Contractual rights for home owners in arrears

[Fullham]

Are banks obligated/Should I have been given a chance to seek legal advice when I was offered a change in mortgage rates and contract after i got into arrears. Is there a fourteen day cooling period? Are the banks allowed to force you to sign a new contract i.e If you were threatened with foreclosure.

Note: Two BTL property's
One PP property
All mortgages were on tracker rates

 

[44brendan]

You need to clarify your post! What new contract were you forced to sign? Why do you feel that you were railroaded into something that has disadvantaged you?

 

[Fullham]

In 2010 I received a phone call from head office swords, threatening disclosure of my property. I was then told to meet the following day and there was a contract put on the table, I was told that this was my only option. I was not given any chance to seek legal advise on the contract or any cooling off period to examine the contract in detail.
The contract I signed was for a years interest only and I assumed I would revert back to my tracker rate but instead I was put onto a variable rate.

 

[44brendan]

Banks are entitled to change the T&C's of the loan contract if a variation is required. The question you are asking is whether they browbeat you in to signing a contract in order to increase the rate on your loans. However, you need to be aware of the fact that when you missed repayments on the loans you broke the original contract and I would imagine that you did not have the capacity to make up these arrears or else you would not have signed the new agreement. I am sure that you had plenty of time post signing the contract to examine the T&C's and discuss same with your solicitor. However, you were not in a position to comply with the original loan agreement and the bank were fully entitled to change the rate in return for offering you a variation on the initial contract which suited your circumstances. You were not forced to sign this new contract. Threat of foreclosure was a result of the breakdown of the initial contract.
This is common practice as tracker rates are a high cost to banks and when loan contracts are amended there is rarely an option to revert to them. I am excluding Home Loans as MARP requirements exclude banks from changing rates in such circumstances.