EBS Appeals Panel partially upheld my appeal for more compensation.

B

Bikini Widow

Registered User
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86
Hi all,

Appreciate any viewpoint on my current circumstance.

Background:

· Like many others, I had a tracker mortgage with EBS and in the latter half of 2006 my wife and myself found we could no longer afford our repayments as the EU Tracker Rate had increased beyond our repayment capacity.

· In January 2007 we prudently contacted EBS who offered to move us to their fixed option at a lower rate.

· Not being able to afford the Tracker Rate we had little choice but to agree and signed the agreement.

· The letter we signed stated we would move to their variable at the end of the fixed period but we were not otherwise informed or advised of the impact it would have on us. Nor did we have any other option but to sign agreement or go into arrears..

· At the end of the fixed period we contacted them to move back to Tracker and we were informed that the option did not exist. Since then we have been fixed, then variable then fixed with EBS paying anything from 3.8% to 4.8%.


Action taken

· I contacted the EBS Mortgage Redress Helpline on Tuesday 22th November 2016 and spoke to the manager on Duty, the manager informed me that anybody who signed this templated agreement back in 2006/2007 to move to fixed will not be included or impacted by the EBS Mortgage Redress Scheme.

· Like many others this for me is unacceptable as we had no choice but to sign or go into arrears at the time.

· Apart from one sentence on the templated letter we were not advised or informed of the consequence of signing their agreement.

· Again as per confirmation from EBS Helpline Manager anybody who signed this agreement is being excluded from the Redress Scheme.




Rough estimate from memory I have 20 years left and owe 273,000K, obviously with this time span remaining being put back on a tracker would make a huge difference to myself and family.




Question: Has anybody successfully challenged EBS on this, I am presuming it was a standard form others signed at the time. (I have requested my history from them but will take awhile) Once I have it will share the exact wording of the form that has single-handily cost me a vast fortune when I was totally unaware what I was actually signing.

Any and all feedback gratefully appreciated.
BW
 
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Bikini Widow said:
I signed when switching to fixed back in Jan 2007 meant I would not be part of the redress scheme as it stated I would move to variable at the end of the term.
Click to expand...

I understand that AIB/EBS has taken the decision not to put these people back on trackers.

What was the wording of the form you signed? Are you sure you signed a form?

However, your file should have been reviewed as part of the Review and I think you should receive a letter telling you that your case was reviewed, but that you are not going to be redressed.

AIB is before the Oireachtas Finance Committee on Thursday. If you feel strongly about it, you should contact a TD or a Senator and ask them to ask AIB about how they are treating these cases. What criteria are they using? What options are open to people who will be refused?

Brendan
 
Hi Brendan, Thank you for reply, good to know AIB is meeting Oireachtas Finance Committee and I will move to contact members

My presumption at this stage, is unless somebody else has challenged and won is the legal/solicitor route is all that remains but would be great to get the question asked to them by TD/Senator in attendance on Thursday and obtain answer if any.

In regards to the form signed, yes I have a recollection I signed something along with my wife also. The wording I will get and share asap but as per conversation today with EBS redress Helpline Manager seemed to be boiler template and state that I would move to a variable at the end of fixed. At the time this meant little to me I was just looking to urgently reduce cost.

Thanks again,
BW
 
Bikini Widow said:
Like many others this for me is unacceptable as we had no choice but to sign or go into arrears at the time.
Click to expand...

To me, it looks like you are out of the loop because you actually made a choice to give up a tracker rate to move to a fixed. I understand why you did it, but it looks pretty straight forward to me.

In the likes of my case, my contract stated that I should have rolled on to a tracker rate at the end of the fixed period. This is very different to your case.

Sorry!

(just my opinion though!)
 
I'd have to agree with Wardy7. From my own situation my understanding was that the consumer protection code changed in later years in terms of the bank having ti explain the consequences of switching.

their position at the time you did would have been that you should have sought advice on the mater.
 
IMHO bw has a case

The bank forced him to fix

And didn't explain the consequences

The documents are often vague

Shoe on other foot the bank would argue the opposite and try to get away with it
 
There was an agreement to fix.....no forcing?

As quoted above, the terms were - variable after fixed.
 
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Could you not argue that they were given no choice but to fix as the only options were arrears or fix .....and even at that they should have been made fully aware of the implications of both
 
Bottom line is that they made the decision to move from a tracker to a fixed rate. They are the facts. Can they argue that they weren't made fully aware of the future consequences of this decision? I don't know?

I don't really see how this scenario could be considered the same thing. Lots of people had to make financial decisions based on what was happening at any particular time. You have to make these choices at the time and we naturally all live in hope that we are doing the right thing.

I really feel for them but this situation seems very different to being denied your contractual rights.
 
it is different but I suppose in terms of consumer protection are they not supposed to be told the full implications prior to making a decision? The consumer protection act allows for situations in which the provider has the customer make a different decision than they ordinarily would have. I'm not a solicitor so I don't know but possibly you could argue that.
 
The Act came in to force on May 1st 2007 and they renegotiated in January. So they might be knackered there?
 
In my case we rang EBS when our fixed term was coming to an end to move back onto tracker rate and had a conversation with possibly one of the rudest unhelpful people we ever came across. Call is logged and we were left shellshocked by their attitude.

We had no awareness at the time that we had option to go to FSO and had no money or time to take legal route.

In relation to how we remember years later, the answer is due to the schocking attitude of the bank representative and that we had always planned to revert back to tracker we genuinely believed we could moved to fixed for the temporary duration. At no stage did EBS tell us or advise we could not until we rang back to revert.

Many thanks,
BW
 
Received ours today. Long overdue and glad their apology is ‘sincere’ when in fact all they did was rip us off and obstruct for 8 years.

Many thanks,
BW
 
Hi all,

I also contacted the helpline
1. Mortgage reduced (couple of grand less that I had ballparked)
2. Monthly repayments then down slightly more due to above mortgage correction.

With the reduction from the initial announcement last July to this one it will make a huge difference to family. No further information on redress, interest etc..

Many thanks to all,
BW
 
I am just amazed by how much EBS would have gotten away with if not for folk like Padraic Kissane driving this to satisfactory resolution and turning on the lights for all of us.

What i would suggest is for anyone (not on his books) who got their EBS tracker back + compensation + Legal advice.

To give the legal advice part to Padraic and his staff. We would have nothing if not for them. I think Brendan put up his bank details before.

Many thanks,
BW
 
Just rang EBS help desk. There will be nother letter in next 3 months with a breakdown of numbers

What I could gleam off them now is 615 euro is Legal Fees (park this to one side)

ballpark 80% of what I then received is over-payment
Remaining 20% is a mix of both compensation & Time value, with an estimation that the compensation is the greater part of it

In summary If I received 1,615 euro today
- 615 = legal fees
- 800 = Overpayment
- 200 = compensation & Time value.

Any appeal can also be logged within 12 months of the next letter. You would almost suspect they are trying to drag it out so we lose interest in any appeal as we will not have any factual numbers within half a year since initial letter.

Hope this helps

Many thanks,
BW
 
Hi all,
Just to say we are finally done!!

Thanks to Padraic Kissane. tracker was returned and we got the great news yesterday that our appeal was partially upheld by EBS appeals panel with additional compensation.

great to close this off and hope many others continue to challenge and get what they deserve.
Best wishes,
BW
 
HI BW

That is great news.

I moved some of your posts from the longer general EBS thread to provide a bit of context.

When were you informed that you were getting redress? I could not find a post about this.

Did EBS return the tracker to you as part of the Central Bank review process or was it the Appeals Panel that directed them to return it to you?

Brendan
 
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