Santander PPI offset against debt, in hardship and mortgage arrears

[seasider1965]

Hi,

 

First time thread, long time reader.

 

My partner made a PPI claim against Santander on a defaulted personal loan the residual debt of which is still owned by Santander. On 11 July they offered £2606.25 in settlement of the complaint but said they would use all to clear the outstanding balance of around £3k.

 

A letter was sent back as follows:

 

Dear Sir,

 

Thank you for your letter of 11 July detailing the offer of redress

 

I have signed the acceptance with the offset wording deleted.

 

I do not consider this appropriate as:

 

The enforceability of the debt is not certain, your letter commenting on being unable to locate copy signed agreements ("unable to locate the interest rates")

 

I am in financial hardship, principally the property that I share with my partner has a mortgage attached which is in arrears and there is a suspended possession order in place. I have attached recent copy correspondance from the mortgage company. This is considered a priority over any alleged unsecured debt

 

I therefore request full payment of the redress by way of cheque to my address at .......................................... and enclose a utility bill verification for your records

 

 

 

 

The mortgage arrears are £1406 and the council tax bill showed £495.79 subject to court proceedings.

 

 

On 25 July they sent a cheque for £1741.02 but no breakdown of how they came to this figure.

 

When I spoke to the Santander PPI helpline they passed me to collections dept. They did not have any information as their file has been closed down as the debt has been passed to a DCA, Wescot and that she should be grateful as many people do not get any payment in these circumstances. Therefore they could not answer my question on as to whether the held back sum of £865.23 represented pre default notice arrears. As far as I am aware and looking at DCA correspondance the debt has not been sold to a third party.

 

The cq represents 2/3rds of the actual redress and I am thinking this is not a co-incidence, i.e. they have plumnped for 2/3rd rather than any actual figure.

 

The loan repayments were £158.66 plus £8.20 PPI and none of these divide into £865.23.

 

So, I suppose I am wondering as to whether the cq should be banked rather than wait 12 to 18 months for FOS to come back and tell me just that?

 

I am grateful to CAG as this was the resource I used to help compose my letter to them which has helped get to at least a positive, cq in hand, scanario but would welcome any comments from people who may have had a similar experience.

[dx100uk]

have satans bank been sending you regular NOSIN's [notice of sums in arrears letter] regarding what they have offset against?

 

offsetting can usually only be done against notified arrears.

 

dx

[seasider1965]

No, not that I am aware of, the only corres she gets is the standard worded DCA letter from Wescot.

[dx100uk]

soyou've taken 'on spec' what satans bank are saying is the correct ppi figure anyhow without getting all the statements?

 

pers i'd be sending an sar to them.

 

in the meantime

i'd return the cheque or refuse the refund

stating that having consulted various information

on the fos/fca/ etc etc websites

it clearly states that any offset can only be against notified arrears.

 

see what they say

 

dx

[seasider1965]

Understand and thanks for that. As to whether they will have the statements I do not know as loan was drawn back in 2002 but worth an ask. Fortunately she has had another success and at the moment we are not desperate to bank the cq, which is what they normally rely I guess?

[Andybars]

Another option would be to contact Santander and the FOS to advise that the cheque has been received but does not represent the full balance owing and ask them to confirm in writing that by cashing the cheque your right to have the case determined by FOS will not be affected - I would point out to Santander that you will be more likely to be in a position to make payment towards arrears with them over the next 12-18 months if this cheque is cashed rather than awaiting for a FOS decision on the whole amount.