how do i make a complaint to Financial Ombudsman Service

happyman70

I had a mortgage with Kensington mortgages, but two months ago it was sold to engage credit who have a 66% negative rating on trust pilot and have the worst reviews i have ever seen.

When our mortgage was transfered to engage credit they lost £700 that was paid to kensington mortgages. It took them three weeks to find it. I was told in april that i was in arreares by £480 and they were charging me £250 admin fee for letting me know. They said the arrears would accumulate interest chargers and so would the admin fee. i told them i was not in arrears and wanted them to show me proof i was. They said they had received a note from kensingtons to say i was in arrears and they need to need to show me proof.

I demanded to receive proof i was in arrears and asked to speak to a manager on two seperate occasions. They refused. I told them to contact kensingtons and provide me the proof which they refused. They said it was down to me to show i was not in arrears. I contacted kensingtons who said i was not in arrears and i was actually in credit on my mortgage. I asked them to contact engage credit to sort it out and they said it was not down to them as i was not there customer.

Kensingtons also said to me that they were shocked that engage credit were charging me £250 to let me know i was in arrears. They said when they sold my mortgage i had six months to complain to the financial ombusman to compain.

I begged them to contact engage credit to sort the mess out as it was causing me stress but they showed no interest. they told me to complain to engage credit which i have said i have done this four times and they have ignored my emails to complain. I wrote a negative review about them and they replied claiming they have tried to call me which they have not.

I have put in an official complaint and they have not replied to any of them and looking at their reviews, people have said they have made official complaints and still waiting 12 months to get a reply.

Kensingtons said for me to make a complaint to the financial ombusman but i do not know how to do this

Also, my mortgage was supposed to come out on the 27th april, this did not happen and they did not take it until the 3rd may which is very strange. being with engage credit it putting me through hell.

Can anyone please advise me on how to sort this mess out. I am at the present going through a broker to see about getting my mortgage moved, but at the moment they are adding interest all the time to arrears that are not real. what can i do

[Deleted User]

The company has 8 weeks to respond to your complaint or issue a deadlock letter.

Once that time has passed, you can go to FOS.

https://www.financial-ombudsman.org.uk/contact-us

K_S

@happyman70 I'm sorry to hear about all the trouble you've been having. Engage is well known in the industry for piling on with fees (often unfairly) and refusing to engage properly with borrowers.

This is probably not something you want to hear but from the point of view that you're trying to move away from Engage, I would recommend considering paying off (under protest) the incorrect arrears while you are progressing your complaint in the background. If you have indeed been treated unfairly, that should come out in the FOS complaint resolution process, but it can take as long as 2 years.

The reason I say this, is that you may struggle to remortgage away as long as your current mortgage account is showing you as being in arrears even if it's incorrect. If you do do this, make sure you mention the reason for paying off the incorrect arrears to Engage and when you escalate the complaint to the FOS.

happyman70

K_S said:

@happyman70 I'm sorry to hear about all the trouble you've been having. Engage is well known in the industry for piling on with fees (often unfairly) and refusing to engage properly with borrowers.

This is probably not something you want to hear but from the point of view that you're trying to move away from Engage, I would recommend considering paying off (under protest) the incorrect arrears while you are progressing your complaint in the background. If you have indeed been treated unfairly, that should come out in the FOS complaint resolution process, but it can take as long as 2 years.

The reason I say this, is that you may struggle to remortgage away as long as your current mortgage account is showing you as being in arrears even if it's incorrect. If you do do this, make sure you mention the reason for paying off the incorrect arrears to Engage and when you escalate the complaint to the FOS.

Thank you. They are not showing any proof that i am in arrears and my last mortgage company has sent me a statement to show i was not in arrears and was in credit. I do not know why with so many complaints about this company why martin lewis or the media has picked up on them and done a show about them. Or why their licence has not been withdrawn.

ACG

What is it showing as on your credit report? 

happyman70

After i threatened to go to the newspapers, my new mortgage compay all of a sudden have admitted they have made a mistake and i am not in arrears and they will now remove the £250 charge. But how do i make sure they have really done this and what do i do if they have put this on my credit file, and how do i know if i have incurred interest because of their error.

We have a meeting with a mortgage advisor next week, so hopefully they can get us moved to a decet mortgage company