A recent decision made by the Financial Ombudsman Service (FOS) has been made in favour of Bristol & West, following a complaint by a borrower that the lender had unfairly tied him into a standard variable rate (SVR).
Following this test case, the FOS has sent letters out to a handful of other borrowers who have complained about similar circumstances.
The ruling follows several others in which the Ombudsman was called upon to rule over complaints about lenders unfairly maintaining dual SVRs.
However, this complaint was thought to be over the lender’s policy of placing borrowers onto a base rate tracker at the end of the initial deal.
Debbie Staveley, press officer at Bristol & West, said: ‘I would have been surprised if this ruling had gone against Bristol & West as the circumstances were different to those of the other rulings.’
