Mortgage Provider Complaint - Any Advice?

[NikNak]

Over the last few months I have had major problems with my mortgage provider (it's a long story so I'll save you the details!) which resulted in me making a formal complaint. They have sent me a 'final response' upholding part of my complaint however they have, ironically in the circumstances, made a number of glaringly obvious mistakes relating to some of the parts they didn't uphold.

I sent a reply pointing out these errors a month ago and still haven't had a reply, so I contacted them today and I've basically been told that as they've sent me a final response, they are not obliged to reply to me within a certain length of time so I could wait god knows how long for it.

They have said that as I'm not happy with their response I can refer it to the Financial Services Ombudsman, but I'm not sure if I should do this now or not? I was offered some compensation although I haven't accepted anything yet due to the number and severity of errors in their reply, however if I was to refer my complaint to the ombudsman I'm worried I'll get nothing as I'm not sure how it works. Grateful for any advice anyone can offer!

Thank you

[disney332]

The ombudsman's job is to independently investigate your complaint and based upon the facts and any evidence they obtain, make a decision to either uphold your complaint and get the advisor to compensate you for any losses plus any costs and a potential reasonable inconvenience payment or decide that your advisor has acted in accordance with the rules of his profession and decline your claim

Disney332

[janeywaney]

I would escalate it to FOS as soon as possible to be honest. You have 6 months after the final response to do so and it can take FOS 6 months to actually fully investigate ( I know this as I work for a bank and this is something that I deal with on a day to day basis) The bank is actually charged £500 for a FOS complaint to be raised in the first place, so dealing with complaints is a priority and resolving issues so that FOS don't have to be involved.

If you have complained to your mortgage company and they have not addressed all of your concerns and fully investigated your complaint you are well within your rights to go to FOS.


Good luck with whichever way you go with it.

Jane

[Alllovedisney]

I’m sorry to hear you’ve been having problems.

Your mortgage provider seems to be ducking out using a technicality; they have provided their final response (assuming it was just that-did it have your FOS rights set out in it?) and therefore they are perfectly correct, they do not have a time scale set down in regulation to deal with “reopen” cases. Terrible complaint handling, in my expert opinion, but some firms just don’t have the desire or resource to do any better.

If you have been given your FOS rights I would suggest exercising them. The FOS will alert the provider to your contact with them which may prompt them to respond further to you and address all of your points (addressing all of your points is a requirement laid down in regulation).

I have never heard of the FOS excluding a complaint on the basis an offer has been accepted. Quite simply, this would not happen.

Companies now have decisions made by Onbudsmen published. As the FCA look carefully at how firms deal with complaints, many firms don’t want their complaints to go in front of an Ombudman (this is the last stage in the FOS process, the first two being Investigator and Adjudictaion) so will look to see what they can do to resolve the complaint before that stage so any wider criticism is avoided (not to mention the risk of them being put under the microscope if their complaint handling is continually failing).

Also as a previous poster said, the firm are charged for each complaint (after the first 25 per year) - it’s actually £550 not £500 but the reality is that even 1000 complaints referred to the service each year amounts to a drop in the ocean to many of these companies. It’s the bad publicity and the risk of wider implications that bother most large companies.

The firms should want to do the right thing first time once a complaint has been brought to their attention. Sadly for you, this doesn’t seem to be the case.

I would focus on setting out succinctly to FOS your points of complaint and make clear the ones that have been addressed. Highlight those that have not been fully addressed and also highlight the mistakes they made (correcting them too will help).

Let the FOS know what you would like; is it just an apology on top of what they have offered and the incorrect info being put right on their system (eg if it was a case of the having your redemption date incorrect or term of your mortgage).

Remember the FOS do this day in and day our so have levels of trouble and upset (compensation) that they will suggest is fair. That may or may not be in the region already offered to you. They also have strict guidelines on how interest should be calculated. You don’t need to know these things for bringing your complaint to them, just worth noting for when it gets to findings/adjudication/ombudsman decision.

It should not be arduous to raise the FOS complaint but as I said, give as much clear information as you can at the start and this will help. (I should add, the FOS won’t think kindly of the form not noting their errors within their response particularly if they are substantive to the complaint itself, they will also not like the firm keeping you waiting - it is not unheard (in fact quite common) for the FOS to award further t&u for poor complaint handling).

Hope that has helped.

[NikNak]

Thank you so much for all the advice. I have now referred my complaint to the Ombudsman so hopefully this will help to resolve matters!