Partially upheld: Service failures generally complaint against Bank of Ireland (UK) Plc

Decision detail

Summary

Mr and Mrs H complained that Bank of Ireland (UK) Plc wrongly declined their execution only request to reduce their mortgage term in August 2025, citing a requirement for mortgage advice due to their mortgage having sub-accounts. BOI later admitted this was incorrect information and that its policy had changed on 12 July 2025 to allow online term reductions. While the ombudsman found BOI's pre-July 2025 policy requiring advice for sub-account mortgages was not unfair as a general policy, the errors in August 2025 and failure to identify the initial mistake caused distress and inconvenience. The ombudsman upheld the complaint in part and ordered BOI to pay an additional £100 compensation (totalling £150 with the £50 already paid) for the service failures and loss of trust.

The Ombudsman's reasoning

The ombudsman found that while BOI's pre-July 2025 policy requiring advice for mortgages with sub-accounts was not unfair as a general policy (due to potential risks with varying terms), it was not unreasonable for Mr and Mrs H specifically since their sub-accounts had identical terms. However, the key issue was BOI's errors in August 2025: initially declining the request and then failing to identify the mistake. The ombudsman considered these compounded errors, combined with the importance of the mortgage objective to Mr and Mrs H and the inconvenience of repeated pursuit, warranted compensation beyond the initial £50 already paid.

How this compares

Source

Read the original decision on the Financial Ombudsman Service website