tax relief error on Haven's part - can they recoup with no warning?

G

ggirl

Registered User
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I am on a fixed rate with Haven (EBS broker side of things) and they took 94 extra on my payment today with no warning. When I rang they told me they have made an error with people's tax relief (she said they had already had hundreds of calls about this today) and have to recoup it before the end of the year and will be taking the extra amount next month too. I received no letter in advance. Can they do this with no warning? I am in the red as a result with another payment due to go out of my account which will now bounce. I also cannot afford an extra 94 next month, I am barely making ends meet as it is. I feel sick, worried and angry. Can anyone please advise me?
 
Sorry, I should have said that they said they have now halved people's tax relief across the board? Does this make sense?
 
Just checked my online banking today & same thing seems to have happened to me (although am on variable rate, but still, no warning) Gonna ring tomorrow to see what the situation is...
 
I spoke to Haven yesterday on behalf of a client as the same thing happened. I was told that they calculate the estimated amount of interest on a mortgage at the start of the year and tax relief would be set to reflect this. When the interest rates went down in full, Haven don't seem to have amended people's tax relief in full. As a result, it seems too much tax relief was being given for the amount of interest that was being paid. I can't believe they did it without any warning or any correspondence to customers.
 
thanks for that, it makes it a bit clearer. I still think it is outrageous though!
 
If you are on a fixed rate though then your estimated interest for the year shouldn't change like that should it? I am on a fixed rate and yet they charged me €104 extra this month.

I haven't rung them yet, I need to dig out my paperwork. Shouldn't they notify customers in advance too? Also, adjustments should be per customer account rather than blanket halving the TRS across the board.
 
Just rang Havan and got a different answer. They said that every month they get a figure from Revenue regarding the tax relief at source amount and the wrong figure was entered into their system this month. In short they look a larger payment from people than they should have and it will be refunded to people accounts by Friday.

Anyone else get this reply as to why they took more this month??
 
If the money was taken out by direct debit, they have to by law give you 2 weeks notice or some other time agreed in the DD mandidate.

If they fail to do this they are in breech of the direct debit process and you can complain here

You'll still have to pay the money but it will help deal with the annoying way they treated you.
 
I haven't rung them yet about it but have looked up my paperwork and I can't find any errors in the TRS so the response about an error on their part makes sense. I hope thats what it is but its not a very good sign from a banking institution. Its also not good that they decide to just take a higher amount without notifying anyone.
 
If the explanation I got is true, while it's annoying, at the same time all of these system are open to errors as humans code them and input the info! I don't think they just decided to take a higher amount, someone prob just put a figure in wrong somewhere! Nightmare for whoever that was...they must be crapping themselves!!!! It would be nice to receive an apology from Haven but I wouldn't hold my breath.
 
If thats what ends up happening, hopefully they will at least send out a letter to all affected to acknowledge the problem and let everyone know what happened. We know now because we read the forum but I'm sure there are many people out there who just think that their mortgage payments have just gone up. I'm just glad to be getting the money back!
 
I got an apology from Haven by email yesterday afternoon. I had mailed them demanding a full explanation earlier in the day. They didn't explain the error, just that TRS was halved for November, but said all affected customers are being written to with a detailed explanation. Said the additional amount taken will be refunded by 20th November at the latest and, as their error put me in the red, they will refund any bank charges also. Said my December payment will revert back to my normal amount. At least they had the decency to apologise! As previous poster said, human error happens, it is how it is dealt with that matters at the end of the day.
 
I didn't even notice the extra amount taken until i saw this! It comes from a seperate bank account and not one i check all the time! Just under €100.00 extra was taken. I just rang them there and the girl that answered was like "eh, yeah, there was an error with the tax relief and eh yeah it should be eh refunded by the end of the month" No apologies or anything were made. I told her i wanted that in writing and she said that they are going to do letters and post them out. Not impressed by this but unfortunatly human error does happen.
 
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