Financial ombudsman...who regulates them?

MQA

Moneyineptitude wrote: »

But increasing your mortgage will automatically attract increased interest ,surely?

Good point but I have an Offset mortgage account, and intentionally have more money in my savings account just in case an unexpectedly fee or something will increase my mortgage balance. Hence, my post.

I had posted here as I have exhausted my options with my lender and financial ombudsman (as I am in a loop with them). I am unsure whether the Independent assessor will be any help? (I know my mortgage is fully offset and the lender had made an error, as they had done so also in 2012 and I had paid whatever they had asked but not happy for it to happen again.)

Bermonia

The ‘IA’ are the organisation you can complain to if you are unhappy with how you have been treated by the FOS... they do not however consider the outcome, nor do they have any powers to overturn the outcome. They will merely consider complaints regarding the service, as such any complaint to them is some what pointless and certainly won’t get poster the outcome they desire.

[Deleted User]

MQA wrote: »

I had posted here as I have exhausted my options with my lender and financial ombudsman (as I am in a loop with them). I am unsure whether the Independent assessor will be any help?

Bermonia wrote: »

The ‘IA’ are the organisation you can complain to if you are unhappy with how you have been treated by the FOS... they do not however consider the outcome, nor do they have any powers to overturn the outcome. They will merely consider complaints regarding the service, as such any complaint to them is some what pointless and certainly won’t get poster the outcome they desire.

Yes, the following is straight from the IA's website;

Independent_Assessor wrote:

I cannot comment on the outcome or judgement used on a case. My Terms of Reference mean I can't comment on the facts of your complaint against the business.

So for example, I cannot look at whether a complaint should be upheld, what was thought to be the most important part of the case, what evidence was needed or what weight was placed on the evidence.

Please note that I cannot look into general unhappiness with the Ombudsman Service’s policies or procedures. I look into individual complaints to see whether the Ombudsman Service has followed its service processes appropriately. I do not say what the processes should be as that is not my role.

https://www.independent-assessor.org.uk/faqs.html

MQA

Powerless I feel. As it seems the lender doesn't even need my consent to transfer money between my account so they can then take the interests /I have to pay for their error.

[Deleted User]

MQA wrote: »

Powerless I feel.

Powerless you are.

(Yoda )

Saddlers2007

Just wanted to add a comment on FSO. I took my complaint to them in early Autumn and found their investigation service responsive and timely. However, my case has gone to the Ombudsman - or rather, is sitting in a big pile waiting to be seen. I’ve been told “With these type of complaints I usually see they're allocated when they've been with us 10-12 months“. This is allocated to an Ombudsman - decision will follow weeks/months after this. Seems to be an enormous backlog which I hadn’t realised about until recent googling showed that I’m far from unique.

Bermonia

Saddlers2007 wrote: »

Just wanted to add a comment on FSO. I took my complaint to them in early Autumn and found their investigation service responsive and timely. However, my case has gone to the Ombudsman - or rather, is sitting in a big pile waiting to be seen. I’ve been told “With these type of complaints I usually see they're allocated when they've been with us 10-12 months“. This is allocated to an Ombudsman - decision will follow weeks/months after this. Seems to be an enormous backlog which I hadn’t realised about until recent googling showed that I’m far from unique.

Consider yourself lucky, the backlog used to be up in the years (depending on nature of complaint then more typically around six months, however it’s better to under promise and over deliver)

MQA

Moneyineptitude wrote: »

Powerless you are.

(Yoda )

It is not OK to feel powerless in this situation, moving forward is there any way to prevent this from happening again? Aside from changing lender?

[Deleted User]

MQA wrote: »

It is not OK to feel powerless in this situation, moving forward is there any way to prevent this from happening again? Aside from changing lender?

Post on a more relevant part of the forum as I advised earlier.

You'll get more informed answers there and your original query to this sub-section of MSE has already been answered.

Bermonia

Your options are remain and your accounts be managed under the terms of your current lender... or you vote with your legs and go elsewhere, doubt you’ll get much resistance from your lender if you chose to leave