How long for the Ombudsman to process a Tracker Complaint

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.
 
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.
 
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.
 
Mine went into adjudication in Aug/Sept 2018 (complaint submitted Feb 2017)and still waiting on decision
 
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.
 
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!
 
Is the AIB cohort case done and dusted,

Let's assume the worst here.
  1. AIB makes additional observations on the preliminary decision.
  2. The Ombudsman sends them to us for our comments
  3. We are unlikely to make any comments so will say so by return.
  4. Then it will be up to the Ombudsman to decide if AIB has added something new. The scope for something new is very limited.
  5. 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
 
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.
 
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.
 
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.
 
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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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
 
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.
 
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.
 
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 !
 
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.
 
Does anyone think the FSPO have got through the backlog yet or are they still drowning in complaints. Mine (non tracker), has just gone to adjudication so I know I have a long wait ahead.
 
I have a tracker complaint with fspo and it went to adjudication with each side agreeing no further information...we are waiting over 21 months now when we had been told 12 to 18 months. Has anyone any idea of how long it can actually take at this stage?