The debate is sponsored by Charlie Elphicke MP, Conservative MP for Dover.
A debate in the House of Commons today will hear how up to 150,000 people are stuckwithexpensive mortgages and unable to switch provider
The debate is sponsored by Charlie Elphicke MP, Conservative MP for Dover.
Legaltech disrupter ME Group, which uses technology to simplify complex legal disputes such as mortgage mis-selling, is urging MPs to encourage regulators to speed up claims settlement for thousands of people whose lives have been blighted by mortgage mis-selling.
Rob Cooper, its chief executive, said the FSCS and FOS – which rules on mis-selling cases – needed to stop dragging their feet.
He said: “Where lenders can be shown to have breached the rules, or mortgage advisers ripped their clients off in return for big commissions,politicians need to ensure consumers obtain redress without the process taking many months or years.”
Cooper said many have also been mis-sold that mortgage in the first place and are due thousands in compensation.
He added: “Currently,around 27,000peoplewho havecontacted ME Group have a mortgage mis-selling claim, and of these 14,000 have suffered a financial loss in excess of £20,000.
“As so often with financial services, the victims are mostly vulnerable families, who are not financially sophisticated, the very people the authorities should be supporting.”
Cooper said the problem could be much greater, because many people don’t even know they’ve been mis-sold.
The Financial Conduct Authority (FCA) estimated in 2013, before it strengthened mortgage regulation in 2014, that2.6 million interest-only residential mortgages which will mature — so need to be paid off — between2013and 2041. Of those, 600,000 will mature by 2020.
Cooper explained that before thefinancialcrashin 2008, large numbers ofunsuitable or badly-designedinterest-onlymortgages were soldfollowingadvice from mortgage brokers whofailed to act in the interests of their client, or wherelenders acted irresponsibly in their lending decisions.
After the crash, somelenders breached EU regulations and overchargedtens of thousands ofcustomers on standard variable rate mortgages to preserve their revenues.
In2012, such practices were found to be unfair, and lenders updated theirterms, but theycouldn’t apply the newtermsto historical mortgages.
Cooper said: “New technology, pioneered by ME Group, is now able to quickly establish whether the customer has a genuine claim and report back how much they are owed in compensation. The report is then given to a specialist solicitor to pursue the claim on their behalf.
“Our technology is a game changer for complex claims like mortgage mis-selling. The great benefit of our service is that we provide our free assessment to enable borrowers to make an informed decision as to how they want to pursue a resolution to their dispute.
“Now we’d like politicians and regulators to do their bit to prevent customer detriment and step in to help vulnerable people who have been ripped off.”
