Problems after voluntarily surrendering home.

dataglosq

After multiple trips to court over the last few years, my partner and I reached an agreement with our lender to vacate our home on the agreement (in the courts) that once the house was sold the residual balance would be written off.

Last June the house was sold and I presumed the residual balance would be written off soon after. Since June, each month, I have received a new arrears letter saying I had missed my first payment, second payment etc etc and the amount of this new arrears was roughly half what my mortgage payment was.

At first, I contacted my lender and their representative said that this was an automatic mail and not something I needed to take notice of, and "it would be resolved very shortly". They kept coming and again I contacted them in November and my representative said 'he could send a letter to the ICB' to 'backdate the closure' and that I was not in arrears on payments.

Last week I received another arrears letter saying I'd missed another payment. I have just got off the phone with the same representative and he's assured me that these are automatic mails. He has asked me would I like to make a formal complaint, and I agreed. But he has said that he does not know why, or when the issue will be resolved.

I'm really unsure as to what my rights or options are here. My experience with free legal aid workshops has been hit and miss over the years. I have learned I can contact the Financial Services Ombudsman, but the waiting lists are over year. I just really want to move on and begin the 5 year process of rebuilding my credit rating, and each month I receive a new arrears letter I'm back to square one.

Any advice would be greatly appreciated. Thanks.

ohnonotgmail

you cant complain to the Financial Services Ombudsman until you have exhausted the banks own complaint process. So make a formal complaint and take it from there.

Fred Swanson

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dataglosq

Thanks - They have lodged the complaint and said I should (any day now) receive their acknowledgment of the complaint within 5 days.

This will just be an acknowledgment and will state that they will have a more definitive response within 20 days after that. Fingers crossed it gets resolved and I can finally move on.

Mr. Incognito

I'd make a complaint to the Ombudsman and you might think about mentioning this to the Bank


http://www.citizensinformation.ie/en/money_and_tax/personal_finance/debt/debt_collection.html#l724df

Harassment and intimidation

All debt collectors, including private individuals and debt collection agencies, are covered by Section 11 of the Non-Fatal Offences against the Person Act 1997. This provides that a person is guilty of an offence if he/she makes any demand for payment of a debt and if:

The demands are so frequent as to be calculated to subject you or a member of your family to alarm, distress or humiliation, or
The person falsely represents that criminal proceedings lie for non-payment of the debt, or
The person falsely represents that he or she is authorised in some official capacity to enforce payment, or
The person utters a document falsely represented to have an official character

If you are subjected to such behaviour by your creditor or by a debt collection agency, you should report the matter to the Garda Síochána. Anyone found guilty of offences under the Act is subject to large fines and up to 14 years in prison.

ohnonotgmail

Mr. Incognito wrote: »

I'd make a complaint to the Ombudsman and you might think about mentioning this to the Bank


http://www.citizensinformation.ie/en/money_and_tax/personal_finance/debt/debt_collection.html#l724df

the ombudsman wont deal with your complaint until you have exhausted the banks own complaints process.

antoinolachtnai

Hopefully you can resolve it with the bank.

The financial Ombudsman is not a consumer advocate like the government ombudsman. It is really a binding arbitration service. It has some significant drawbacks as a process.

It is not necessarily in a borrower’s interest to go to the Ombudsman. It often is but not always. Going to the Ombudsman cuts off other options.

Another option is to go back to Court.

I would suggest you get advice from one of the advocacy groups who help people with bank debt before you take definitive action.

dataglosq

antoinolachtnai wrote: »

Hopefully you can resolve it with the bank.

The financial Ombudsman is not a consumer advocate like the government ombudsman. It is really a binding arbitration service. It has some significant drawbacks as a process.

It is not necessarily in a borrower’s interest to go to the Ombudsman. It often is but not always. Going to the Ombudsman cuts off other options.

Another option is to go back to Court.

I would suggest you get advice from one of the advocacy groups who help people with bank debt before you take definitive action.

Thanks so much. This backs up my thoughts that moving onto the Ombudsman, while an option, may not be the best solution for my case just yet. Particularly if I've to wait over a year to find out that it wasn't the right option, in hindsight.

I just really hope there's are no shenanigans and I can resolve the case with the bank themselves as opposed to having to involve a third party or even go back to the courts again.

Fred Swanson

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dataglosq

Fred Swanson wrote: »

This post has been deleted.

Thanks. How do you go about obtaining your case files from the courts?

blueythebear

Unless the court order included that the surrender of the security was in full and final settlement there's no point in going to court. I would be surprised if the proceedings weren't simply struck out with no order.

Formal complaint to the bank is the way to go followed by fso complaint. The complaint would be more to do with icb rating not being changed.