Not upheld: Mortgage administration / arrears handling complaint against Wave Lending Limited

Decision detail

Summary

Mr M and Mr Y complained to Wave Lending Limited about its refusal to allow a transfer of equity on their joint BTL mortgage, which they had held since 2007. Over a seven-year period, they made multiple requests for a transfer of equity and received inconsistent responses, including two instances of incorrect information (in March 2014 and July 2019) that were subsequently corrected. The ombudsman found that Wave's policy not to allow transfers of equity on BTL mortgage accounts is a legitimate exercise of commercial discretion that applies uniformly to all customers. Although Wave provided incorrect information on two occasions, both were corrected shortly after, and the appropriate remedy is to place consumers in the position they would have been in with correct information, which would have been the same refusal. The complaint was not upheld.

The Ombudsman's reasoning

The ombudsman found that Wave's decision not to allow transfers of equity on BTL mortgage accounts is a legitimate exercise of commercial discretion and applies uniformly to all customers. The policy is not discriminatory as it treats all BTL mortgage holders the same way. While Wave provided incorrect information on two occasions (March 2014 and July 2019), both instances were corrected shortly after. The appropriate remedy for misrepresentation is to place consumers in the position they would have been in had correct information been given initially, not in the position they would have been in had the incorrect information been accurate. Since Mr M and Mr Y would have received the same refusal regardless, they have suffered no loss. The mortgage contract does not need to explicitly list all things that cannot be done; silence does not grant rights to alter a fundamental contract.

How this compares

Source

Read the original decision on the Financial Ombudsman Service website