Issue
Every record in the archive tagged "Financial difficulty".
The Rooftop Mortgages website publishes a section for customers in financial difficulty. It describes the questions staff will ask, states that assistance will be tailored, and lists forms of assistance including reduced payments — which the page says can include paying nothing for a period — and consent to let on residential mortgages.
An interest-only mortgage taken out with Rooftop in 2006, fixed for two years and then reverting to LIBOR plus 4.1%. Payments from the borrowers and the Department for Work and Pensions cleared the arrears and built an overpayment balance, which was eroded from 2022 as interest rates rose and payments reduced. The complaint concerned the erosion of that balance, the interest rate increases and the charges applied, and was not upheld.
An interest-only mortgage where the borrower arranged an equity release agreement with another provider that would not cover the full balance owed to Rooftop. She asked Rooftop to accept a shortfall of roughly £14,000, initially in February 2023, and on 7 April 2023 proposed repaying it at £500 per month on an unsecured basis. She told Rooftop she needed an answer by 12 May 2023, when the equity release offer expired. Rooftop conducted a new income and expenditure assessment on 20 April 2023 and confirmed acceptance on 12 May 2023 by telephone and by email sent at 11:12 am. The borrower was unable to confirm the equity release offer in time and the replacement offer was £10,000 lower.
Rooftop Mortgages Limited publishes the income and expenditure form used when assessing a customer's circumstances. The published document is marked version 1.0 with a release date of 2 October 2020.
A complaint brought through a claims management company about fees and charges added to a mortgage taken out in August 2006. Arrears fees, the cost of possession proceedings and unpaid direct debit fees had been added to the account. The Ombudsman upheld the complaint and required Rooftop to refund 31 monthly arrears management fees of £50 and six unpaid direct debit fees, totalling £1,685, and to rework the account to remove interest added to those fees.
Charges and interest
Ownership, authority and servicing