The details of how Bank of Scotland rushed older borrowers into hugely expensive mortgages where their debt rose with house prices have been revealed by a This is Money investigation.
Evidence has emerged that the bank – which has previously been criticised for sharp sales practices – hurried customers approaching retirement into signing up to shared appreciation mortgages without financial advice.
Years later some of these elderly borrowers are now trapped in unsuitable homes by their substantial debts, some of which have risen 500 per cent on the amount originally borrowed.
Hope for borrowers?
In the months following our campaign’s kick-off, a 90-strong group of complainants who either took a shared appreciation mortgage, or have parents who did, have banded together and with the help of a lawyer, plan to challenge the banks.
Christopher Philpot, a solicitor at Teacher Stern, believes he has found a way to take the banks to task over the outrageously expensive loans, based on an assertion that the contracts were unfair.
Philpot said: ‘We believe we are making positive progress on unresolved cases, and are optimistic that we have found a legal means that should allow a wider section of people who were affected to do something about it.
‘Our aim is to help our clients find easier access to justice but these are not simple claims. That said, we believe there are ways to challenge the banks.’
Final legal opinion is still pending, but Philpot is positive. We’ll have the latest as soon as it happens.
Read the full article at Daily Mail online
