George asked his mortgage lender for a reduced payment arrangement and noticed that it spelled his name wrong in some of their communications.
What happened
George lost his job and couldn’t pay his mortgage. He asked his lender for help, and it arranged a three-month payment arrangement for him. Later, the lender agreed that he only needed to make payments of interest temporarily.
But George didn’t think this was enough and was worried he might not find a new job. He wanted a payment holiday until he was working again.
George also pointed out that the lender had spelled his name wrong in some of its communications with him. This annoyed him as he thought it showed a lack of attention to his problems. The lender apologised and corrected its records.
What we said
We thought the lender had tried to help George while he looked for a new job. We were satisfied it had done enough to support George while he was experiencing money difficulties. It had offered reduced payments temporarily and said it would consider an extension if needed. But we agreed it wouldn’t be right to do that indefinitely without checking in on George’s situation from time to time. So, we didn’t recommend it needed to do more.
We noted that there had been a small admin error that was corrected quickly, and we understood that the situation was stressful for George. But the mistake's impact was small, and it was corrected quickly. As it had no effect on the other support the lender had given George, we thought an apology was enough. So, we didn’t uphold George’s complaint and the lender didn’t need to take any further action.