Ombudsman News Issue 91 - Financial Ombudsman Service

... she told the bank she did notwant her husband to know whereshe was now living.case studiesWe also thought the bank was rightto compensate Mrs G for the distressand inconvenience caused by itsfailure to keep her details confidential.However, we said that in the particularcircumstances of this case, £350 wouldbe a more appropriate sum. The bankagreed to increase its offer and the casewas settled on that basis. nn 91/2consumer says bank failed to notifyher of her brother’s mortgage arrearson a property in which they both hadan interestMrs K and her brother, Mr T, inherited ahouse from their aunt. The house hadbeen remortgaged very shortly beforetheir aunt’s death and they took overthe mortgage in joint names. However,they agreed between themselves thatas only Mr T would be living in thehouse, he would be solely responsiblefor the mortgage repayments. If theyeventually sold the house, they wouldsplit the proceeds between them.Mrs K and her brother did not keep intouch and it was purely by chance, overa year later, that she found out the bankwas about to repossess the house, asMr T had fallen seriously behind withthe repayments.The bank was unable to sell the houseat a high enough price to completelyrepay the amount outstanding on themortgage. Mrs K reacted angrily whenthe bank told her that she and herbrother were jointly responsible forclearing the remaining debt.She said that if the bank had consideredher to be ‘in any way’ responsible forthe situation, it should have told herabout the mortgage arrears as soonas they began to build up. As it was,she said she had not known about theproblem until it was too late for her todo anything about it. 4December 2010/January 2011 – page 5