Need help to get started, get in touch
Make a complaint Search

Customer testimonial: “They showed me compassion during an anxious time”

5 December 2022

Case overview – customer pursued in retirement for a Personal Guarantee loan

Gordon was a director of a building company and, in 2003, he took out a Personal Guarantee to secure an overdraft for his business. A Personal Guarantee is an agreement between a business owner and a lender, where the business owner agrees to be personally responsible for paying back a loan if the business is ever unable to meet its payments. In 2013, Gordon retired and left the business, informing the bank.

In 2020, Gordon – now retired and with a limited income – was contacted by the bank to settle the company’s debts of £20,000. The bank was relying on the Personal Guarantee signed in 2003. Gordon felt that this could ruin an otherwise happy retirement, and that the bank had not provided him with a suitable warning that he was still liable for the company’s debt. The customer approached the BBRS for support to have his case investigated, and ultimately to try and stop the bank chasing him for the debt.

Achieving resolution

Gordon registered with the BBRS in 2021 and, as the case concerned a contract signed in 2003, it was considered under the historical scheme. The BBRS Customer Champion worked with Gordon and spoke to the bank on his behalf to ask them to put a hold to their action whilst the BBRS investigation was carried out.

Following BBRS involvement the bank and customer mutually agreed to enter into conciliation, a BBRS brokered alternative dispute resolution process. Following conciliation the bank agreed that the customer could be released from the guarantee and any liabilities secured by it.

On reaching a resolution Gordon thanked the BBRS and the Customer Champion for “always showing the utmost courtesy, kindness and compassion in what has been an extremely anxious time for me.”

This testimonial is an account of a real customer experience with names and some details changed. Each case that reaches the BBRS is different and customer outcomes will vary.