Barclays bungles offset home loan arrangement
Our consumer expert aids a reader get some solutions from Barclays in excess of a botched offset mortgage loan arrangement 
Photo: Christopher Pledger
6 many years ago I took out an offset mortgage with Barclays. There was a £995 charge and I believed it allowed me to borrow £200,000 which would be offered right away, but with £20,000 of this in a “reserve” tank. I approved the annotated illustration provided by the saleswoman but failed to recognize on the final documents that there was no mention of this “reserve” volume.
Now, needing to use the facility, I find out that the borrowing is capped at £180,000, which is inadequate for my needs.
I believe the saleswoman almost certainly omitted to file the paperwork when applying for what turned out to be an further “Mortgage Reserve” account. I assumed the £20,000 distinction was integrated in the authentic facility. I have drawn a full blank from Barclays, who “no longer supply this service”.
LF, West Sussex
The impression you had been given was that the arrangement was all in one and the extra £20,000 was also accessible.
Whilst Barclays had not been beneficial to you, it came back to me saying, “We apologise that Dr Free of charge has had to contact us about the confusion all around her mortgage arrangement. A crucial information illustration (KFI) is just that, an illustration. The offer you letter sets out the last confirmed arrangements for a mortgage and should be checked carefully by clients to make certain every little thing is as they understood.”
Somehow in this complex home loan merchandise, Barclays had left off the facility that was supposed to be integral to your borrowing. As you say, as a layperson it would have been challenging to spot its absence.
In recognition of the frustrations you had experienced, Barclays explained it had arranged to lengthen your mortgage loan to incorporate the essential sum on the very same terms and price as your recent mortgage. This is how it must have been at the starting.
3 weeks on, though, you had even now heard absolutely nothing from Barclays. My make contact with expressed shock when I advised her this. The good news is, I had insisted on possessing the guarantee in writing.
Now I am informed that the delay in contacting you was brought on by a adjust of program above how this would be facilitated. The item you had had was certainly no longer available.
Much more than an additional week went by until finally you had a contact saying the individual dealing with it had some “conflict of interest” and that the matter was currently being passed on.
From thereon, all this moved at a snail’s tempo as Barclays treated this as a new application, so you had to submit accounts all more than yet again. It agreed not to charge fees for doing this. A surveyor had to come to value the residence. With new principles also coming into perform about getting much more equity, you speculated the application may possibly be rejected. You are a busy skilled individual and could have accomplished with out this unexpected trouble.
Five months after Barclays’ first undertaking to redress this, and after significantly going back and forth, the extra £20,000 landed in your bank account.
You say the whole expertise has completely put you off ever moving once more.