Was this legal and where can I get advice and help

Anon1234567

Back in the recession we lost our home.

To cut a long story short insurance wouldn't pay, bank terrorised us to the point we fled as they told us we would be arrested, and kids would end up in care.

Yes I know it sounds crazy and arrears were about 4k. We were paying every penny we could but it was not enough. My MH had deteriorated so bad at the time I believed them. We were waiting for months for an appointment with MABS too

They sold the house the following year. Since I have repaid them any shortfall.

We have recently been told that the whole thing stinks and we should look into it. We should check out the following areas.

Court order
There was never a court case,. I rang the courts and no there was no court hearing.

Pre 2009 purchase and pre 11 law change
I have been told about law change in 2011 and something relating to pre 2009 house purchases. House purchased on 05 and they made us leave in 09

Tracker Mortgage
The paperwork states we had atracker mortgage and I have been told I should get that looked into, seemingly the bank are part of the scandal.

Insurance refusing to pay out.
I have been told that I should be able to get a refund for all of the payments

Does anyone have any idea if what was done was lawful, I can't afford to pay a solicitor to investigate.

Would financial ombudsman be a good place to start

Homer

Im not sure where the insurance angle would be? You couldn't pay your mortgage so insurance should pay up or something? Unless you had some medical/loss of work insurance?

Lenar3556

Anon1234567 wrote: »

Back in the recession we lost our home.
To cut a long story short insurance wouldn't pay, bank terrorised us to the point we fled as they told us we would be arrested, and kids would end up in care.

Why would insurance pay? When you say you lost your home, did you surrender it to the bank?

Anon1234567 wrote: »

Yes I know it sounds crazy and arrears were about 4k. We were paying every penny we could but it was not enough. My MH had deteriorated so bad at the time I believed them. We were waiting for months for an appointment with MABS too

They sold the house the following year. Since I have repaid them any shortfall.

It doesn’t sound crazy, and there were many situations like this during the recession. Arrears of 4k isn’t huge in the context of surrendering your home. Did you consider other options? Where did you live after you moved out?

Anon1234567 wrote: »

We have recently been told that the whole thing stinks and we should look into it. We should check out the following areas.

Court order
There was never a court case,. I rang the courts and no there was no court hearing.

Pre 2009 purchase and pre 11 law change
I have been told about law change in 2011 and something relating to pre 2009 house purchases. House purchased on 05 and they made us leave in 09

Tracker Mortgage
The paperwork states we had atracker mortgage and I have been told I should get that looked into, seemingly the bank are part of the scandal.

Insurance refusing to pay out.
I have been told that I should be able to get a refund for all of the payments

Does anyone have any idea if what was done was lawful, I can't afford to pay a solicitor to investigate.

Would financial ombudsman be a good place to start

The only thing you have alleged which could be in any way actionable is that you were coerced into surrendering your home, with threats from a bank that your children were to be taken into care. It’s an incredible suggestion - but if you have firm evidence of this the bank may well have a case to answer.

Court Order - there wouldn’t be one if you surrendered the house.

Tracker Mortgage - Unlikely to be particularly relevant, unless you could demonstrate it was a factor in why the bank were threatening to have your children taken into care etc......

Insurance - can’t see where an insurance policy arises, unless you had some form of income protection and the criteria was met. But it’s a separate matter entirely.

Be careful who you take advise from. Some will mislead you.

Nothing wrong with referring the matter to the financial regulator - but you would want to have clearly established facts. And no waffle. MABS and or FLAC might be a better to discuss with in the first instance.

antoinolachtnai

Going to the financial ombudsman has risks and downsides. If you bring the dispute to the financial ombudsman (who is really an arbitrator, funded by banks) you basically give up the right to go to court later.

A long time has elapsed. You really need to get professional advice on this to determine whether to pursue it further.

petes

Who is the person telling you all this?

joebloggs32

If you had a tracker, and subsequently had it withdrawn you have a case.
In my situation we moved from tracker to fixed for a year around 2008 but when the year was over they would not offer the tracker again as an option.
Around 2012 we were refunded 3k for this and returned to a tracker rate, but two years ago we were refunded a further 6.5k.

If something similar happened to you, then you may have a very strong case.
If you were denied a tracker that you were entitled to then this may have been the cause of you falling 4k into arrears. You could reasonably argue that negligence by the bank resulted in deteriorating mental health caused by unnecessary financial strain, and ultimately the surrender of your home.

Anon1234567

Homer wrote: »

Im not sure where the insurance angle would be? You couldn't pay your mortgage so insurance should pay up or something? Unless you had some medical/loss of work insurance?

We had Payment protection insurance.

Anon1234567

Lenar3556 wrote: »

Why would insurance pay? When you say you lost your home, did you surrender it to the bank?

We had Payment Protection Insurance. It refused to accept a claim and said it would only pay if both had lost their jobs. I was on maternity leave at the time. I ended up going back to work early

Lenar3556 wrote: »

doesn’t sound crazy, and there were many situations like this during the recession. Arrears of 4k isn’t huge in the context of surrendering your home. Did you consider other options? Where did you live after you moved out?

We put the house on the market ourselves but it didn't sell, the bank were not happy and were unwilling to wait. Initially we stayed with family and then went abroad for a while. We were waiting and waiting for MABS, citizen advice legal, they were so snowed under the waiting times for appointments was horrendus. As we were trying to pay as much off the loan we couldn't afford a solicitor. I begged the council to buy it but they wouldn't.

Lenar3556 wrote: »

The only thing you have alleged which could be in any way actionable is that you were coerced into surrendering your home, with threats from a bank that your children were to be taken into care. It’s an incredible suggestion - but if you have firm evidence of this the bank may well have a case to answer.

I have people who were with me when I got that phone call, it was at work. They accused us of changing numbers so they couldn't ring us. Truth is we didn't have functioning phones as we didn't have enough to pay for them. They used to ring the switch at work to get transferred.

Lenar3556 wrote: »

Court Order - there wouldn’t be one if you surrendered the house. That's the thing, we didn't want to surrender it.

We believed we had no choice and if we didn't go when we did we would have been arrested. If I was arrested I would have lost my job too,

[/QUOTE=Lenar3556;115326640] Tracker Mortgage - Unlikely to be particularly relevant, unless you could demonstrate it was a factor in why the bank were threatening to have your children taken into care etc [/QUOTE]

Tracker I think was taken off when my husband was added to the mortgage.

Lenar3556 wrote: »

Insurance - can’t see where an insurance policy arises, unless you had some form of income protection and the criteria was met. But it’s a separate matter entirely.

It was a ppi supposed to cover in event of job loss. It was sold by the bank at the point of taking the mortgage

Lenar3556 wrote: »

Nothing wrong with referring the matter to the financial regulator - but you would want to have clearly established facts. And no waffle. MABS and or FLAC might be a better to discuss with in the first instance.

Thanks i will try and get advice from them

Anon1234567

joebloggs32 wrote: »

If you had a tracker, and subsequently had it withdrawn you have a case.
In my situation we moved from tracker to fixed for a year around 2008 but when the year was over they would not offer the tracker again as an option.
Around 2012 we were refunded 3k for this and returned to a tracker rate, but two years ago we were refunded a further 6.5k.

If something similar happened to you, then you may have a very strong case.
If you were denied a tracker that you were entitled to then this may have been the cause of you falling 4k into arrears. You could reasonably argue that negligence by the bank resulted in deteriorating mental health caused by unnecessary financial strain, and ultimately the surrender of your home.

Yes it looks like it was removed when husband was added to mortgage

Anon1234567

petes wrote: »

Who is the person telling you all this?

I had someone look at the paperwork as they were trying to tell me I still owed money on the shortfall but I knew I had it cleared in full.

saabsaab

You should talk to a Solicitor on a no win no fee basis. Have you evidence to back up your claims you will need it. Dates records witnesses etc.

Anon1234567

saabsaab wrote: »

You should talk to a Solicitor on a no win no fee basis. Have you evidence to back up your claims you will need it. Dates records witnesses etc.

Do they deal with this kind of thing. I thought they only deal with accidents.

Yes I have dates. I was in such a state the day they said I would be arrested and have my kids removed, I was sent home from work. I had to go to doctor. There are at least 2 witnesses to that call.

My sister took my husband to give them the keys. We were so scared they would come to hers and take their cars etc to cover costs. That was another threat.

It's not something you tend to forget easily

saabsaab

I don't know but you could try one of the personal injury solicitors first to see if they are interested can advise or can point you in the right direction.

peteb2

Anon1234567 wrote:

Yes it looks like it was removed when husband was added to mortgage

Hang on a second. This is new information to the whole thing. So he wasn't on the mortgage from the start?

So the PPI would only have been taken out for you then at the outset? Not your husband.

His general adding to the mortgage changes the handling of the matter a little.

Anon1234567

peteb2 wrote: »

Hang on a second. This is new information to the whole thing. So he wasn't on the mortgage from the start?

So the PPI would only have been taken out for you then at the outset? Not your husband.

His general adding to the mortgage changes the handling of the matter a little.

It was a new build property so it was stage payments. The property was put into my name initially and the ppi and life insurance etc was in my sole name.

There was a massive delay in the build, I'm talking 12 month delay and the final payment was just before we got married, (8 weeks)

When I dropped cert into them to change surname, they pushed for husband to go on it so we did, PPI, life Insurance and mortgage, it was all the one package

nuac

Mod
Did you or your husband consult a solicitor at any stage here?

nuac

Mod
Did you or your husband consult a solicitor at an stage about this transaction e. g before signing the contract to purchase, or before adding your husband to the title, or before putting the house on the market, or when bank sought possession, or when tracker mortgage wlthdrawn?.