Building society left us on the streets!

[Deleted User]

https://www.financial-ombudsman.org.uk/files/292998/DRN4289614.pdf

relevant part:

I don’t have the power to make an award to punish Barclays or to reflect the impact of these complaints on others, including Mr T’s family.


If it gets to the Ombudsman I would lower your expectations drastically.   They will ignore impact on anyone not party to the mortgage. If the bank offers as much as £1000 then I would probably take that and move on.   I doubt you would get much more from Ombudsman

csgohan4

another reason why buying a house is stressful and even last minute issues can and do arise

ComicGeek

When Barclays screwed up our mortgage 11 years ago, it was very difficult to prove any actual losses as it did get sorted out before completion. They ended up giving us a hamper as compensation ... but delivered it to our old house after the move, and our purchasers then denied any knowledge of it and kept it for themselves!

Thrugelmir

ComicGeek said:

When Barclays screwed up our mortgage 11 years ago, it was very difficult to prove any actual losses as it did get sorted out before completion. They ended up giving us a hamper as compensation ... but delivered it to our old house after the move, and our purchasers then denied any knowledge of it and kept it for themselves!

Barclays didn't screw up. An individual did. I've often found that perfect people are never as good they pronounce themselves to be. 

peterhjohnson

Section62 said:

  People will pay more in charges, get less dividend, have reduced pensions, or in the case of mutual building societies, member benefits will be reduced (e.g. more expensive mortgages, less income from savings)

I'm sorry, I had no idea that lenders messed up completions so frequently that paying decent compensation in all cases would significantly impact the interests of other customers.

It's odd though that if a buyer messes up a completion, they're liable for at least the 10% deposit but I suppose they're "little people" so it doesn't matter

Slithery

peterhjohnson said:

It's odd though that if a buyer messes up a completion, they're liable for at least the 10% deposit but I suppose they're "little people" so it doesn't matter

I messed up completion once and I'm 6'4".

I still had to pay the penalty

TripleH

Op, whatever you put a claim in for, itemise it line by line and include and invoices / receipts.

If you say you're claiming £3,000 (for example) and that's all you put, it's easier to to counter with a much lower amount.

If you claim £2,956.87 broken down including receipts and specific lines, individual costs can be argued but it makes the ombudsman's job harder to dismiss outright the claim.

I agree with the above posts, you will struggle to claim distress for all, the argument will be that it was your responsibility (as a family) to minimise your losses and exposure to them. If you claim hotel expenses for example, the argument would be that there is a nice travellodge at £57/night so that is what you will get not the £400/night Hotel you got unless you can prove the £400/night hotel was the only option available.

Section62

peterhjohnson said:

I'm sorry, I had no idea that lenders messed up completions so frequently that paying decent compensation in all cases would significantly impact the interests of other customers.

Apologies, my bad.  I didn't think you were seriously proposing a compensation system which treated one class of 'process error' complaint as deserving a unique and far more generous approach than other similar classes of complaint.

So if I'm buying a property for cash, and missed completion because the bank's systems went down and I couldn't transfer the money, would you class that as a "messed up completion", or would you only include the ones involving the mortgage?

If the answer is the former, then why are you singling out completion payments, and not including all the other kinds of payments where failure could cause stress?  Examples including rental deposits and payments - is it more 'stressful' to have a delayed completion on a new home compared to missing out on being able to rent one?

peterhjohnson said:

It's odd though that if a buyer messes up a completion, they're liable for at least the 10% deposit but I suppose they're "little people" so it doesn't matter

The 10% amount is payable as a result (in England) of negotiating a contract with the vendor.  There's no statutory requirement to pay 10% if you fail to complete.  Buyers are free to negotiate a different amount in the contract, even 0%, if the vendor is willing to agree. But good luck with that.

As a mortgage applicant you are free to ask the bank to enter into a contract under which they would be obliged to pay you 10% in all circumstances if they 'messed up' completion. But good luck with that.

The problem here is you seem to have missed a key point of the discussion. If the bank 'messed up' causing the buyer to forfeit the 10% deposit then that would be a "tangible loss", which has been explained as an amount the bank would be expected to compensate in full.

So those "little people" are looked after far better than you imagine.

peterhjohnson

Section62 said:

So if I'm buying a property for cash, and missed completion because the bank's systems went down and I couldn't transfer the money, would you class that as a "messed up completion", or would you only include the ones involving the mortgage?

Interesting question! Law on compensation has the concept of reasonably foreseeable loss.

When a bank's "mortgage department" decide late in the day not to send money to a solicitor they ought to foresee that it's probably for a completion payment and likely to have dire consequences. I would expect great care to be taken.

In contrast, if a cash buyer instructs his/her bank to send a specific sum of money from their bank account to a third party's bank account identified only by sort code and account number,  I would only expect the bank to take reasonable care. Of course, if the customer told the bank how important this payment was, it would be different. Wouldn't surprise me if banks offered a "guaranteed" transfer service for an extra fee.

Four_Oaks_Bookworm

Thanks for all the interesting comments above.  An update from me as the OP

• Bank has agreed to reimburse all known and receipted expenses (just over £3000, but itemised in £/p and line by line, so very easy decision for them)
• They've also offered £1000 for 'emotional distress', can't decide whether this is acceptable or not.  I understand the point given above by someone about exam revision and 'we knew what we were doing', but at the same time child #1 has an ASD, and whilst we'd planned to manage the move process carefully in terms of child's mental health, the aftermath of their mess-up and tearing up of those plans has been very difficult to manage.  Part of me also thinks that if I as a banking customer had 'made a mistake' to the tune of several thousand pounds, they'd be pretty quick in levying hefty charges in the other direction..?
• They have also only agreed to reimburse one week's rental (9 days between original completion day and the eventual key release), unless we can prove that our temporary landlord insisted on a minimum term of longer than that.
• Similarly they've also only agreed to pay initial storage fees up to 1 month, although now that we have keys it's proving very difficult to find a removal firm with availability before the month is up on 4 Sept: again I've provided proof in the way of 'sorry we're not available' emails from removal firms.

We're a long way further on than we were on 4th August, though, thanks for all your useful comments :-)