I published a Digest of Decisions in 2020 dealing specifically with tracker mortgage decisions (Digest Volume 3). This is
available on our website with the other four Digests of Decisions. Our Database of Decisions now contains more than 1,000
decisions in relation to complaints against financial service providers, including tracker mortgage decisions.
It can be seen from the tracker related decisions published that a significant number of tracker mortgage complaints continue not to be upheld. Some complainants continue to have unrealistic expectations, believing that simply desiring to have a tracker interest rate, or knowing
someone who got a tracker interest rate at the same time they took out their mortgage, provides a basis for requiring their bank to
grant them a tracker interest rate. This is not the case.
Further details in relation to tracker mortgage related complaints are set out on page 15.
Page 15
Tracker Mortgage Related Complaints
In 2020, complaints identified as relating to a tracker mortgage interest rate continued to comprise a considerable amount of the work of
the FSPO, with 582 tracker mortgage complaints closed during the year.
It can be seen from the tracker related decisions published that a significant number of tracker mortgage complaints continue to
be not upheld. Some complainants continue to have unrealistic expectations, believing that their desire to have a tracker interest
rate provides a basis for requiring their bank to grant them one.
Of these 582 complaints, 273 were closed following mediation by the Dispute Resolution Service. 120 of these complaints were closed
following investigation and the issuing of a legally binding decision. The remainder were closed across the other processes within the FSPO;
15 within Customer Operations and Information Management,
113 within Investigations and Legal Services without a legally binding decision and
61 in Registration & Assessment.
- Some of the unsuccessful arguments put forward by complainants in relation to tracker mortgages include:
- I have a constitutional right to a tracker mortgage
- My business partner was offered a tracker mortgage
- I would like to have a tracker mortgage but one was never offered to me
- The bank never told me it was withdrawing tracker interest rates from the market generally. If the bank had told me it was doing this, I would have asked for a tracker interest rate at the time