Service problems, Transaction errors, Lending,

Sophie got into a dispute with her local council and stopped paying council rates. In early November 2025, the council notified Sophie’s bank, as mortgagee, that that it had to pay overdue rates of $2,200. The bank wrote to Sophie saying that if she did not pay the rates within 14 days, it would do so on her behalf and deduct the amount from her loan account. Four days later, the bank withdrew $1,300 from Sophie's transactional account and paid it into her loan account, advising her that this was for rates arrears. Ten days later, it paid the rates arrears and deducted the amount from her loan account. It then wrote to Sophie to say she was $2,600 behind on her loan and warned that it could take steps to recover the arrears. Sophie complained about the steps taken by the bank and said she was not behind on her loan and had not missed any loan repayments.

July 2026