Mortgage conversion accepted in writing now withdrawn, when a contract?

[maz1964]

Hiya guys,

hope anyone can throw a little advice, our tracker mortgage came to an end, got a letter from the mortgage company asking us to contact them to see if they could convert our mortgage that had gone to their svr, which i did,

I explained we had arrears on the mortgage and i accepted the 3 yr fixed with a small fee. Had conversion letter and conditions and the amount had been included with the arrears and shown as marked as amended. We signed and their own local branch faxed documents on, now after much hoo ha, due to the arrears they have withdrawn their conversion offer, they say they CAN WITHDRAW THEIR OFFER AT ANY TIME

my hubby thinks this is wrong, if we have been offered a product and we have signed to accept and their conditions met by returning within 14 days, now they say we shouldnt have had it given to us in the first place they are withdrawing it

when does this kind of scenario become a firm contract, there are no info that they can withdraw anytime or for us to withdraw at any time neither

i have been to cab this morning, they cannot see anything wrong with what ive done, but advised to seek further legal assistance, due back to them in the week, once i have letters from the mortgage company.

Ive also advised them if im not happy with their responce i will get FOS to investigate this further, however, am also scared re possession papers, not yet had but i feel are on the way., (will update you later though)

im asking if they were aware of the arrears at the time of my phone call to them and they included the arrears in the amount of the paperwork they submitted to us to sign and return, they were aware of the arrears at the time of their offer.
Whilst this leads me to now to believe perhaps they made a huge error in offering me the deal in the first place, ive never had anything in writing from them to state it has been withdrawn only a telephone conversation advising oops we have made a mistake, i could not establish exactly what they meant as a mistake, they kept passing me back to the arrears team.

Now they want to compensate me only for the phone calls and the time i spent, im trying to establish i guess could i have any call for the FOS to investigate that they infact missold me a product although there were made aware at the time of the phone call and their conversion letter stating the amounts and amendments to the rate from a svr to a fixed rate. The offer was made by them, i accepted the offer and signed the paperwork sent to me and returned thus does this not constitute a contract made?

There is nothing on the conversion offer paperwork stating they have a cooling off period or for me to withdraw from the offer, or if they are made aware of anything they can withdraw the offer.

My gut is telling me that they have relooked at this after 10 days and realised they shouldnt have even ventured into a conversation with me just should have advised me that until the arrears were cleared they could not offer me any other products.
Then if this is the law of contract law i will accept that they have made an error and the advisor missold me their product, even after all facts of the arrears had been presented to him.
Compensation is being offered but now nearly 3 months later, all the good deals are difficult to find and they have rendered me to stay with their svr rate which due to their very poor service and inside dealings and policies have caused me to be in a much worse position than before their invite to me to call them to offer me a better deal than their current svr deal at the time,

Guess life is like a chessboard, just now awaiting on their responces to my letters and what their next move is for me to react and see what sort of compensation they decide to give me.

Have a fun rest of your week and ciao for now MAZ

Will update the thread later in the week, thanks for your interest

[old_andrew2007]

bump

[I've got no money]

bump

[manchester1]

Mazi1964, I would agree with your gut feeling , in that somebody made a mistake at not looking at your arrears history before they started offering you a conversion product( i would put it down to shoddy admin). Best to wait for what there compensation is , and in terms of rates you will find that your lenders svr rate is cheaper then some the fixed rates that are being sold.

Manc1

[maz1964]

hello Manc1

many thanks for your reply and to others that bumped it up,

ive had 125.00 compo, am sending info to FOS, even though on the telephone fos said its possibly unlikely they can overturn the decision as its been a business decision by my mortgage company.

So now i do believe it was possibly very bad admin, and now trying to get out of giving me the deal, at 5.99 fixed for 3 yrs. This would have enabled us to clear the arrears and saved us 40.00 a month, but now have had to sell some savings index plans to clear the arrears and get ourselves back to no arrears situation.
The svr rate i think is about 7.04 so faring a little higher than other fixed rates at the moment and without having to pay the huge 800 plus fees some are as high as 1500 pounds fixed rate fees being imposed by some mortgage companies.

Weighing it all up, its taught me something i should have got to know about before now, never trust anyone or any business offer until the first payment is made and its up and running correctly, lol

However, its really opened my eyes to my debt situation and now its given me confidence to tackle all my creditors in a business manner,

1 Got my credit files for 2 agencies, awaiting on the 3rd one
2. getting my husband to apply for his too
3. clear the arrears now that my back is against the wall as soon as possible with the savings plan.
4. Ensure the mortgage is paid on time every time and investigate the 10% extra that can be paid each year to get my mortgage down.
5.Request all data info on all accounts ever held within reason, to obtain the charges refund if any found. For both me and my hubby.
6. clear any debts as fast as possible.
7. research all regular bill payments to reduce payments ie gas elec, home car insurance etc have changed phone to orange max home already.
8. Take on board the money saving advice on this forum as second nature from now on.
9. Get back to work as soon as possible and hopefully in a new area and then try and increase my hours now my daughter hoping to go to college to use the extra money to rid us of our debts as fast as possbile.
10. Continue to do all my competitions - thus still giving me hope that life may just change overnight one day. Hope is always good to have in your life.
11. Finally, dont let creditors spoil my life ever again from today, tackling the above will enable me to live my life in a better way from today onwards.
12. Always remember that Knowledge is Power.

Have a good day all, and remember life is too short to worry too much, just try and do what you have to , take advice and get the knowledge - its something no one can ever take away from you.

Ciao for now will update you once i get anything back from the Fos.

Have fun MAZ

[manchester1]

Mazi1964,
SPOT ON !!!! . I know getting rid of the index level savings plan will not nice , but getting rid of debt should always come first ,savings second.

Manc1

[maz1964]

Hiya Manc1

getting my early morning dose of knowledge lol

many thanks for your post much appreciated.

Have a fun day Ciao MAZ