HBOS repossessed house - No arrears

[veganite]

Hello,

In 2008, HBOS repossessed a house. This happened because:

 

1. HBOS did not follow my instructions to make direct debit adjustments to my personal bank account and neither did they update my address (to a property not mortgaged by themselves).

2. Mortgage monthly payments were not made in respect of two houses.

3. Because of the failing in #1 above, I did not receive any communication that there was a problem. I only found out about the problem after a tenant called me saying that she had received a 'Notice of Eviction' from the court.

 

I contacted the bank by way of letter complaining that due to their inability to make changes to the bank account which I requested in #1 above, I now had mortgage arrears.

 

The banks response to my letter was to immediately close down my personal account without giving me any notice as to their intentions. This left me without a personal bank account. Their other response to my complaint relating to the causation of the mortgage arrears was to totally ignore my complaint and not provide me with any answers.

 

As soon as I discovered from the tenant that she had a Notice Of Eviction, I phoned HBOS to ascertain why this had happened. As soon as I understood that HBOS had failed to act upon my instructions for my bank account (direct debits, update address), I then asked HBOS whether the eviction and repossession would be stopped if i cleared the arrears. HBOS reply to this was YES.

I also asked whether I could simply make one lump payment to HBOS and they would split it between the both account. HBOS reply to this was YES.

 

The total amount of arrears between the 2 houses amounted to approx £4,000.00

 

I paid £5,000.00 in order to clear the arrears and:

a) Pay off extra capital on the loans, or alternatively:

b) To make an overpayment just incase my direct debit for the following month was not actioned within time.

 

Essentially, between the 2 HBOS mortgage accounts, whilst there had been arrears (through no fault of my own) I had cleared the arrears and put the account into credit.

 

After paying this amount to HBOS and upon checking everything was in order, I was informed that HBOS could not split the payment = contrary to what I was told by HBOS earlier.

 

HBOS told me that unless I was in a position to clear the total arrears on the second property that repossession would go ahead. I again explained to HBOS the fact that I had an arrangement with them and that I was told the payment would be split to which HBOS replied that it is impossible to split payments and that repossession would go ahead unless I was in a position to clear the total arrears before said repossession date.

 

Having already paid out £5,000.00, I was not in a financial position to immediately find the £2,000.00 they were demanding from me, as they were in my opinion refusing to budge or help me in any way (to adhere to the information I was first told that payments would be split) then I decided to go to court and let a Judge decide.

 

AT COURT:

I arrive early with my paperwork in order. My paperwork included much of what I described as above as a letter to the Judge and the banks solicitor. In addition to what I described as above, my paperwork included a receipt for the £5,000.00 payment in addition to mortgage statements which clearly showed that between the 2 mortgage accounts I was now essentially in credit - therefore, no arrears.

 

Unfortunately, the banks solicitor was over 2 hours late. Because the solicitor was 2 hours late I had to return to my car to buy another parking ticket. Unfortunately, because I was highly stressed in the fact that a tenant could lose their home through no fault of their own, I left my paperwork / proof in the car!!!

 

Upon returning to Court, I was told that the Judge was waiting for me!!!!! Waiting for me for a full 5 minutes, whilst waiting for the banks solicitor for 2 hours...

 

Within court, the Judge ruled that the repossession and eviction go ahead (that day) because there was no proof of what the bank had said and also no proof that I had paid £5,000.00

 

I asked whether I could be allowed 5 minutes in order for me to get my paperwork and was told this would not be allowed.

 

 

Incidentally, the banks solicitor spoke with me for about 2 minutes before court and within court proceeded to say a lot of things that were completely untrue, - for example, I was experiencing struggle in payments (this could have been easily disproved with my paperwork as I was not struggling at all).

 

 

Complaint to bank resulted in me being ignored.

 

I then had a meeting with a bank manager and she was surprised that my account had been closed down - she could not tell me who or why it had been closed down but she did recognise my serious complaint. She said that she would have one of her colleagues deal with this. Needless to say I was ignored after this.

 

Further letters of complaint were ignored.

 

Approx 3 years ago, as the bank had failed in their duty to provide me with a subject access request as well as failing to answer my complaints, I managed to obtain an appointment with a new bank manager.

 

I showed the new bank manager copies of my correspondence and also said that this matter had been going on long enough. I explained to the bank manager that unless he was willing to deal with my complaint within a reasonable amount of time (i gave 2 weeks), then I would be standing outside his bank with leaflets giving the leaflets out to customers and public highlighting the fact that the bank has made a serious error and is refusing to deal with my complaint accordingly. I also mentioned the fact that I had checked with the local police who provided me with advice concerning the legality of my proposed actions.

 

The bank manager said that he would deal with my complaint...

 

To cut a long story short regarding that complaint, - the bank manager faxed my letter of complaint to another manager who would deal with me. I was then informed by said manager after 8 weeks that they could not read my complaint as the ink was smudged.

 

The bank did give me my subject access request, though incomplete and it was missing important information.

 

 

The house that was repossessed cost me:

£16,000.00 as a deposit for the mortgage

£15,000.00 in repairs on the property - it was still undergoing repairs on the repossession day.

Numerous other expenses totalling approx £5,000.00

 

 

The bank has ignored me continually and was told by FSA??? (cant remember) that due to the length of time, they are unable to investigate. I explained to them that I considered this to be unfair as the bank ignored my complaints continuously, however that did not have an effect on the fact that they said they could not investigate.

 

My other losses are inability to obtain mortgages at a more favourable rate since the repossession has had an effect on my credit record.

 

Other information: The purchase price of the house was £80,000.00, my mortgage was for £64,000.00 and the house was sold for around £59,000.00 causing me to have a debt of £5,000.00 which was then transferred onto the other property.

 

 

Sorry for a long post, hope it makes sense...

 

Thanks in advance for any help with this!

[fkofilee]

Sorry to hear of your issues with HBOS,.. You are not alone with this group as we have other people complaining about Lloyds, etc.

Sadly the FOS may not beable to investigate due to the age of the accounts and also that this has gone to court.

 

What are HBOS currently saying about an appeal to your complaints procedure?

[veganite]

hello,

thanks for your response!

 

i had more or less given up with them because of what i believe to be their delay tactics and pathetic excuses saying that they can not read the letter of complaint a bank manager had faxed them.

 

i have successfully managed to sort out a car insurance claim on this website in the last 2 days, quite impressive seeing as this claim also dated back to about 7 or 8 years ago - which is why i decided to post details of my HBOS problem. I do know that this problem has no hope of being sorted in 2 days though. car insurance rep on this site is quite good at resolving issues, but imo hbos could not give a monkeys!

 

it had gone to court because i tried to stop the repossession and eviction.

 

hbos say nothing about my complaints. i have tried previously to complain to them - even threatening to stand outside one of their branches to highlight to others my problem.

 

the latest bank manager was quite helpful and toward the end we used first name terms. but i feel the bank manager was embarrassed due to the actions or lack of actions by the people who were meant to be dealing with my complaint.

 

basically, the bank has ignored my complaint and continues to do so.

 

they sent me a letter a few years ago saying that they had dealt with my complaint and that any further correspondence from myself will be put on file.

[fkofilee]

I had an issue with Lloyds group and thats exactly what they said to me (Further info will be put on file)

What does it mean?

 

"we refuse to deal with you anymore! :/

[veganite]

yes, i think so. i think it is basically a nicer way of them saying: get lost - we will receive your information but we will just put it on file since we know you are right and we are wrong but there is nothing you can do about it.

 

well.... that is what i believe it to mean!

 

the tactics involved in delaying complaint, delaying and delaying, and then when you finally think you are getting somewhere with the complaint they just say 'further correspondence will be put on file'

 

i think they are knowing exactly what they are doing by refusing to answer complaints and if they can see that their customer is persistent in the complaint they just basically say: further info to be put on file (get lost!!!)