# How long for the Ombudsman to process a Tracker Complaint



## Dpdp01050842 (11 Jan 2019)

Hi 

Has anyone been through the process for a tracker conplaint? Mine is now 60+ business days (over 3 months) since the bank and I both said we have no more info to provide. So the investigation office has recievd all the info relating to questions they had. It is now in the active adjudication phase.

Am i looking at the possibility of months or weeks does anyone know?

Thanks


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## Thomas (11 Jan 2019)

Depends on the complexity but i finished my exchange of info with PTSB (as part of the FSO complaint submitted in Feb 2017) in the middle of August 2018 and there is still no decision from the investigation office.


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## Dpdp01050842 (11 Jan 2019)

Thank you Thomas. I’m surprised it takes so many months. I womder are similar cases grouped together.


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## Thomas (11 Jan 2019)

They said my case was particularly complex so not sure about the grouping. I will be following up at the end of the month to see when they think they will be coming to a decision!


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## WizardDr (11 Jan 2019)

Are these after 'Appeals' or are they after a Final Letter saying 'no tracker'?


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## Thomas (12 Jan 2019)

Identified as impacted but given token amount as I had moved bank (for period up to date I left PTSB).  Went through the PTSB appeals process and had partial victory (offered redress for full period to date and to be offered tracker back but at the 3.25% rate) and then appealed to the FSO


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## WizardDr (12 Jan 2019)

This is the PTSB margin issue. This is being totally resisted by PTSB and they are entirely delusional but have decided to get dug in.
They are confident that most wont know enough when it comes to FSPO and they certainly know none of us are apparently brave enough to go to Court.
That day will change.


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## molly1 (5 Feb 2019)

Hi, 
I'm at the early-ish stage of a tracker complaint with PTSB. I sent them a letter at the start of December outlining my complaint and they sent me a third holding letter this week stating that they hope to reply by March 1st which exceeds the 40 days set out by the FSO. 

This all started when we looked to switch our mortgage to a fixed rate with another lender.  On reviewing our original documents we believe we should have been on a tracker when we took out the mortgage 2007/2008. 

We have been accepted by the new lender and we are close to doing the switch. This will save us almost 300 per month. I was hoping that we would receive a response from PTSB before switching in case they come back in our favour. 

If we go ahead with the switch and PTSB return in our favour (that we should have had the tracker) then do PTSB have to take us back and restore our tracker mortgage ? We were advised this would be the case by an advisor but I'm unsure.

Thanks!


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## Dpdp01050842 (12 Feb 2019)

I find the below very surprising from the ombudsman. Over 1000 complaints and not one decision made ? If it continues at this rate it will be years before everything is done. Does anyone know how it works that they havent even managed 1 decision? Surely at least 1 could have been decisioned?

“As a result it will take some time to complete, he cautioned, although the first decisions will start coming early this year.”


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## demoivre (12 Feb 2019)

Dpdp01050842 said:


> I find the below very surprising from the ombudsman. Over 1000 complaints and not one decision made ? If it continues at this rate it will be years before everything is done. Does anyone know how it works that they havent even managed 1 decision? Surely at least 1 could have been decisioned?



All tracker appeals to the FSPO are on hold until the Central Bank issues its final report on the tracker review. That report is supposed to be produced early this year.


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## bluestilton (22 Oct 2019)

Good morning just wondering has anyone with a tracker complaint which was referred to the Ombudsman had a reply? It is now over a year since we submitted ours. When I contact the FSPO i get the standard reply "It is with the Ombudsman for his consideration".


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## Brendan Burgess (22 Oct 2019)

Hi Stilton
Yes, I am aware of a number of AIB and ptsb cases where the Ombudsman has replied. You will see some others in the tracker forum.
1) They offered mediation and the bank usually rejects it. 
2) Then the Ombudsman summarised the complaint and sent it to the bank
3) The bank replied and the Ombudsman sent that reply to the customer
4) The customer replied...   and on and on it goes.

It might be that the Ombudsman is prioritising "cohort" issues.  It would make a lot of sense for them to do so.   

Brendan


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## NoRegretsCoyote (22 Oct 2019)

Non-tracker issues are pretty slow too.

I had two cases and it seems to be about 10 weeks from being forwarded to adjudication to actually getting one.


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## Dpdp01050842 (29 Jan 2020)

The below promise will not be kept.....I hope I am wrong.

“I will be publishing all of the decisions issued in 2019, including the tracker mortgage related decisions, no later than January 2020. I will also publish a Digest of these decisions similar to the Digest of 2018 Decisions that I published which includes a short summary of selected decisions.”

https://data.oireachtas.ie/ie/oirea...ancial-services-and-pensions-ombudsman_en.pdf


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## bluestilton (30 Jan 2020)

My complaint re tracker issue is with the FSPO since early 2017 - three years.!! Each month I email them requesting an update. Last month I was told case was now with Ombudsman for adjudication and I should hear early in new year.


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## Dpdp01050842 (31 Jan 2020)

After adjudication you will have “drafting the preliminary decision” which in my case has been ongoing 10 months now


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## bluestilton (31 Jan 2020)

Why does it take so long? Is it shortage of staff or is it just a laissez faire attitude by staff in the FSPO? I cannot see how it would take three years to deal with a complaint. I doubt that the equivalent body in the UK would take as long.


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## NoRegretsCoyote (31 Jan 2020)

My case (non tracker) was forwarded for adjudication in September and am still waiting for a preliminary decision.

It's been promised twice but nothing.



bluestilton said:


> Why does it take so long? Is it shortage of staff or is it just a laissez faire attitude by staff in the FSPO? I cannot see how it would take three years to deal with a complaint. I doubt that the equivalent body in the UK would take as long.



I think it's pretty well known that they have been swamped with tracker complaints. I believe they have to treat each case individually and can't issue blanket rulings.


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## Dpdp01050842 (31 Jan 2020)

What is frustrating is that they have confirmed 13 decisions have been made - drafted, complete, done. They promised to publish this month. This is publishing documents which were completed last year but they have still failed to do so.


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## Brendan Burgess (31 Jan 2020)

OK, this is what he said on 24th October 2019 


_I have recently issued *eight legally binding decisions on tracker mortgage* complaints. 
Two of these were upheld, two were substantially upheld and four were rejected. 

 I have also issued *five preliminary decisions. *Now that the time limit issue has largely
been resolved for tracker mortgage complaints, I expect we will progress the vast
majority of complaints.  We hope to continue to resolve the majority of complaints
through mediation. However, I also expect to issue a considerable number of legally
binding decisions in the coming months.

I will be publishing all of the decisions issued in 2019, including the tracker mortgage
related decisions, no later than January 2020. I will also publish a Digest of these
decisions similar to the Digest of 2018 Decisions that I published which includes a
short summary of selected decisions.  _


There are three stages 

1) Stage 1 - Ombudsman issues Preliminary Decision 
Both sides have about 3 weeks to make further submissions on the Preliminary Decision.  
If they do make such observations, they would be sent to the other party and they would probably get 20 working days to respond. 

2) Stage 2 - Ombudsman issued Legally Binding Decision 
Either side can appeal to the High Court within 35 days.

3) Stage 3 -  The time to appeal to the High Court expires and decision is confirmed. 

So, if he issued 5 preliminary decisions in October. They could still be in the further observation stage. 

So he might have only 8 or 10 decisions which have passed all 3 stages. 

He might be waiting for more.  Especially if the 8 decisions are not on cohort issues. 

Brendan


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## bluestilton (31 Jan 2020)

Still can't figure out why it would take 3 years to reach a decision and I know I am not the only person in this situation. I wonder how many staff are employed there at their grading structure.


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## SaySomething (3 Feb 2020)

I lodged a complaint with the FSPO in late October. It took until early January to issue me an acknowledgement and reference number in writing. However, I was informed then that there are 25 new hires in the Ombudsman's office this January and that they expect to be able to progress tracker complaints at a faster rate. I've still to hear from an investigating officer and to be honest I won't be holding my breath.


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## bluestilton (5 Feb 2020)

Emailed the FSPO for an update, have received a reply that it can take up to 12 months to adjudicate. They stated that my case went to adjudication in April 2019, so hopefully some news soon. Now that AIB cohort of complaints have been dealt with perhaps it will speed things up  for everyone else.


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## Thomas (5 Feb 2020)

Mine went into adjudication in Aug/Sept 2018 (complaint submitted Feb 2017)and still waiting on decision


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## NoRegretsCoyote (5 Feb 2020)

NoRegretsCoyote said:


> My case (non tracker) was forwarded for adjudication in September and am still waiting for a preliminary decision.
> 
> It's been promised twice but nothing.



I've just got an adjudication after a nearly five-month wait. Non tracker.

11.5 months start to finish. That was with no dispute on facts and very quick turn-around by me and in fairness the provider too.


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## Summercruising (7 Feb 2020)

Is the AIB cohort case done and dusted, I understood only a preliminary ruling. I’m sure AIB will appeal and drag on the sorry saga for much longer!


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## Brendan Burgess (7 Feb 2020)

Summercruising said:


> Is the AIB cohort case done and dusted,



Let's assume the worst here.

AIB makes additional observations on the preliminary decision. 
The Ombudsman sends them to us for our comments
We are unlikely to make any comments so will say so by return. 
Then it will be up to the Ombudsman to decide if AIB has added something new. The scope for something new is very limited. 
The Ombudsman will make his decision final and legally binding
This will not take much effort by the Ombudsman. So there should be a lot of time freed up to process other cases. 

If AIB appeals the Ombudsman's decision to the High Court, then he will put all the AIB prevailing rate cases on hold. 

So whatever happens,  The Ombudsman will be spending a lot less time on the AIB Prevailing Rate issue.

Brendan


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## Olive7 (25 Feb 2020)

Hello im just wondering if u have any idea when we could expect to hear anymore from AIB or the ombudsman about his preliminary decison. Thanks for ur help.


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## Brendan Burgess (25 Feb 2020)

None at all


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## SaySomething (29 Sep 2020)

SaySomething said:


> I lodged a complaint with the FSPO in late October. It took until early January to issue me an acknowledgement and reference number in writing.


Now 11 months into the process. The bank refused mediation in Q1 of this year. We have been assigned an investigation officer but no summary of complaint has been issued so far. When we started into the process I expected it to take approx 18 months but at this stage it feels like we could be a number of years before we reach a preliminary decision. It is frustrating given it took nearly a year to get through the appeals process.*

It is interesting that when we chatted with the mediator we were told that the majority of cases they were dealing with were customers who originally had no entitlement to trackers and they were clogging up the whole process. 

_*While our Appeal was technically upheld by the Appeals Panel a number of the issues we raised were not within their scope so we could have either accepted the result & left issues unressolved OR move to FSPO. _


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## SaySomething (12 Jan 2021)

New year...no change, nearly 15 months into the process.
We were assigned an Investigations Officer in the Summer of 2020. We have yet to receive a Summary of our Complaint. 
There is an issue with the bank/agents of the bank (appeals panel) not producing documents that the Ombudsman has requested from them which has stalled things over the Autumn and Christmas period. It's very disheartening though I have to say.


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## SaySomething (1 Sep 2021)

Time for a long overdue update. Summary was received, bank made a submission, we responded once and afterwards declined to make any further comment which effectively pushed the case to adjudication in early Summer.

When things moved to adjudication we were advised that cases were taking between 6-12 months to move from adjudication to preliminary decision. Unfortunately, we've since been informed that there is a further delay and cases are taking 12-18 months in adjudication. (edited to add) This equates to approximately 3 years from commencement of complaint to issue of preliminary decision providing the Ombudsman does not exceed 18 months to adjudicate.

I'm updating this post to make other tracker complaint customers aware that if you decide to go down the FSPO route that it will take a lot of time and a lot of waiting plus the risk that you may not receive additional compensation already awarded at Appeals Panel stage (if you did this first).


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## Brendan Burgess (1 Sep 2021)

SaySomething said:


> you may not receive additional compensation already awarded at Appeals Panel stage (if you did this first).


Just to clarify

If you are an AIB Prevailing Rate customer or a general Tracker Mortgage Examination customer, any standard redress is yours to keep. So if you got 15% automatic compensation, you keep that irrespective of what happens afterwards.

If you feel that the 15% was not enough and went to the Appeals Panel and they awarded you an additional €5,000 and you thought you should get €50,000. Then by going to the Ombudsman, the €5,000 is at risk. The Ombudsman may well award you nothing. 

The exception by the way is Bank of Ireland. If their Appeals Panel awards you an extra €5,000 you can take it and still go to the Ombudsman for more. 

Brendan


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## SaySomething (7 Jun 2022)

2 & half year update (30 months plus change) since we lodged our complaint with the Ombudsman. Over 12 months since our complaint was forwarded for adjudication. 

No change. 

We are being led to believe that it'll be close to Christmas at the very earliest before we get some sort of decision. Making it over 3 years at that point. 

This is simply an information post so that others considering taking or who have taken a tracker complaint to the Ombudsman are aware of how long it can take.


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## SaySomething (1 Nov 2022)

3 year update. No change. 
This is simply an information post so that others considering taking or who have taken a tracker complaint to the Ombudsman are aware of how long it can take.


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## deanne (1 Nov 2022)

SaySomething said:


> 3 year update. No change.
> This is simply an information post so that others considering taking or who have taken a tracker complaint to the Ombudsman are aware of how long it can take.


My case has been in adjudication stage for 2 years with no end in sight. It's with A. I.B !


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## SaySomething (2 Nov 2022)

deanne said:


> My case has been in adjudication stage for 2 years with no end in sight. It's with A. I.B !


In my case it’s an appeal against compensation (sort of). We’ve already had our rate reinstated and refund/redress etc. If your complaint is rate/margin related it’s likely to be longer.


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## demoivre (2 Nov 2022)

8 years for this poster !
https://www.askaboutmoney.com/threa...e-rate-mortgage-mean.207151/post-1793178years


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