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

Bootboy

Thank you. 

The mortgage lenders will withdrawer, or decline an offer if there is a sniff of mortgage arrears on your credit file, as I know to my cost. 

Bootboy

I thought I would add an update here, as its always nice to see, and my bank are still a problem. I'd be interested in people's views on their current actions. 

So, after adding further unpaid markers to my credit rating for March and April (in addition to December and the five in 2019) the mortgage application of the day was withdrawn, and then neglecting to remove the April one from all the credit reference agencies meant a further application in May was declined, I am still unable to move my mortgages to a better rate, at an ongoing cost of around £500 a month. This is despite the fact that I made timely payment in March, and in that in April I had not only an active (and confirmed in writing) direct debit on the mortgage payment, which they failed to take anyway, AND that I didn't trust them an inch to take it so made a timely manual payment as well (I mean, they're a bank. I bank with them. My mortgage is with them. I had a direct debit.  I also made an online payment.  What are they doing all day there, anyway!!?) 

The bank in question have accepted liability for their multiple errors, and we are discussing compensation. They have offered £2000 for distress and inconvenience, plus agreed to pay the difference between the mortgage rates from March until an unspecified date (I presume September 30), providing I have new mortgages completed by September 30. They are offering me the distress and inconvenience part now, but the actual costs will be paid once the re-mortgages are completed. I think this is out of order, but I don't have much experience of this sort of thing. Is it the done thing to haggle? (I hate haggling, I'd expected a bit, but not this level) 

I'm a bit miffed about this.  Regardless of the low offer, offering to pay the D and I now and the actual costs later, dependent on a deadline largely out of my control seems pretty disgraceful to me. Surely they should be paying my actual costs to date, even if they aren't complete, and without conditions anyway?

This has now been an issue since February 2019. I have had eight markers placed on my credit rating in error. They have accepted responsibility for them and removed them (after months and months each time), but the impact on me is verging on catatstrophic. I will be bankrupt in August if they don't pay something, and they know it. I think they are trying to force me into taking a lower distress and inconvenience payment quickly, so it's final and will try to wriggle out of the conditional costs payments later. 

I know £2000 sounds like a like a lot, but from a bank which has made the same error eight times, each time threatening my livelihood and each time leaving me genuinely wondering how I will feed and house my child, over two years, I do not think it even comes close.  Each time I've worked to resolve the issue and negate its consequences, got it resolved and then been shoved back to square one with another marker. I've had to go to court to defend a repossession, take out a further mortgage on my residential property, had five mortgage applications declined and am considering moving to release equity and ease the squeeze on our day to budget (which is £500 a month less than it would be if I could remortgage and has been for two years and without the approx £40k in equity the remortgages will release). Their view is that it is only 'substantial' distress and inconvenience and they will pay £500-£2000 total.  Mine is that each mistake is an extreme impact on me, in that I each time I genuinely do not know if my livelihood, lifestyle and home can be saved.  The agreed out of pocket costs I have had to carry are close to £20,000 (with a further £18,000 I think they should pay and they don't, and I haven't even added up the hours I have spent on it and the phone calls etc etc) and I think that's also pretty extreme over that length of time. 

I specifically haven't put what I think is fair, as I'd like people's uninfluenced views on what might be considered fair, both in terms of compensation amounts, and this absurd idea of paying some compensation now and only maybe costs later. I'm more incensed about the way they are making the offer, than the haggling over the amount (which I'd half expected).  I haven't yet responded, and I'm wondering how aggressively to do so. I've been nothing but courteous and patient throughout, and I do not appreciate what feels like this effort to con me. I'm also considering the possibility that they are actively trying to get me to move the mortgage (it's a tracker) and that these 'errors' are be a deliberate policy to get me off a product that isn't making them any money. I'm not generally cynical, but I'm wondering if they are playing a dirty game and I should be stepping up and pushing them a lot harder than I have.  Also in the interests of brevity (yes, I'm being brief) this is only the highlights, so if anything isn't clear I can provide more detail.