It is well documented that the banks and their management are nothing more than licensed thieves who show no compunction for their actions and daily demonstrate gross stupidity, greed and incompetence.
Here is a tale that may bring a crumb of satisfaction to those who have suffered at the hands of the bandit banks. Around late 1990 the UK was in the grip of a recession and a business acquaintance at the time, had purchased an empty run-down factory unit in 1987 with the aid of a commercial bank mortgage and spent some time and money repairing and restoring the unit.
In 1990 he suffered massive losses when 2 large customers went into liquidation and forced his business to close as a result.
He was a printer and after selling off his equipment, and not wishing to default on his mortgage, he found a tenant to take the unit on a 5 year lease as a storage unit, in return of a rental almost double his monthly re-payment obligation to his bank.
He presented the plan to his commercial bank manager and was told that that the mortgage he had accepted was not an investment or by to let arrangement and he wouldn’t be permitted to lease the premises to a third party. Clearly he was stumped, he couldn’t rent the building, they refused to change the mortgage status and with absence of income, he couldn’t re-mortgage elsewhere.
After some months, the bank foreclosed and ‘penalties’ kicked in and by 1992 he ‘owed’ the bank almost double his original loan (At this time the base interest rate had gone up to 15% under Gordon Lamonts stewardship).
Suddenly, out of the blue he received a letter from the bank to say that they had found a buyer for the unit and a complicated statement revealed that he would still owe the bank more than his original loan. It came to his attention that the factory had been badly vandalized and he consulted an eminent Manchester lawyer who discovered that the bank had not insured the building and therefore had not exercised a duty of care to their clients.
The upshot of all this was that the bank quietly wiped out the loan and the ownership of the factory was restored to my friend, without prejudice, press ban…….. blah – blah!
Within days he was approached by a petrol company who offered him a considerable sum to purchase the site, the occupants of the two houses either side of the factory, were given new homes purchased by the petrol company and the site (factory and two houses) was converted to a large 24 hour filling station.
For those in distress – it’s worth looking at all angles to play the banks at their own game!
Woodbug