# Unable to obtain tracker mortgage money overpaid from EBS



## Munster2017 (13 Mar 2017)

Morning all,

I am desperately seeking advice from anyone who may be in a similar situation or may have some advice they could offer I would be extremely grateful.

In August of last year EBS wrote to me outlining my tracker rate had wrongfully been taken from me and an over charge had been made on my mortgage account. Following on from there I was written to a little before Christmas stating the monetary amount including overpayment, compensation and fees for an independent party to consider the percentage differentials was circa €30,000.

At the time I was quite taken aback as I felt this was fraud and I had worked two jobs since 2012 to pay the mortgage. Needless to say the mortgage is now on its rightful rate and monthly payments have dropped substantially. Here is where my difficulty lies. The mortgage was taken out in joint names with an ex-partner the separation of which was extremely acrimonious. While the deeds of the house were in my name and he did at the time sign a deed of confirmation he has never taken a case for equity share in the property. We are separated 7 years this is prior to the cohabitation act and have 4 children together. The overpayment occurred from 2012 on and I was the sole person always paying for the mortgage due to the complexity of his difficulties while we were together and after the separation in 2010 there was no financial support. I took a second job at night and did accounts to keep up payments and keep the wolves from the door.  EBS sent representatives harassing me when the mortgage did unfortunately fall into arrears which I now know was the opposite I was in credit.    I dealt with all this stress and kept going for my children.  

Fast forward to 2017 and it would appear while there is no contact between my ex-partner and I (we were never married) I have shockingly learnt through the bank he has been in contact regarding the overpayment of €30,000 and has left his address for all correspondence to be sent to him. I enlisted the help of a solicitor to track him down and I have furnished him with a letter to sign the necessary documentation for the money to be realeased as you can imagine with 4 children there are always educational costs this could be quite helpful towards. He has ignored all correspondence.

I have contacted the bank several times there is nothing they can do without both signatures. My solicitor is unsure what way he can approach this and has asked a barrister who is fearful he would bring this to the courts for monetary gain and while he may not get anywhere it could eat into the €30,000.

I wrote to the banks and appealed the necessity for my ex-partners signature and they sent me on an independent appeals panel application which is a document BDO revise. I filled in this documentation as I had emails back as far as 2010 outlining to the EBS I was in financial difficulty and then they went and did the job with the tracker rate making my situation worse. My main point was if the account was in credit it should have stayed in credit that was I could have offset monthly payments against the lump sum over paid. This would have eliminated the necessity for my ex-partners signature and the only way I could see around it.

I am an extremely above board person and would not forge his signature as if he has been in contact already with the banks they will no doubt send him confirmation all paper work has been signed and I would find myself defending what I did in court which could lead to prison.

If anyone has any advice I would be so grateful. Thanks so much.


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## Brendan Burgess (13 Mar 2017)

This is very very difficult 

There are three elements to the redress 

1) The overcharged interest, part of which will be refunded. 
2) The overcharged interest, part of which will be used to reduce your mortgage balance
3) The compensation  

2) Should happen automatically, so you ex will not benefit from this. 

The lender is in a very difficult position regarding 1) and 3).  They cannot pay it to you without his signature. 

There is even a risk that they might pay it to him. 

If he does not cooperate there isn't very much you can do. 

I suggest the following: 

Forget about the Independent Appeals Process. That is not what it is there for.  This is more urgent.

1) Your solicitor should write to EBS saying that under no circumstances should any payment be made to the other joint mortgagor.  That is urgent and the most important thing to make sure that he does not get the money.

2) Your solicitor should write a letter to EBS pointing out that the payments in full have come from your bank account, and any refund should be transferred directly into that account as that is the account from which the payments were made. 

3) If they don't agree to that, and if your ex does not cooperate, you should ask EBS to pay the refund and the compensation into your mortgage account to reduce the outstanding balance.  You could give an undertaking that if your ex gets a court order challenging this, then EBS can add the money back to your mortgage again. 

3) Is not ideal, as you would not want to overpay your tracker mortgage. But it might be the best solution in a very messy situation. 
You could then agree with the EBS to take a payment holiday on your mortgage to use up the overpayment. 

Brendan


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## Munster2017 (13 Mar 2017)

Brendan,
I really appreciate your response and I agree it's an extremely difficult situation.  I will instruct a legal letter be sent outlining the content which you have sent me.  It really is such a pity things have been made so difficult as the eldest is approaching exam year and this could have been used towards tututions.  

I can see how the hands of the bank are tied so to speak but in any case a decision will ultimately need to be made regarding the money by them as it can't be just left in limbo.  

I felt whilst completing the appeals document which BDO over see it wouldn't benefit my situation in anyway but I did it anyway as was under instruction from the bank this is the process. I agree the best thing that I could hope for is the €30,000 is credited to the mortgage account which it was transacted to from my account.  I could then work on a holiday plan and keep an eye on payments.  

I really hope there will be some resolution as when I think back of all the precious time I missed out on with my children, time I will never get back to work the two jobs to pay the mortgage it's the biggest blow in this whole mess.  

I really appreciate you taking the time Brendan to reply.  I have just registered this morning with the website thank you.


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## Munster2017 (20 Mar 2017)

EBS reinstated the tracker automatically and I was informed by letter the tracker had been reinstated.  The overpayment had occurred from June 2012 on.  I had restructured my mortgage in and around that time and this is where the error occurred with my tracker mortgage.  I should have been left on the tracker rate.  Since Brendan's advice I have been extremely pro active and I feel I might just get a positive outcome.


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## JL77 (20 Mar 2017)

Thanks for your reply am I correct in saying that you didn't leave your tracker mortgage (by changing to a fixed mortgage) and that your issue was related to the restructuring?


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## Munster2017 (21 Mar 2017)

No I never willingfully left the tracker mortgage the EBS took me off it when I restructured my mortgage loan I.e I had arrears subject to the separation and they spread the arrears out over the duration of the mortgage but alongside with that my payments went up by €400 plus a month.  I had so much going on at the time in my personal life I never questioned it as I figured they were the banks and they knew best.  I was then on a variable rate from June 2012 on until I received the letter telling me they should not have taken me off the tracker.  This is what I can ascertain happened after multiple phone calls an so lwtters to the bank they are not the easiest to communicate with.


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