How much compensation should I allow for my time in a complaint

Bootboy

Almost two years ago, my high street bank made a mistake which resulted in multiple markers on my credit rating. Because of my unusual circumstance at the time, this cost me a tremendous amount of money. The bank initially refused to take responsibility, but after a LOT of phone calls and eventually an email to chief executive, they at last admitted responsibility, removed the markers and began to compensate me.  Two years later, we almost at the end of the process, and I was almost at the point where I was back to where I should have been in 2019, and BAM. They've done exactly the same thing again. If I can't get it resolved, it's going to cost me around £6000 a year because I can't change mortgages to a favourable rate. It's not a small thing for me. 

I am obviously incandescent at this, and fully prepared to take every possible action. Up until now, I have only claimed for costs incurred, but I'm widowed with a young child and self employed. My time is valuable, and I've spent hours and hours sorting this out. I want to claim for some recompense for my time. Only I have no idea what sort of figure to put on it. I let property, so I don't really have an hourly rate as such, and while it's not difficult work, it's time consuming and very stressful. How on earth do I begin to cost it?  Is there some sort of guidance or flat rate for this?  (apologies if this is in the wrong section, I wasn't sure where it should go!) 

finalfantasist

Bootboy said:

I've spent hours and hours sorting this out.

How many?

adamp87

I think we need more details too about what’s happened and what responsibility they’ve admitted too..

Thrugelmir

Why have you got the same unusual set of circumstances for a second time? 

With no income how did you manage to fund your student BTL's?  

Bootboy

Thrugelmir said:

Why have you got the same unusual set of circumstances for a second time? 

With no income how did you manage to fund your student BTL's?  

I didn't.  My husband bought them, and then died and left them to me. He thought it was a good decision to invest in them instead of a pension.  But he also thought life insurance wasn't worth paying for. 

theoretica

What hourly rate would give you your annual income if you had a normal job?  There are online calculators.

Bootboy

adamp87 said:

I think we need more details too about what’s happened and what responsibility they’ve admitted too..

OK, get your coffee....

My husband invested in student houses instead of a pension, but cancelled his life insurance at 40 (I know, but it was his decision. I didn't even know about it)  He died a few years later, and left them to me. 

Because they were not jointly owned, and because they were mortgaged, I had to get a new mortgage on them in order to own them and continue to run them and support myself our daughter. This was really difficult, mortgage companies hated it. I didn't have an income, other than the rents which were not in my name. I talked to lots of people, and it seemed the best thing to do was to sell our previous house, remortgage the student let and use the money to buy myself a house outright closer to family. So I did that, but my husband hadn't got building regs signed off on our house (we built it) and it could only be sold at auction for a relatively low price. I borrowed money from my mum, so that I could buy a small house in the midlands.  By this point, I had an offer, in writing and accepted, which would have covered the money my mum lent me. 

Then my BTL mortgage lender (and bank) put a marker on my credit rating. I pay my mortgage quarterly, in advance because that is how the students pay (effectively termly) and the bank had not given me the correct reference to match it up. They returned the money, to a savings account, didn't notify me, and marked the mortgage in arrears.  Because of this the mortgage offers were withdrawn and it took me the best part of a year to get them reinstated, but then they would only offer a lower amount, equivalent to current mortgage outstanding. then they changed that, and offered a lower amount, and I had to find the difference (they valuations actually got raised in this time). But it was the ONLY company who would offer ANY mortgage in my situation (which hasn't changed, per se, but is still unusual)  I had no options. And naturally, the rate is....uncompetitive. 

It took months and months and months. Firstly, they said it was their fault and they would write and admit it, which would 'reassure creditors'. Only it didn't. Then they said that it was their error, but simply returning the money was sufficient amends. Then they said that the markers could not be removed anyway, because the payments had in fact been missed, regardless of why, so even though it was their error, they couldn't fix it. Finally, I wrote to the chief executive, and got a response from the executive complaints team, who admitted it was their error, agreed to remove the markers and compensate me. I had to move my holiday, take a sub-prime finance deal for a campervan I'd placed a deposit on before their error (in which I had booked a holiday and already sold my car) postpone my own house move (because they day it was scheduled for was the court hearing for the repossession of one of the properties. It was not in arrears, but the holder was deceased, so it was in breach of regulations.) my mother had to extend the terms of her own mortgage (she hit 65 the year after it should have been covered by the buy to let re-mortgages)  They also agreed to waive some of the criteria for their own mortgage, and offered me a mortgage on my domestic property to pay off my mum's drawdown mortgage (remember, I had accepted a mortgage offer for this borrowed money). They have also paid the court costs, the difference between the both the mortgage the estate was paying and the eventual mortgage, and the difference between the original and eventful offers. They have paid for the costs of changing our ferries.  They paid the costs of valuing the properties again, because the original ones had expired. So they've definitely accepted responsibility for the problems they've caused, and have paid out several thousands so far. 

finalfantasist said:

Bootboy said:

I've spent hours and hours sorting this out.

How many?

Hundreds, and I was prepared to let it all go. Until I got an alert on my credit rating on Friday, and found that my mortgage was marked in arrears in December. I have no idea how. I rang them on 31.12.20 to check the balance, and was in credit until July 2021. I didn't top up in November or December, so it can't have been a late payment, I pay in October.  I am currently awaiting an offer on the properties to remortgage to a better rate, which will leave me about £6000 a year better off (and bearing in mind what I've had to pay out to top up mortgages and so on, and having to take a hit after universities shut because of Covid last and maybe next, I have not had a good few years, and don't expect next year to be better. The properties make OK money, most years a bit less than I earned as a physio, but more importantly they allow me to work flexibly and be there for my daughter). It's with the underwriters, and if they spot this, I'll be back to July 2019 in a flash.  I'm furious, and after all that work, and never once being rude, or unpleasant or anything but "I understand you made a small mistake, but the consequences are catastrophic for me personally, and I need you to fix it" here we are again. 

So what do I ask for?  There must be some sort of rate for the time spent on the consequences of these errors. I can find information on distress and inconvenience (which have been pretty considerable, and I have not asked for recompense for. Yet) but not time. ( I am aware there is possibly a case for unfair treatment from the mortgage company. I will tackle that once the mortgage is moved, because I don't trust them not to simply withdraw the loan. After all, they did it with an offer. I will make complaints once the mortgage is transferred. Assuming it ever is. I often feel that I will spend my life remortgaging these bloody houses)

Bootboy

theoretica said:

What hourly rate would give you your annual income if you had a normal job?  There are online calculators.

That's a thought. I could take an average (I don't think last years would be fair, as the costs of refinance impacted so highly on it.  I had assumed there would be a 'fair rate'. I mean, a solicitor who put in the hours I put in would be billing tens of thousands, a careworker thousands, and a housewife nothing at all. Yet we would have all put in the same hours and the dealt with the same amount of hassle. 

eskbanker

Bootboy said:
There must be some sort of rate for the time spent on the consequences of these errors. I can find information on distress and inconvenience (which have been pretty considerable, and I have not asked for recompense for. Yet) but not time.

Not sure if you were looking at the ombudsman's information about this, but the FOS view is quite clear in that they don't consider time spent as a separately recoverable entity in its own right but effectively incorporate it into the overall 'distress and inconvenience' heading:

When we look at inconvenience and loss of your time, we may ask for evidence of how much time you’ve spent. We don’t make awards based on units of time, but instead we look at the overall impact the business’s mistake had on you.

Of course, that doesn't stop you from constructing a claim against the institution on whatever basis you choose, but IMHO it's certainly worth bearing in mind how it'll be viewed if escalated to FOS.

Blackbeard_of_Perranporth

I am finding it difficult to understand. If you are paying the mortgage as you say quarterly in advance, then why has the bank marked this as arears on your credit file. Also why, as this is a commercial decision that you can afford the mortgage, are you worried about your credit file?

So what is your actual question?

Bootboy

Blackbeard_of_Perranporth said:

I am finding it difficult to understand. If you are paying the mortgage as you say quarterly in advance, then why has the bank marked this as arears on your credit file. 

Well, precisely.  

Also why, as this is a commercial decision that you can afford the mortgage, are you worried about your credit file?

I am an individual, both borrowing money for and earning money from, buy to let property. My personal credit file is the one that the lender will look at in order to decide whether to offer a mortgage to me, and the one that will be marked if that mortgage is not paid. It's the only credit file there is in relation to these buy to let mortgages. A marker on it would (and has) prevent ANY lending, whether or not I can afford the mortgage. (Which I can, as it's about half my current mortgage repayments)  There is no 'commercial'. There is an individual, earning money from property, with an individual credit file, currently marked in arrears. Again. The long and boring saga above merely catalogues the impact of the error. 

So what is your actual question?

My question is how to calculate the recompense for my time. Obviously, the calculation is

£Y per hour x Z hours spent on problem

I can estimate the number of hours of work I have done on this (Z). I do not know what to use for £Y