Not upheld: Account administration errors complaint against Prudential Lifetime Mortgages Limited
Financial Ombudsman decision DRN-4299879 of 2023-09-13T00:00:00+00:00. Account administration errors complaint against Prudential Lifetime Mortgages Limited. Outcome: Not upheld.
Decision detail
| Reference | DRN-4299879 |
|---|---|
| Decision date | 2023-09-13T00:00:00+00:00 |
| Firm | Prudential Lifetime Mortgages Limited |
| Product | Mortgage |
| Claim type | Account administration errors |
| Outcome | Not upheld |
| Remedy | None. The ombudsman found that Prudential had already paid sufficient compensation (£809.89) for customer service failures and no further remedy was warranted. |
Summary
Mr and Mrs W complained about their lifetime equity release mortgage with Prudential, raising issues about a 2020 drawdown's interest rate and early repayment charge, drawdowns exceeding maximum limits, failure to conduct affordability checks from February 2015 onwards, poor customer service in 2020-2022, and data breaches. The ombudsman found all issues either complied with contractual terms or were not applicable to the product type. Customer service failures had already been addressed through compensation totalling £809.89. The ombudsman rejected all complaint elements and did not uphold the complaint.
The Ombudsman's reasoning
The ombudsman applied the contractual terms and commercial principles of equity release mortgages. For the interest rate and ERC issues, the ombudsman found the charges were applied in accordance with the contract terms that Mr and Mrs W accepted. For affordability, the ombudsman reasoned that because equity release mortgages are designed to be repaid from property sale with no periodic repayments required, affordability checks were not applicable; annual statements fulfilled the obligation to inform of accruing interest. For customer service, the ombudsman found the compensation already paid was proportionate to the errors. For data breaches, the ombudsman distinguished between third party data being sent (not a breach of Mr and Mrs W's data) and Royal Mail delivery errors (not Prudential's responsibility).
How this compares
| Group | Decisions | Uphold rate |
|---|---|---|
| Prudential Lifetime Mortgages Limited, all decisions | 12 | 8% |
| Account administration errors, all decisions | 25,844 | 25% |
| Mortgage, all decisions | 24,740 | 22% |
Source
Read the original decision on the Financial Ombudsman Service website