I lost a BTL several years after exiting the fixed rate, I'm hoping to demonstrate that between what we would of saved had the 12% been deducted 3 years previously
I would caution people here that in the vast majority of cases, houses were lost because the borrower was unable to make any reasonable payment. In most cases, where the borrower was paying a decent amount, AIB restructured the mortgage.
So, in most cases the Ombudsman will not find that the loss of the property was due to the failure to offer a tracker at the end of the fixed rate.
I have not seen any decision from the Ombudsman on a loss of ownership issue, but the only approach I think he can take, given his decision would be as follows:
The repayment was €X per month. The amount paid by the borrower was insufficiently close to this to enable AIB to offer a restructure. Had the repayment been €X - 12% X, could it have been restructured?
In numbers
Case A) The repayment due was €1,000 a month but the borrower had paid nothing at all for a year. Reducing the €1,000 by 12% to to €880 would have made no difference. The failure to offer a tracker was not causal.
Case B) The repayment was due was €1,000 a month and the borrower was consistently paying €700 a month. AIB did not offer a restructure. However, had the repayment been €880, they could have come up with a restructure,so the failure to offer a tracker was causal.