to the account, including withdrawing money (this excludes
registering a lost passbook or renewing a maturing bond).

So it depends wether your account had the request that both parties were needed, having two trustees would not automatically require both consent.

I've bolded a fairly critical bit! Those words seem to suggest that lost passbooks are excluded from allowing just one signatory?

debbie42

baby_boomer wrote: »

Can you imagine the inevitable MSE outrage against any bank or building society if they had deprived a legitimate trustee of access to her son's account :eek:

Well, no, but she didn't have the bank book. The OP had indicated that the Portman implied she couldn't get access without it, and their literature also indicate that lost books are different to the norm.

baby_boomer

We await the outcome with interest.

If the complaint is successful it could even be way to get free holidays in Greece for divorced people at the expense of other members of the society.

Chadsman

Has your ex definitely withdrawn money and not just left in the new account? Have you talked to her about it?
If it has been withdrawn it could also have an impact on the merger bonus :eek:
It sounds like she wanted sole access to the funds and took it upon herself to engineer this situation in which case as the passbook was not lost she has been telling porkies to the Porkman
How many signatures were required to operate the original account and what do Porkman do when a passbook is lost- issue a new passbook on the same account or close the account and transfer the funds to a new account?
I hope you get it sorted out amicably.

ktm_hansi

Thanks everyone for your comments they've been a really big help - I am waiting for the Portman to come back to me regarding my complaint and will find out what their procedures are for lost passbooks. Unfortunately I think the fact that my ex closed the account and opened up a new account in the same branch (less a few hundred quid that she took for her holiday) suggests that she and the bank will get away with it.

Let this be a big lesson for us all!

chesky369

Has she set up the new account for herself or for your son? It makes a bit of a difference, and I'm surprised that the Portman would actually tell you the details of how much is in it. I'm not condoning what she did but it now seems as though 'only' a few hundred pounds are missing, not the full £2k.