Ulster Appeal to ombudsman

[Martytracker]

I very unhappy the outcome of my appeal through the BDO with Ulster Bank. I successfully got the appeal panel to award me 10,500 euro extra, as originally Ulster Bank only considered my mortgage impacted after my 2nd fixed rate finished.

But the main part of my appeal was for three years I was off sick with severe OCD and anxiety. This has lasting consequences on my life. I lost 3 years of wages, and feel unable to ever seek promotion at work. I recently just turned down an offer of promotion. I could go on and on.

But basically with regards this side of my appeal I was only offered 3,000 euro.

My complaint has been on hold with the ombudsman since December 2017.

My worry is if I reject this offer from BDO/Ulster Bank and proceed with my complaint through ombudsman, could I lose all? Also how long will this process take? I feel I have a very good case and have medical evidence to back it all up. But is it worth it, is the ombudsman a difficult road to prove your situation?.

For the fact that I have already been offered 13,500 go against me. But bear in mind that 10,500 of that was successfully getting my mortgage impacted after first fixed rate finished.

Should I just run with what I been offered? But I feel dejected that I only received 3,000 for all my mental health issues over years of been on high interest rates.

Any advice be great. I just don't know what to do

 

[Brendan Burgess]

Very difficult to know what to do here.

1) You could bring your case to the Ombudsman and he could rule against you completely and award you nothing.

2) He could agree fully with you and award you the full amount you are claiming.

3) But it will probably be somewhere in between.

From your brief description, it sounds as if the €10,500 is safe enough. But if you want to give more details, others might give you their views on the merits of your case.

I would say that the €3,000 for distress is at risk. From experience, a lot of the claims I have seen have attributed everything which went wrong in their lives to the loss of the tracker. In most cases, the real cause was something else, but the loss of the tracker added to the stress.

Lots of people had big mortgage problems. Very few had to take three years off work due to stress as a result.

It's far more likely that the Ombudsman would say that your mortgage problems were causes by the fact that you were off sick for three years and not the other way around.

Brendan

 

[Martytracker]

Very difficult to know what to do here.

1) You could bring your case to the Ombudsman and he could rule against you completely and award you nothing.

2) He could agree fully with you and award you the full amount you are claiming.

3) But it will probably be somewhere in between.

From your brief description, it sounds as if the €10,500 is safe enough. But if you want to give more details, others might give you their views on the merits of your case.

I would say that the €3,000 for distress is at risk. From experience, a lot of the claims I have seen have attributed everything which went wrong in their lives to the loss of the tracker. In most cases, the real cause was something else, but the loss of the tracker added to the stress.

Lots of people had big mortgage problems. Very few had to take three years off work due to stress as a result.

It's far more likely that the Ombudsman would say that your mortgage problems were causes by the fact that you were off sick for three years and not the other way around.

Brendan

Thanks for that. With regards the three years I was off sick, I put in place a payment plan with Ulster Bank and I did not go into arrears.

I just feel very strongly about this. I discussed this many times with my psychiatrist and firmly believe that the high interest rates had a detrimental effect on my mental health.

That's what I feel. I think that mental health is real, but I know I up against the attitude of " well we don't know if it is the source of your mental health". Well it definitely exhilarated my condition.

Just one question, does it take long if it referred to ombudsman?

I suppose my point is when these interest rates were high, it exhilarated my OCD, to a point, I could not work. I know it's hard for others to understand this. But I was a wreck.

I really appreciate your input. Thanks alot for replying.

Martin.

 

[Brendan Burgess]

Hi Martin

300,000 people paid very high mortgage rates in Ireland. Many went into arrears. Many are still in arrears.

Yes, high rates cause distress. But so do losing your job and taking a pay cut.

You were off sick and still managed to pay your mortgage? That suggests to me that if you were at work, you could have paid your mortgage in full, high interest rates or not.

The Ombudsman would probably be around 6 months to a year, but it's hard to know as they are flooded with complaints at the moment.

Brendan

 

[TrackerThieves]

But the main part of my appeal was for three years I was off sick with severe OCD and anxiety. This has lasting consequences on my life. I lost 3 years of wages, and feel unable to ever seek promotion at work. I recently just turned down an offer of promotion. I could go on and on.

Was there a build up in arrears leading up to this?
Did this have a direct cause of being out of work sick?
Are there any issues in how the bank treated you before and during this period?
Can you show this would likely not have happened if you had been on the correct rate?

I would say that the €3,000 for distress is at risk. From experience, a lot of the claims I have seen have attributed everything which went wrong in their lives to the loss of the tracker. In most cases, the real cause was something else, but the loss of the tracker added to the stress.

I agree with you on this that some blame everything on the loss of the tracker when they would have been in serious financial difficulty anyway. I also believe there are a smaller number of cases where people lost homes as a direct result of the actions of the banks, whether it be a tracker issue or other issues relating mistreatment by banks.

We all know most lenders were using every tactic they could think of to get people off trackers but how many can be proved it was purposely done?
The banks use clever tactics and have mechanism's in place that when caught out it can be put down to an error, oversight or similar excuse, rarely admit to anything.

I have not lost a home and I have no arrears but I have experienced serious mistreatment by my lender when we had a small amount of arrears from 2013-2016. I and am still fighting to get my tracker back, this is an individual case and the bank have refused to engage with myself or Padraic on this. I am still overpaying by a huge amount. I have had enormous difficulty getting hold of my data and records to piece together what happened during this period and have been through numerous complaints processes and am still being drip fed information requested over 2 years ago with a lot of important information missing. The main reason I started this process was to get my tracker back but this has been overtaken by my desire to prove the wrong doing that has occurred and show what the banks were really up to.

Any advice be great. I just don't know what to do

I would advise to read through some of the ombudsman's decisions in any similar cases and get an idea of what's needed to prove your case, give some more information here and ask for further advice, then you will have a better idea of how to proceed

 

[Martytracker]

Hi Martin

300,000 people paid very high mortgage rates in Ireland. Many went into arrears. Many are still in arrears.

Yes, high rates cause distress. But so do losing your job and taking a pay cut.

You were off sick and still managed to pay your mortgage? That suggests to me that if you were at work, you could have paid your mortgage in full, high interest rates or not.

The Ombudsman would probably be around 6 months to a year, but it's hard to know as they are flooded with complaints at the moment.

Brendan

We were paying a mortgage of around 1,000 a month. We could barely get by. Then I just couldn't manage mentally.

I had to see numerous doctors and am on slot of medication. I suppose my point is been on a high rate may not effect some people the way it affected me.

We got the bank to reduce our monthly repayments to 500 euro a month. Even with that we were selling anything we could on Buy and Sell. I remember one evening we had not the price of a box of teabags

But I suppose your only hearing the bones of my case.

Again thanks so much for the input

Martin.

 

[TrackerThieves]

Sorry missed previous message where you said there were no arrears, I had made an assumption there were other issues before you went suck. Your complaint is solely in relation to your tracker?
The FSPO will updating decisions made sometime this month, these may include tracker decisions. So worth keeping an eye on these before making a decision

 

[Martytracker]

Was there a build up in arrears leading up to this?
Did this have a direct cause of being out of work sick?
Are there any issues in how the bank treated you before and during this period?
Can you show this would likely not have happened if you had been on the correct rate?


I agree with you on this that some blame everything on the loss of the tracker when they would have been in serious financial difficulty anyway. I also believe there are a smaller number of cases where people lost homes as a direct result of the actions of the banks, whether it be a tracker issue or other issues relating mistreatment by banks.

We all know most lenders were using every tactic they could think of to get people off trackers but how many can be proved it was purposely done?
The banks use clever tactics and have mechanism's in place that when caught out it can be put down to an error, oversight or similar excuse, rarely admit to anything.

I have not lost a home and I have no arrears but I have experienced serious mistreatment by my lender when we had a small amount of arrears from 2013-2016. I and am still fighting to get my tracker back, this is an individual case and the bank have refused to engage with myself or Padraic on this. I am still overpaying by a huge amount. I have had enormous difficulty getting hold of my data and records to piece together what happened during this period and have been through numerous complaints processes and am still being drip fed information requested over 2 years ago with a lot of important information missing. The main reason I started this process was to get my tracker back but this has been overtaken by my desire to prove the wrong doing that has occurred and show what the banks were really up to.



I would advise to read through some of the ombudsman's decisions in any similar cases and get an idea of what's needed to prove your case, give some more information here and ask for further advice, then you will have a better idea of how to proceed

Yes I can provide as much medical evidence as needed. I was originally on tracker and fixed rate. Not given back my tracker, so I fixed it again. This time it was on 6.6 per cent.

When I was on this rate my OCD just went crazy.

I suppose my main point is, yes loads of other people were under stress etc due to high rates. But it had a lasting and detrimental effect on mine

My point been that it can effect people in different ways particularly their mental health.

What might effect you may have no effect on another.

So just because some many hundreds of thousands of people were in a similar situation, doesn't mean that it should not effect certain people. so badly.

Anyway to be honest, I going to have a long think about it. And not rush either way.

Martin