In May and October 2022, Daniel and Jules answered calls from the bank. They asked that statements be sent to establish the dates that payments were reversed and the amount of the arrears. The bank did not provide the statements.

In January 2023, a further home loan payment was reversed. In June 2023, Daniel complained about the bank’s repeated phone calls. He said the bank had failed to provide the statements as requested. He claimed that had they been advised immediately about the reversed payments and been able to verify the arrears, they would have promptly made the due payments. The bank acknowledged its failure to provide the statements and offered $1,000 compensation for the stress and inconvenience it had caused. Daniel and Jules did not accept the offer and asked us to investigate.

Our investigation

We found the bank had sent Daniel and Jules 15 arrears letters between January 2021 and June 2024, along with letters advising of interest rate changes, monthly funding account statements and six-monthly loan account statements. The bank sent text messages and left phone messages asking Daniel to contact the bank. For long periods, Daniel and Jules did not answer any of the bank’s calls.  

We found the bank should have promptly clarified what was owed and how the arrears figures had been calculated after learning in May and October 2022 that Daniel and Jules were disputing the amount of the arrears. As well, it should have provided the statements they requested.  These were failures of an obligation to communicate clearly and effectively and to respond to requests quickly.  

While Daniel and Jules suffered inconvenience as a result of the bank’s failure to provide the statements requested, equally they did receive regular correspondence, including regular monthly statements, from the bank and consistently failed to respond to the bank’s calls and messages. At no time did they show any initiative and contact the bank or follow up calls and texts, including after the bank failed to provide the statements.  

Outcome

We were satisfied the bank’s offer of $1,000 fairly compensated Daniel and Jules for the stress and inconvenience they suffered and told them so. They accepted the offer.