Gave up job based on wrong mortgage balance

suse142

Can anyone help with this? I was offered a sum to leave work and a quick response was required so I phoned my building society for the total amount I owed, so I could decide whether to leave was feasible. Based on the figure I was told I decided to accept my offer and leave. All of these life changing circumstances were explained on the telephone to them. It now turns out the guy got it wrong. Totally wrong! I now owe £7000 more than I was quoted. I was offered the chance to extend the mortgage so I can afford the repayments. This will mean I'll be repaying £17,397 over 18 yrs to when I'm 69yrs old.
I'll be paying £11,000 for their mistake.
So far I've had just one meeting with them where we discussed options. Ha, ha, ha, the only option was for me to incur further costs it would seem. They've yet to write formally with their inquiry results so it's early days but I can't see this going well for me. They have admitted it was their mistake on the phone and have copies of the 2 telephones calls I made.
I want them to honour what I was told and write off the £7000 extra so reducing it to exactly what I was told. Is that likely? Anything else I can do? I'm so angry I could......
Thanks for help with this.

Southend1

Did you get the redemption figure in writing? If not I doubt you have any chance of a complaint being upheld

Dave_Ham

Whilst it is incredibly annoying, I would almost certainly say you have no chance they will write off the balance

Negotiate for best they may offer and maybe try for an interest free period

ACG

Mistakes are made, its human nature.
I understand you must be gutted but realistically they are not going to write off £7k.

MysteryMe

"They have admitted it was their mistake on the phone and have copies of the 2 telephones calls I made. "


If they have stated they have recordings of the calls and the error by them is clear then you should keep at them. Wrong information is wrong information; since when did a misleading statement become OK just because it was made verbally? For the amount of money at stake I would consider getting advice certainly from CAB or even a solicitor, a letter will not cost too much and will show the bank that you are not going to be rolled over. Their error has impacted on your finances and life generally to a huge extent.

Goldiegirl

Do you have an annual statement that they send.

That would have given you an idea of what the mortgage balance was....if they verbally gave you a figure that was a lot different to the balance on the statement, perhaps that should have made you query it?

They may give you a goodwill payment,but they won't write off £7000.

Funny_old_game

How on earth did you not realise it was a lower balance than expected, £7k us a massive difference.

They'll probably compensate up to £400 but you won't get it written off.

ethank

You may need to take you case to the financial ombudsman to resolve it.

geoffken

So you think the balance they quoted is £7000 less than your last mortgage statement?
Did that not seem funny/unusual/wrong?
Were you making huge overpayments normally?
Where did you think the £7000 appeared from?
If it sounds too good too be true it usually is.
Unless you have it in writing no chance.
Call centre person may lose job but no way will they pay you £7000.
If you have no other money on what were you going to live?

ACG

Even if it was in writing he would not get £7k - its a mistake, mistakes happen.

Call centre person will get a slap on the wrists at most (unless they had done it a lot).

suse142

Thanks to you all for the replies. You've confirmed my partners view that we try to negotiate and take it as far as I can with the ombudsman. It was a part endowment & part repayment: he forgot the "element" that was the repayment part of it. And you're right, I should have checked the previous statement but almost nothing is done by letter now and phones lines are the "done" thing for info, aren't they? And I was in some hurry. Maybe since they've admitted their guilt I have some hope.
Thanks.