Mortgage payment not showing up on lenders records.

Hi, I'm new on here and looking for help with my situation. Here is my problem:

My husband & I recently changed our bank account. We phoned up our mortgage provider to find out what we needed to do to get our mortgage repayent taken from our new account. They said we'd have to set up a new Direct Debit & that they'd send us out the form. The form arrived in the post with all the Mortgage lenders details filled in, all we had to do was fill in our new account details etc and sign, then send it back which we did. A few days later got a letter from them saying thanks for setting up new direct debit and then listing the account details paymnet will be going out of and the account details its being payed into & the date payment going out.
The direct debit date arrived but it wasnt taken out of the new account but instead it was taken from the old account,there wasnt sufficient funds in it so didnt go through. We rang our mortgage lender that morning to see what happended, they said they'd look for it from the new account, went over the details again. Said if it didnt go out in 5working days to contact them again. It ended up going out of new account 4days later, so we thought nothing more about it.
Fast forward to this month to get back from a week away to find a letter from mortgage lender saying we are in arrears as we never payed last months mortgage. My husband rang them up to ask what was going on. they say its not showing up on their records, were told to get our bank to put a trace on it to see where it went. Rang bank, put trace on it, they rang us to say it definately went out to mortgage lender & our mortgage for begining of June went out too. Our mortgage lender are they have no record of it and we are now in arrears.
I apologise for it being so long, any help would be greatly appreciated, thanks

This problem is at the mortgage provider's end, so that is where you have to start.

This is a direct debit and not a standing order.

The mortgage provider initiates the direct debit and sucks the money out of your current account.

The two payments have left your current account, so you gave the mortgage lender the correct details.

There is a problem at the mortgage provider's end. They have the money but they have not allocated it to your mortgage yet.

Although the mistake is at the mortgage provider's end, call your bank and ask for a copy of whatever they get when the DD is sent over.

It will be paying it into the mortgage lender's bank account. But it won't be properly allocated to your account within the bank.

Thanks Brendan,
Thats what our bank told us as well but when we said all this to our Mortgage provider they said it's not showing up on their records, that its not their fault, its either ours or the bank that have done something wrong. Our bank have been very helpful and sent us everything they can, got it in post today.
We were on the phone for over an hour trying to get this sorted out only to be told they cant do anything that if we want to take it further we would have to write a letter of complaint with everything in it. So that seems like that is the only option for us. We are frustrated with our mortgage provider as we feel we have done everything correctly but are now getting arrears letters yet we have payed it on time. We are also worried that our credit rating will now be affected by this.

These can be very difficult and time consuming to resolve, but you will resolve it.

I presume that your bank's records show the payments going to your mortgage provider? Are you making a note of every contact you have with the mortgage lender? This is very important for a subsequent complaint. Make a note of the name of the person, and the date and time of the call? Ask for their email address and email them with a summary of what was discussed on the phone.

It can be hard to get through to the right person, but you have to ask to speak to their supervisor to get this sorted out. Which mortgage provider is it?

Don't bother with the arrears units, they wouldn't have a clue. You need to get onto some sort of accounts department. They are sitting there with lodgements to their bank accounts and can't trace them to the right account.

They will automatically damage your ICB record, but they will fix it after they resolve it. You will need to check with the ICB afterwards to make sure it's fixed.

If they really maladminister your account, you can make an internal complaint and then go to the Financial Ombudsman if not resolved.

Brendan

Yes the bank's records show it going to the mortgage provider. We've had to ring our mortgage provider so many times since this sorted only made note of names of the last two people we spoke to when it became clear this wasnt going to be sorted out easily, we have dates & time though of when we've rang.
Our mortgage provider is Haven Mortgage Ltd.
Thx

mdm said:

Yes the bank's records show it going to the mortgage provider. We've had to ring our mortgage provider so many times since this sorted only made note of names of the last two people we spoke to when it became clear this wasnt going to be sorted out easily, we have dates & time though of when we've rang.
Our mortgage provider is Haven Mortgage Ltd.
Thx

Click to expand...

Suggest;
1.Stop the phone calls, as it is very hard to get this type of admin issue sorted on phone. You end up getting miffed.
2. As you have all the payment documentation, photo copy it , send it Reg mail to the people in Haven who are sending you arrears letters.
3. Request they sort matters and ask them to ensure your credit rating is sorted .
4. Request all communication to be in writing.

I know it is a pain , but paper trails are the one sure way to go.
It will get resolved.

5. On any future claims of non-payment refer back to previous correspondance.
6. Keep notes/times of any calls.

Good luck.

Thanks Gerry,

Going to get everything photo copied and send it off now, thx will let yo know when and if it gets sorted out.

Hi

Update:

After sending our letter of complaint & photo copies of all documentation showing our mortgage repayment leaving our account & going to Havens account, we finally received a letter from them. In it it said that after investigating our complaint they can not find anything wrong. They have no record of our May payment being received and because of this we are in arrears. They said we are to revert back to our bank. We also got another letter telling us we are in arrears.

My husband rang Haven to try speak to the person who was dealing with our complaint but had no luck. They person on the phone tried to help but kept repeating that there is now record of them recieving the payment. I had to take the phone away from my Husband as at this stage he had had enough. I was told that an email requesting a call back from the person in charge of our complaint had been sent & that it could take 48hrs.

That was a wednesday, I eventually received a call a week later.

The woman on the phone was very apologetic, she said that they had made a mistake, that they did get our May repayment. They have amended their records to show that we are not in arrears, they are refunding the interest which we were charged & they will be making sure that our credit rating is restored/not affected by this. This is all to be sent to us in writing.

I could not believe what I was hearing, since this started we have been told over & over again that they were not at fault. We were made to feel that we had done something wrong, that we were telling a lie. I huge weight has been lifted off our shoulders.

Thanks Brendan & Gerry for your advice.

mdm

Hi mdm

An amazing story and I am glad that you resolved it.

What astonishes me is that anyone with a basic knowledge of banking in Haven should have known immediately that the problem was at their end.

Wait until you get the letter of explanation and apology.

I do think you should take it further within the EBS/Haven Group. It won't do you any good, but it might stop them making such a stupid administrative mistake.

Brendan

Absolutely unbelieveable that the bank staff could be so unaware of the DD process. As BB previously advised the DD must have been initiated by Haven and a copy of your bank statement would have proved to them that the payment had been made. Given the amount of grief that they have put you through over this issue a simple apology should not be accepted as adequate. The previous complaints process response is also indicative of poor customer service.
Despite your previous poor experience of customer complaints you should not let this issue die. At the very least you are deserving of a formal written apology from the Bank acknowledging their error. Write directly to the CEO outlining your experience and asking for a full explanation of how this arose and why bank officials cannot understand their own direct debit system. This is apalling practise!!!

I would hold off on writing to the CEO until you see what you get from them in writing.

Brendan

Hi,

We are going to wait and see what they have to say when we get their letter. The woman who I spoke to last did say if we wanted to make a complaint about the way we were treated that we had every right to to so.

What we are really frustrated about is that we had to run around getting all the information/documents showing that the DD was set up in time, that it did leave our bank account, however when Haven had all this information sitting in front of them in black & white they still denied it. The customer service we recieved from them was shocking,we felt that they just didnt want to deal was us. Our bank, KBC on the other hand were fantastic. They got back to us straight away & gave us ever document that they could that would help us to get this resolved.

We are just to so relieved that they have admitted they were at fault.

Thanks again for the support,

mdm

I've only glanced over this thread but one thing that I think would be very important is to insist that Haven sends you a copy of your Irish Credit Bureau (www.icb.ie) reports to prove that no arrears have been recorded. You can buy a copy of your report directly from ICB but under the circumstances I think Haven should pay for it.

If Haven mistakenly recorded arrears on your ICB report, then only they can get that fixed. If they forget to fix it, you could find that you have trouble getting some other loan in the future. Easiest if you make sure it's fixed now.

As the cost is so small, I strongly recommend that you check it yourself rather than going through the hassle of asking Haven to do it.

Brendan