The regulator announced details of the complaints it received in 12 months ending March 2012 in its annual review, with mortgage complaints up 35% from the previous financial year.

The FOS received 9,537 complaints about the sector in this period, up from 7,067, with administrative errors causing the largest number of complaints.

Of the complaints about the mortgage industry, banks were the cause of 65% of objections with mortgage intermediaries taking 17%, building societies 7% and IFAs causing 3% of complaints.

Mortgages made up 4% of the FOS’ total workload. The biggest cause of complaints continued to be payment protection insurance (PPI), which saw 157,716 separate complaints over the 12 month period and accounted for 60% of the regulator’s total complaints received.

The CML’s Sue Anderson said the number of complaints proved that the majority of customers remained happy: “The most notable thing is that out of 11.2 million mortgages in the UK, this represents a modest number of complaints. Nobody wants an increase in complaints, but as long as firms keep their eye on the ball and deal with problems then only a small number will need to involve the FOS.”

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