Mortgage endowment complaints – the application of "time bar" rules
last updated August 2007
A significant number of cases were referred to the ombudsman service about the application of the "time bar" rules to mortgage endowment cases where there was some doubt about whether the "final date" for complaint sent to the customer by the product provider (in accordance with FSA rules) had been calculated correctly. This might arise if either there was uncertainty about when the high risk warning reprojection – or 'red letter – had in fact been sent (for example, some reprojection letters were marked "date as postmark") or where the final date had been calculated from the precise date the relevant letter had been sent (whereas the rules refers to the date when the warning letter is received by the complainant).
These issues were raised with the FSA by the ombudsman service. The FSA noted that it had provided guidance and comment on endowment time-bar questions in its January 2007 statement. It did not consider further regulatory action was required. The product providers' trade association also raised questions about these issues but concluded on balance that it did not wish to invoke the wider implications process. This left the ombudsman service to proceed to handle disputes about these jurisdiction questions in the normal way.