Mortgage arrears complaints spiral

Distressed mortgage holders who have gone through the mortgage arrears resolution process and are not happy with their treatment by the banks are set to become the biggest cohort of complainants to the Financial Service Ombudsman.

The office is seeing an increasing number of people coming through the mortgage arrears resolution process and emerging disillusioned that they have not received the write-off that they were hoping for.

However, the ombudsman cannot force the banks to write off any debt as there is nothing in the mortgage arrears resolution process or the code of conduct on mortgage arrears that requires the banks to write down debt.