Latest news with #Ombud
IOL News
6 days ago
- Business
- IOL News
Financial Ombud gets bank to write off R233 000 home loan arrears after it sold home for R10 000
The National Financial Ombud Scheme South Africa intervened in a complaint after a bank sold a home for R10,000, leading to the cancellation of R233,000 in arrears. Image: File picture. The National Financial Ombud Scheme South Africa (NFO) has emphasised the need for fairness from financial institutions after intervening in a case where a bank sold a home for just R10,000 due to a client's home loan arrears. The intervention of the NFO led to the bank writing off the client's home loan arrears of more than R233,000. The details of the matter are contained in the NFO's recently released 2024 annual report. Between 1 March 2024 and 31 December 2024, the NFO handled 35,855 complaints that was dealt with by its four divisions - Non-life and Life Insurance, Banking and Credit. According to the report, in a complaint handled by the Ombud's banking division, a complainant held a Home Loan account with a bank and the account was in arrears. The report explained that the bank exercised its rights in terms of the home loan agreement and proceeded with legal action to recover the full outstanding balance owing on the account. "Judgment was granted and the property was declared executable. There was no reserve price set by the court for the sale of the property. The bank proceeded to sell the property on auction for R10,000 and the complainant remained liable for a shortfall of R233,241.90 after the proceeds of the sale had been credited to the account." Video Player is loading. Play Video Play Unmute Current Time 0:00 / Duration -:- Loaded : 0% Stream Type LIVE Seek to live, currently behind live LIVE Remaining Time - 0:00 This is a modal window. Beginning of dialog window. Escape will cancel and close the window. Text Color White Black Red Green Blue Yellow Magenta Cyan Transparency Opaque Semi-Transparent Background Color Black White Red Green Blue Yellow Magenta Cyan Transparency Opaque Semi-Transparent Transparent Window Color Black White Red Green Blue Yellow Magenta Cyan Transparency Transparent Semi-Transparent Opaque Font Size 50% 75% 100% 125% 150% 175% 200% 300% 400% Text Edge Style None Raised Depressed Uniform Dropshadow Font Family Proportional Sans-Serif Monospace Sans-Serif Proportional Serif Monospace Serif Casual Script Small Caps Reset restore all settings to the default values Done Close Modal Dialog End of dialog window. Advertisement Next Stay Close ✕ When the NFO investigated the complaint, it was found that the property had been valued at R590,000. The outstanding balance on the home loan account at the time of the sale was R234,541.06. In addition, outstanding rates and taxes on the property amounted to R335,575.12 at the time of the sale. However, the NFO said it was of the view that despite these costs, there was still sufficient value in the property, and that a higher selling price could have been achieved by the bank to ensure that the full outstanding balance on the account was settled. The report said: "Whilst the NFO remained cognisant that the court did not set a reserve price and therefore the bank was not in contravention of any court order, the office exercised our equity jurisdiction and remained firm in its view that it could never be considered fair nor reasonable of a bank to sell someone's home for R10,000 when it has a market value of R590,000.00." The NFO therefore recommended that the bank write off the full shortfall amount. "The bank accepted the recommendation, and the full shortfall of R233,241.90 was written off," the report said. THE MERCURY
The Citizen
7 days ago
- Business
- The Citizen
More to be done to curb rip-offs by banks and insurance companies
In 10 months, consumers had a staggering R328 million extracted unfairly from them. If there is something South Africans love to moan about, it is the battles they have with companies in the financial services sector. Banks and insurance companies, both of which constitute 'grudge' purchases, are the main culprits. Now, the National Financial Ombud Scheme's report – just for the period between March and December last year – shows that we're not imagining the poor treatment which gets doled out to us by these institutions. In those 10 months, consumers had a staggering R328 million extracted unfairly from them. That is almost a shocking R1 million a day that saw money going to these enterprises by unfair means. It was life insurance where the ombuds scored the biggest gains for policy holders, recovering just under R203 million for them. Short-term insurance was the next biggest culprit, with R94 million being returned to policy holders for unfair decisions by insurers. By comparison, banks did reasonably well, racking up just over R29 million in money returned to their clients for various wrongdoings. The credit sector looks good with just over R2 million returned to its customers after disputes. Ombuds say the companies are improving their service and systems… but clearly a lot still needs to be done. NOW READ: Ombud gets R328 million back for disgruntled financial consumers
