Reclaiming dormant funds without requested documentation

[zuinig]

Is it worth considering Power of Attorney for the relative at this stage.? Note the ombudsman also won't touch this without you following the banks customer complaints process first.

The bank said PoA was not needed so I went to a branch as they directed. In branch they agreed to deal with me and again said PoA was not necessary. I then followed the bank's own complaints process. The Ombudsman also agreed to deal with me for that reason but they can not take things further than the issue of service because I do not personally have a contract with the bank.

 

[zuinig]

@zuinig

You are wasting your time (for now) with the Ombudsman. They make it very clear who has standing to complain:



They make it very clear that (for a living person) the only person who can make a claim is the account holder themselves.

Somebody dropped the ball by failing to maintain a utility bill in the relative's name. Literally every adult should always have a bill in their name somewhere and it shouldn't have been allowed to lapse. It is a daft way of proving address but it's the only system there is.

In my case the Ombudsman did agree to open a case. I spoke to them first and they agreed there was a concern about the service and possible data privacy issues.

As for utility bills: if you are elderly and move into a nursing home it's not sensible or prudent to keep a, say, ESB or Eir account in your name even if you own the property. For instance, if you need to make a simple change to the account, like a renewal for a better rate, the utility company will always ask to speak to the account holder first. So you end up having a family member manage everything even if Power of Attorney is not necessary, and especially so during the pandemic.

 

[NoRegretsCoyote]

In my case the Ombudsman did agree to open a case.

So you have a written response to you directly from the Ombudsman's office saying that they are investigating a claim made by a third party, namely you? I would be surprised if this is the case.

As for utility bills: if you are elderly and move into a nursing home it's not sensible or prudent to keep a, say, ESB or Eir account in your name even if you own the property. For instance, if you need to make a simple change to the account, like a renewal for a better rate, the utility company will always ask to speak to the account holder first.

The downside is that you have issues like the one above you've outlined above.......

 

[zuinig]

It's been a while but I'd thought I'd bump the thread with the outcome of this problem.

My relative resubmitted a complaint to the bank in question about the impossibility of reclaiming her dormant funds (OK, written by me and signed by her). When that did not receive any sort of result (they insisted on following their own procedure again which is impossible) I filed a complaint. That took a year because the bank did not adhere to their own timetable for dealing with complaints.
I contacted the Ombudsman (FSPO) again and they advised that the case must be opened by the relative (immobile in a nursing home) but with me as a nominated contact person. Once started they completely understood the situation and the impossible situation the bank had created. They quickly suggested a solution (a simple document in this case) which the bank accepted and the dormant funds were released.
Had it not been for their intervention and the flexibility and professionalism of the FSPO this relative would have been unable to access their own money through no fault of their own.
I'm posting this to encourage people not to accept arbitrary and chaotic procedures from financial institutions when they are clearly in the right.

 

[DannyBoyD]

Great to hear back & well done on not giving up.