‘It wasn't fair to charge me arrears fees’

Mortgages

We look at Kevin’s complaint about the arrears fees his mortgage lender charged him when he struggled to meet his repayments after falling ill.

What happened

Kevin became ill, and it took longer than expected to recover. He struggled to meet his mortgage payments – but his lender said it couldn’t help him. His account got into arrears.

We thought the lender should have looked at Kevin’s income and expenditure and considered the nature of his illness – whether it was likely to be temporary or permanent. Then it should have offered options that helped Kevin in his circumstances, like a temporary switch to interest-only or accepting reduced payments for a while.

What we said

We thought the lender could have done more to help Kevin, and it wasn’t fair for them to apply arrears charges. We told them to refund the charges and to work with Kevin to create a repayment plan, bearing in mind his health problems.