Do NOT use this template - it will be updated during February 2024 - if you have not yet complained, sit tight and add your email address on the homepage to receive updates.
If you have used the template below, don't worry! It is the one that has been used so far to secure compensation for well over one hundred customers, but it was written in 2018 and since then far more information has come to light. I will be publishing three new complaint templates:
Template 1 - for customers on the MAS4/5/Platform SVR of 9.13% who have not yet made a complaint - this template will include the relevant parts of the complaint below that have already been used to secure compensation, plus new complaints about the way that the Co-op Bank has concealed and misrepresented information and acted outside FCA rules to the detriment of MAS4/5/Platform customers.
Template 2 - for MAS4/5/Platform SVR customers who have been offered compensation - this template will be a new complaint to submit to MAS5 and the Financial Ombudsman Service about issues not addressed in the original template.
Template 3 - for MAS4/5/Platform customers on a tracker mortgage who have not been able to complain about their interest rate yet.
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The original complaint was: (don't use this)
Dear Sir/Madam
Re: Mortgage account number: YOUR ACCOUNT NUMBER
YOUR ADDRESS
I wish to complain about the way Mortgage Agency Services Number Five Limited (MAS5) has administered my mortgage account. I first became aware that a Financial Ombudsman Service investigator had determined in 2020 that MAS5 had increased its Standard Variable Rate (SVR) unfairly when I read the details of the investigation on the mas5.co.uk website.
My complaint is that MAS5 increased the interest rate unfairly from 2.99% to 6%. The increases were unfair because they were not done in line with the terms and conditions of the mortgage. I would like to be put back in the position I would be in if those interest rate increases had not occurred.
The interest rate increases I would like you to examine include:
2009 – increased by 0.75% from 2.99% to 3.74%
2009 – increased by 0.76% from 3.74% to 4.50%
2011 – increased by 0.75% from 4.50% to 5.25%
2012 – increased by 0.50% from 5.25% to 5.75%
2016 – decreased by 0.25% from 5.75% to 5.50%
2017 – increased by 0.25% from 5.50% to 5.75%
2018 – increased by 0.25% from 5.75% to 6.00%
As part of the complaint I would like MAS5 to examine:
• Whether the variation term and the way in which MAS5 and the Co-operative Bank group have applied it to set the SVR in a one-sided manner is fair?
• The specific reasons MAS5/Co-operative Bank group have used to justify each increase in the rate since 2008/09?
• Why the SVR being charged to MAS5 customers is different from the SVR being charged by the Co-operative Bank and the specific reasons which justify the difference?
• Whether MAS5 is taking advantage of the fact that many of its customers are 'trapped' borrowers by increasing the SVR and keeping it at a different level from the Co-operative bank and is therefore in breach of Principle 6?
• What percentage of MAS5 borrowers are trapped borrowers and why the Co-operative Bank is not offering these customers access to its own mortgage products?
Please confirm receipt of this complaint by return.
Yours faithfully
YOUR NAME
Email your complaint to: simone.fox@co-operativebank.co.uk This is the contact given on the Financial Conduct Authority's website for MAS5.
Also, send to Simone Fox's email address a separate Subject Access Request. Put "Subject Access Request" in the email subject line. It will help you to have a copy of all the information that MAS5 holds about you as your FOS complaint progresses. MAS5 will quite possibly ignore your request completely or write to you saying that you need to put your request in writing or that you need to call them to discuss it. It is not lawful for MAS5 to ignore your request or suggest that you need to jump through hoops to get your data - contact me if you have problems:
TODAY'S DATE
Dear Sir/Madam,
RE: SUBJECT ACCESS REQUEST
I am writing to formally make a Subject Access Request for evidence of information that you hold about me to which I am entitled under the United Kingdom General Data Protection Regulation and the Data Protection Act 2018. I am requesting this information by email in accordance with the guidance given on the Information Commissioner's Office website https://ico.org.uk/your-data-matters/your-right-to-get-copies-of-your-data/preparing-and-submitting-your-subject-access-request. You can identify my records using the following information:
(a). Full name: YOUR NAME
(b). Address: YOUR ADDRESS, MORTGAGED PROPERTY'S ADDRESS IF DIFFERENT
(c). Mortgage Account: YOUR MORTGAGE ACCOUNT NUMBER, INITIAL MORTGAGE TERM, INITIAL MORTGAGE AMOUNT
Please send to my address (above) a paper copy of all the data about me that I am entitled to under data protection law including but not limited to:
1. confirmation that you are processing my personal data;
2. a copy of my personal data, including but not limited to records of all underwriting notes, telephone calls - received, made and attempted, including electronic and written records of calls and audio recordings (which you may provide to me on any media convenient to you), visits by field agents, letters to me and to third parties and received from third parties (including but not limited to field agents and solicitors) and mortgage account statements;
3. the purposes of your processing;
4. the categories of personal data concerned;
5. the recipients or categories of recipient you disclose my personal data to;
6. your retention period for storing my personal data or, where this is not possible, your criteria for determining how long you will store it;
7. confirmation of the existence of my right to request rectification, erasure or restriction or to object to such processing;
8. confirmation of my right to lodge a complaint with the ICO;
9. information about the source of the data, where it was not obtained directly from me;
10. the existence of any automated decision-making (including profiling);
11. the safeguards you provide if you transfer my personal data to a third country or international organisation; and
12. any and all other information you hold about me and how it is used, stored and shared.
If you need any more data from me, please let me know as soon as possible.
Please acknowledge receipt of this email. I look forward to receiving your response to this request for a paper copy of data within one calendar month, per the United Kingdom General Data Protection Regulation and the Data Protection Act 2018. If you do not normally deal with these requests, please pass this letter to your Data Protection Officer, or relevant staff member.
Yours faithfully,
YOUR NAME
MAS5 will reply and claim that your complaint is being upheld. The letter is worded very carefully to make you think that you are being compensated in the same way that FOS would compensate you. In fact, the FOS decision is to lower your interest rate going forward to 7.88%, MAS5 will offer you no reduction after November 2022. DO NOT ACCEPT!!! Refer it to FOS here: https://www.financial-ombudsman.org.uk/consumers/how-to-complain
FOS will take a few weeks to appoint an investigator and they will write to MAS5 to request the details of your mortgage account. FOS will also request that any repossession proceedings are put on hold - MAS5 will most likely ignore this request initially and if you are in this situation you may have to ask FOS to intervene again. MAS5 will be very slow to respond to FOS, because it knows what FOS' decision will be, and MAS5 has no incentive to bring FOS' investigation of your complaint to an early conclusion.
Please send an email if you have sent your complaint in, it would help to know if this site is reaching its intended audience: help@justicedomains.co.uk