Newton Aycliffe mum suing TSB after becoming 'mortgage prisoner'

Claire Young, 40, took out a £96,500 mortgage with Northern Rock 16-years ago to buy her two-bed end-terrace in Newton Aycliffe, County Durham.

But when the beleaguered bank collapsed, her mortgage was transferred to another lender, TSB’s Whistletree brand, where she became a ‘mortgage prisoner’ was stuck interest rates higher than the market average and found her interest rate climbing to 6.2% and her monthly repayments rising to £600.

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Claire, a NHS pharmacy technician and single mum said: “Everyone else around me was saying ‘Why are you paying that much?’ - it’s been awful.

“You just don’t have enough money to live on. The first two weeks of the month you can go food shopping, but not the second two.

“I’ve gone without holidays, stuff for myself, clothes for the bairn, house improvements that need doing.

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“I’ve got a boiler than needs changing and I’m praying that doesn’t go wrong.

“My car needed two new tyres recently, and there’s no way I can afford that. Thankfully, my dad loaned me the money – but he can’t do that every time.”

Claire Young (Image: PR)

She was left unable to switch to another provider after being considered a high risk and falling short on lenders’ affordability criteria.

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With debts mounting, she eventually signed an individual voluntary arrangement (IVA), an alternative to bankruptcy where a proportion of debt is written off and more affordable payments are negotiated.

Now she is among 27,000 people fighting a legal claim against TSB. The bank has agreed to a court hearing next year to let a judge rule once and for all whether its Whistletree mortgage customers were financially exploited.

“If I was to get back everything I’d overpaid by, that would be life-changing,” Claire added.

She had better news recently when Whistletree wrote off the personal loan part of her mortgage since it had been incorrectly calculated.

And her interest rate has been fixed at 1.54% for now, taking her monthly repayments down to £389, but she still owes £52,000.

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Damon Parker from legal firm Harcus Parker, representing more than 6,500 former Northern Rock 'mortgage prisoners' said: “While these people have suffered, large institutions have made hundreds of millions of pounds. That simply cannot be right.

“We do not want mortgage prisoners to wait and see what happens because TSB will argue that every day they delay starting their claim will reduce the final amount of money that they can recoup.

“It’s really important if you think you have a claim to join up as soon as possible.”