Complaints continue to rise against former specialist mortgage lenders
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Former buy-to-let lender Mortgage Express received 1,314 complaints in the second half of 2010, despite closing to new business in 2008.
This was an increase from the 1,125 complaints that the Bradford & Bingley-owned lender received in the first half of last year.
The regulator last week published complaints figures against financial services firms, which revealed that 40% of those against Mortgage Express were upheld.
The figures came as UK Asset Resolution, the government-owned company that runs B&B, revealed it returned to profit in 2010. B&B made underlying profits of £200.1m in 2010, compared with losses of £166.5m in 2009.
As at the end of 2010 there were 13,096 cases of B&B mortgages in arrears for three or more months including possessions, a fall of 32% compared with the end of 2009.
B&B says it made good progress in 2010 with respect to customers in serious arrears, reflecting tight management of collection activity. The number of customers in more than three months in arrears and repossessions as a percentage of its mortgage book fell from 5.5% in 2009 to 4.1% last year.
A spokesman for UKAR says: “Most complaints related to issues surrounding arrears. We take all complaints seriously, have robust processes in place and strive to resolve issues with customers as soon as they arise.
“In cases where we have not been able to resolve the issue to the customer’s satisfaction, we make them aware of the options available to them.”
Other former specialist lenders also faired badly in terms of complaints.
Former Lehman Brother-owned lender Preferred Mortgages received 842 complaints in the second half of 2010 - up from 585 - 39% of which were upheld. And Southern Pacific Mortgages Limited received 886 - up from 632 - 34% of which were upheld.
Kensington received 740, with 51% upheld, and GE Money Home Lending 756, with only 15% upheld.
Overall, complaints about mort-gage businesses were up to 29,274 in the second half of the year, compared with 22,688 in the first half of 2010 and considerably higher than the second half of 2009 at 13,232.
Mortgage businesses paid out £15m in redress to customers, up from £5m in the second half of 2009.
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