Bank of Scotland Arrears/Data Protection

vivera01

Posted in Mortgage section too.

I am helping a family member sort out his finances following a break-up with his long-term partner. Amongst other things, she has left him in a situation with the Bank of Scotland whereby she has not been making payments on a house she part-owned and therefore the Bank are taking legal action against them both as they are joint owners.

After many months of trying to negotiate various terms with the Bank on his behalf, and receiving one piece of conflicting information after another - both from the bank staff and their representing solicitors - we agreed I would pay off the arrears of £2k and make the monthly payments until such a time as he either found a buyer or a tenant for the property. This was all agreed verbally with the bank on 11th February and everything was paid up to date at that point. I had the Bank and Solicitor's assurances that all legal action would be halted but it may take 24-48 hours to hit their systems. All was well, or so I thought.

Despite all the arrears being settled, on 27th February, a third party company served papers on him stating the banks intention to take the matter to court and repossess the property. The pack of correspondence they provided contained inaccurate information regarding correspondence/telephone call history, copies of letters which have not been received by him and also detailed information regarding two other Bank of Scotland borrowers including their names, addresses, signatures and mortgage details.

The staff at the Bank assured me there had obviously been a mix-up and as far as they were concerned, there would be no further action taken. The woman I spoke to said she would speak to the solicitors personally and get back to me yesterday to confirm she had advised the solicitors accordingly. Of course, she didn't and I had once again to chase round after them. I then spoke to the solicitors directly who informed me that in Scotland, the court hearing would still go ahead and only at that point would legal action be dismissed. I've has so much conflicting information from all parties in this matter that I'm not confident this is the case and am now concerned that firstly, the solicitors are acting on inaccurate information provided by the bank and secondly, how can I be sure that my cousin's mortgage information hasn't been provided willy-nilly to all and sundry.

I'm not sure whether to pursue the data protection issues surrounding the fact they have provided us with sensitive information about other borrowers and also not entirely sure whether I should attend the court hearing just in case they don't follow through on their assurances.

stevemLS

I would have thought the priority would be to deal with the reposession issues around your cousin.

The DPA issue is a red herring that the court willl not be interested in.

You may wish to reflect on it and pursue a complaint via the ICO once the priority issue has been dealt with.

vivera01

Yes, I agree and I had hoped that everything was resolved but given the incompetent manner they've dealt with everything to date, I have little confidence that whatever I say or do will fall by the wayside. I'm making sure every conversation is now documented and sent by recorded delivery.