Banking Ombudsman
The Banking Ombudsman and property-related complaints Deborah Battell As property professionals you will no doubt have seen a number of your clients having problems with financing and servicing mortgages. You may even have experienced problems yourselves. We have resolved a number of disputes between those in the industry and their banks, especially since the start of the global financial crisis. Two things are, however, certain. The complaints are continuing and you are well-placed to refer your clients to the Banking Ombudsman if they need independent, impartial and expert help to resolve problems with their banking service providers. We are not always able to resolve the matter to a customer’s satisfaction, but we can ensure a fair hearing and a reasoned explanation.
Property disputes significant Disputes involving property currently constitute more than 20 per cent of the Banking Ombudsman’s case-load. Unfortunately the global financial crisis has left many people struggling to service mortgages on their own homes or on investment properties. Others have been unable to complete property developments or borrow money. The problems appear to lie across most sectors of the economy and income brackets. The days of ‘borrowing to the max’ are over for most people for the meantime. Before describing the main problems we have been dealing with, it is useful to know a couple of things. • I use the terms banking service providers and banks, for convenience. Our participants include most building societies, two of the largest credit unions, and nearly all the subsidiaries and related companies • We cannot investigate everything which our participants do or do not do. Our terms of reference preclude us from investigating complaints which are Vol 2, Issue 1, March 2012 Property Quarterly 3