Mis-sold IO Mortgage

C

Cruzer123

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My situation, very large Celtic Tiger era full term interest only mortgage.

I see a there’s a financial consultant offering services around mis-sold interest only mortgages, their website is easily found with a Google search.

For a fee they assist with preparing a case for submission to the Ombudsman with a claim of potential redress or compensation.

Is this something that others have pursued successfully?
 
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I would be surprised if the Irish Ombudsman upheld a complaint of mis-selling. It would be worth asking the consultant to provide you with a link to a decision on the Ombudsman's website where a complaint made by them was substantially upheld.

Apparently, the UK Ombudsman, upholds one in five such complaints, so it's probably worth having a go. The Ombudsman is free. Is the consultant free? If he does not charge a fee up-front, why not? He will probably take about 30% of any compensation you get.

Here is a good guide for the U.K.

Interest-Only Mortgage Compensation - HomeOwners Alliance

If you took out an interest-only mortgage and feel that it was mis-sold, then you could be eligible for interest-only mortgage compensation.
hoa.org.uk

You could probably go to the Ombudsman yourself and save yourself the fees.

Brendan
 
In the UK the claims seem to be against the mortgage brokers for selling IO mortgages.

In some of the failed tracker complaints I have seen, it seemed to me that there was a reasonable case to be made against the broker who advised on the mortgage. But people seem reluctant to complain about their financial advisors, preferring instead to complain about the big bad faceless banks.

Make sure that your mortgage broker is still trading if you proceed against them. Many are gone.

Or make the complaint against both the lender and the broker.

Brendan
 
I didn’t want to post the name of the service for fear of promoting.
The fees seem to be around €500 or so to prepare the case etc. I haven’t investigated it fully though.

I’m at the point that if I can’t see evidence of a successful complaint I won’t pursue it further. Hence the post here.

Here’s a slot on Dublin City FM re the same topic (& same advisor) its worth a listen.

Mixcloud

m.mixcloud.com
 
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Misselling.ie and the charge is €99. Unsure of the charges if successful.
 
Hard to follow their fees.

Currently €99 (inclusive of VAT) to process and argue the complaint on your behalf.

€500 plus VAT for our Opinions.

If we win compensation or a restructure for you, we ONLY then charge our main fee – please see our “Terms of Business” on the website.

But then click on terms of business and you get

13. Our services consist of the following:
(1) We review your mortgage based upon data supplied by you;
(2) We construct a complaint to the relevant parties with indicative values claimed.
(3) If the relevant party, i.e. provider, bank or legal owner, rejects the complaint, we then construct a complaint to the FSPO;
(4) Engagement with the FSPO and respondent through to final decision.

We may as part of the compensation process charge an additional fee where the FSPO cannot calculate the award value in the normal course of their business or where we determinate that the amount awarded is not correct and underestimates your claim. This fee will be notified to you in advance of any work that we undertake and will be paid from any of the following:
(1) the compensation awarded, and/or
(2) paid directly by you if you obtain a restructure of your mortgage, and/or
(3) paid directly from the current loan owner as part of any restructure arrangement agreed.
14. There is an initial nominal fee for onboarding your complaint and you will be notified of this fee when we notify you of the our initial view of your complaint. This initial fee is not refundable. You pay no more than this nominal fee unless we win compensation and/or a restructure of the mortgage.

15. Our professional for analysing, creating and processing your complaint to the FSPO will be in the region of €15,000 but will vary depending upon the level of complexity of inherent risks to be analysed within your mortgage contract and associated documents. You will be notified of the exact fee when your complaint is filed with the FSPO. However, please note that payment by you to us will be deferred and only payable under the following circumstances:
(1) you obtain cash compensation, and/or
(2) You obtain a restructure of your mortgage, and/or
(3) you obtain any other quantifiable financial benefit as a result of our work, or
(4) you withdraw from the process after we file the complaint to the financial service provider or current loan owner or both.
This does not include any nominal onboarding fee charged at the very inception which is used to process your onboarding documents and meet our regulatory requirements. This nominal fee is not refundable.

There will be an additional professional fee for (1) compensation calculation work and (2) working with the current loan owner to obtain the best outcome and settlement for you. These professional fees will be agreed in advance with you at the appropriate time in the future and will be dependent upon your agreement to us undertaking the work.

15a. For those struggling with mortgage payments today and have an eligible mis-selling claim lodged or in the process of being lodged with the FSPO, we can offer Expert Banking Opinions on the loan contract. This Expert Banking Opinion provides the basis for you to:
(1) take an action against the current loan owner for Unfair Terms as defined by European Consumer Laws. If you opt for this service, we will advise you separately of the process and the fees for the Expert Banking Opinion.
(2) to provide to Court in defence of any action against You with respect to your mortgage.

16. Quartech is committed to delivering a fair and equitable outcome for consumers. We guarantee that our professional fees in total with respect to your mortgage complaint will not exceed 20% of the total value of compensation, as defined, paid or accrued to you in cash or by way of a restructure of the mortgage. This guaranteed by Quartech to cap fees is to ensure that all consumers, regardless of the size of their mortgage, obtain fairness and equity and that we subscribe to the European Union’s Principle of Effectiveness.
We also guarantee that all of Quartech fees will be agreed with you in advance.
To be clear, there will be an additional professional fee for our Expert Banking Opinion and we will agree that fee with you before we undertake any work in this area. Given that some clients may be insolvent due to the mis-sale of the unsuitable mortgage under review, in the interests of fairness and the Principle of Effectiveness, Quartech can arrange, on request, for this fee relating to the Expert Opinion can be partially deferred by way of affordable monthly payments.
16a. Please be aware that you can make your own complaint to the FSPO directly and there are no fees payable for the FSPO services, if you decide to take this course of action.
 
Our professional for analysing, creating and processing your complaint to the FSPO will be in the region of €15,000
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I'll do it for €14,000

There is no way it should be so expensive. The point of the FSPO is to avoid expense and complexity for consumers.
 
It's not too expensive as it's effectively on a no foal, no fee basis.

The chances of success are remote whether you use an advisor or not.

If he can show an example of a case where he has actually won in the courts or with an Ombudsman, I would use his services.

Brendan
 
Unfortunately I think your chances of a successful outcome would be extremely slim. There was a case of another borrower who was mis-sold an interest only mortgage, also during the celtic tiger. The borrower complained to the Ombudsman, and it was proven that there was a paper trail that the bank changed information on its internal documentation in order to sell the loan (it listed the borrowers income as a multiple of the salary on the clear documentation the borrower submitted) but still the Ombudsman did not help the borrower at all, and no action was taken against the bank.
 

That is interesting. Can you provide a link to the Ombudsman decision on that?

I would say that there are far more cases of borrowers inflating their income than lenders forging documents to inflate the borrower's income.
 
Brendan Burgess said:
That is interesting. Can you provide a link to the Ombudsman decision on that?

I would say that there are far more cases of borrowers inflating their income than lenders forging documents to inflate the borrower's income.
Click to expand...

From what I remember the Ombudsman said complaints must be made to the FSPO within 6 years of the date of the conduct complained of, and that the borrower should have complained earlier. So the FSPO would not investigate or comment further. You are probably correct that during the celtic tiger, there were more cases of borrowers inflating their income than lenders forging documents to inflate the borrower's income. In those wild west banking years, who knows why the individual or individuals in the bank inflated the borrowers income greatly ( by multiples ), in order to satisfy lending criteria - it could have have been a mistake, or more likely it was a case of the individual(s) in the bank wanting to "win" the business for a bonus, promotion, to reach a target, whatever. Documentation obtained many years later show the bank did inflate greatly (by multiples) the borrowers salary (and proof of salary was furnished with the application) and there was also pressure from the broker put on the bank to make the loan - the broker said the bank should try to win the business or else the borrowers own bank would make the loan. Crazy times. But the FSPO would not investigate, over 6 years ago etc they said. Also perhaps they are funded by the banking system and have a backlog of cases as it is.
 
ThursdayMorning said:
still the Ombudsman did not help the borrower at all, and no action was taken against the bank.
Click to expand...

ThursdayMorning said:
the Ombudsman said complaints must be made to the FSPO within 6 years of the date of the conduct complained of,
Click to expand...

With respect, your first post was completely misleading in that it implied that the Ombudsman was not concerned with fraud at the bank.

The complaint was out of time, so the Ombudsman simply did not investigate it.

They could not help the borrower.
 
ThursdayMorning said:
Documentation obtained many years later show the bank did inflate greatly (by multiples) the borrowers salary (and proof of salary was furnished with the application) and there was also pressure from the broker put on the bank to make the loan
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So is there any evidence that you can point to for this?
 
There is legislation where the Ombudsman can investigate matters over 6 years ago, "where it appears to him or her that there are reasonable grounds for requiring a longer period and that it would be just and equitable, in all the circumstances, to so extend the period." The decision to investigate such matters or not is up to the Ombudsman.

3CC said:
So is there any evidence that you can point to for this?
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It was not my case, just one I know of. And it would not surprise me that such things did happen during the Celtic tiger.
 

The legislation is complex.

And there would have to be reasonable grounds for requiring a longer period. Bad behaviour by the bank would not be reasonable grounds on its own. It would have to be something like the complainant was hospitalised for 3 years or had sought information from the bank and the bank had not provided it.

But you are making an allegation of fraud which is a criminal matter. There is no statute of limitations on criminal matters. So the people involved are free to report it to the Gardai.
 
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