Can you sue a bank for emotional damage?

troubled_2

Can you sue a bank for emotional damage?Hi, as you can see im new. this may sound like a stupid question but it is a very genuine one.

Let me tell you a story which now keeps me up all night and has me in tears half of the time.

I am a Halifax customer. My partners mother passed away in April and we decided to buy her property so that it could stay in the family. I called the halifax to get a mortgage promise and they were quite happy (and so was I) and they asked if I would like to progress with the applications which i did. During this aplication I explained to the lady on the phone that Although the property was 300 miles from where I lived, that I would be staying here, living with a friend and working while my family would be living in the new property. I would apply for jobs in the area and move into the property permanently once i had a new job there.

The lady on the phone was happy with this, made her notes and said shed be calling back for the valuation fee in 2 days time.THIS WAS ON THE 23RD OF MAY

A week later she called me to ask if i was getting a new job. I repeated the explanation above to her which she said shed pass it on to the business assessor and would call me back the day after.

After a week with no news (or the promised call back) I called the Halifax only to be told that the application had been frozen because they were not happy with me moving without a new job.

I went to my local branch to speak to a mortgage adviser and to clarify the situation. the mortgage adviser said shed look into it and made an appointment for the following Tuesday. when I showed up for the appointment I was told shed resigned!! Now warning nothing. so I waited another week for another mortgage adviser.

You can imagine how much stress i was going through but this was just the beginning!

The new mortgage adviser told me the best way round this was to make a fresh application which we did. Everything went through smoothly and she called (in front of me) one of the business assessors who said they would be happy to accept the fact that I would continue with my current job until I found a new one in the new area and that my family would be moving into the new property. She said all i needed to do was to provide a piece of income proof that was missing!

I had to request this paperwork which would take two weeks to arrive. In the meantime everytime I tried to contact my mortgage adviser she wouldnt speak to me or if she did, it was just to reassure me that everything was fine and that all i needed to do was to get this paperwork in order to finalise the mortgage offer.
Note that by this time I had already paid her for the valuation, which she asked me to do, assuring me that there would be no further problems. also the house had been valued and all other requirements fulfilled.

On monday the paperwork finally arrived, which i promptly took to the branch and that she assured me she would fax straight away.

This morning I called her to see what was going on after three days of waiting, Again no reply so left a message on her answerphone. In frustration I finally called the main office only to be told shed faxed the paperwork today.

I demanded to speak to the business assessor of my case so that I could get a final decison. I was told that my message would be passed on to him and that hed call back. After waiting for five hours I called the office again and this time I was told not only did the business assessors not speak to customers but also that they had declined my application on the grounds that they were not happy with me not having a new job in the new property's area.

Now you can imagine my distress!! Its now the 7th of july, more than a month after my initial application and I am literraly a nervous wreck! I have had to take time off work as this was proving to be way too much for me.

I feel that Ive been mislead and lied to. That they have shown no respect, taken my money and made me waste precious time which means I am now more than likely to lose the property.

Im sorry to go on for so long but you must imagine how im feeling. Surely I have a case.
P.S: hope you dont think im crazy just really frustrated. What do you think I should do?

richoneday

My advice is to head straight for the top. I had a problem with the NatWest a few years ago - I won't bore you with details but suffice to say it got to the point where they were getting their legal department on me. It was very completely unjustified and due to an error on their part. I wrote direct to the CEO - make sure you get the name. Within a week I had an apology, a bouquet of flowers, box of chocolates and an assurance that my credit rating would not be affected. Most large organisations have to deal with complaints that are personally addressed to the CEO/Chief Exec/top person - it means you get a totally different response than if you complain to the customer services department.
Go for it - and good luck

mountainofdebt

I don't know if you can sue but I sure as hell would complain to Head Office, as richoneday has already suggested.

This is no way a criticism, but I think you made the mistake of telling about your plans. If you still want to proceed I would suggest you just tell them you want to borrow x for y property worth £z.

dunstonh

Although you have been treated poorly, it should be noted that a mortgage promise is not really a real promise but a marketing gimmick and it really means that subject to application, based on minimal information, they will lend you the money. The application has highlighted areas of concern and they have declined it on that basis.

I agree that you were perhaps guilty of giving them too much information. A mortgage application is a snapshot of now, not what might be in 12 months time.

However, that does not excuse their inefficiency. I recommend a trip to a local mortgage broker, tell them everything and leave it with them to place the mortgage. They will know who to use and get your mortgage settled quickly and with a lot less hassle compared with what you have gone through.

I used to work at a bank and left when they started giving out, what were once jobs that needed qualifications and experience, to those with none. Some of the rubbish and misinformation spouted by those (usually very nice) people was amazing. The final straw for me, was when i was asked to train a 19 year girl to be a financial advisor for 6 months on her career path to management. You dont learn anything in 6 months and i recall it took a good 2 years for most of the basic information to settle in place. The banks now have a very poor standard of training and knowledge with their front line staff and this just highlights it.

troubled_2

Thanks everyone for all the support and information.

Also I couldnt agree more. Everytime I spoke to someone on the phone they gave me different information and one of them even admitted to be looking at the wrong screen.

The reason I had to give the information was because I was asked for it unfortunately. I am living in norfolk and the property Im buying is in County Durham you see.... So I had to justify it although the way I see it if I was trying to get a mortgage without a job (which the halifax blatently acused me of doing by saying they thought I might move up there before getting a new job) that would mean that I would lose the house within months, so what is the logic behind it??? Obviously I would not leave me current job without having a new one.

The person I spoke to on the phone on the friday said they were going to send an email to the branch manager. Yesterday morning I got a message from her on my mobile saying that my mortgage adviser had gone on holiday for two weeks!!! This after Id left a message on her mobile on thursday asking her to please call me back and update me on the progress of my application which she never did!!

I am now in the process of getting some help from a broker but I m afraid all this carry on with the halifax might have seriously ruined my chances now.

margaret_3

Sorry about your problems! You should go with someone else. The Halifax don't deserve your custom after mucking you about like that. Good luck.
Margaret

troubled_2

Thanks margaret. I just dont quite know how to go about it now.
To be honest Im very tired of the whole thing and having to explain it all over again to the manager seems like a waste of energy.

Nevertheless its not right. Its like nowadays customers are treated like children ,theres no respect and certainly not what I would call Customer SERVICE. Like duhnston said the people who are dealing with such important decisions in your life have had no training and couldnt care less whether or not they were wasting your time.

So it seems like Im gonna have to go through it althpough I expect no satisfaction out of it.

margaret_3

troubled wrote:

Thanks margaret. I just dont quite know how to go about it now.
To be honest Im very tired of the whole thing and having to explain it all over again to the manager seems like a waste of energy.

Nevertheless its not right. Its like nowadays customers are treated like children ,theres no respect and certainly not what I would call Customer SERVICE. Like duhnston said the people who are dealing with such important decisions in your life have had no training and couldnt care less whether or not they were wasting your time.

So it seems like Im gonna have to go through it althpough I expect no satisfaction out of it.

If I were you, I would pm Dunston as he is most helpful and he is doing something for me at present.
Another person is Walrus Rush. He owns an estate agency and is a qualified architect to boot! He is also very helpful when it comes to buying and selling houses and will give you good advice..
Margaret

troubled_2

I would really appreciate any help I could get. How can I get in touch with them as I cant find their names on the members list.

Many thanks

Ruth

margaret_3

troubled wrote:

I would really appreciate any help I could get. How can I get in touch with them as I cant find their names on the members list.

Many thanks

Ruth

Click on Duhnston's name here and you can go to another thread 'Estate agent or do your own viewings' and you can click on Rush Walrus's name.

lush_walrus

margaret wrote:

If I were you, I would pm Dunston as he is most helpful and he is doing something for me at present.
Another person is Walrus Rush. He owns an estate agency and is a qualified architect to boot! He is also very helpful when it comes to buying and selling houses and will give you good advice..
Margaret

Hi Troubled,

Tis me, thanks Margaret for the kind words. God your story does sound a harrowing one and Im trying to find a way to remotely help you.

Firstly, I would really recommend finding a good (and truely independant) financial/mortgage advisor, its a little bit more hassle as you will need to have appointments with them and go through products, but I think it will pay.

A good one will be able to advise you of all available products, and sometimes they have access to products which arent available via the banks who beleive it or not actually offer them, but release certain mortgages to brokers only in a bid to gain their loyalty.

Mad I know, but it truely exists as Im sure many of the mortgage advisors on this board will be able to verify. But please do make sure that they are independant as you need to be able to get access to all mortgages available to find the ones which are more leanient, a lot although titled 'independant' do infact have loyalties to a few select banks. To test them out just simply ask them the question of which banks they deal with, any hesitation or if they produce a small list will sort that out, and you can throw in some testers such as do you deal with Egg, or pick any lender you can think of that doesnt include a big known bank. Another thing to avoid are mortgage advisors which are part of the large chain estate agencies, or at least proceed with caution, as these are quite often affiliated. I know you arent near London, but I have a very helpful advisor who I could put you in touch with just outside London if you do need a bit of advice over the phone, just PM me if it helps. Bar that there are quite a few friendly advisors floating around the site.

Ok, so once you have found an advisor tell them the whole of your circumstances and they will be able to advise what information to provide in order to tick the boxes. As this is all the process really is, if the bank can't tick the boxes, then they will look into your case much more carefully. If the boxes are ticked then the process is simplified hugely. I'm not advocating lying here, but just releasing information bit by bit in order for them to not question.

Generally, the trend seems to be that the top 5 lenders are the toughest, purely because they have enough business that walks through the door to worry about more complicated cases.

Stay confident, and don't take all of this on as stress, the thing you have to keep thinking is that it will work out, you will get a mortgage from somewhere its just going to be a bit of hassle getting there, But do not let yourself take this hassle on as stress.

Ultimately, you may not get a brilliant deal initially, as your situation may be viewed as complex, but do not let this worry you either. Take the deal, even if it isnt brilliant, with a view to changing ASAP once you have relocated in the area of the house. Just make sure that you dont have a huge redemtion cost if you do end up on that route.

Keep this thread going as you progress through and those who can help, I am sure will flock over.

Best of luck if you think I can help further then please do PM me.

Ooops forgot to tell you that it is perfectly acceptable for this new house to be presented to the bank as being a second property, that you will use at the weekend. Don't mention to them that you may be changing jobs to move up there as this is their point of concern. Tell them all the facts bar that little piece of information, yes you will be moving up there, and yes you will find another job up there in time, but they don't really need to know that. All they need to know at present is that you have a job, you have somewhere to live where your job is and you want to buy your family home, which you will use at weekends.