Separate from the archive
My case
A dated record of steps taken in one individual dispute. This section is first-person and is not evidence about anyone: it says what was asked for and when, and links to the documents behind each step.
Why this is kept separate
Everything else on this site records material published by courts, regulators, the Ombudsman, companies or members of the public. This page is different: it is one person's account of their own conduct of a dispute. It carries no evidence status badge and it is not cross-referenced into the archive statistics. Where a step produced a document that can properly be published, the entry links to it.
Every letter referred to below is published in full, with all identifying details replaced by placeholders, in the correspondence pack. Replies received are not published: they concern an individual account and contain personal information. Where nothing is said about what came back, that is because nothing has been published, not because nothing happened.
The chronology
In the order the steps were taken. Dates are published only where they can be shown from a document.
Step 1
Subject access request for the account records
- What happened
- Charges, contact and enforcement decisions were recorded on the account, but the internal record behind them was not visible from the statements or the letters received.
- What I asked for
- A copy of the personal data held about me: account and servicing notes, call recordings and transcripts, arrears and forbearance records, enforcement decision records, field-agent material, complaint-handling notes and the third parties my data had gone to.
- Why I asked
- Personal data rights are the one route that does not depend on the business agreeing to be helpful. The internal notes show what was actually being decided, and when.
- What came back
- Not published in this archive.
- What I did next
- Used what came back to identify which specific documents and charges needed to be asked for separately, because a subject access request is not a route to commercial documents.
Step 2
Request for an itemised breakdown of fees and legal costs
- What happened
- Fees and legal costs appeared on the account without a description that made it possible to tell what each one was for.
- What I asked for
- Each charge itemised with its date, amount, the tariff version relied on, the work it related to, and, for legal costs, the invoices behind them.
- Why I asked
- A charge cannot be assessed at all until it is matched to the tariff in force on the date it was applied and to the work said to justify it.
- What came back
- Not published in this archive.
- What I did next
- Compared each item against the published tariff versions held in this archive.
Step 3
Challenge to specific charges
- What happened
- Some charges did not appear to match the published tariff, or were applied around dates where the position on the account did not obviously support them.
- What I asked for
- Removal of the identified charges, with the reasoning for each one set out item by item.
- Why I asked
- A general complaint that fees are too high is easy to answer. A list of dated items is not.
- What came back
- Not published in this archive.
- What I did next
- Kept the list as the basis of the later formal complaint.
Step 4
Request for confirmation of entitlement to receive repayment and give discharge
- What happened
- Correspondence and the register did not make clear, in one place, who was entitled to be paid and who would remove the charge from the title.
- What I asked for
- Written confirmation of the registered proprietor of the charge, which entity asserts the present entitlement to enforce and receive repayment, which can issue and be paid a redemption figure, and which will procure discharge at the Land Registry.
- Why I asked
- This is the practical question of who can receive the money so that the liability is fully discharged. It is not a reason to stop paying.
- What came back
- Not published in this archive.
- What I did next
- Asked the same questions of the servicer, in its own name.
Step 5
Request for clarification of servicer authority
- What happened
- Letters were arriving from a servicer whose name is not on the mortgage deed.
- What I asked for
- The capacity in which the servicer writes, the entity it acts for, the date it began acting, whether notice was given, and whether its authority extends to forbearance, charges and enforcement decisions or only to administering the account.
- Why I asked
- It decides who a complaint should be addressed to and whose decision is actually being challenged.
- What came back
- Not published in this archive.
- What I did next
- Used the answers to address the formal complaint to the right business.
Step 6
Formal complaint to the lender or servicer
- What happened
- The information requests had produced enough to state the issues precisely rather than in general terms.
- What I asked for
- A formal investigation of each numbered issue, and a final response letter so that the Ombudsman route opens.
- Why I asked
- The Financial Ombudsman Service will normally only look at a complaint the business has had the chance to answer first.
- What came back
- A final response was issued. It is not published here: it is correspondence about an individual account and contains personal information.
- What I did next
- Recorded which of the numbered issues the response actually answered, and which it did not.
Step 7
Property mitigation, sale or letting update
- What happened
- Steps were being taken to reduce the balance and to keep the position stable.
- What I asked for
- That the steps taken be recorded on the file, and that any enforcement decision take them into account.
- Why I asked
- Published decisions in this archive repeatedly turn on what a lender knew at the time it made a decision. Putting it in writing is what makes it something it knew.
- What came back
- Not published in this archive.
- What I did next
- Repeated the update whenever the position changed.
Step 8
Request for an enforcement standstill while a proposal was considered
- What happened
- Enforcement was in prospect while a repayment or sale proposal was outstanding.
- What I asked for
- A short, defined pause in enforcement steps while the proposal was considered, with a date by which an answer would be given.
- Why I asked
- A standstill is not a right. Asking for one in writing, with a deadline, creates a record of what was proposed and when.
- What came back
- Not published in this archive.
- What I did next
- Followed up in writing on the date given.
Step 9
Without prejudice settlement proposal
- What happened
- A route to resolving the balance was available but needed agreement.
- What I asked for
- Consideration of a defined proposal, marked without prejudice.
- Why I asked
- A specific, evidenced proposal is harder to dismiss than an open-ended one — a point made expressly in several of the published decisions in this archive.
- What came back
- Not published in this archive.
- What I did next
- Kept the proposal and the reply as part of the evidence file.
Step 10
Response to threatened receiver appointment
- What happened
- Appointment of receivers was raised as a possibility.
- What I asked for
- The basis of the proposed appointment, the powers said to be conferred, how the receiver's fees would be charged, and how the steps already taken had been considered.
- Why I asked
- Once receivers are appointed the questions get harder to ask, and responsibility for the receiver's conduct is treated differently from the lender's.
- What came back
- Not published in this archive.
- What I did next
- Kept every reply, because the capacity in which each party says it is acting changes over time.
Step 11
Referral of the complaint to the Financial Ombudsman Service
- What happened
- A final response had been issued and the issues remained unresolved.
- What I asked for
- An independent assessment of each numbered issue, with the documents already gathered supplied as part of the referral.
- Why I asked
- The service is free, and its test is what is fair and reasonable in all the circumstances, not only what the contract permits.
- What came back
- Not published in this archive.
- What I did next
- Waited for the investigator's view.
Step 12
Response to the investigator's view, and request for an Ombudsman decision
- What happened
- An investigator issued a view that did not address every issue raised.
- What I asked for
- That the case be passed to an Ombudsman for a final decision, with a table setting out each issue and where it had or had not been dealt with.
- Why I asked
- An investigator's view is not the end of the process. Setting out what was not answered is more useful than repeating the original complaint.
- What came back
- Not published in this archive.
- What I did next
- Continued to gather documents while the case waited for a decision.
Step 13
Notice before an application for pre-action disclosure
- What happened
- Specific documents remained outstanding that the complaint process had not produced.
- What I asked for
- The named documents, with notice that an application for pre-action disclosure under CPR 31.16 would otherwise be considered.
- Why I asked
- I wanted to show that I had first made a narrow written request and given Rooftop an opportunity to respond before asking the court to intervene.
- What came back
- Not published in this archive.
- What I did next
- Prepared a draft application in case the documents were not provided.
Step 14
Draft pre-action disclosure application sent for consent
- What happened
- The named documents had still not been provided.
- What I asked for
- Consent to the proposed disclosure order before I filed the application.
- Why I asked
- Costs risk runs in both directions. Giving the other side a final chance to provide the documents is part of behaving reasonably.
- What came back
- Nothing is published about the outcome of this step.
- What I did next
- This is the current end of the published chronology.
Using this yourself
The same sequence, written generically, is on the Borrower Playbook.
The general versions of these letters are in the example letters, and the stage-by-stage guide is the Borrower Playbook.