House repossessed - no arrears

[draknarz]

In 2005, HBOS gave me a mortgage on a house. The purchase price of the house was £80,000 and the mortgage was for £64,000,

In 2007, HBOS made a mistake with my bank account. This mistake caused the mortgage payments not to be paid. I sent a letter of complaint to HBOS concerning my bank account and the problems caused, they responded by closing down my bank account and not replying to my letter.

When I realised that the mortgage payments had not been made, I contacted HBOS to explain that it was their fault the mortgages had not been paid and also that I need to clear the arrears. I was told of an account number in which to make payment and was also told that once payment had been made, the eviction / repossession court proceedings will stop. I was also told that when I had made payment, I would need to contact them again so that half the payment can be transferred to the other mortgage account.

HBOS refused to transfer my payment. HBOS refused to listen / acknowledge this complaint. HBOS have been refusing to answer this complaint since 2007.

If I attempted to take HBOS to Court for my financial losses, I would be representing myself, if I were to lose the Court hearing, would I then have to pay £1000s in costs towards HBOS?

My financial loss in this repossession is around £25,000 - actually it is a lot more, but i know that I can not make a claim on a knock on effect basis.

Any help appreciated!

[Inca]

Re: House repossessed - no arrears

Good Morning......I'm sure someone will be able to help you,it's just a tad early yet

[seduraed]

Re: House repossessed - no arrears

our Start with a subject access request with a £10 fee which should get yoou all the records they hold on you. Hve you sent a letter labelled formal complant by signed for post ? Send it again in an unemotional and factual way outlining each action that has wronged you and what the bank needs to do to rectify. This is to lay a paper trail as you wind your way through the complaint department the FOs and the banking ombudsman so that when you come to court ou are seen as acting reasonably.

[enquirer]

Re: House repossessed - no arrears

Assuming that you have kept all the correspondence (and as suggested by seduraed, add to it by means of a SAR), your main problem will be that you have left it so long.

Get your ducks in a row and then seek professional advice.

[Sparkie1723]

Re: House repossessed - no arrears

Limitation Act.
12 year period for claims on mortgages

Sparkie

[draknarz]

Re: House repossessed - no arrears

our Start with a subject access request with a £10 fee which should get yoou all the records they hold on you. Hve you sent a letter labelled formal complant by signed for post ? Send it again in an unemotional and factual way outlining each action that has wronged you and what the bank needs to do to rectify. This is to lay a paper trail as you wind your way through the complaint department the FOs and the banking ombudsman so that when you come to court ou are seen as acting reasonably.

my paper trail? from 2005 until present time i have sent HBOS letters - all unanswered.

the only time a letter has been answered was in 2010. During 2010, a local branch manager took extreme care in trying to help me with various problems / concerns and complaints. the branch manager then found someone who could deal in my complaint and a 13 paged typed letter was faxed to the managers colleague so the complaint could be answered. the response from the bank about 2 months later was that they could not read this letter and could it be sent via fax again.

other times, at court hearings, letters given to judge, banks solicitor and on seldom occasion when member of law society is there to observe the case, a copy given to law society. i am always ignored....

i have many legal problems and always seem to be ignored. so, yes, i do have a paper train and can easily prove that i have tried extreme measures to get the bank to answer me..

i think that i would need to take teh bank to Court and make a claim for financial loss etc?

[MDfrance]

Re: House repossessed - no arrears

There is something really off here and it seems that there is some significant pieces of information missing and the following needs to be asked. Have you actually used the term formal complaint with HBOS through the customer service or complaints department? If so have they made a final response or directed you to contact the Financial Ombudsman? Have you contacted the Financial Ombudsman yourself? Has there been any personal financial issues apart from HBOS leading to a charge or charges being placed on the mortgage property? Have you had any legal issues in relation to your own financial activities outside HBOS?

I have to point out something that you must also consider. If you gave any misleading information or made a false declaration when applying for your mortgage for which they have proof then they are within their rights to foreclose regardless of any proper account conduct you may have. The same could be said if you have certain legal issues involving financial misconduct including potential criminal ones. If for instance you have been made bankrupt this will also give them reason to foreclose on the account even though under bankruptcy your primary residence has certain exclusions under the order.

Courts are hardly ever endeared to Joe Public representing themselves in court. They want to get it out the way as quickly as possible and move along to the next case and want to see clear defined presentations of events and evidence of failure to adhere to the law or breach of contract on either side. Unfortunately the judiciary are all too dismissive of self representation and have little patience for an individual not understanding procedure or the law and find it beneath their position to help or explain yet alone in their remit to give either side direction.

The SAR is for you to see what they actually have on record that relates to you and it is essential that you pursue this route and the reasons for their actions will quickly come to light. You really need to see what information they have on file, not just what you sent and received. You need all the information they have on their system, all paper and electronic records and internal and external communications relating to you and your accounts. You will then know what has actually been received by them and attached to your file/files. Any solicitor would do this as a matter of course but you will be paying a lot more for them to do this. The ICO website has the a page dedicated to issuing a Subject Access Request and the procedure that the organisation should follow. They also have a draft letter you can use and you will find it here.

http://www.ico.org.uk/for_the_public...al_information

The devil is going to be in the detail of how you presented your complaint and what has the Bank presented as the reasons for their actions. Everything you send to them needs to be by recorded delivery otherwise they could deny ever being in receipt. Likewise they will have to supply you with all the information they have, even then it depends on how many departments across the organisation that has information relating to you. Most of all in the SAR use the term "including but not exclusively" as it widens the scope of information type and sources. I would also specifically mention their Legal department, your Branch, The Mortgage Management Centre and infact you could use the term "all internal and external communications that refer to myself or my accounts"

You should also either continue to pay the mortgage or if they have close the account lodge the funds with your solicitor or in an account unique for that purpose. and request a stay of proceedings until all information has been gathered and properly assessed as you have reason to believe that pertinent information has been erroneously witheld that undermines their position and supports your case.

In any case I do sympathise with your extremely difficult and distressing situation and wish you luck and do keep us up to date. You never know a piece of information may crop up that may undermine their position completely and it will probably be of their own making.

[draknarz]

Re: House repossessed - no arrears

I did use the term: formal complaint. They failed to answer some of my concerns and complaints. HBOS told me to contact financial ombudsman if i was not satisfied with their complaint. I did not contact Financial Ombudsman because HBOS did not answer my complaint.

I did not give misleading information or false declaration on the mortgage. I was not bankrupt.

The reason it was repossessed is because I had 2 mortgage accounts both in arrears (arrears were banks fault). So, I quickly cleared the arrears and was told by HBOS that the payment would then be split into the other mortgage account. HBOS then refused to do this, so, one mortgage was around £3,000 in credit and the other around £3,000 in arrears. They failed to transfer money / split money as promised and advised! Then repossessed house.

[wales01man]

Re: House repossessed - no arrears

HBOS told me to contact financial ombudsman if I was not satisfied with THEIR complaint?
Was it theirs or your complaint?. If it was your complaint they didn't answer it? so why did you not contact the ombudsman.

[draknarz]

Re: House repossessed - no arrears

i need to have a final response from HBOS before I contact the Ombudsman. As HBOS have ignored most of my complaint then they haven't given me their final answer.

[PlanB]

Re: House repossessed - no arrears

i need to have a final response from HBOS before I contact the Ombudsman. As HBOS have ignored most of my complaint then they haven't given me their final answer.

You can take your complaint to the FOS after eight weeks have elapsed since you made it. You don't have to wait for a Final Response

[MDfrance]

Re: House repossessed - no arrears

As per PlanB and Wales01man go to the Ombudsman and the sooner the better.

The other question, have you sent a detailed SAR for all the information in their system and files relating to you and your accounts??. It is going to cost around £10 plus depending on who it is copy charges and recorded delivery charges. This is key to any defence against their actions and future redress on your part.

If they see you are going to dig and dig deep to get answers and they have made serious mistakes then they may reconsider. What they rely on is ignorance and inability to fight back. Believe me when people like this make mistakes it is usually down to an individual screwing up and then management get themselves into a position where they'd rather perpetuate the mistake than doing some back stepping to check then admit fault therefore undermining their own position.

These days simply being morally and factually in the right does not mean you can sit on points of principle because they don't care and it can be a very dangerous position to play. Time and time again I have come across multimillion, even billion pound organisations who simply do not know their own organisational procedures or that of the law or regulatory bodies and it is getting worse. Even executive directors are clueless of proper procedure and regulatory workings in their sector.

We can only advise you of options that we would take and I think you are getting to the stage where you will have to go to a solicitor especially if you wish to recover your costs and losses due to abject failure to follow procedure, lack of due diligence and potentially withholding information which undermines their position and case for their possession and sale arising from this. As a number of us have stated you will need all they have on file to prove this. A solicitor is the one who will see the failings in how they dealt with your complaint and their actions leading to the default and consequences thereafter. By what you have stated here you do have a case for redress but a litigation specialist solicitor is the best option of getting your money back and compensation.

You do have my sympathies in this matter as dealing with people who screw up then cover up really is a pet peeve of mine. Especially when on top of it all they follow a route that only causes harm and distress but has a detrimental effect on a persons pocket and long term credit viability.