Barclays refuses to abide by ombudsman's settlement terms-what now?

Havelaar

I am appealing for advice in this case in which Barclays has failed over a 2 year period to put right errors on my mortgage account and now refuses to abide by the binding settlement terms.

To confuse matters, the Ombudsman provided misleading information which led to me agreeing the terms and the complaint being closed while the issues are unresolved.

Ombudsman has now washed its hands of the case and told me I need to sue Barclays.
The Financial Services and Markets Act 2000 (FSMA 2000) makes an Ombudsman’s decision legally enforceable in court, but I can find no solicitor to take on my case on a no-win-no-fee basis and I am not in a position to incur legal fees. It is an obvious winner with loads of political mileage for any law firm.

I assume I need to sue once for the statement which they were supposed to provide under the settlement terms and then again later for my losses- which I can only work out once I see the statement.

The complaint relates to Barclays’ failure to credit my account with several thousand pounds of overpayments, even claiming the balance had INCREASED after said overpayments. This was my 3rd consecutive complaint regarding Barclays’ mismanagement of the same account.

Under the settlement terms finalised 2 June 15 by the Financial Services Ombudsman, Barclays was to provide “a full breakdown of my (mortgage) account from June 13, showing when each overpayment was applied and a clear and accurate explanation for any amendments made to the account”.

Barclays has failed to provide the above documentation, but not before lying to the Ombudsman claiming it had!

A misleading letter from the Ombudsman claimed the account was now in order (Dec 14) and I thus agreed the settlement terms, which included a nominal payment (which the bank has made).

However, the documentation that Barclays was to provide is obviously central to the complaint, particularly since I now have documentary evidence proving the anomalies on the account have NOT been corrected by Barclays. This may be why the bank now refuses to provide the documentation.

This documentation was only made available to me by the Ombudsman AFTER I had agreed the settlement terms, believing the account to be correct, and AFTER Barclays had failed to comply.

The Ombudsman provided me with documentation the bank provided to it during the course of the investigation, including a calculation (not a statement) which states “this calculation has been provided to assist with the resolution of the complaint”.

This documentation does not tally with an independent audit of the account I was obliged to fund. The document makes it clear NO remedial action has been taken, ie it contains a heading “steps required to rectify the account” as opposed to “steps taken to rectify the account”.

Nevertheless the Ombudsman told me in writing the account had been corrected!

The document is virtually impossible for a layperson to understand and abruptly ends March 14, giving no clues to the current balance and states “the balances shown on this calculator do not represent the actual balance on the account”, so the information is of little use, hence the instruction from the Ombudsman that Barclays provide me with “a full breakdown of the account from June 13, showing when each overpayment was applied and a clear and accurate explanation for any amendments made to the account”.

So I have no idea how much interest I have been and continue to be overcharged by the bank on the incorrect balance

I was a diligent overpayer until Barclays mismanaged the account. Based on my previous pattern of overpayments, I have been prevented from overpaying at least 10k to date.
I have written to John McFarlane CEO asking him to ensure his staff provide the documentation as per the binding settlement terms, to clearly show how much interest I have been overcharged, what steps have been taken to correct the account, and what the correct current balance is, however, it is highly unlikely I will receive a response based on the bank’s attitude thus far.

The FCA said they could not assist. I wrote my MP who says he has written to them but won’t show me a copy of the letter. I made a formal complaint about the Ombudsman, but that won’t rectify the account issues. I contacted BBC watchdog and various consumer columns and got no reply. I guess no one dares take on the establishment.

I have posted on Barclays FB page and would now like to post the above letter online – any ideas as to where and how would be appreciated. Also any advice on where to find a law firm to represent me on a no win no fee basis would be appreciated.

tomtontom

Any reason for posting this again?

bod1467

Good point.

https://forums.moneysavingexpert.com/discussion/5295806

bris

No win no fee is for ambulance chasers with a 100% win chance.


Your case is far to risky and complicated for them to touch it with a barge pole. Barclays will have the best defending and any case would be long and with no guarantee of winning. The man hours they would need to put in would not be worth the risk.


It's difficult to see why the Ombudsman and the FCA won't touch it unless they believe your settlement is deemed by them to be reasonable.

boo_star

bris wrote: »

No win no fee is for ambulance chasers with a 100% win chance.


Your case is far to risky and complicated for them to touch it with a barge pole. Barclays will have the best defending and any case would be long and with no guarantee of winning. The man hours they would need to put in would not be worth the risk.


It's difficult to see why the Ombudsman and the FCA won't touch it unless they believe your settlement is deemed by them to be reasonable.

I agree.

I suspect the reason why ambulance chasers will refuse is because the OP will only get the overpaid interest back.

If they're missed out on £10000 worth of overpayments over two years at current mortgage rates that's what, £800 at most?

It's well within the territory of the Small Claims Court where legal fees are rarely given.

unholyangel

OP i'm a bit confused, your title says the bank are refusing to abide by ombudsman ruling - yet your post goes on to say that the bank has made the payment determined by the ombudsman.

You also go on to say that the decision was wrong due to incorrect information and that the ombudsman now refuse to review it. So i'm unsure as to how the bank are refusing to abide by the decision.

The ombudsman have this to say on appealing their decisions:

A decision by one of our ombudsmen is the final stage of our dispute-resolution procedure. If the consumer accepts the decision, it becomes legally binding on both parties.

*snip*

You will already have had the opportunity to question and challenge our views on a dispute, before one of our ombudsmen makes a final decision on the case. So you cannot go on to appeal the merits of an ombudsman decision in court. A final decision by an ombudsman draws a line under the case – and brings finality to any further argument about the facts and merits involved.

According to a leaflet of theirs as well, you can only take the matter to court if you refused their decision. If you accepted it, then you are bound by it.

Havelaar

Hi

The Ombudsman told me in writing that the account had been corrected. I had no reason to believe she would lie, so on that basis, I accepted the terms. These were a nominal payment and MORE IMPORTANTLY, a statement showing the full state of the account with clear and accurate explanations.

Barclays refuses to provide the statement, ergo - it refuses to abide by the terms.

Subsequently, i find, based on limited evidence now provided by the OMbudsman, the account has NOT been corrected.

So i was screwed twice, once by Barclays and once by the OMbudsman.

FCA says they dont deal with consumer issues, that is why they cannot get involved. Not because there is anything unreasonable about it.

Ombudsman says they have no power to make barclays give me the documentation and that i will have to sue.

I hope that is clearer.

I think the only way i might get the bank to correct the account is by getting the story into the media , so if anyone has any ideas, please share.

I don't know what other institution could get away with effectively stealing clients' money but clealry the banks are untouchable

unholyangel

So do you have a breakdown of how you believe your statement should look? I ask because you don't seem to have an exact figure that they owe you. You need to be able to quantify your losses. Not trying to offend but how do you know their statement is wrong if you don't have one to tell you whats "right"?

Tbh, I'm still not sure you have a chance. Even if they did provide the statement of the account, given you accepted the decision then according the ombudsman you can't appeal it or take it to court. So while you might be able to take them to court to get the statement, you wouldn't be able to do anything with it anyway.


The first thing you need to do is find out whether you'll be able to take action against them if it is wrong. If you're bound by the ombudsmans decision even if its wrong, then theres no point going further.

If you have legal cover on your home insurance, now might be the time to put it to use as imo, what might have been straightforward to begin with, now has a heap of issues that will require specialist advice from professionals rather than us enthusiasts.