Historical records of changes to date of birth

eskbanker

While understandable to focus on how this could have happened, all anyone on here can do is speculate, and so your friend's emphasis should be on holding Nationwide to account for what did happen.  As mentioned earlier, to me the starting point should be a formal subject access request to Nationwide, requesting specific details of when the change was made and what documentary support was supplied: https://www.nationwide.co.uk/about/corporate-information/cookies-and-privacy/your-information-rights

Once the sequence of events is clearer, the matter should be followed up with a formal complaint.

Knockmore73

This is super, super helpful - thank you. hopefully having probate in this regard will help get this information 

Emmia

In which order did the deaths occur, did your sister die first - leaving the property to the boyfriend? 

eskbanker

Knockmore73 said:

This is super, super helpful - thank you. hopefully having probate in this regard will help get this information 

Not necessarily - it could get quite messy, as Nationwide are presumably under the impression that your friend isn't their customer but that the boyfriend is, so if your friend submits a SAR under his own name and DOB then (ironically) they may well assert that they're not allowed to disclose info about the DOB change to him.  Probate is solely a matter for the executors of boyfriend's estate and I'd have thought it complicates rather than helps....

Does the fact that you're asking all this on behalf of your friend, plus the fact that the boyfriend held the bank cards, indicate that your friend is vulnerable, and if so, were Nationwide aware of this?

Knockmore73

Sister died... estate never finalised as Boyfriend was "helping" to sort out estate, based on trust between boyfriend and my mate. boyfriend dies - their executors claim he was known as Mr B Friend. as it transpires, we think the reason they are doing this is because as it turns out, Boyfriend seemingly applied for a motrgage in the name of Mr B Friend, on a totally different property, which my mate has never heard of. 

jimjames

born_again said:

I would question that a bank would allow a change of DOB. As that is a fact and not something you can change.
If they did allow it then it would have been clearly noted and the exact reason why.

The only reason I can think of needing to change the DOB is that the bank recorded it incorrectly originally. But to change that should require some official copies of documentation so Nationwide should be able to provide that - but it really depends how long ago that took place.

sheramber

Suppose
  Joe Black and his sister Sam Black have joint account.
Sam Black moves boyfriend Sam Green in.
Sam Green changes his name to Sam Black.
Suppose he then provides his date of birth to Nationwide who update account to  that DOB for Sam Black.
He uses sisters bank cards as they have his name on or he requests new cards.

eskbanker

sheramber said:

Suppose
  Joe Black and his sister Sam Black have joint account.
Sam Black moves boyfriend Sam Green in.
Sam Green changes his name to Sam Black.
Suppose he then provides his date of birth to Nationwide who update account to  that DOB for Sam Black.
He uses sisters bank cards as they have his name on or he requests new cards.

That's not the situation here though, in that both the males share the same first name (and, effectively, the same surname), so OP has said that the boyfriend had cards in that name, not the sister's:

Knockmore73 said:

her boyfriend and my friend, shared the same first name. my friend and his sister, obviously share the same surname. the boyfriend's family, claim he was known as an alias - his name, and my friend's surname

Knockmore73 said:

the fact that Mr B Boyfriend had in his possestion at the time of his death, bank cards in the name of Mr B Friend!

It's becoming difficult to escape the conclusion that this is a police matter if there's evidence of deliberate and fraudulent impersonation....

Knockmore73

thanks all - indeed it is, though given the history of the case, it doesn't appear to be of interest. that said, the link to Nationwide is super helpful, as this is where i need to go to next. i also need to understand how mortgage applications were processed back in the 1980's. 

theoretica

As I asked above, when did the boyfriend come on the scene?  If he can be shown not to be around when the purchase was recorded on the land registry it couldn't be his name.  The mortgage does not prove ownership - the land registry does. 

It also seems pretty unusual to run a mortgage unchanged and not paid off for over 30 years.  Is it really the same account?  If it had been changed at some time with a new rate, new lender or additional borrowing that might have been an opportunity to show new ID with a new DOB.  But I agree with the suggestion that it sounds very like the boyfriend was carrying out fraud.  Had the brother checked all his records with credit reference agencies?  That is another key thing to do.