Practical
Borrower Playbook
These playbooks are here to help you understand your rights: what the problem looks like, what you are trying to establish, the evidence to collect, what to ask for, what a useful answer looks like, what an inadequate answer looks like, and where it goes next. This is not legal advice.
Start at the right rung
Many disputes can be resolved before court proceedings become necessary. Information you can obtain yourself, then targeted requests, then a subject access request where you need personal data.
The escalation ladder
One stage creates the evidence for the next.
- 1
Information you can obtain yourself
Land Registry title and filed documents, FCA Register, Companies House, published tariffs and policies.
- 2
One chronology, one numbered evidence index.
- 3
Named documents and specific questions, in writing: the deed, the transfer, the appointment, the invoice, the tariff in force on a date.
- 4
Subject access request, where you need personal data
Account notes, call recordings, internal notes about you, recipients of your data.
- 5
Rectification, where the records are wrong
Challenge inaccurate factual personal data and ask for correction or completion, with your evidence attached.
- 6
Formal complaint to the business
Numbered issues, documents attached, an outcome stated.
- 7
Investigator view first, then an Ombudsman's final decision if you ask for one. Normally within six months of the final response.
- 8
A focused pre-action request gives the business a final opportunity to provide the named documents before an application is considered.
- 9
A court application with costs risk. Take advice. Many disputes can be resolved before court proceedings become necessary, and going to court before the documentary issues are properly defined can add cost and complexity.
Get the information yourself
Get the documents yourself before asking the lender
Public registers hold more than most borrowers realise. Start there, so you are not dependent on what a servicer chooses to send you.
Build your evidence file
One chronology and one evidence index. This is the single highest-value hour you can spend before any complaint or application.
Ask the lender the right question
Your personal data rights
Making a subject access request about your mortgage
A SAR gets your personal data — account notes, call recordings, internal notes about you. It is not a route to the assignment deed.
SAR versus document request versus pre-action disclosure
Three different tools, three different things they produce. Using the wrong one is the most common reason borrowers get an answer that feels evasive.
My lender's records about me are wrong
Inaccurate factual records — 'property vacant', 'borrower refused to engage' — can drive enforcement decisions. You can challenge accuracy.
Money, fees and interest
Auditing your account: what is principal, what is interest, what is a fee
Start with the transaction history and split every line into categories. Most fee disputes become obvious once the account is broken up properly.
I have been charged solicitor or legal fees but no solicitor has written to me
If legal costs are charged to your mortgage account, ask which firm incurred them, what work was done, what evidence supports the amount and which mortgage term allows the cost to be passed on.
Enforcement and sale
Complaining
Making the initial complaint, and referring it to the Ombudsman
Complain to the business first, then refer.
Responding to an investigator's view
The investigator's view is not the end. It is the point at which you find out what was actually considered, and what was not.
Asking for a final Ombudsman decision
If you disagree with the investigator's view, you can still escalate to an Ombudsman for adjudication.
Court and disclosure
The letters referred to throughout are on the example letters page, and the chronology and evidence index are on the evidence checklist.