Credit Agricole mortgage gone wrong, who could help?

[dave21478]

My sister has her mortgage with CA. The situation is a bit complicated to explain here in full. The basic jist is that the loan for the house also included a sum of 15k euro  for repairs to the farm, to be payed back within 3 years. They never used this money in the end. It now turns out that the last 3 years worth of their payments have NOT gone to repaying the house loan, but have been swallowed up in interest payments for the money they never actually borrowed. There seems to have been errors on her part (not officially closing the 15k loan, she told the advisor but never put anything in writing) and errors on the banks part (never confirmed where her payments were going and a few other things) As far as the bank is concerned, this money is gone. After an interview with the advisoers, they say there is nothing they can do. My sister asked to speak to someone higher up who could help, and have been "granted" an interview with someone who might be able to make a decision.

 

She would like to be armed with some advice before this meeting and wondered where she could get help?

in UK there is a great website www.moneysavingexpert.com is there a French equivelant?

Any other advice?

Thanks.

[Bob T]

This sounds like a 3 years fixed term bridging loan. The interest is quite high on such loans. Are you saying that the 15K was put into her account and never used? In that case it should still be there to pay off the interest only loan.

I cannot see how CA can be to blame in any way as she signed the terms and conditions for this loan and then took no notice of them.

Sorry to be negative.

[Gluestick]

If the money has been allocated, then either ir has been "Drawn Down" banker's parlance for taken out of the account it was paid into, or it is still in that account: or that account has been closed for inactivity and the cash moved into what is called a "Suspense  Account".

The French terms would be differnet, but many of them are the same or similar: e.g. Hypothecation.

There must be an Audit Trail, which will demonstrate and prove absolutely where the money was, went and now is.

If your sister is adamant that she has not taken the money, then demand copies of the various account details, loan agreements and etc which will demonstrate the path and thus the Audit Trail.

One aspect I do find most puzzling: if your sister has not actually made any mortgage repayments, before three years, CA like most banks would have been seeking foreclosure on the outstanding mortgage.

French banks are noted particularly for their forebearance!

Overall, remember that CA is a Mutuelle, not a commercial organisation and thus as a member, your sister has an absolute right to attend her regional annual general meeting and protest, vociferously, if in fact CA have made signficant errors which they refuse to correct.

 

[united]

I read about an organisation that may be of help on another forum. http://www.inthevendee.com/bb/viewtopic.php?t=1501. I do not know where your sister is but these people may be of help.

 I've not had any contact with them myself so this is for information rather than a recommendation.

[dave21478]

My mistake, its the Caisse D`Epargne, not CA.

 

The 15k wasnt given to her outright, it was "available" to her if she provided receipts for work done to the house. If she provided these receipts, the money would be reimboursed.

She never used the money, she thought that if she had to pay upfront for the work, get the money re-imboursed from the bank, then repay the money later as part of the loan, there was little point. This is where it appears to have gone wrong. Since this 15k was never "used" she has just been paying the bridging loan and nothing has gone towards the mortgage.

Seemingly the bank have had this happen before, but only for much smaller amounts (up to about 3k) but no-one at the bank had heard of this happening for as much as 15k.

 

 

[Chancer]

It sounds like her repayments have been going towards the bridging loan for the amount advanced towards the purchase and because of the confusion over the 15K which was never used the loan has yet to be converted into a repayment mortgage.

It doesnt sound like she has lost anything, just consider that to now she has had an interest only mortgage without capital repayments.

[Colonel Mustard]

On a similar issue: a friend of ours had a complete home security system installed, one of those linked to a central control. The company installing it recommended a finance company, and our friend borrowed from the finance company to pay for the security system. A year after installation the security company went bust, and all its service contracts and guarantees are now useless. But my friend still has to pay off the loan for the next 7 years, because the two companies are separate. Nice work, if you can get it.