Delrose Westman from Shipley got back £7,000 from Halifax

In 1996 Ms Westman was buying a new home and approached Halifax to arrange a mortgage.

She discussed her circumstances with the adviser and was recommended to take an interest only mortgage rather than a repayment mortgage. These mortgages were popular at this time and customers would normally be recommended to invest into an Endowment plan to repay the mortgage at the end of the term. Mrs Westman was advised to use a Halifax Homeplan, which later became an ISA, to repay her mortgage and paid monthly payments of £41 into it until she changed her mortgage arrangements in 2004.

Ms Westman saw our online ad and contacted us to see if we could help. We looked at the advice she had been given and concluded that she should have been recommended to take a repayment rather than an interest only mortgage. Interest only mortgages are not guaranteed to be repaid when the mortgage term ends because the Homeplan ISA would have relied on stock market growth to reach the mortgage amount outstanding. This type of mortgage is very risky and we sent our claim to Halifax explaining it wasn’t suitable for Ms Westman.

After investigating her case they agreed with our findings and paid Ms Westman £7,060. This amount covered the additional cost to her by not taking out a more suitable repayment mortgage.