Its all Greed to me

Mahatma Ghandi said, "Earth provides enough to satisfy every man's need, but not every man greed" and as I compile yet another letter for the Financial Ombudsman, I cannot help wondering if it will be HBOS’s overvaluation of my house in May 2006 that finally turns my case against them to my advantage. Encouraged by news I may finally have found legal representation, I can only hope my complaint will ultimately reveal the lengths to which HBOS have gone to in an effort to feed their own avarice.
 
While this week even Russian prime minister Vladimir Putin attributes his country’s economic growth to both its large oil and gas reserves and its wealth “of a talented, creative, well trained and educated people” whom he regards as “an enormous treasure", I am left resisting thoughts that in the UK the our own government along with the Financial Ombudsman’s Service are merely facades for organisations established to mute the cries of the very same talented, creative, well trained and educated British people who are now the fallout victims of a global economic crisis. With both the government and our regulators either powerless or unwilling to intervene, the battle for democracy remains the individuals fight and it rages on through protest against the billionaires and corporations intent on reshaping politics to suit their own interests.
   
While officials talk of a future which embraces debt haircuts and a return to real values, real assets and real jobs, those of us struggling in the wake of the global economic crisis are faced with no assets, no jobs and government values which only support a desire to remain in office, leaving the perpetrators of widespread irresponsible banking, and in some cases out and out fraud, thinking they deserve a medal if their waive obscene banking bonuses despite falling profits and share prices.  As one reporter said, “These vastly pampered moguls really believe they are worth the money, and cannot comprehend why most of the rest of us so passionately hold them in contempt.”

In contrast I, along with the Greeks, wait with  renewed trepidation for the impact haircuts, bailouts and austerity measures will deliver to a land which remains without promise and without a reasonable future for many of our children. I can only hope that, not unlike the USA’s Citibank who wrongfully endorsed mortgages in the lead up to the global economic crisis and now “admits, acknowledges, and accepts responsibility” for passing on bad loans, HBOS will also be required to stomp up the money for a short back and sides for me and in so doing free my family from an untenable financial future which is set to last for the rest of my life.

A Native American grandfather talking to his young grandson tells the boy he has two wolves inside of him struggling with each other. The first is the wolf of peace, love and kindness. The other wolf is fear, greed and hatred. "Which wolf will win, grandfather?" asks the young boy. "Which ever one I feed," is the reply.
I am pleased to report both I and Mervyn King, Governor of the Bank of England believe the time has come to stop feeding the greedy wolves because, in the words of Aristotle, “Poverty requires much while avarice requires everything” and we simply can not afford it.

Girl Power

In the words of Groucho Marx, “The secret of life is honesty and fair dealing. If you can fake that, you’ve got it made” and with this in mind I am left wondering whether David Cameron is discovering or faking the secret of life when he speaks of the benefits of corporate equality and the need for more women in the boardroom as his ready remedy for the current economic crisis.

While I whole heartedly agree honesty and fair dealing, regardless of gender, should be a motivation for us all, I struggle to understand how Cameron plans to instigate a shift in age old corporate habits to ensure women get more top industry jobs when he remains unable to implement a shift in either policy or legislation which meaningfully takes to task the perpetrators of banking fraud or makes them accountable for their crimes against the economy.

Little more than one hundred years ago women fought for sound policy and impartial justice for all.  A century later however, it is not just women who are suffering the consequences of discrimination, this time by government backed banking recklessness and unbridled favoritism, when it comes to arrears solutions and debt forgiveness for individuals.

Although I applaud the principal of a meritocracy which takes no heed of gender, the chance of success will remain limited if our government appointed regulators continue to support employers like HBOS who openly declare they have no obligation to discuss lending matters with married women if they have already discussed them with their husbands.  I cannot imagine this Lloyds TSB Group owned, taxpayer supported corporation will be one to embrace a louder female executive voice on the board or anywhere else if my own experience is anything to go by.

For me it is Kishore Mahbubani not David Cameron who explains who will be guiding our politics towards economic recovery when he says,

"The simplest way of understanding the virtues of meritocracy is to ask the question: why is Brazil a soccer superpower and an economic middle power? The answer is that when it looks for soccer talent, it searches for it in all sectors of the population, from upper classes to the slums. A boy from the slums is not discriminated against if he has soccer talent. But in the economic field, Brazil looks for talent in a far smaller base of the population, primarily the upper and middle classes."

I strongly suspect any vision for economic recovery is destined to suffer the mediocre results of the Brazilian economic field if it continues to remains so deeply entrenched in the old boy network it is unable to pay anything but lip service to accessing the untapped potential of womankind from either the upper middle class or anywhere else for that matter.  However, in the event this is not the case and more women do find their way into high places with David Cameron’s help, I can only hope their effectiveness might bode well for those of us who have been discriminated against and defrauded out of our financial futures at the hands of banks like HBOS. If not, judging by the number of comments attached to articles on this subject, Cameron’s words have made a high profile and debatable headline even if, like Groucho Marx’s suggests, the speaker has merely mastered the art of faking it.

New Years Revelations

Believing, like TS Elliot,“ last year's words belong to last year's language and next year's words await another voice” my New Year’s resolution has been one of mindful determination to mark 2012 with a new and audible voice of my own.  Sadly, my adversaries have neither new voices nor new words for this brand New Year and instead have chosen to sing the same old song.

Determined not to let their repetitive monotones colour my New Year spirit I have started my first child free week of 2012 by replying to yet more unsolicited and largely meaningless correspondence.

I have;

·        Explained to Egg I find selling my husband’s debt to a collection agency all but two years after advising me of their intentions not to pursue him both an unusual and unsatisfactory way of illustrating their compassion.

·        Explained to my very supportive MP that I wish to take my Warmfront complaint to the Parliamentary Ombudsman in the hope I will eventually secure the heating survey I was promised in December 2008.

·        Explained, again, to the Financial Ombudsman’s adjudicator, who has clearly taken umbrage at my fourteen page letter asking her to follow the FOS guidelines, that I wish to be informed of her reasons for seeking HBOS’s permission to escalate my complaint to a formal enquiry more than eighteen months after she first took my case.

Satisfied all wolves are once again deterred from any temptation to darken my door or my doorstep, I have been able to set aside fears of damage to my children’s sense of well being and turn my attention to the duties of house and home. The task in pole position involves venturing into each unruly but now vacant child’s bedroom while the occupants are at school in an effort to reclaim some floor space and restore some kind of order.

While I remain amazed, but no longer surprised, at the quantity of dirty washing and empty sweet wrappers that can harmoniously cohabit within a teenager’s bedroom if left unchecked, I can still be caught unawares with the discovery of an academic award received but not mentioned or, as on one occasion, an MI5 recruiting brochure abandoned on a bedside table. However, in spite of  more than thirty four years of parenting I was totally unprepared for what I read on the fly leaf of an old but otherwise blank diary I was about to throw away in the name of de-cluttering.

“Dear 2007 diary,

I have kept you because 2007 was a year of no troubles and my life was perfect.
Time flies and it is now February 24^th 2011.  I have moved house, moved schools and left the village I have always lived in. Now I have more school work, more home work and have been having a really hard time.

I have kept this diary even though it has nothing it because I wish I could turn back time.”

This simple but heartfelt statement written by my thirteen year old daughter almost a year ago saddens me immensely.  Not least because, unbeknown to me and in spite of my best efforts to keep our persecution at the hands of HBOS completely seperate from family life, my daughter has still suffered its consequences in silence and kept an old and empty diary purely because it represents the last year she remembers being wholly untroubled.

Aware that HBOS has stolen my health, my financial future and, so far, three and a half years of my own life, it did not occurred to me, until the discovery of this very unwelcome New Year’s revelation in the words of a child, HBOS has also stolen three and a half years of my daughter’s childhood and this, for me, is nothing short of heartbreaking.

Off Limits

I have heard it said that limitations live only in our minds and if we use our imaginations, the possibilities become limitless. This point was illustrated to perfection today by my ten year old son when expressing, yet again, his desire to keep chickens.  On this occasion he did not attempt to seek permission to own a chicken but merely stoked a lively discussion as to how many chickens would be required to fulfil his ambition to keep our family in eggs.  Changing tack like this has smoothly shifted the debate from if to when he can have chickens and has made me wonder if taking a leaf out of his book in my dealings with Lloyds and HBOS’s might render me greater success.

Over the last week I have;

·        Received another demand from Lloyds debt collectors

·        Received no reply from Antonio Horta Osorio to my original letter of 4 August

·        Received no reply from Antonio Horta Osorio to my ”chase up” letter of 19 August

This leaves the Irish and the Elite continuing to enjoy preferential treatment for mortgage shortfall forgiveness and me continuing to suffer in purgatory purely because I live in England and do not have a high enough profile to be heard.

I have, however, received another letter this week. The Financial Ombudsman has given me two remarkably good but unexplained piece of news.

The henchwoman at Merrels Ede Solicitors has been called off as a direct result of my compliant and HBOS have, at last, agreed “not to pursue” for the time being, namely eighteen months.  This has come as a complete surprise to me because, in their last letter, my caseworker informed me they could not proceed without seeking agreement from HBOS to investigate my complaint leaving me under the impression the Financial Ombudsman's Service was about to prove completely toothless yet again.

So where does this leave me now?

It leaves me with eighteen months of limitless possibilities.  I don’t know what they are yet but it will be a relief to be able to put my case to whomever I wish without continually having to deal with the bully boy and brow beating tactics of HBOS’s Rottweiler, Merrils Ede solicitor’s. It also leaves me some unencumbered time to consider the merits of a ten year old boy keeping chickens.

Kitchen Chaos

I am told chaos results when the world changes faster than the people in it and, whilst the uneasiness caused by global chaos is reputed to allow the opportunity for creativity and growth, chaos in my kitchen seems to be causing nothing but confusion and angst.

It is mid morning and my grandson and daughter are attempting to make a crumble with fruit they have picked from the garden while calling on my expertise, constantly, to help them.

My youngest son, furious to find someone has been using his Uno cards again, communicates his indignation by way of a walky talky at full volume that picks up passing police transmissions at the same time.

My husband who was, until summoned by our eldest son, mid point of yet another Internet based job application, stands silent and hovering in the doorway in readiness to fulfill a “no notice” request for a lift to the cinema.

The same sixteen year old son is attempting to procure the Orange Wednesday code from my phone whilst telling me to chill at my handbag invasion and show more respect when conversing with him.

I, on the other hand, while doing my best to both relay cooking instructions and referee the Uno card dispute,  am endeavouring to communicate to my sixteen year old son the benefits of  being less demanding of instantaneous social gratification and more responsive to the numerous tasks of educational importance that he has seen fit to neglect.

Getting nowhere with anything, but still with all eyes on me I decide to,

·        ask my daughter and grandson to take a break from prepping the crumble and play Uno,

·        ask my youngest son to switch the walky talky off and join in with the  Uno game,

·        tell my eldest son it is too short notice to go to the cinema and suggest he crack on with his list of more pressing issues.

This leaves my husband free to return to his CV and me exhausted, but with some semblance of order and an empty kitchen.

“Miracle Mum,”, some might say?

“Dictator and control freak,” they cry,  while during all this, my husband stands silently by.

All I need Is You

It has annoyed me intensely to be repeatedly accused of “using delaying tactics” and “ignoring a problem which is not just going to go away” by HBOS’s henchwoman at Merrils Ede Solicitors.  It is a statement which could not be further from the truth. I have never enjoyed a disposition which allows me “a head in the sand” approach to anything.  Nor do I have the patience for delaying tactics.

Despite my best endeavours over the past three years, my HBOS trouble's have not only remained unresolved but I have been aggressively pursued by their solicitors for a shortfall which arose from their fire sale of my home. Racking my brains for a solution which would allow me to move on with my life while despondently sifting through the numerous letters both written and received from HBOS, I have concluded it is probably time to write one more, This is because, in my heart of hearts, I know full well the toothless Financial Ombudsman Service will do one of three things, 

• Sidestep the issues I have outlined in my complaint, 
• With-hold their opinion a on a technicality or
• Wriggle out of making any meaningful judgeme 

However strong my argument against HBOS is, I can not see the Financial Ombudsman’s Service setting a precedent which would open another set of misselling flood gates hot on the tail of the recent PPI ruling and, without a face that fits or a high profile case currently in litigation (and supported by a lengthy list of fellow victims) I still believe I am extremely unlikely to be heard. It is for this reason I have decided to give writing to Antonio Horta Osorio chief executive of Lloyds Banking Group another shot. I am, after all, one of “his dead” and I have been waiting without patience to be brought out “from under the drain cover” for a very, very long time.

I strongly suspect Mr Horta Osorio, if made fully aware of my case might well agree that spending more taxpayer and investor money chasing people like myself (who have been left penniless as a result of the banking crisis) for mortgage shortfalls which have already been proven to be unrecoverable, is not good business practice. My problem is not what to write but how to get my message in front of him. 

My previous attempts have repeatedly failed.

However, in the unlikely event that Mr Horta-Osorio's inner circle might finally allow my message to reach him, this is what I would say,

Dear Mr Horta-Osorio,

In October 2008, having previously been kept completely in the dark by my husband and having had no contact with HBOS until this time, I was informed by Dryden’s (HBOS' solicitors) of their plan to repossess my home.  I immediately contacted HBOS to discuss my options and informed them I had secured a tenant who was willing to sign an assured shorthold lease and pay £2,200 a month to rent our property for a three year period. By the time the HBOS' possession order was due to take effect, this sum not only covered the mortgage but would have provided a substantial contribution towards paying off the arrears.  However, HBOS flatly refused to accept this solution when we found ourselves without an income (as a consequence of the banking crisis and our Icelandic business banks collapse) insisting my proposal was made too late for them to consider. 

In November 2008 HBOS to us to court, secured an order for possession which came into effect in January 2009 and completed a forced sale on my home in April 2009.
They were aware from outset neither my husband or I had the means with which to pay any shortfall arising from the discounted sale yet we are now being pursued aggressively for a shortfall which was not only of HBOS' making but for funds they know full well we do not possess.

Furthermore, HBOS’s actions escalated an arrears problem of £27,000 (which I could have been resolved by my proposal) into an unrecoverable mortgage shortfall of £217,000. Despite this, I am now being hounded for this shortfall by HBOS' appointed debt collection solicitors Merrils Ede.  Both HBOS and Merrils Ede have repeatedly been told by both myself and the Citizens Advice Bureau that my husband’s income of £15,000 plus assorted state benefits is simply insufficient to service any of the £1,000,000 unsecured debt we were left with when our property development business failed in 2008.

Following the receipt of our financial evidence from the CAB, the Bank of Scotland has already very kindly offered to write off my husband’s Bank of Scotland credit card (amounting to £15,000) on compassionate grounds, but your  mortgage collections department say that a shortfall of £217,000 can never be written off  whatever our circumstances.  I cannot understanding the thinking behind this let alone work out a solution for demands which are simply beyond our means.

Over the last two and a half years I have been persistently harassed by Merrils Ede Solicitors on HBOS’s instruction. I can only assume our file has proved a means of milking the HBOS cash cow because Merrells Ede, like HBOS, know full well there is no financial resolution I can offer them. Merrils Ede have repeatedly advised me of your plans to issue legal proceedings towards bankruptcy “without further notice” which I can only see as another illustration of how happy they are to recommend the unnecessary spending of HBOS money when both I and the CAB have made it crystal clear we have no capital wealth to offer and no income with which to make a payment arrangement.

On previous occasions I have,

·   Written to your predecessors to explain our circumstances asking for a compassionate write-off in the light of our financial demise.  It has been repeatedly denied.

·   Asked why HBOS did not contact me about our arrears, nor sought to offer me any debt counselling advice or even include me in any conversations at either the inception of our mortgage or later when arrears became a problem. I was told that people in debt rarely want to talk to their creditors and because I am a married woman, they assumed my husband dealt with our finances.

·   And, I have repeatedly asked myself why I was not allowed to save my home and our financial future by renting out our property but I struggle to understand the logic behind an HBOS decision that turned £27,000 of arrears into a shortfall of £217,000.

When you took up the helm at Lloyds banking group this year you famously commissioned your executives to “bring out your dead” asking them to leave no stone unturned.  A “sense of humour failure” was promised if, in twelve months time, more skeletons were found in the Lloyds and HBOS closets. However, I and my family remain one of your concealed dead, festering on an HBOS desk where I lie in a purgatory which has not only put my life on hold but consists of repeated and relentless financial persecution for money I simply do not have.  I have remained in this position for nearly three excruciating years while those at the Lloyds Banking Group move on with their lives. I desperately need the luck of the Irish buy to let borrowers or perhaps the vision of HBOS funded businessman David Murray in order to secure a mortgage shortfall write off and free my family from the continued bullying of HBOS debt collection agents.

On the other hand, if this letter does ever reach you, all I may need is you.

Yours sincerely

Life after Debt

Guilty Secrets

One hundred years ago Theodore Roosevelt said, “Behind the ostensible government sits enthroned an invisible government owing no allegiance and acknowledging no responsibility to the people” and as I catch up on my reading with the blogs of journalist Ian Fraser and Stop HBOS campaigner Nicolette Turner, I am provided with yet more evidence to support Roosevelt’s statement.

It appears that Thames Valley Police’s plan to limit their enquiries into the HBOS Reading scandal means they will not be investigating any high level corporate involvement of former HBOS executives despite ongoing allegations of in house fraud at board level. While victims of the HBOS Reading scandal are naturally up in arms about this decision, ex- HBOS risk management executive and whistle-blower Paul Moore has expressed additional concerns at the way LLoyds Bank is responding to this investigation.

Moore said,” I have even been told by very reliable sources that Lloyds Banking Group is not voluntarily offering to help the police with their enquiries. If this is so, it is scandalous. This alleged fraud is a matter of extreme public importance and interest and it is vital that parliament keeps very close eye on how the police and the FSA are doing their jobs and working together with what is going on, through the Treasury Select Committee and the Justice Committee.”

As ever, when it comes to power and money, smoke and mirrors seem to be the first line of defense.  Learning that at least fifty five people have lost their livelihoods along with their companies, as a result of the dishonesty within HBOS, I can’t help wondering how I am ever going to harvest any success in my battle with Lloyds and HBOS myself.  Nicolette Turner and her fellow victims of the HBOS Reading fraud have fought for years with very little success in spite of police involvement and repeatedly lobbying both past and present governments for help.

Today I took two of my children for an eye test and when my ten year old son, always ready with an impromptu question, asked the optician,” What is the most disgusting thing you have ever seen?”  I found myself searching for a subject that would sit at the top of my own “most disgusting” leader board.  I concluded the following,

·        Self-indulgence to the detriment of others

·        Absence of integrity

·        Not taking responsibility for ones actions

In the words of Theodore Roosevelt’s niece Eleanor, “In the long run we shape our lives and we shape ourselves. The process never ends and the choices we make are ultimately our own responsibility.” As the wife of an individual whose business failed due to the economic climate and the simultaneous demise of both Heritable Bank and the property development market I am, according to HBOS, supposed to accept that I am jointly and severely liable for the choices my husband made even though HBOS aided my husband’s decision to keep me financially in the dark.

However, when it comes to Lloyds and HBOS executives, it is evident that they are totally unprepared to embrace their responsibilities with integrity and are pleading that they shouldn’t be held responsible because, allegedly, they were, like me, kept in the dark and unaware of what was going on within their bank. Even though this outrageous double standard is both elitist and downright unfair, there appears to be no governing body prepared to make these "untouchables" accountable. Because of this, social justice is unlikely ever to be attained and the greater good is destined to remain second place to the indulgences of the high ranking corporate individual.

      This I find truly disgusting.

End of terms

My husband never speaks of what he sees, does or feels but only of what he knows. While hovering patiently on the edge of every conversation he listens with intent, void of any expression waiting for a prompt on which to hang his factual download. On finding his mark he pounces with a carefully assembled nugget of information and in an instant, the conversational flow is altered and his audience scrabbles to politely cover the seams.

If asked he would say he is good at social interaction.

I find it both isolating and frustrating that conversing in any other way is alien to him. He continues to treat any question as an effrontery to his integrity leaving me to struggle to understand why how far the airport parking is from the terminal is as an insult simply because he does not know the answer, or why enquiring as to the delivery date of the roaming simcard he has ordered is so contentious.

If asked, he would say that is I who am unable to solicit information without antagonism.

However, it is not his inclination to anger I struggle with most but his frequent and extended periods of silence along with his refusal to engage with any warmth at any time. Last night, at our children’s end of term school concert, was no exception.

The hot and humid summers evening promised to turn the school hall into a sauna but the discomfort that lay ahead did not deter the number of proud parents who decided to attend. Throughout an hour and half of musical recitals I repeatedly turned to my husband to share a smile at the remarkable expertise of the young artists. Not once did he return my glance in acknowledgement let alone reveal a flicker of a smile in return. It is this way I am continually denied the opportunity to share any mutual enjoyment. 

If asked why he behaved in this way he would simply reply that it was not the case and merely my perception.

So, this morning, I sit alone at my kitchen table while my husband occupies another room. My task today is to prepare the papers to wind up our insolvent property development company. Heritable Bank's administrators have now sold all our company assets and thankfully plan to write off our £209,000 company mortgage shortfall. This leaves me at liberty to finally put an end to our company's trading days without creditor objection. While folding the paperwork I consider what is to become of my marriage when my HBOS battle, our last remaining adversary, eventually reaches its conclusion in however many more years to come.

I cannot help but wonder if my husband's retreat into his emotionally impervious shell might have been halted had it not been for the heartless and negligent actions of the HBOS.  Unlike Heritable Banks administrators, HBOS have been unable to show compassion at anytime. Perhaps, my husband's demeanor might have been very different if they had at least allowed us to salvage our home when the economic crisis  turned our property portfolio of 4.5m with equity of £1,200,000 into an overall shortfall of £500,000.

It is during these episodes of loneliness that I begin to doubt my ability to keep my marriage alive and our family together throughout more years of HBOS harassment.  It has become clear to me that if I am unable to save my relationship and our family life, HBOS will have succeeded in taking all that we ever had and all that we had  ever hoped for, and not just our money.

Middle Management Blues

I appreciate expecting the world to treat you fairly because you are a nice person is not dissimilar to expecting a bull not to attack because you are a vegetarian and I believe Lloyds and HBOS's perseption of themselves as a bullish concern within the banking industry, has empowered them to feel free to continuously side step my issues with them and bludgeon me with their demands for payment. I am repeatedly told an individual should always be responsible for a debt regardless of how it arose.

I have just read Patrick Jenkins and Sharlene Goff’s  FT article discussing the reasons behind Lloyds shares recently rallying by 9% after a former 30% nose dive when Antonio Horta Osorio spoke of Lloyds problems soon after his appointment. I was interested to learn that renewed confidence has come from Horta Osorio’s announcement that operating costs will be addressed by cutting 15,000 middle management jobs across HBOS and the Lloyds group in order to make 1.5 billion in savings.

My interest in the prospects of soon to be ex-Lloyds and HBOS middle management  employees stems purely from my experiences at their hands as I can only surmise it was to middle management staff Lloyds and HBOS Chief Executives delegated the replies to my many letters asking for their help.

I do not doubt some of these people have had a hand in denying me an opportunity to save my home and  I believe, without question, they instructed Merrils Ede solicitors to pursue me with "sustained contact” despite my C.A.B. proven status as a “can’t pay” but most of all, I am convinced it has been middle management who have repeatedly told me mortgage shortfalls never get written off while insisting HBOS have no intention of ever writing off mine.

I can only assume of the people who are to be made redundant many, like me, will have young children and a mortgage from Lloyds or HBOS.  They, like me, will now be faced with arrears if finding employment is not immediate or in some cases notforthcoming at all. I wonder how they will feel when their peers continue to tow  the Lloyds and HBOS company line and dish out the same heartless replies they have given me.

·       Where will they live when they, like me, are unable to pay their mortgages because of an economic crisis?

·        How will they cope when they, like me, suffer from stress related ill health while they watch the effects of the financial crisis take hold on the demeanor of their children and their relationships?

·        What will they do when they, like me, are not allowed to rent their houses to cover their interest payments and instead lose their homes?

·        How much will they weep when, like me, HBOS and Lloyds force a sale on their homes and create shortfalls for which they have no means of repaying?

·        How many letters will they, like me, write asking for debt forgiveness only to be denied time and time again?

·        How will they feel when they, like me, try to explain to Merrils Ede solicitor’s henchwoman their circumstances and attempt to procure a workable solution only to be met with deaf and judgemental ears?

·       What will they do when, like me, they are told “people in your position should not be talking and explaining but, instead, be listening and repaying?"

·       What will they do when, like me,they are faced with the harsh reality their financial reputation and any hopes for a secure financial future are to be dashed against the rocks and lost forever?

It is said what goes around comes around and no doubt knowing what faces these poor people could indeed be seen as a form of poetic justice, especially if they are indeed the very same people whose decisions have ruined me. However, despite the ongoing harsh and condescending words of Lloyds and HBOS middle management,  my campaign is entirely about encouraging this immensely powerful banking fraternity to be Fair and Just.

It is not fair,

•  to pursue and persecute any individuals who have no way of repaying their mortgage shortfalls

• Fair to disregard the hardship suffered by any individual,

But it is definitely not just,

• to ignore workable solutions which could save a family home in favour of  bailouts for the corporate elite.

I cannot help but wonder if any of these imminently redundant employees of Lloyds and HBOS might be reminded of my letters of distress when their ex- employers take them to court to repossess their homes.  

Pennies from heaven

While one random act of kindness can supposedly change the world, I am delighted to report three random acts of kindness have amounted to a much needed holiday for our family.

When Christmas  2008 came only eight weeks after the Grand Opening, every penny I received in gifts from my family went towards heat, light, food and fuel. We had weekly benefits of £300 a week and nothing to spare for presents let alone luxuries. Our life remained like this for many months leaving me trapped in my beautiful,  but expensive to heat, country home with creditors shouting abuse at my door, debt collection agencies constantly telephoning, baliff visits looming  and no idea where the tunnel was let alone where the light at the end of it might be.

A year later when Christmas came around again we had lost our home but had managed to secure a roof over our head in the form of a drafty, leaky old farmhouse which had stood empty for nearly a year. By this time my husband was working at M & S but we had to use the Christmas money sent to us as gifts to finance the purchase of presents for our children and grandchildren.

This year was completely different.

With rental income from lodgers bridging the gap between torturously cold and bearably comfortable, I felt able, for the first time in three years, to spend the three hundred pounds my father sent us, on a luxury. So, on New Year’s Eve, I paid £321 for five return flights to Spain thanks to my Dad and his wife’s generousity.

Three years ago, within days of discovering our predicament, my father- in -law urged me to take my children away from the continual harassment and verbal abuse which went hand in hand with the demise of our business by moving to his apartment on the Costa del Sol. Not wishing to hide from our financial responsibilites I decided to stay and face the consequences so declined his kind offer to use his well appointed Spanish home complete with car and a full larder. Three years on he was only too happy to make the same offer again but this time for ten days in July.

Hearing the prohibitively expensive transfers from the airport were going to cost nearly as much as our flights, some Spanish resident ex-patriot friends of my father in law, whom we have never meet, offered to bring two cars to Malaga airport to collect us at a fraction of the cost of the commercial transfers available.

Because of these three independent acts of kindness, I, my husband and my children will fly to Spain for a ten day holiday of sun, sand and sea for which we have not paid one penny.  For me, this is a clear indication the “everyday kindness of the back roads more than makes up for the acts of greed in the headlines”.

I do not doubt ex Lloyds Chief Executive Eric Daniel’s holiday plans, along with a fair few other HBOS and Lloyd’s executives, will have used tax-payer paid bonuses to finance much more extravagant and exotic summer breaks for their families than mine. I cannot, however, believe it possible for any of them to be looking forward to their vacation more than I am.

This feeling is priceless.

Unequal Opportunities

Having just read Ian Fraser’s blog of 25 June 2011 about my ongoing unpalatable predicament, I was astonished to discover the persecution I have suffered at the hands of HBOS over the last two and a half years has less to do with my husband having borrowed too much and a lot to do with the fact our £217,000 disputed shortfall is insufficient to qualify for forgiveness.  Having told me at least ten times they will never write off shortfalls it appears HBOS are more than happy to do exactly this, but only for a select few and only if your face fits.

One way one can qualify for debt forgiveness from HBOS is to borrow, like Sir David Murray of Murray International Holdings, 759 million.  In these circumstances, like Sir David, I may well have qualified for a shortfall write off 150 million when my husband’s property business took a nose dive due to the economic recession and the demise of his bank Heritable. I may also have been able to keep my home into the bargain.  Alternatively I could have secured debt forgiveness from HBOS if, instead of my children’s home being at risk, I was a struggling “buy to let” borrower in Ireland with a shortfall.  However, being a fifty three year old mother of three young children with a husband suffering from unresolved grief and depression, I am told it is out of the question. In fact it is regularly intimated by Merrils Ede solicitors that I am delusional to keep asking. For me the line from HBOS has always been to stop asking for a write off that they are never going to grant and, pay up.

I have spent the last three years overwrought with fear for my family’s future while continually being hounded and ridiculed by Lloyds, HBOS and their appointed debt collection henchwoman at Merrils Ede solicitors. They continue to harass us for money they know we simply do not have and yet now, thanks to Ian Fraser’s blog naming a few of the tycoons who have enjoyed substantial shortfall write offs, I have realized I am actually up against a well established two tier system of favoritism for the select few.

Sir David Murray said “The one thing you can’t buy at a time like this is experience” as he looked ahead with bullish confidence.  I beg to differ.  I suspect the one thing I couldn’t buy at the time was a face which would fit. Because of this, while Sir Murray looks to a future with HBOS’s help, I, with the help of my husband and three children, packed up our home into a friend’s horse box  when HBOS forced a sale on my house and left every chance of economic recovery for my family behind.

They say God has no favorites but it is clear HBOS most certainly does.  

Rottweiler's Incorporated

In recognising how hard it is to change oneself it should be easier to understand what little chance there is of changing others. However, this said, should an observation of this nature apply to the perspective of a whole bank and all those employed within it? Is it feasible for one biligerent school of thought to extend, with infectious brainwashing tentacles, into the consciousness of all those individuals commissioned do the Bank of Scotland’s bidding. Is it really possible for an unpleasant mind set on such a scale to be alive and well in the minds of every individual in a company so large?

Today, within the walls of the Bank of Scotland, I am convinced it is.

Despite the numerous letters I have written requesting I be advised be of their instruction to debt collecting solicitors Merrils Ede’s, Bank of Scotland's reply has not been forthcoming.  Although Merrils Ede solicitors know, through our representative at the Citizen’s Advice Bureau, I am unlikely ever to be in a position to repay any of our creditors, still they persist with their campaign of persecution with the Bank of Scotland’s blessing.

Today the postman brought a threat from Merrils Ede to start legal and bankruptcy proceedings if they do not hear from me within 10 days. They wish me to provide yet more financial evidence to prove I still don’t have any money.  It is clear the full financial fact find, certified by the CAB, and repeatedly sent to them has clearly proven insufficient again.  Regardless of the fact the Office of Fair Trading state this kind of harassment is contrary to their guidelines, the henchwoman at Merrils Ede continues with her crusade to uncover my "undeclared wealth". On their website they proudly state their debt collecting services regard money owed "like their own" and it goes on to say they pursue “can’t pay’s” in the same way as” won’t pays”.  I can certainly endorse this behaviour as the solicitor assigned to my case refuses to accept having no money is a good enough reason for not making a payment arrangement.

The fact  Merrils Ede has been made aware, on numerous occasions, our £217,000 shortfall is unrecoverable appears to be irrelevant. I am now being pursued by them because the CAB recently told them a great many of our creditors have written off and continue to write of our debts on the basis of hardship and compassion. The CAB did this in an effort to persuade the Bank of Scotland to follow suit, however, using only Rottweiler reasoning, the Merrils Ede henchwoman believes debts being forgiven must have resulted in some additional disposable income for her to direct into the Bank of Scotland's and Merrils Ede’s coffers.

I ask myself , “Is it really so hard to understand the reason so many of our debts have been forgiven is not because we have been paying anyone, but  because we have been unable, and continue to be unable, to make any payments to any of our creditors?” How can having a sum written off in these circumstances leaves anything more in the budget for Rottweiler’s incorporated?

This logicless pursuit is undoubtedly a breach of any number of OFT and Ombudsman guidelines and the ongoing bombardment of menacing letters from the Bank of Scotland’s legal representative is yet another source of agitation in a life full of financial instability and pressure. Moreover, Ms Rottweiler's refusal to believe my unredeemable financial position, is nothing short of insulting. 

Tonight, however, I plan to take solace in the words of Pope John XXIII and tomorrow....... well tomorrow, as with every day, I plan to fight back.

"Consult not your fears but your hopes and your dreams. Think not about your frustrations, but about your unfulfilled potential. Concern yourself not with what you tried and failed in, but with what it is still possible for you to do. "- Pope John XXIII

Heritable Heroes

As I sit writing in the comfortable warmth of my kitchen while listening to a Beatles CD, I have one eye on my twelve year old daughter who is dancing with gleeful abandon while singing along enthusiastically.  Always delighted to see evidence of how untouched my children are by our ongoing financial traumas, I find myself further smiling at the start of Paperback Writer as I am reminded of a recent conversation with my business mortgage manager in which his words of encouragement were, on this occasion, about my writing abilities.

Aware of the saying that kindness can never be wasted, I had never ever envisaged I would be using a bank as an example of the extent of this human kindness. After all, I like so many others within the financial services industry believed it common knowledge a bank has no heart. However, having used the past forty one blogging opportunities to slate the majority of the banking community, I thought it timely to share the experience I have had at the hands of my business bank Heritable who have, in all their dealings with me, been all heart.

After the “Grand Opening” on 1 October 2008 I was forced by circumstance, over the space of little more than an hour, to redefine my role as contented middle class, stay-at-home housewife and mother, to become not only a "One a Woman Debt fighting machine", but a management consultant for a deficit of a million pounds and a "Bank Battler" extraordinaire. My sixty minutes of letter opening had revealed that, as well as a large house with more than two hundred thousand pounds of negative equity and four hundred and forty six thousand pounds of credit card debt, our property development company, which enjoyed limited liability negated by directors guarantees, had two half built assets of dubious value. Unbeknown to me and at the very same as I was licking my wounds on the discovery of my own impossible financial situation in the comfort of my soon to be repossessed sixteenth century home, our business bankers Heritable, were doing precisely the same thing in their London offices with the help of their Administrators.

Now, nearly two and a half years on, and in complete contrast to the actions of the Bank of Scotland, Heritable Bank have done everything within their power to help me make something of our company’s business assets. Sadly, the flaunting of planning regulations on my husband’s part  combined with a recession fuelled fall in property prices dictated circumstances were against us from the outset. In spite of both my and the banks combined efforts, our company, and by default my husband and I, have been left with yet another substantial debt. Two hundred and nine thousand pounds remains outstanding after the disposal of our business properties and this time it is Heritable Bank holding the ticket and not, as is the case with the forced sale on our main residence, HBOS .

Now the "assets of dubious value” have been sold, Heritable Bank, have elected to implement a pragmatic solution to our shortfall. Without prompting I was contacted and advised it is their intention to write off this debt on compassionate grounds and in so doing, Heritable have allowed me to preserve my dignity, in all my dealings with them, right through to the very end. In complete contrast HBOS, have seen fit to defend their right to hound me mercilessly from outset for a £217,000 shortfall their actions created and, but for the automatic amnesty status of any compliant under investigation by the Financial Ombudsman's Service's investigation, I have little doubt HBOS would be continuing to persecute me with monotonous regularity to date.

Quaker missionary Stephan Grellet once said, "I expect to pass through this world only once, therefore any good thing I can do, any kindness that I can show to any fellow creature, let me do it now: let me not defer or neglect it for I shall not pass this way again." I have experienced nothing but kindness and compassion at the hands of Heritable Bank and I know, in my heart of hearts, the reason for this comes down to just one man. I believe it was he who elected, unlike HBOS, to take a leaf out of Grellet's book and act with compassion, empathy and understanding throughout.

For this simple act of kindness and for continuing to follow and encourage my blog, he is most definitely my Heritable Hero.

Hogwash and other things

Late one wintry evening whilst silently racking my brain and the internet, for answers to our untenable position, I typed "HBOS complaints" into my google search engine. After the initial surprise, relief, shock and horror at what I found, my blood  began to boil. Because I had been completely consumed by the impact the financial crisis was having on my families life, the fraudulent dealings of HBOS had totally pass me by. 

For two and a half painful years not only I had remained unaware I was not alone in my suffering but I was also oblivious to the fact the Bank of Scotland were the subject of the majority of mortgage complaints made to the Financial Ombudsman Service. I was astounded to find 40% of these mortgage complaints were found in the complainant's favour. Not only was it a relief to know I shared my desire to expose the Bank of Scotland's skulduggery with other victims but I also discovered there were a bloggers, such as Stop HBOS, and the BBC broadcaster and reporter Ian Fraser who were also revealing a catalogue of scandalous dealings within this too big to fail bully boy bank. I am now following  both in an effort to keep abreast of any new developments.

However as a result of further internet searches, I have been further shocked by the report that the Bank of Scotland moves to restructure buy-to-let debt - The Irish Times - Thu, Feb 10, 2011.  It appears the Bank of Scotland, in exceptional circumstances, is to offer some buy to let investors who have fallen into deep negative equity an opportunity to sell at less than the value of their mortgages without come back.  The Bank of Scotland says that they will not be burdening these people with any shortfall obligation.

It goes without saying I am truly happy a solution has been arrived at for those in Ireland who are experiencing mortgage distress and shortfalls but because of HBOS' blatant double standards, I find it nothing short of outrageous that those of who are suffering in the same way in the UK are not enjoying similar treatment. Instead of forgiveness we have been forgotten and this is simply unjust.

Surely the Bank of Scotland's UK residential customers are equally deserving of an opportunity to move on with their lives. Yet, instead they have chosen the buy to let sector to bestow their compassion and are romancing the Irish press with statements which show them in the warm compassionate light of benevolent benefactors.  "Exceptional circumstances" should apply to people in my position. People with three small children who have had their homes, their livelihoods, their health and their hope of ever having a debt free or (even debt manageable)   financial future.  What about our struggle with a £1,000,000 unsecured debt, ill health, bereavement and my husband's suicide plans?

The article states they cannot get "blood from a stone" yet this is precisely what they have been trying to get from us via their Merrils Ede appointed henchwoman. Merrils Ede state on their website that they treat debt collection as if it is their own money and make no differentiation between "can't pay" and "won't pay".  It is for two and half years I have woken every morning wondering if my husband is to recover from his beating at the hands of the Bank of Scotland. I repeatedly rack my brains as to how I can put a stop to the Bank of Scotland's ongoing persecution of my family.  Beside myself with anger and frustration to find their callousness is set to continue because they can only empathise with Irish clientele with second homes and investment properties.

It is now abundantly clear to me all I and the CAB have ever received from the Bank of Scotland in reply to our frequent and lengthy letters explaining my family’s desperate plight, is complete and utter hogwash. 

The Bank of Scotland has  definitely not heard the last of this!