Financial Ombudsman Investigation?

[Rubyred]

I havent posted for a long time, but do drop in every so often to read the posts [:)]
Is anyone aware of an ongoing investigation by the Financial Ombudsman to clarify the legality of the PPI offset that RBS currently apply to their accounts?

We paid 100% of our total debt plus fees in April/May 2014 and payments were stopped 14 months prior to our IVA's official end date of June 2015, a variation meeting was to be called to close our arrangement. But because RBS offset PPI against the original debt as well as receiving their IVA payment some creditors did not receive 100% of the money and RBS owe money to the 'pot' and potentially to us as well.

We are with Credit fix and it has been confirmed in writing on numerous occasions that we do not have any more contributions to make but the closure process cannot be started until the FO return their findings and calculations have been confirmed. This has been ongoing for over 12 months now.

I've had a look online to see if I can see anything but have failed. we had an update in March from Creditfix but just to say that there are no updates and we will be informed if anything changes.

Due to elderly parents with rapidly failing health we will be looking to sell our house and apply for a smaller mortgage with a substantial deposit to be closer to parents, but we are still in an IVA, but potentially with a creditor owing us money! Not really sure what we should or can do as we are waiting for the FO.

[Michael Peoples]

I am sorry as I do not have a clue how long these investigations go on for. However if you paid 100p plus costs and RBS then offset surely they have been overpaid and the money should be paid back? If they were only paid the offset amount then this should not have affected creditors so you should need to speak to your IP and find out what is going on.

[Rubyred]

Thanks for the reply Michael - if only it were that simple. I shall continue badgering for updates

We were told the following:

RBS has set-off sums due in its PPI redress, but it has not re-proven its claim within the proceedings. It is not clear from the documentation whether or not RBS still have a claim, given the set-off value is lower than the SoA value. The letter from RBS implies there is no claim, but I would think for that to be the case, they will have to have taken the dividends paid into account. Indeed when you consider the dividends paid on some of these accounts, RBS will in fact owe the estate money in refund.

If the bank does not reprove, its claim will be thrown out, the result of which will be the request from the IP for all of the dividends back, plus interest.

I can only advise that this is an incredibly unusual situation affecting any insolvency proceedings with RBS claims that will unlikely happen again for some time.

[Michael Peoples]

It is certainly unusual but RBS should not get away with this. Effectively they submitted a claim for say £10k at the time of the meeting and were paid dividends based on this. They then had to repay PPI of say £2k but claimed offset against their debt. You then repaid creditors in full and they were repaid the balance of the £10k less and dividends but since RBS did not submit an amended claim after offsetting they have been overpaid.

Is that what happened although obviously the figures are a guess?

[Rubyred]

I couldn't have worded it better myself