Success! Ombudsman told AIB to give me my tracker back after fixing.

First of all I have to commend all the posts on this website. They have been really enlightening regarding my current situation. My situation is very similar to Harvest Moon’s situation on a previous thread.I took out a mortgage with AIB in 2007 with the rate in Year 1: ECB + 0.6% and thereafter ECB + 1.1%. I then decided to fix it a year later for 2 years as I thought interest rates were going up. When I came off the fixed rate AIB wouldn’t put me on a tracker rate because “the Tracker Rate is no longer a product offering by the bank and was discontinued on 10th October 2008.” At the time I queried this with a few people but the general consensus was I had no comeback due to my taking out a fixed rate. Upon further investigation of the original letter of offer of mortgage loan I noticed the following under the general terms and conditions of offer of mortgage loan:


As per the (c) above I should have been offered the option of a tracker rate as per original contract at a margin of 1.1% above the ECB rate. Anyway I’ve sent a letter of complaint off to the mortgage centre explaining that I will take necessary steps via Ombudsman or Legal unless they reinstate my tracker . I’m awaiting a response and I will keep you posted on developments.

Thanks Dr, I have all my documentation in order.I received the final response letter from the Head of Customer Complaints which came back negative as expected.They've based their case on two points:

1."The term 'prevailing rates' means the interest rates then current and available at the date that a customer's fixed rate period expires.The Bank discontinued providing tracker rates to customers in October 2008.Accordingly,on expiry of your fixed interest rate the Bank was only in a position to offer rates that were currently available,being the Bank's prevailing rate on expiry of your fixed rate so could not be offered to you."
2. "Furthermore,in the Bank's letter dated .....,it stated that your monthly repayments would be revised 'in accordance with the rate then applicable' I note that you state that when you fixed your mortgage, you were not advised you would be unable to return to a tracker rate on expiry of the fixed interest rate.As the tracker rate was still a prevailing rate at that time (having only been discontinued in October 2008) no such advice could have been given.However,there was no indication or guarantee given in the Bank's correspondence that the tracker rate would be available upon expiry of my your fixed rate which is consistent with clause 3.2 referred to above."

Clause 3.2 is

Hi Florida this as you mention is the critical paragraph in your complaint and i believe that there is merits from both sides but i would choose words carefully on how its presented to the Ombudsman's Office. I feel its important to mention that the intention when this loan offer issued was that your tracker was set for the life of the mortgage and it is only with the subsequent events in the whole banking area that these lenders are trying to keep as many of their customers from returning to their tracker rates. The prevailing rate for tracker mortgages continues to be available but only to those who are currently on tracker rates so is a sense it is incorrect of AIB to say this prevailing rate is not available. It would be more accurate if they said that they are chooosing not to make it available to customers who have and are exiting their fixed rate term. Hope this helps but if you need to correspomd directly you can email me on info@kissanefs.com Good luck

Thanks Padraic. I may well take you up on that. I made the following points in my original letter of complaint to the bank:
1. The contract pre dated any withdrawal of the tracker from the market and as it is a signed contract AIB is legally obliged to honour it regardless.
2. There are thousands of customers on trackers at the moment. The argument that the tracker "product" is no longer on the market is not true.
3. At the time, the consequences of availing of a fixed term rate were not made clear to me through the documentation or advice received from AIB. I believed I could revert to a tracker rate at the end of the fixed term. I believe AIB is in effect ignoring the terms of the mortgage as per the original letter of offer.
4. It has come to my attention that people who were in a similar situation to me (i.e. initially had a tracker and then fixed) have had their tracker rate reinstated having initially been denied.
5. I will take all necessary steps via the Financial Ombudsman or Legal if you don’t agree to a reinstatement of my tracker rate.
6. I will also be pursuing a refund of the difference in the interest rates as a result of being denied the tracker and a description of the calculations.

To resolve this I will make the following points to the FSO:

1. Apply the correct interest rate (ECB + 1.1%) and monthly repayment when I came off the original 2 year fixed rate as per the original letter of offer and to recalculate what the balance should be today.
2. Issue a new set of statements from the time of the interest error up to today. If I’m happy with these statements then this will be my new balance going forward.
3. Reinstate my tracker rate (ECB+1.1%) with immediate effect without me having to pay a breakage fee on the fixed rate I’m currently on as I wouldn’t be on this rate if it wasn’t for their mistake in the first place.

Just to confirm that the Ombudsman came back in my favour and I got my tracker back.

Florida23 said:

Just to confirm that the Ombudsman came back in my favour and I got my tracker back.

Click to expand...

Florida - well done. Great news.

excellent, well done

do people now still think the banking business is built on trust between the parties ?

in somewhat similar position, only discovered this week we have claim for tracker by reading this site
mortgage contract reads per florida above, ie option of tracker at end fixed interest period
original mortage taken out 2007 variable, then fixed rate after couple months for 5 years
on expirary june 2012 bank letter letter offers only choice fixed rate or if not taken goes to variable, which they did as we did not reply
no mention tracker option per loan contract
I have loan contract, my letter instructing fix rate, their reply agreeing and stating after expirary of fixes rate loan will be revised at " appropriate rate "

whats my chances ?
any suggestions please



about to write bank seeking explation why not put on tracker and follow up wherever the process takes me

well done again