A Bristol homeowner says she feels like a ‘mortgage prisoner’ stuck with high rates more than a decade after her lender Northern Rock collapsed. Dancer Natasha Burrows bought her three-bedroom house in Hartcliffe in 2006 for £120,000, taking her first steps onto the property ladder.
But once the 2008 financial crisis struck just two years later, Mrs Burrows says she found herself locked into high interest rates that left her struggling financially. She says she has been living with a hole in her roof as she is unable to pay to fix it, or afford luxuries like going on holiday.
The 42-year-old said when Northern Rock went bust in 2008, her mortgage was eventually sold to TSB’s Whistletree mortgage brand in 2016. Unable to pass affordability tests to get a new mortgage provider, Mrs Burrows claims she has been stuck paying Whistletree above the market rate in interest, and she is now seeking legal action as part of a bigger group.
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TSB has refuted the reference to ‘mortgage prisoners’ and said more than two thirds of Whistletree customers have either moved to a new mortgage or closed their mortgage with Whistletree. It said it regularly writes to customers reminding them that they can switch.
However, Mrs Burrows said: “For nearly 18 years, we’ve been in the house and unable to afford to make home improvements because we have been paying high interest rates on the mortgage. There’s a hole in the roof that needs to be fixed, but we haven’t been able to afford it.
“It’s been a real struggle. We can’t go on holiday and do things that other people have because we just don’t have the money.”
Mrs Burrows claims while her friends and family have enjoyed decades of mortgage interest rates of less than two per cent, she and her husband have been paying upwards of 6.3 per cent. She is now taking part in group legal action, in hope of claiming back some of the extra money they have paid.
London law firm Harcus Parker says it currently represents more than 6,500 former Northern Rock mortgage holders, including more than 1,200 TSB Whistletree customers, and is seeking £800m in compensation as part of a no-win, no-fee action. The firm says it has now secured a two-day court hearing for next year.
Mrs Burrows said: “If we can get some of the money back that we’ve paid as a lump sum, it’ll make a huge difference to us.” Harcus Parker is urging other customers who may have a claim to come forward.
Damon Parker, a senior partner at the firm, said people have “suffered” and this “simply cannot be right”. He added: “We do not want mortgage prisoners to wait and see what happens because TSB will argue that every day they delay starting their claim will reduce the final amount of money that they can recoup.
“It’s really important if you think you have a claim to join up as soon as possible.” Harcus Parker has previously said there could be more than 200,000 ‘mortgage prisoners’ stuck on high interest rates after their loans were sold.
It has set up a website – mortgageprisonersclaims.com – specifically for mortgage holders who believe they may be entitled to make a claim following the sale of the Northern Rock mortgage book.
TSB’s response
Responding to the claims of Mrs Burrows and Mr Parker, a TSB spokesperson said: “Whistletree customers are not mortgage prisoners. Since we took over the management of these mortgages, over two-thirds of Whistletree customers have either moved to a new mortgage or closed their mortgage with Whistletree.
“We write to every customer twice a year to remind them that they can switch.” TSB added that while the mortgages in question were managed by Northern Rock, there was no product transfer capability to allow customers to move to better rates.
It also said it believed Harcus Parker’s figure of £800m was “wholly speculative and is entirely at odds with the number of claims”.
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