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Mortgage complaints fell in Q1 – FOS

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  • 26/07/2016
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Mortgage complaints fell in Q1 – FOS
Mortgage borrowers found less cause to complain about products or advice over the last three months, as the Financial Ombudsman Service (FOS) reported a year-on-year decline in dissatisfied consumers.

From April to June, the Ombudsman’s first quarter, it received 3,729 enquires about mortgages, a fall of 10% from the 4,136 enquiries received in the same period in 2015. Of these enquiries, 2,620 turned into new cases for FOS to deal with, compared to 3,338 cases last year, a 22% fall.

There was also sharp drop in the number of new cases which reached the Ombudsman for a ruling. An adjudicator opens a new case for a customer on receipt of the complaint and issues a view. but if the customer is unhappy with this they can refer it to the Ombudsman which is the second and final stage of the process.

At this phase of the process, FOS ruled on 710 cases received in the first quarter of 2015 compared to 467 this year.

Despite a drop off in the number of enquires received by FOS about mortgages, and a fall in new cases opened, the percentage of complaints upheld by the arbitrator rose from 32% to 44% year-on-year.

A spokesperson for the Financial Ombudsman Service said: “On the one hand, it’s encouraging to see the number of mortgage complaints fall year-on-year as hopefully this means consumers are encountering less problems with their mortgages. However, it’s disappointing that uphold rates are slowly creeping up. We will continue to work with lenders to help them get the best resolutions for their consumers.”

The number of complaints received from payday loan customers rose by 210% year-on-year, from 1,278 to 3963, although there was a decline in the rate of upheld cases, from 68% in April to June 2015 to 55% this year.

Payment Protection Insurance remained the product which customers are most dissatisfied about, accounting for 45% of all complaints received by FOS in Q1.

 

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