AIB My case is with the Ombudsman now for two years and no decision

Dpdp01050842

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Case: Overcharged 38,000 on a buy to let property over 5 years. Never missed any interest or principal payment but had to borrow from a relative for 4 of the 5 years. Profitable investment turned unprofitable so sold property at an 80k loss in 2015 voluntarily.

April 2017: Appeal rejection
December 2017: Ombudsman receives complaint
Feb 2018: Ombudsman asks for the letter of confirmation the appeals process ending to be sent. I lost this and was having trouble getting AIB to resend.
May 2018: Eventually get the form and send to Ombudsman
June 2018: Mediation offered and rejected by AIB
July 4th: Investigation opens
September 7th: Summary of complaint sent to AIB. Info request included.
October 2018 AIB Respond with comments and info request.
October I respond to AIB comments with: No further comments and AIB comments to not address the facts. The bank overcharged me significantly over a number of years which made our investment loss making when it should have been comfortable to make Payments. From the banks overcharging (which it admits) they have been fully repaid yet I no longer have the apartment and absorbed massive losses as I had to sell. I have not been returned to the position I would have been had this overcharge not been made. My investment property was turned into something that needed assistance from a family member and it had to be sold when that person retired.
November 2018: Both sides say no more comments
December 2018: AIB send a random email to the Ombudsman saying there was an error on their calculation and they revised them with calculations included. Email made no sense as the numbers and calculations had not changed.
December 2018 I said I had no comments.
March 2019: Ombudsman asks AIB to send all their correspondence with me during the appeals process. This was the same information AIB were requested to send (and did send) back in September 2018.
April 2019 AIB send all the exact same info they sent back in October 2018.

Nothing since, 8 months.
 
DpD

That is very interesting, if very frustrating.

It's not a cohort issue.

AIB has admitted that you lost your tracker incorrectly.

You say you sold it because it was loss making on the SVR. But if you had the tracker, it would have been profitable and affordable and therefore you would not have sold it.

You were not pressurised by AIB to sell it. But decided to do so yourself as you had to borrow from relatives to keep up the repayments.

I really don't know why this is taking so long.

Brendan
 
Yes it’s very straightforward so I really have no idea how it can possibly be taking so long. My case is not loaded with impact on my emotional state, impact on personal life or anything of this nature. It’s very factual:

Bank admits over charging (proof in writing). Profitable investment made unprofitable (proof in writing).
14,000 lent by family member (proof via statements out of family members account and statements in to mortgage account - not a complex trail).
Family member retired so could no longer assist (proof in writing).
Loss on investment (proof in writing).

The response to my last email for a status update early July said my current status was that a preliminary decision was being drafted and that if the Ombudsman didn’t require any further information from me or AIB then I would have a decision in the coming months. However if the Ombudsman did require further information or clarification then this part of the process would have to start again and she noted that this is often the case.

But this is a warning for people who put their decisions in this year. Since I sent my case there has been significant build up of additional cases. You could be looking at a process which will take years unless things change. I know the ombudsman has staff retention issues and a large volume of cases but 15 decisions to date is not a reasonable output given how long things are going on.
 
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However if the Ombudsman did require further information or clarification then this part of the process would have to start again and she noted that this is often the case.

Hi Dpd

That is also very interesting. I am aware of an AIB prevailing rate issue which finished the correspondence stage quickly and went to adjudication.

Then out again it came back to requiring further information which required another exchange and added probably 3 months. Totally unnecessarily in my view. The Ombudsman could have requested and got the information at a much earlier stage.

Brendan
 
Yes if I was cynical I’d say these information requests are a way of massaging the numbers / dates. The ombudsman request in my case was just send all information between AIB and appeals panel again. They had asked and received all this is their first info request so it was bizarre. Technically could they then say this was returned to the investigation phase and thus the date of adjudication and decision starts again from when they receive this? Say for example I then get my decision in March they can say adjudication and decision was 12 months and not 2+years.
 
Upon requesting an update I was told my case was classified as moving to “adjudication phase” end of March and that a preliminary decision was being drafted. I was advised that the adjudication process takes 6-12 months but that they were not in a position to advise on a timeframe of when the preliminary decision of my case will be issued.
 
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