Virgin One Account - compensation offer

emmaeccles

Has anyone else had a letter from Virgin One account offering compensation due to a unilateral reduction in their facility some time between 2012 and 2014, and having to move house as a consequence? It seems odd but it's genuine and I'm wondering what's prompted it and how many others are affected. (And am I missing something??!)

Browntoa

Is it directly from Virgin one or a 3rd party

Does it actually apply to your circumstances

emmaeccles

Yes to both

emmaeccles

Sorry - for clarity - it’s from Virgin, it has the correct account details and it applies to our circumstances.

Browntoa

I'm assuming then that they lost either a court case or more likely an ombudsman ruling , if the latter they may have been told to contact all affected parties

[Deleted User]

This might answer your question:

https://forums.moneysavingexpert.com/discussion/6030466/hundreds-of-ex-virgin-one-mortgage-customers-to-get-refunds-with-some-getting-1-000s-back-mse

AndreaCrouch

Hello, we've had an offer today and although I am pleased that some compensation has been offered, the amount offered to us doesn't even scratch the surface of the life changing decisions we had to make after being pressured to over pay into our facility. We were slightly behind with our payments but had taken out 2 endowment plans as insurance to cover any shortfall (if any ) at intervals during our facility term. Despite discussing this with a gentleman who was assigned to pressure us at the time , we were not listened to and subsequently moved and remortgaged shortly afterwards. No compensation has been offered for the stress or worry or incorrect selling of the product in the first place. I also wonder how they have arrived at this 'moving' compensation figure. People seem to have been offered very different amounts.

Mandsdw

Received our offer from Virgin today and it’s fair to say I’m disappointed with it. After they unilaterally reduced our facility we had to sell our house and accept an offer below market value in order to meet the deadlines imposed by Virgin One. Our compensatory offer does not cover any of these losses nor the life changing  decisions that we had to make. Virgin One claim that their ‘advice’ was misunderstood. I can assure them that it was not. Letters from them clearly stated the facility was to be reduced and we had to make payments to bring the account into balance. Failure to do so would place the mortgage in arrears and our home liable to repossession. Having met these demands on two occasions we were unable to meet the demands of a third reduction and sold our house. The unilateral facility reductions were in direct contradiction to the terms and conditions of the mortgage, the principal one being that the facility was always available during the term of the mortgage and it only had to be paid in full at the end of the term. 
Our compensation offer covers removal costs only with an additional but frankly insulting goodwill payment of £250

bettermandave

Please do not give up. Go and speak to your solicitor. My wife and I had to sell our house after receiving the letters and two phone calls advising if we did not pay an extra £20,000 by December 2014 and subsequently every other year they would take action to recover the debt. Having worked in debt recovery I advised them on two occasions that their action was in breach of the agreement and couldn't happen. As with others I was told in no uncertain terms that they could do this and they would.
Knowing that the agents were not allowed to lie we had to accept their story. We ended up selling our house and going into rented accommodation with such immense worry and stress that we almost separated after 34 years of marriage. 
Fortunately that did not happen and a few years later we  received their letter offering moving costs as we may have misunderstood their original letter!!!!!!. 
We spoke to the ombudsman and told him the full story and he advised us to place a claim immediately with the Remediation department.
They have tried everything to get out of paying anything and even appeared to use out of date information to decline our claim.
(Which to this day they have not provided a copy despite a number of official requests) This is a clear data protection failure 
Eventually they accepted FULL LIABILITY and 12 days ago we received an offer of restitution which was in the high Tens of thousands. Even this did not feel right as it should be compensation and not restitution and the offer of personal compensation of £600 was insulting to say the least ( Check the Ombudsman's scale of damages). I now have an Expert solicitor in this field  reviewing everything and who will advise me on what to say and what to do. 
One warning though. Be very careful of what you say as they use every bit of it in their Judgement/justification  and omit anything that you are told by the case handler.
Once I get the expert advice I will try to speak to the Ombudsman who in turn has been pretty poor as my complaint has not been passed to one of their representative after 7 months.
If you are interested in the final outcome I will post it on here.

dkg198

Thanks bettermandave. I will be interested in any further updates as we are in a very similar position.  Had the original compensation then had another letter over a year later asking if we had any other expenses they had not covered. We sold our house and moved in to rented and are still there 8 years later. Impossible to get another mortgage as too old and now both retired. To add insult to injury the house is now worth £100k more than when they forced us to sell it!  So, yes, we certainly think we’re owed more. Started the phone call process (very intimidating) at the beginning of February and it’s now mid May. Have not heard anything for over a month so waiting for a letter. 

bettermandave

OK the latest update:
My solicitor drafted a letter for me disagreeing with their "Estimation" of what they should pay me. He also advised me that their legal definitions were loose to say the least. He advised that even he had taken advice and that if I went to court I would win the case and that V1 would have to additionally pay my costs which would be circa £40k and they also would have a similar amount themselves. The letter was then signed and sent.
Ironically at this point the Ombudsman (after 9 months) contacted me and took the case on. I explained everything to him and explained that what V1 were offering was NOT restitution as they claimed as that could only be putting me back into a house of similar status and I admit he did sound sympathetic but would not comment until he had received everything from V1 .He told me that V1 had to respond in a specific time frame but guess what after 5 weeks they still have not complied.
I have been chasing him now for 3 weeks for his opinion.
More will follow once received.