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Need help with your mortgage repayments?

We at Bank of Scotland plc understand that in the current economic climate some of our customers may be experiencing difficulty meeting their mortgage repayments.

If you are having trouble paying your mortgage or think you may have difficulty in the future paying your mortgage, there are a variety of options available that may ease your situation and ultimately help to resolve the issue.

To meet our obligations under the Central Bank of Ireland's Code of Conduct on Mortgage Arrears (the "Code"), we have a five step process to help customers whose home mortgage is in arrears or is at risk of going into arrears. This is called our Home Mortgage Arrears Resolution Process ("MARP"), the steps are:

  1. Early communication with you
  2. Getting up to date financial information from you
  3. Assessing your situation
  4. Seeking to reach a resolution on the arrears issue
  5. Facilitating appeals from any decision we make

A printable version of our Mortgage Arrears Resolution Process can be downloaded here.

In line with the Code, we will apply our MARP where the property in question is in Ireland and is either:

  • the residential property you occupy as your primary residence; or
  • the only residential property you own, irrespective of whether you occupy that property.

Certus has an experienced and dedicated team who work closely with mortgage customers who are experiencing or anticipate difficulties in making their mortgage payments - this is the Certus Collections Team. Certus will be our liaison with you in relation to our MARP.

Please see information below for:

The Five Steps are:

  1. Early communication with you
  2. Getting up to date financial information from you - the Standard Financial Statement
  3. Assessing your situation
  4. Seeking to reach a resolution on the arrears issue
  5. Facilitating appeals from any decision we make

1. Early communication with you

First and foremost - don't ignore the problem.

You should contact the Certus Collections Team on (01) 267 5803 as soon as you know that you are in difficulty or are in danger of, or become concerned about, going into financial difficulties so that we can immediately start working with you to find a solution. We would like to agree a solution with you before you encounter any further difficulties or your situation gets worse.

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2. Getting up to date financial information from you - the Standard Financial Statement

When you contact Certus to advise that you are in financial difficulty or are in danger of getting into financial difficulty, or when Certus contacts you in relation to arrears which have arisen, you will be asked to complete a Standard Financial Statement. This will provide us with a detailed picture of your financial situation so it is important that you complete this accurately and in full.

The Standard Financial Statement can be downloaded here.

Additional Information which may assist you with submitting your Standard Financial Statement can be downloaded here.

The consent form can also be downloaded here.

You may also be asked to provide additional documentation to support the information you have provided, for example Bank Statements including statements from other financial services providers with whom you are or were a customer.

You may wish to seek independent advice to assist with completing the Standard Financial Statement. For example, the Central Bank of Ireland has published a guide to help mortgage holders in or facing arrears to complete the Standard Financial Statement (SFS) used by mortgage lenders to gather financial information on a mortgage holder's financial circumstances.

The guide, which sets out the information a borrower should consider when completing the SFS, has been developed with the Money Advice and Budgeting Service (MABS) and builds on guidance already in use by MABS in assisting mortgage holders in or facing mortgage arrears. The guide can be found here.

IMPORTANT INFORMATION

It is important to fill out the Standard Financial Statement accurately, honestly and fully and provide any documentation requested. If you do not, you may be classified as not "co-operating" with us and the 12 month waiting period (moratorium), as specified in the Code, for beginning legal action for repossession of your property will no longer apply to you.

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3. Assessing your situation

Certus will pass your Standard Financial Statement to our Arrears Support Unit. Our Arrears Support Unit will use the information provided by you in the Standard Financial Statement as well as any additional information you provide to assess your particular situation on its individual merits. The unit will identify an approach to dealing with your financial difficulties giving careful consideration to:

  • Your personal circumstances
  • Your financial circumstances - household income, expenditure and domestic budget
  • Your overall personal debt
  • The information provided in the Standard Financial Statement
  • Your current ability to make repayments
  • Your previous repayment history
  • Any other information that impacts the assessment i.e. illness, disability etc.

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4. Seeking to reach a resolution on the arrears issue

Our Arrears Support Unit will explore all options in an attempt to arrange a new repayment plan with you, taking into account both your interests and our responsibilities as the lender.

There are various resolution options available, however, these vary from case to case and are subject to assessment of your individual circumstances. We will determine which option is best suited to your individual circumstances having assessed all of the information provided.

We may decide that it is not possible to reach a resolution. If this happens we will write to you with the reasons for our decision.

If a plan is agreed, it is important that you keep to it - or contact the Certus Collections Team if there is a change in your circumstances that may affect the arrangement. The terms and conditions of your mortgage continue to apply except to the extent they have been modified by the new arrangement.

Please note: an alternative arrangement may be affordable to you in the short term but could be more expensive over the life of the loan.

Please note: you are required to maintain your full contractual repayments until Bank of Scotland plc has processed your request and informed you of their decision.

Subject to your individual circumstances, the new repayment plan could be:

  • Interest Only Payments: This is where only the interest is repaid for a specific agreed period of time. Paying interest only results in a lower monthly repayment. However no capital is repaid during the interest only period (i.e. the remaining balance on your loan is not reduced). Note that this may result in you paying additional interest on your account over the term of the loan as the term of the loan is extended.
  • Paying Interest and part of the Normal Capital: This option means that you pay a monthly payment which pays your monthly interest and with any additional amount being used to help reduce the outstanding balance on your mortgage for a specified period of time. Note: your monthly repayments will be higher than with an interest only payment, as you are paying both the interest and some of the capital of the loan.
  • Reduced Payments: This option means that you pay a monthly repayment which is less than the monthly payments agreed in your original mortgage for a specific agreed period of time. At the expiry of the period, the monthly instalment will be recalculated and adjusted to ensure that the capital and interest will be repaid over the remaining term of the mortgage loan or upon full repayment, if earlier. Note that this will result in higher monthly instalments at the end of the specified period than previously paid.
  • Moratorium: A moratorium is a payment holiday where all or part of the normal capital and interest repayments are deferred for an agreed period of time. Note that this may result in you paying additional interest on your account over the term of the loan.
  • Extension of the Mortgage Term: This option allows you to extend the life of your mortgage as a means of reducing your actual monthly repayments by spreading the amount owed over a longer period. Note: this applies to capital and interest repayments only and may result in you paying more over the extended term.
  • Capitalising the arrears and interest: This option means that all outstanding mortgage arrears can be added to the remaining principal balance and repaid over the mortgage term. Note: this option is only available where certain criteria are met.
  • Changing the type of your Mortgage: This option may be applicable if another type of mortgage rate was better suited to your circumstances i.e. if you are currently on a variable rate mortgage and you changed to a fixed rate.

Once an arrangement is put in place, we will schedule a review at least every 6 months to establish if there has been any change in your financial circumstances since the payment plan was put in place.

IMPORTANT INFORMATION

  • Bank of Scotland plc recommends that you seek independent legal and independent financial advice and you may require further professional advice if you, or your spouse/civil partner are a joint borrower regarding any proposed mortgage repayment restructure.
  • When a resolution approach has been agreed please ensure that your Life Assurance in place is sufficient to cover your revised mortgage terms.
  • If you have a full term Interest-Only mortgage agreement please ensure that you have a suitable repayment mechanism in place as the entire amount that you have borrowed will still be outstanding at the end of the mortgage term.
  • Customers who have a mortgage on a tracker rate product will not be required to move to a different mortgage product as part of the Mortgage Arrears Resolution Process.

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5. Facilitating appeals from any decision we make

If you are unhappy with:

  1. the decision of our Arrears Support Unit;
  2. our treatment of your case under the MARP process; or
  3. our compliance with the Code,

you may submit an appeal in writing to the Bank of Scotland plc Appeals Board for an independent review. Your appeal must be made to the Bank of Scotland plc Appeals Board within 21 business days of receiving notification of our decision.

The appeal should be addressed to the "MARP Appeals Processing Unit" in Certus, who act as our liaison, at the following address:

MARP Appeals Processing Unit, Certus, 124-127 St. Stephens Green, Dublin 2

Certus, on behalf of Bank of Scotland plc, will acknowledge receipt of the appeal in writing within 5 business days of the appeal being received.

Certus will send the appeal to the Bank of Scotland plc Appeals Board in the United Kingdom who will consider your appeal.

We will provide you with regular written updates on the progress of your appeal and we will inform you of the name of one or more individuals appointed by us to be your point of contact in relation to the complaint, until the Bank of Scotland plc Appeals Board make their decision. A final decision will be made by the Bank of Scotland plc Appeals Board within 40 business days of receipt of the appeal. The Bank of Scotland plc Appeals Board will issue a written decision to you within 5 business days of the decision being reached which will explain the terms of any offer being made.

If you remain dissatisfied with the decision of the Bank of Scotland plc Appeals Board you have the right to contact the Financial Services Ombudsman in Ireland. You may also have the right to contact the Financial Ombudsman Service in the UK. See "Useful Contacts" for further information.

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Bank of Scotland plc. Registered in Scotland No. SC327000. Registered office: The Mound, Edinburgh EH 1YZ. Bank of Scotland plc is authorised and regulated by the Financial Services Authority in the United Kingdom and is regulated by the Central Bank of Ireland for conduct of business rules. Bank of Scotland plc is entered in the FSA’s Register and its Register No is 169628.

Telephone calls may be recorded to confirm instructions given and for quality control and training purposes.
Bank of Scotland plc. Registered in Scotland No. SC327000. Registered Office: The Mound, Edinburgh EH1 1YZ. Authorised and regulated by the Financial Services Authority in the United Kingdom. Bank of Scotland plc is entered in the FSA's Register and its Register No. is 169628.