Compensation offered by bank - can / should I go to Ombudsman?

OffalyDillon

Registered User
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Hi,

I have a mortgage with Bank of Ireland, I sold the property with a shortfall and offered to transfer the shortfall to a property I had inherited and moved into.

The process took over 2 years, short version is I did the arrears process 4 times due to different issues with the bank (not me), I had a breach of data confidentiality, delays, etc,. they even applied the fixed rate penalty for me "partially" breaking out of the fixed rate early 4 months after the sale of the house was completed and sent me out 5 letters in 3 months stating changes to my account and not to mention each change to my account was down to their doing, even though the letters all stated "We have made changes to your account on your request......"

I finally made a complaint - 4 pages of a complaint, 6 pages of detailed phone calls, 10 pages of emails......

They have come back and on most points (bad communications, data breach, applying fixed penalty) they have owned up and said they were wrong and have put measures in place, are changing their letter wording, etc.,
They've offered to take the fixed penalty fee (approx. 2.5k) plus pay for my solicitors fees (another 2k).

If I agree, I'd have to continue with the transfer of the shortfall onto the deeds of my house and pay the remaining 36k over 3.5 years.

My question is, I was only expecting apologises, so was going to go to the Financial Ombudsman anyway, but the fact they've made some sort of offer, should I accept and leave it or go to the Ombudsman? Will I lose the 4.5k they've offered if I do go to the Ombudsman?
 
Bank of Ireland must have done something very wrong to offer compensation, how bad was the data breach?

I'd be inclined to get some professional advice on this, the Ombudsman may not be the best route and maybe other avenues could be an option.

Whats your solicitors advice, since they are already willing to pay for his fees?
 
You have two complaints as far as I can see.

They appear to have incorrectly charged you a fixed penalty fee, which they have offered to give back to you. If you go to the FSO, then the FSO should give this back as well.

The other complaint appears to be administrative incompetence. They are paying you €2k towards that. In general, the FSO does make small awards of €500 or €1,000 towards this. I doubt if they will award you any more.

What do you want? And what is your case?

And as todo says, what does your solicitor say?

Brendan
 
If you have had a breech of data confidentiality you should be reporting it to the Data Protection Commissioner. I'm also a firm believer in never accepting the first offer. Have you tried going back to the bank and saying you are disappointed with the level of compensation and feel you may have no option but to report the issues to the Ombudsman and the DPC. I'd be curious to see how the bank would respond to that
 
So they are offering to refund a fee they wrongly charged you and pay your legal expenses? There is no compensation here for you as far as I can see. I would follow the previous poster's advice and go back to the bank.
 
@todo - they changed the address on my account to some one else's address in Harold's Cross and then sent out the decision on letting me sell the house - a type of letter of offer I suppose. It was only when I approached them to state they were in breach of the Central Bank's code of conduct by not sending me out the decision in writing that they gave me the Harold's Cross address over the phone and insisted I had changed it??? I made a complaint at the time, they said it was accidental and they had reporting the breach to the Data Protection Commissioner and contacted the people at that house, who had told the bank that they didn't open the letter and had shredded it. It basically had all my info, my home address, my new home address, my mortgage account number, how much I owed, my husband's details, my contact details, my bank details and the repayment schedule.

@Brendan Burgess - my solicitor deals with house sales only, so she wouldn't advise me. Just told me to speak to the bank directly. Hence I posted here for advice.

Thanks to everyone for their advice.
Ideally, as it's just over 36K of a shortfall to be a 5 year loan instead of applied to the house (although looking at the interest rates, I might be better off with a 3.5 year mortgage!) I did make the argument in my complaint that on their website, they don't set up mortgages for any less than 5 years, but they didn't respond to that (it was one line in over 4 pages of a complaint!)
In addition, I see on their website that if the LTV is less than 60%, my interest rate should be 3.5%, but they've informed me it's 4.5%

Would I be better off to email the person who dealt with the complaint and put this to her?
 
who had told the bank that they didn't open the letter and had shredded it

The above seems very convenient for Bank of Ireland, have you verified it with the people who were living at that address at the time, and also have you verified that they notified the Data Protection Commissioner at the time it occurred? How many other people have they sent all your personal information to?

I'd also be concerned about the response from your solicitor, I didn't know that some of them can only do house sales :)
Bit of I couldn't be bothered attitude.

I agree with Gerry, BOI haven't got an ounce of good will in the whole organisation, they must have seriously goofed
 
I'd also be concerned about the response from your solicitor, I didn't know that some of them can only do house sales :)
Bit of I couldn't be bothered attitude.

I've NEVER heard of a solicitor solely doing house sales. She does not seem to be advising you properly. If she is part of a larger firm, then surely someone else in the firm could advise.
 
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