Hammered

Eighteenth century German philosopher, cultural critic, poet, writer and composer Friedrich Wilhelm Nietzsche once said, “There are people who, instead of solving a problem, tangle it up and make it harder to solve for anyone who wants to deal with it” and much to my dismay this is precisely the position I find myself in now.

When, in November 2008, HBOS acquired a court order to repossess our family home, I contacted the landlord of a property which I knew had been reduced to a cold, leaky, rat invested shadow of its former glorious self. Too onerous a task for even the most robust of tenants to consider anything other than fleetingly, it had stood empty for the majority of the time that it had been available to let. However, where some saw a crumbling country pile which offered only ice cold winters, damp rooms and a fair few furry friends as housemates, I saw a five hundred year old home which was long overdue some TLC along with a landlord who might actually consider us, despite our financial circumstances.

After some tense moments of negotiation with regard to both our adverse credit history and the level of rent we could afford, the deal was done and in January 2009 we moved into a dilapidated manor house with Tudor origins. Over the past four years and nine months we have endured constant leaks, inadequate heating and all manner of wildlife infestations, but, with the help of our family and friends, we have battled with the elements to turn a once neglected house into a home and, until recently, believed all concerned were delighted with both the transformation, the financial arrangement and the way in which we have kept on top of the minor repairs.

However, following a meeting with a company advocating sustainable heating systems supported by the government’s renewable heat incentive, the attitude towards us has most definitely changed.  

After months of surveys and sales pitches, my seventy five year old landlord is now convinced we are grossly underpaying. Furthermore, he is adamant the installation of a bio-mass boiler (at a cost of somewhere in excess of £130,000) will not only service our family's heating requirements along with those of the four small commercial units he rents out in the adjacent barns, but it will also provide him with a generous return. Based on calculations produced by the salesman who remains blissfully unaware/disinterested in the ongoing structural problems of the property or the letting difficulties of the past, he has advised our landlord that the property will command a further £500 a month more in rent, inclusive of central heating fuel once the new heating system is operational.

What my landlord, his solicitor and the heating agent have failed to appreciate when formulating their calculations is;

·         A smattering of ancient radiators, many of which are broken and all of which are fed by small gauge pipes, will not be sufficient to provide adequate heating in a house of this size, however efficient the boiler

In order to stay warm I will still need to spend a further £240 to heat the water and fuel the fires on top of the inclusive rent

·        While my husband has enjoyed a cumulative wage increase of 7% over the past four years (amounting to approximately £90 a month in total) this has only served to reduce our reliance on tax credit and has not increased our household income

·         I am already in possession of £1066 pounds worth of Calor gas fuel for the winter (for which I am unable to obtain a refund) which I am still paying £154.00 per month

·         The ongoing economic crisis has not improved the chances of acquiring tenants for very large, expensive to run shabby old houses which are not water tight

And,

·         Demolishing listed outbuildings and listed walled gardens without the necessary consents usually ends in tears.

So, while I now await the outcome of irate neighbors incensed by the unapproved decimation of my historic rented home, a formal rent review via an agent which will inevitably result in my being served notice to quit and the information I have been waiting for from HBOS since February, I cannot help but be astounded to discover that despite my letter of the 1 August 2013, the Financial Ombudsman Service’s adjudicator has been unable to press HBOS to provide me with the documentation I have repeatedly requested of them via my Data Subject Access Request because he has, until yesterday...

Misplaced my correspondence!

The imminent Friedrich Wilhelm Nietzsche also said, “Whoever does not know how to hit the nail on the head should be asked not to hit it at all” and as a result of the summers endless shenanigans, I am fast coming to the conclusion there are many who should have laid their hammers to rest some time ago.

Busy Getting Nowhere

American journalist and author Sidney J Harris once said, “The two words information and communication are often used interchangeably, but they signify quite different things. Information is giving out: communication is getting through” and while it remains abundantly clear I am still a long way off getting through to banking giants Lloyds and HBOS, I have been the recipient of a varied and plentiful supply of information from varied number of sources in the interim.

I have recently discovered,

·        Friend’s committee meetings, contrary to popular opinion, are not a forum from which to explore new ideas but instead serve purely to facilitate more of the same.

·        BT Internet hot spots, unlike their TV advertising campaign would have you believe, can only be accessed by spending a inordinate amount of time on the phone to their overseas call centre.

·       Private landlords who substantially reduce the rent are often loath to spend money on essential structural repairs to five hundred year old properties regardless of the consequences.

·        Parliamentary Ombudsmen, despite their swift reply to my consumer complaint, have completely miss-understood the nature of my grievance in the name of efficiency.

And

·        Government guidelines along with the guidelines of the Financial Ombudsman Service for banks dealing with customers in arrears, or facing repossession are completely irrelevant when the FOS assess the merits of a formal complaint.

It appears, despite my tentative forays on twitter and the plethora of information I have subsequently gleaned from all who have kindly responded to my posts, for those of us who remain locked in battle with the banks, there is still an inordinately long way to go to affect a success communication of our predicament to both the government and their banking regulators. I do, however, take some solace in the words of both American anthropologist Margaret Mead, and the twelve year old Canadian girl who quoted them when she expertly explained how banks have defrauded and robbed our economy on U-Tube this week, “Never doubt that a small group of people can change the world. Indeed it is the only thing that ever has.”

I sincerely hope she is correct.

Blood, Fret and Tears

Nobel Peace Prize winner Henry Kissinger once said, "Any fact that needs to be disclosed should be put out now or as quickly as possible, because otherwise the bleeding will never end" and while I appreciate he was referring to damage limitation as US secretary of state, his observations ring equally true for the effects of mental illness and stress.  However, if my own case is anything to go by, the Bank of Scotland, now part of Lloyds Banking Group, have no interest in damage limitation for anyone other than themselves, nor do they consider the toll of the never ending bleed of mental ill health, more commonly known as stress, inflicts on the individuals in their hands.

Our troubles began in 2006 when, having just remortgaged with the Bank of Scotland to fund a building project, both my husband’s mother and brother were simultaneously diagnosed with familial MND. Although they were told MND running in families was almost unheard of, it became blatantly clear (as my husband’s aunt had died from MND twenty years earlier) our family had drawn a very short, and frightening, straw.  Between regular trips to care for our dying relatives my husband made the decision to sell our beautiful sixteenth century home on the completion of the building project as he it wished to become our new home. He believed relocating would provide us with not only a place to live but an income from the annexed accommodation as he feared he too was suffering from the early signs of MND and would soon be paralyzed or on his death bed  just like his forty four year old brother.

When my husbands mother and brother died in March 2007, sadly only three weeks apart, I agreed to put our home on the market knowing only that my husband no longer wished to work in residential property development market. Completely unaware of his health issues and without the knowledge my husband had been late with several mortgage payments in an effort to supplement the cash flow of the other build, I was pleased when a keen cash purchaser was found in November 2007 on the grounds it would simplify life for my husband after such a grueling and emotionally draining year.

However, in just a few short weeks prospects for my husband, me and our three young children completely changed.

·        In January 2008 our purchaser’s purchaser withdrew the offer on their house on the grounds he did not wish to develop their property in a falling market.

·        In March 2008 our purchasers, conveyance solicitors, found a new purchaser but after experiencing a sharp downturn in their turnover, decided to redirect funds originally allocated to the house purchase of our house, to their business.

·        In April 2008 our purchasers applied for a mortgage in order to raise funds to buy our house.

·        In May 2008 our purchaser’s mortgage valuation revealed our house was not worth the agreed £950,000 price they had offered four months earlier but instead was only worth £800,000. This was £225,000 less than our Bank of Scotland mortgage valuation of May 2006.

·        In June 2008, still waiting to see if our purchasers were prepared to proceed at a lower price but with no other prospective buyers in sight, we decided to look for a tenant to cover the monthly mortgage interest payments.

·        In July 2008 our mortgage payments rose from £2,400 a month to over £5,000 per month when our two year fixed rate ended.

·         In August 2008 our purchasers formally withdrew their offer.

·      In September 2008 a tenant was secured for our property at £2,200 per month but the Bank of Scotland rejected our proposal to tenant our home and make part payments.

·        In October 2008 the funding for our building project dried up when our business bank went into administration and as a consequence my husband became unemployed.

·        In October 2008 I discovered my husband had not been opening the post or paying the mortgage for more than sixth months leaving us £27,000 in arrears. I took over the running of our finances and the responsibility for the post.

·        In October 2008 my husband confessed, had he not discovered his life assurance had lapsed, he had every intention of committing suicide.

·        In October 2008 my husband and I visited our doctor and were told he was suffering from symptoms of extreme stress and unresolved grief but thankfully not MND.

·        In October 2008 I told the Bank of Scotland I had not been privy to any conversations or received any communication from them concerning our arrears.

·        In November 2008 I again offered the Bank of Scotland monthly payments of £2,200 as interest rates had fallen and my husband had found part-time employment in a local supermarket. My proposal was rejected once again, this time on the grounds it was too late.

·        In November 2008 Bank of Scotland applied for and were granted a possession order for my home. I sat, alone, in front of the judge and wept.

·        In April 2009 the Bank of Scotland sold our home for £665,000 leaving us with a £217,000 shortfall.

·        In April 2009 the Bank of Scotland instructed their solicitors Merrils Ede to pursue us for the repayment of a £217,000 shortfall from my husband’s salary of £12,000 per year.

·        In April 2009 and in complete contrast, our business bank Heritable agreed to complete and sell our unfinished building project and write off the £209,000 shortfall on compassionate grounds.

• In  June 2009 I was told I would most probably have a case against the Bank of Scotland for their lack of duty of care and their over valuation of my property at outset. To date I have been unable to secure anyone to take my case forward without funding.

Throughout the following year, with the charitable help of the CAB’s debt consultants, a total of £800,000 of my husband’s business and personal debt was written off on grounds of compassion and hardship. The Bank of Scotland and their parent company Lloyds Banking Group are alone in their decision to perpetuate our purgatory with their unrelenting harassment for repayment. In desperation, I have tried  to enlist the help of the Financial Ombudsman Service only to be told the Bank of Scotland are contractually at liberty to pursue us for a shortfall regardless of the manner in which it was created . They FOS have also advised me the Bank of Scotland plan to argue that my case is both out of jurisdiction on timescale and without  legal substance. The Bank of Scotland are adamant the regulatory and government initiatives to encourage banking forbearance in cases such as ours are merely unenforceable guidelines, codes of conduct and protocols which are not legally binding. The Financial Ombudsman agrees with them.

Had the Bank of Scotland accepted our offer of rental income against our mortgage payments in September 2008 we would still have a home to return to today. The rental would have provided sufficient income to cover the interest on our mortgage as well as a substantial contribution towards the arrears. However,  instead, the Bank of Scotland chose to use the possession order they acquired through the courts to push through the forced sale of our home in April 2009. In doing so they created a huge deficit by way of a £217,000 shortfall which, from outset, they were fully aware was and is beyond us to resolve.

After three years of continued persecution and, according to my advisors, a further nine years to go before the Bank of Scotland are themselves out of jurisdiction, it seems they are nothing short of hell bent on driving both my husband and I to our stress related deaths before they will reconsider their position. To date I have lost my all my hair, my eyebrows and my eyelashes along with forty pounds in weight while my husband regularly alternates between uncontrollable rage and suicidal despondency. Our children often refer with sadness to happier times before we lost our home.

In the words of Nobel Peace Prize winner Henry Kissinger, and in the absence of any money, I can only conclude the Bank of Scotland are determined to ensure our “bleeding will never end".