Ombudsman puts case on hold due to appeal by Ulster Bank in similar case

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john_mcm

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Hi Guys,

After 2 years of adjudication with the ombudsman they have came back to me today and said due to the similarities in my case to one in which they upheld in June 2021 and were subsequently served with high court proceedings by the financial institution (Ulster Bank) my case needs to be postponed until the outcome of the high court case is known as it may impact on my case.

This has been very disheartening response after so long and I'm just curious as to why it took them 2 years to realise that my case was similar to this other case?

Also is there a way to check if the case is listed with the high court on their site? Does anybody have any idea of timeframes for something like this? They were served in July 2021 so over a year at this stage.

Thanks.
John
 
Hi John

That is good news for you, even if it doesn't seem like it.

This is what must have happened.

The Ombudsman found in favour of someone in a similar position to you.
Ulster Bank appealed it to the High Court.

So, it would be very likely that the Ombudsman would uphold your case. But there is no point in upholding it, only to have it appealed.

The Ombudsman wins over 90% of their cases in the High Court. So your chances of winning have gone up from 50% to about 90%.

Brendan
 
I am fed up trying to find cases on the Courts Service website, but here are the references if you want to find them yourself. Even if you do find them, you won't get much information.

1661372248026.png


Brendan
 
Once judgement has been made you should be able to find it on courts.ie or baiilli.org but you can’t see a filing withott requesting a copy in person.

When I say it’s bad news, it’s in the context of many years in the FSPO process and waiting longer.
 
SaySomething said:
Was it a straight appeal on compensation awarded or something different John?

Not good news for any of us in adjudication tbh.
Click to expand...
Ulster bank in their opinion said we were not impacted by the tracker mortgage issue, we had a tracker of 0.75% above ECB so maybe they just wanted to push it to see if we would appeal because of the rate we were on but we have all the supporting documentation so we appealed that decision to the ombudsman - basically on tracker, fixed for 2 or 3 years wouldn't give tracker back, same as many others here.
 
Brendan Burgess said:
Hi John

That is good news for you, even if it doesn't seem like it.

This is what must have happened.

The Ombudsman found in favour of someone in a similar position to you.
Ulster Bank appealed it to the High Court.

So, it would be very likely that the Ombudsman would uphold your case. But there is no point in upholding it, only to have it appealed.

The Ombudsman wins over 90% of their cases in the High Court. So your chances of winning have gone up from 50% to about 90%.

Brendan
Click to expand...
Hi Brendan,

Yeah I was hoping that myself but just annoyed at the whole process with the ombudsman, received an email from them a couple of weeks before saying a final decision was being drafted so thought we were finally at the end only to be told now we have more waiting to do and now it depends on the outcome of a high court case but I get your point so hopefully they will win this also.
 
It was Ulster Bank's policy to contest complaints all the way to the end with the Ombudsman. In many cases, the borrower just gave up. If the borrower showed no sign of giving up, then Ulster settled just before the decision.

My only criticism of the Ombudsman in this issue is that they don't prioritise systemic complaints. If they had 20 complaints from UB customers on this issue, they should have taken 3 of them and prioritised them and put the rest on hold. But they should have been dealt with ahead of all the people with one-off complaints that had no implications for other people.

In your case, if the Ombudsman upheld your complaint, then Ulster Bank would appeal it to the High Court. So you would be no better off. You would have been elated for 30 days and then delated when Ulster Bank issued legal proceedings.

Brendan
 
Brendan Burgess said:
It was Ulster Bank's policy to contest complaints all the way to the end with the Ombudsman. In many cases, the borrower just gave up. If the borrower showed no sign of giving up, then Ulster settled just before the decision.

My only criticism of the Ombudsman in this issue is that they don't prioritise systemic complaints. If they had 20 complaints from UB customers on this issue, they should have taken 3 of them and prioritised them and put the rest on hold. But they should have been dealt with ahead of all the people with one-off complaints that had no implications for other people.

In your case, if the Ombudsman upheld your complaint, then Ulster Bank would appeal it to the High Court. So you would be no better off. You would have been elated for 30 days and then delated when Ulster Bank issued legal proceedings.

Brendan
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To be honest I didn't really know anything of the inner workings of the bank like most people I suppose until it lands on your door and you have no choice but to try and deal with them. They have been an absolute nightmare to deal with to be fair, been a tough few years.

That was my criticism too that if they had similar cases they should be grouped together rather than dealing with everyone individually and not getting any real answers for 2 years.

As you said though it would have been worse to have the case upheld to then be told it is being appealed so hopefully the outcome will be a positive one and not take another 2 years. We'll see, thanks for the responses all.
 
Hi John
My case has been with the FSPO since 2018 and we were told a year ago we are inpacted by a case that was upheld and caught up with the court case also. As per usual radio silence from Ulster Bank.
I do think its a positive that if the similar case was upheld ours would likely be too, obviously every case is unique. Its a waiting game and interesting to see how UB will play it with them withdrawing from the Irish market.
 
It should not matter that they are leaving the market.

In fact, I thought it would have been a positive that they would have cleared all these up before moving them to ptsb.

I presume that they won't be moved now.

Brendan
 
@Banking17

Well spotted. Looks as if it's going ahead tomorrow and not just down for mention.

IN COURT 29
MS JUSTICE BOLGER
AT 10.30 O'CLOCK
2018 925 S A B C CREDIT UNION LTD & ANOR -V- SAINT RAPHAELS GARDA CREDIT UNION LTD
2021-174-MCA-ULSTER BANK DAC -V- FINANCIAL SERVICES AND PENSIONS OMBUDSMAN;
2021-173-MCA-ULSTER BANK DAC -V- FINANCIAL SERVICES AND PENSIONS OMBUDSMAN;
2021-137-MCA-ULSTER BANK IRELAND DAC -V- FINANCIAL SERVICES AND PENSIONS OMBUDSMAN
 
That is good to hear, I suppose we will have to wait and see but it would be great if it did, will the outcome of these be listed anywhere?
 
Hi John

I don't even know which issues are being challenged.

If there are three different issues the case could take a few days and it usually takes the Judge a few months to issue a decision.

Brendan
 
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