Mortgages

Former Northern Rock mortgage holder in Bristol seeking legal action over high rates


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.”



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