Banks Can Make Mistakes
Bank Oopsies
Many people think that banks always get things right, but mistakes can and do happen, sometimes with serious consequences.
Many people in debt review get contacted by people working at or for the banks and are told things that are totally incorrect.
Some are told things like: “your debt review payments are not showing” or “there is no record of you being under debt review”. Others are told they owe lots of money still even after paying a long time.
Often these statements are just plain wrong and the bank has made a mistake.
Fighting To Save Her House
Patience Mavuso’s story is a powerful example of how banks make mistakes. In her case, a banking error nearly cost her her home.
Here is what happened:
Several years ago, Ms Patience Mavuso fell behind on home loan payments and the bank decided (as was their right) to take the matter to court for a judgement and to then try sell the house on auction. They planned to collect any money owing after the auction from her over time.
When this happened, Ms Mavuso made a plan and quickly caught up on all the arrears (as was her right).
This is important because after a ruling in 2016, in the Constitutional Court case: Nkata v FirstRand Bank Limited, it was legally established that if a homeowner who has defaulted on their bond payments settles their arrears (including reasonable legal costs), their mortgage agreement is automatically reinstated.
This actually meant that, legally, the house was still hers and the bank should have stopped any further legal action or auction. But even though she had caught up payments, the bank says they never noticed and as a result they sold her home on auction in 2022.
The new buyer, as is pretty common, paid far less than the home’s value and then tried many different things to evict her without going through proper legal steps.
To try stop the sale and eviction, Ms Mavuso was forced to go to court multiple times, facing delays and extra costs because the bank and the buyer wouldn’t share key information.
Victory
It took three years of fighting before the court finally ruled in her favour, cancelling the sale and making her the owner again.
Though successful this long fight left Ms Mavuso with even more debt than before and with less time to pay off her loan, making it harder for her to keep up with payments in the future.
In this case the bank in question admitted to mistakes in handling her case and promised to fix its processes. But this case shows how hard and expensive it can be for people to protect their homes even when they are in the right and the bank has simply made a mistake.
Keep this story in mind the next time someone from your bank tells you something that does not seem 100% accurate.
Banks can make mistakes.
