Mistaken case

[Beee]

Hi Guys and Gals.

 

Wanted some advice.

 

I recently applied for a mortgage jointly with my father only to be refused on the grounds of bad credit. Halifax had infact offered a mortgage and had instructed a survey but refused the following day stating explicitly that this was because of problems with one of our credit reports.

 

As far as I knew, both me and my father have had no issues with late payments/debts/defaults. So I obtained a Credit report from Experian and Equifax. the experian report was completely clear. However, the Equifax report had a gentleman with the same name (different middle name) and DOB as myself who had defaulted on a few accounts including natwest and Halifax.

 

There was also a linked address that had no association with me or my father. I did have some letter come through the post last year asking whether this was my new address. I replied to all informing them that I had lived at my current address for the last 15 years. I subsequently received letter from Debt collection agencies.

 

For every letter I received I would send back a reply informing them of their mistake and this would usually be followed by a letter of apology and mentioning that this was due to an incorrect trace and that no Debt/defaults would be recorded in my name. I notified Halifax in Oct/Nov last year that I was receiving these letters and wanted them to look into it. I thought that would be the end of it. But I continued to receive these letters.

 

Having spoken to Equifax and Halifax its apparent that Halifax/Natwest made the incorrect link (trace) and as a result I have been receiving these letters. Both the banks have apologied for their mistake and have offered me compensation. They accept that they failed in the verification process and simplu accepted the results that they got with a trace without adequate verification.

 

I have asked Halifax to look into my mortgage application again and told them that they now have no grounds to refuse the mortgage and that if that were to happen they would be legally responsible for me not being able to purchase the house that I would be spending the next 20-30yrs of my life.

 

Its been 2 weeks since this issue was realised and they say that they are still looking into the mortgage application despite the fact that they have internal communication from their complaints department that they made a mistake. In the mean time the Sellers are becoming very frustrated as they too have made an offer on another property and need things to go through ASAP. They are kind enough to continue with our offer but I can understand their situation now and they may seek another seller.

 

What position is Halifax in legally? Is there anything I can do to speed up the process?

 

Your advice would be much appreciated

 

Regards

Beee

Edited February 28, 2012 by citizenB
More info - spacing for easier reading

[citizenB]

I have flagged your question for Site Team. This is not the first time we have seen something like this.

[42man]

I would write a strongly worded letter to the Chairman / CEO of Halifax outlining/explaining your complaint.......send it recorded delivery. The top person at the bank will not like a complaint coming through at this level (a lot of people just complain to 'complaints dept' or 'customer service dept') Take the complaint right to the top, press home the urgency of your situation, and I assure you, you will get a call pretty quickly (not from the CEO/Chairman but certainly from a lot higher up in the pecking order at the bank.....!!

[Beee]

Thanks for the Advice 42man. I have already written to them and have also sent an email to Mr Horta-Osorio.

 

I have just found out today that I have been refused the mortgage again as a result of adverse credit despite internal communication from their complaints department to the mortgage department acknowledging the mistake.

 

I am informed that the application was forwarded to the audit department who may not have been aware of the error. So the complaints department are now liaising with the '?credit decisioning department.'

 

Here is a letter I am about to post:

Antonio Horta-Osorio

Halifax,

PO Box 548,

Leeds,

LS1 1WU.

 

Dear Mr Horta-Osorio,

 

I am writing today to inform you about my current predicament and the poor service that I recently received from your branch on Wembley High Rd on 20th February 2012.

I recently applied for a joint mortgage with my father (via a mortgage broker) only to be refused on the basis of a poor credit report. As far as I knew, both myself and my father have never had any outstanding bills and no defaults/late payments ever. I obtained a credit report from both Equifax and Experian. The Experian report was completely clear. However, the Equifax report showed multiple entries for a gentleman with a same name and date of birth but a different middle name. He had been linked to my address and there was also a linked address different to my real address. He had several defaults with a few banks.

 

I recall a few months ago I received letters from several tracing companies trying to find whether I had moved address. They specified an address which I have no association with. I called them and mentioned to them that I had lived at my current address for the last 15 years. In the following months I received several letters from many debt collection agencies asking me to pay for outstanding bills and credit card overdrafts. For every company I received a letter from I wrote a letter informing them of their mistake. From most companies I received a letter of apology and they informed me that it was a credit reference company that has made the incorrect association.

 

Having phoned the complaints department at Equifax, I now find that it was either Wescot Credit Services or Halifax bank that had made the incorrect association. Wescot credit services explained that it was Halifax that had created the false link. After liaising with Equifax and obtaining information from the Financial Ombudsman website, I believe a link between two addresses can only be made after following a stringent process to verify that the information you hold is correct. I believe you failed in this process and as a consequence I have had to deal with several debt collection agencies and constant telephone calls for the last few months. In fact, I am in a position where I may lose the property that I wish to buy. I hold you, as head of your company, liable for the stress and embarrassment that this has caused.

Trying to avoid this particular eventuality, I contacted Halifax Telephone Banking and I was advised to go into a branch with identification papers to raise a query.

 

At the branch, after explaining my situation, I am informed by a member of staff (Ms ------) that she or any of her colleagues are clueless about what to do and that I should contact Halifax by phone. I explained that I had done so already and had been advised to come to the branch for verification. The only help I got at the branch was she dialled in the mortgage department’s number for me at the branch and left me at the phone. She failed to raise it with her manager or get advice from the relevant department. It appeared that she did not have any time for me and I was made to feel that the problem was mine alone. This is despite the fact that I have nothing to do with this and my only ‘fault’ was having the same name and date of birth as the other individual.

 

The following day I spoke to ------- (ID ---------) in telephone banking. He was extremely helpful and offered to call the branch in question and explain the situation to them so they could take this further for me and verify my details (identification). Despite this, the manager (Mr------) at the branch refused to see me at the branch as he would not know what to do. He did, however, offer to make an appointment with Ms ------- so that she could try to set a mortgage up for me. I think he failed to understand the underlining issue which was that Halifax had created an incorrect link that needed to be looked into. He was polite but I felt that he should have known his role better and should have offered to find out and discuss the issue with me. I would understand that if they had not dealt with a similar case before they would not know what to do. But if they lack competence in a certain area they have an obligation to find out what they needed to do. I am given to understand that the branch is the first port of call for any questions and advice. I simply feel the Wembley branch failed in their duty.

 

I did finally manage to verify my details with --------------- at the branch the following day, after Ms -------- from customer relations had notified them. I would like to thank Mr ----------- for his help.

I also would like to add that the help and advice I received at NatWest was in complete contrast to what I experienced at your Wembley branch.

 

Time Line of events

July 2011

- Received tracing letter from DVSL: Called DVSL informing them of mistake – they acknowledged and apologised.

- Statement from Halifax: ‘Thank you for letting us know that you’ve changed your address’: Spoke to Jessica at Halifax (?accounts division) informing her of statement received in error: apologised and said she would look into the matter and I should receive no further statements.

 

August – January

- I received several letters from debt collection agencies informing me of outstanding bills/overdrafts and threatening legal action. I have atleast 50 letters saved and several others binned. I also received phone calls daily (upto 5 calls daily). Other phone calls included debt related advertising. I received apologies from most of these companies and they informed me that my credit rating would not be affected. I opened an account with Experian and I could see that there were no errors.

 

 

 

January - February

- We made an offer on a property that we needed desperately. It was neighbouring our relatives which was important as my mother suffers from a psychiatric condition and she would benefit from the additional support.

- Mortgage was initially refused by NatWest and then by Halifax. The reason given to me was that it was due to adverse credit. As I had mentioned, my credit report with Experian was perfectly fine. I therefore obtained a report from Equifax and it showed what I have already mentioned.

- I spoke with Equifax and a dispute was recorded on my file on the 17th of February. I also spoke with Halifax and I was advised to visit one of the branches for verification.

 

Monday 20th February

- Visited the branch at 4pm only to be left at the phone in one of the bays – Did not receive any help at all.

 

Tuesday 21st February

- Spoke to -------- in telephone banking: He tried to communicate the problem to the branch but manager at branch refused to see me as he did not know what to do.

- Spoke to ---------- in complaints department. (ref. ------)

 

Wednesday, 22nd February

- Again went into the branch and spoke to ---------- who kindly verified my details.

- I had verbal confirmation from Ms -------- that the error on credit report was due to an incorrect trace by Halifax. She kindly sent internal communication to the mortgage department so they were aware of the situation.

- With this information in hand my mortgage broker logged an appeal. We were told that we would know the outcome by 24-48hrs, i.e. Friday, 24th February.

 

Friday, 24th February

- Called mortgage progression line only to be told that they were still looking into it and that I would now have to wait till Monday, 27th February.

- In the mean time, the house sellers have made an offer on another property and are understandably frustrated and have questioned our offer.

 

Monday, 27th February

- No updated until late afternoon when I was informed that the application has been referred to an audit team and will now take another 2-3 days.

- Sellers have lost confidence in our offer and I had to advice them to seek another seller if they wished as this was not in our hands and that Halifax were behaving inappropriately despite making the initial mistake.

 

Thursday, 1st March

- I am informed by the mortgage progression team that the mortgage has been refused and the gentleman on the phone said that he was not allowed to tell me why.

- I spoke to Ms ------- again and she informed me it was again due to an adverse credit report. This just highlights the lack of communication within the mortgage department as their colleague, Ms --------, had notified them of the errors.

 

 

So we are currently in a situation where I cannot obtain a mortgage because of an error created by your bank. I have written to the financial ombudsman and will be seeking legal advice if I fail to obtain a mortgage as a direct result of your company’s incompetent tracing team and lack of internal communication.

 

Yours sincerely,

 

------------------------

Edited March 1, 2012 by Beee
Easier to read, deleted name

[42man]

I can't imagine how difficult it must be for you and I can't even think of any other way of speeding up the process !! incredibly frustrating....Do send it recorded delivery too...if it isn't too excessive to you then CC'ing it to several other board members might help too (Only if the CEO is away recovering stress or on vacation !!!). Do keep us posted....

[Beee]

Thanks for the kind sentiments. I can understand that people make mistakes, we all do.. but to continue making the same mistake is just unforgivable.

[citizenB]

This type of mistake has dire consequences though and sadly Halifax appear to be making them more and more. Please, do keep us informed of the situation.

[Beee]

Hi Guys. Received letter of appology and offer of compensation (£250.00). Still no mortgage. Sent my reply

 

Dear .................,

I am writing in response to the letter of resolution dated 6th March, 2012. I feel the resolution offered is unsatisfactory and that the issue at hand is yet to be resolved.

 

I think Halifax have failed to understand what has truly been happening. As I mentioned to you over the phone, Halifax had registered a default under my name and has also associated me with the address at .................. This incorrect information on my credit file resulted in me failing to obtain a mortgage.

 

Although you write that Halifax had corrected my credit file prior to the mortgage appeal, this was not the case as evidenced by the correspondence I have had with Equifax and my credit report. Equifax had not received any notice from Halifax to correct the file despite lodging a dispute on the 17th of February. They removed the linked address by mistake from my report following a request from NatWest Bank (please note, only Halifax can issue a notice to remove this link). Also the two Halifax accounts which were directly linked to me were only removed as Halifax had not responded to the dispute satisfactorily within the given time frame. This was after the failed mortgage appeal. So the mortgage appeal was unsuccessful because Halifax, contrary to what you said in your letter, failed to remove the adverse data from my credit file. I include copies of my credit report and correspondence with Equifax to support the above statement.

 

Although you concluded that Halifax had made an error, you could not confirm this conclusively. Please see the enclosed correspondence that I have from Equifax and Wescot Credit Services which clearly states who is at fault.

 

My issue with Halifax is that they incorrectly associated me with this other gentleman without proper verification and, more importantly, they failed to rectify this situation following my initial call to them in September/October and then failed to liaise with Wescot Credit Services, whom I had written to in November. Following this, I had problems getting help from your local branch in Wembley and despite all the time and evidence, Halifax failed to remove all adverse information from my report.

 

It has resulted in many several threatening letters, phone calls and text messages to members of my family from debt collection agencies. It has resulted in me feeling embarrassed not only within my family but also amongst those involved with purchase of the property. It has resulted in the selling party losing confidence in our offer.

 

I had mentioned to you prior to the mortgage appeal that obtaining the mortgage was a priority due to my situation and I did not care much for the compensation offered. But what has transpired since, primarily the failed mortgage appeal, has annoyed me. I feel that the amount of compensation offered completely disregards the affect this adverse credit has had on my mortgage application and me and my family. Let me direct you to a similar case that was reported in the BBC in 2009 (copy enclosed).

 

I am therefore declining your offer and have lodged a complaint with the Financial Ombudsman (ref ..........). I have also obtained legal guidance and have been advised to peruse the correct channels initially in the hope that this will be resolved before taking any legal action.

 

Yours sincerely

........................