A national press ad for Unfair Credit Direct was headlined "Mis-sold Mortgages". Text in the body of the ad stated "Your unsecured loan & credit card agreements may be unenforceable? Call us now to find out! Do you know that through brand new legislation 70% of credit agreements may be unenforceable?"

 

The complainant challenged whether the claim "Do you know that through brand new legislation 70% of credit agreements may be unenforceable?" was misleading and could be substantiated.

 

The ASA challenged whether the ad should have made clear that a fee applied to the advertiser’s services.

 

Unfair Credit Direct said they had used the ad for two years and had worked with the Ministry of Justice to ensure they also were satisfied with the ad. They explained that they had based the claim "70% of credit agreements may be unenforceable" on their initial studies conducted from within the industry.

 

Some 30% of new cases during 2009-10 were about PPI, the service's annual report shows.

PPI should enable borrowers to pay off loans such as credit cards or mortgages if they fall ill or lose their job, but sales have come under fire.

In total, the ombudsman resolved 46% more finance cases than a year before.

The free ombudsman service is set up by law to settle complaints between consumers and financial businesses on anything from pawnbroking to mortgages.

Consumers feel more empowered to ask questions, shop around, assert their rights, share information with others - and to complain when they are not happy

It handled 925,095 enquiries from consumers in the last financial year. It resolved 166,321 disputes - a record number. In half of these cases, consumers were given compensation.

Some 49,196 new complaints were about PPI, which consumer groups have complained about as often being mis-sold.

The Times has learnt that the bank, whose mortgage book is now run by UKFI, the company that manages the Government’s stakes in banks, is one of a number of buy-to-let and sub-prime lenders behind a mass mail-out of letters to surveyors. GE Money and GMAC-RFC, which were among the biggest lenders of buy-to-let and sub-prime deals before the market crashed in 2007, have also been sending out letters to surveyors after selling homes that they had repossessed for far less than the original valuation.

The solicitors’ letters state that the lender has made a loss on the sale of the property at a lower price than the original value and state that this could be a result of a negligence, informing the firm that it is under investigation.

The practice, which The Times first revealed in October, has already forced Allied Surveyors in England and Wales, one of the UK’s biggest independent surveying firms, out of business as a result of 36 professional negligence claims.