Kevin complained about the 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 for him to recover. He struggled to meet his mortgage payments, but his lender said it couldn’t help him.
Over time, Kevin’s account got into mortgage arrears. He complained to his lender about the situation, asking for it to be more supportive and work with him.
Unhappy with his mortgage lender’s response, he brought his complaint to us.
What we said
We considered whether the lender should have looked at Kevin’s income and spending and taken into account the nature of his illness. For example, whether his illness was likely to be temporary or permanent.
It should have then offered Kevin a few options that might help him, like a temporary switch to interest only, or accepting reduced payments for a while.
We concluded that the lender could have done more to help Kevin and it wasn’t fair to apply arrears charges.
We upheld his complaint and told the lender to refund the charges and to work with Kevin to create a repayment plan that took his health problems into account.