Forum tells bank to pay up ₹2K relief to Chandigarh man

Had added lien marking fee to complainant’s housing loan account without any provision

The District Consumer Disputes Redressal Forum has directed Union Bank of India to pay up ₹2,500 compensation to a city resident for causing harassment.

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Amardeep Singh, a resident of Sector 39B, Chandigarh, had moved the forum against a branch of the bank in Sector 21C.

Singh had said that he availed a housing loan of ₹48 lakh in May 2014 from the bank and was regularly paying the instalments without any default. He said in December 2018, he found that the bank had added a sum of ₹8,850 in the loan account without his consent and knowledge.

On enquiry, he was informed that the said amount was the lien marking charges of his property. When the complainant approached the manager as to why the bank had not imposed the charges at the time of sanctioning the loan, he replied that there was no such lien marking fee prescribed by the Chandigarh Housing Board (CHB) at that time. Following this, Singh moved the forum.

The bank,however, pleaded that the loan was sanctioned on April 28, 2014, and the bank had deducted ₹8,850 from the loan account on December 21, 2018, as processing charges for obtaining the permission to mortgage/lien in accordance with the policy of the CHB against the complainant’s mortgaged property and as such the complainant had no right to agitate the amount at that stage.

However, allowing the complaint, the forum directed the bank to credit the amount of ₹8,850 to the loan account of the complainant and to pay a lump sum compensation of ₹2,500 to him on account of mental agony and harassment including litigation expenses.