Customers can move to cheaper deal if they can find one, says Landmark Mortgages

LANDMARK Mortgages (LML), the owner of mortgages that belonged to Northern Rock before the financial crash, has said it supports a Financial Conduct Authority  (FCA) initiative to help customers switch to alternative lenders where it is in their interests to do so.
Landmark owns mortgages which once belonged to Northern Rock before the financial crashLandmark owns mortgages which once belonged to Northern Rock before the financial crash
Landmark owns mortgages which once belonged to Northern Rock before the financial crash

Landmark, which is regulated by the FCA, said it was continuing to waive any early repayment charges so customers are able to move to another mortgage provider if they wish to do so.

LML said it regards possession as a measure of last resort and will offer “appropriate forbearance” where a customer is working to agree a mutually acceptable approach. LML, as a result of Covid-19, will also grant up to 12 months breathing space for any customers whose loans are term date past maturity.

Hide Ad
Hide Ad

Responding to written questions submitted by The Yorkshire Post, a Landmark spokesman said: “LML has set up a formal project, subject to appropriate governance, to ensure that it identifies and notifies all customers potentially eligible to take advantage of the modified affordability assessments.

“To this effect, LML is represented on the UK Finance working group on mortgage prisoners and also attends the FCA Implementation Group in order to ensure it keeps abreast of the latest position.”

“Landmark (LML) has an established contact strategy under which customers approaching the end of the term on interest only mortgages are reminded of the need to have an appropriate repayment strategy in place.”

LML said its website provides large amounts of information on external third parties which customers could use to obtain independent third party advice, where they don’t already have an appropriate repayment strategy.

Hide Ad
Hide Ad

Landmark also said it had acted fairly in its treatment of a customer from Yorkshire, who has made a complaint to the Financial Ombudsman Service (FOS).

Jemma Ladwitch, from Pontefract, who was sold a Northern Rock mortgage in 2004, said: “The complaint is that one of the customer service agents caused upset and mental anguish, stating in a recorded call that I should be lucky I’m not homeless as NR could have called in the debt at any time.”

A spokesperson for Landmark Mortgages said: “After reviewing all engagement with this customer, Landmark Mortgages Limited (LML) is confident that it has acted appropriately and fairly and welcomes the opportunity to demonstrate this to the FOS.”

Landmark said it remains open to work with the customer to find a fair and reasonable solution.

Hide Ad
Hide Ad

The statement added: “The customer is on a fixed rate product which would typically attract an early repayment charge but LML has and continues to waive such charges, should they wish to move to another mortgage provider.”

Landmark said it also recognises that the pandemic may have adversely impacted some of its customers’ finances.

It added: “As such it passed on the whole of the recent reduction in the Bank of England Base Rate to its variable rate customers with effect from 1 April 2020, a month before many other lenders. LML has a fully developed plan for dealing with customers who are impacted by Covid-19 and has already taken the following steps to ensure that borrowers are dealt with fairly and sensitively."

"These include:

· granting payment deferrals in line with recent FCA guidance

Hide Ad
Hide Ad

· ceasing all repossession proceedings in accordance with the FCA guidance

· waiving all unpaid Direct Debit and arrears fees from April to October 2020, with a review at that point

· granting up to 12 months breathing space for any customers whose loans are Term Date Past maturity

“LML has also undertaken a comprehensive review of all its customer related policies with a specific focus on the forbearance options available to ensure that LML continues to provide the best possible support to its customers during this challenging period.”

Hide Ad
Hide Ad

Landmark did not disclose the number of mortgages it owns which once belonged to Northern Rock.

A spokesman said: “Like any company, they have to be careful about competitors gaining insights into their business.”

The spokesman said the number of mortgages is also a “moving target” as people switch or complete.

Editor’s note: first and foremost - and rarely have I written down these words with more sincerity - I hope this finds you well.

Hide Ad
Hide Ad

Almost certainly you are here because you value the quality and the integrity of the journalism produced by The Yorkshire Post’s journalists - almost all of which live alongside you in Yorkshire, spending the wages they earn with Yorkshire businesses - who last year took this title to the industry watchdog’s Most Trusted Newspaper in Britain accolade.

And that is why I must make an urgent request of you: as advertising revenue declines, your support becomes evermore crucial to the maintenance of the journalistic standards expected of The Yorkshire Post. If you can, safely, please buy a paper or take up a subscription. We want to continue to make you proud of Yorkshire’s National Newspaper but we are going to need your help.

Postal subscription copies can be ordered by calling 0330 4030066 or by emailing [email protected]. Vouchers, to be exchanged at retail sales outlets - our newsagents need you, too - can be subscribed to by contacting subscriptions on 0330 1235950 or by visiting www.localsubsplus.co.uk where you should select The Yorkshire Post from the list of titles available.

If you want to help right now, download our tablet app from the App / Play Stores. Every contribution you make helps to provide this county with the best regional journalism in the country.

Sincerely. Thank you.

James Mitchinson

Editor