Mis sold Barclays Sam’s Mortgage

MWT

How old were you in 1998?

Jules789

I wasn’t living with my mother when this was taken out and I never signed anything as I wasn’t there either

Jules789

I was 23 years okd

MWT

Can't offer much hope on this one to be honest, the SAM products have been ligated and the banks have won each time.

They are one of the reasons that regulation was brought in for this type of product but they do not themselves benefit from regulation.

They were accurately described at the time, and did provide a loan with no repayments during the life of the borrower, but most people never imagined the sort of value their property could reach and what impact that would have on their beneficiaries.

In short it sucks, but nobody lied about it or misdescribed it and no legislation at the time required legal advice to be taken.

Jules789

Thank you I didn’t think we had much hope but this my last chance to see if anyone on here has been affected. You are right it really sucks when you think if they had just been given the 15K loan as they asked .. Barclays wouldn’t be taking around 300K profit from my family

MWT

Jules789 said:

I wasn’t living with my mother when this was taken out and I never signed anything as I wasn’t there either

Then at that age and not resident in the house you would not needed to have signed anything.

Sadly I don't think there is anything wrong with the documents you have seen, they were designed to cover multiple variations such as adults residing in the house and legal advice being taken, but in this case none of them applied and so they were not required to be signed.

dunstonh

She has also tried the ombudsman who said that he had lots of people in the same position but there’s nothing they can do?

That doesnt sound like the language an ombudsman would use.  Although it does sound like the sort of thing the front line telephone staff would say.     

My mums property is now worth around 450-500K meaning that Barclays stand to take possibly 300K of mine and my brothers inheritance!

Now that is something the ombudsman would hear a lot.   Potential beneficiaries crying missale as they find out their parents have spent their own money and they wont be inheriting as much.

Lets be clear, it is your mums money. Not yours.  She chose to borrow a percentage of her equity to spend on herself.    Rather than leave herself short and give it to you.

The bottom line is that the product was unregulated at the point of sale.  So, its not possible to use the regulated complaints process and refer it to the ombudsman unless Barclays volunteer to allow it.  They would have told her this in response to the complaint. So, we are not telling you anything new here.

It was an awful product with hindsight but you need to remember that UK house prices had not grown for a very many years in 1998.  No-one predicted the house price growth that followed.    That does not make it a missale.  In its day, it was considering a very good option.

Jules789

Thank you for all your replies but can I say that my mother has been fighting this for 2 years and now is in a position that she is considering moving house.. which also means that she will not get the full value of the property to buy her self another house. But it does look like there is nothing she can do

MWT

Jules789 said:

Thank you for all your replies but can I say that my mother has been fighting this for 2 years and now is in a position that she is considering moving house.. which also means that she will not get the full value of the property to buy her self another house. But it does look like there is nothing she can do

On the subject of moving house, Barclays did set up a fund to help people effectively trapped in their home by the impact of the SAM product. No idea if it is still operating and if it would offer much real help, but it is worth looking into at least...

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Shared_appreciation_mortgage#Hardship_Scheme

Thrugelmir

Jules789 said:

when you think if they had just been given the 15K loan as they asked .. Barclays wouldn’t be taking around 300K profit from my family

No one had a crystal ball at the time. If we could all use hindsight then we wouldn't make lots of decisions during our lifetime. £15k was a decent sum of money back then.