Not upheld: repossession conduct, alleged misinformation regarding sale documentation, subject access request handling complaint against Bank of Scotland plc trading as Halifax

Decision detail

Summary

Miss D complained that Halifax treated her unfairly in seeking to repossess her property, gave her wrong and conflicting information about sale documentation, and failed to respond to a subject access request. She had a mortgage in arrears since 2021 with over £130,000 owed, and Halifax obtained a possession order and warrant. When Miss D arranged a private sale, Halifax required a memorandum of exchange to suspend eviction, which Miss D claims was a change from an earlier request for a memorandum of sale. The ombudsman reviewed call recordings and found Halifax consistently required the memorandum of exchange and clearly communicated this to Miss D. The complaint was not upheld as the ombudsman found no misinformation, the bailiff visit was court-instructed document service, and Halifax's response to the subject access request was reasonable.

The Ombudsman's reasoning

The ombudsman reviewed the call recordings and found that Halifax clearly and consistently required a memorandum of exchange, not a memorandum of sale, to suspend eviction. Miss D repeated this requirement back to Halifax multiple times during the 11 November call, indicating she understood it. The bailiff visit was instructed by the court to serve documents, not to evict, and the warrant had not expired. Halifax's response to the subject access request delay was reasonable and caused no demonstrable loss to Miss D.

How this compares

Source

Read the original decision on the Financial Ombudsman Service website