Did you not get a yearly statement with their fees on? - Yes, I did. Each year I queried it. I was told I had to suck it up and it would be worth loads when it matured, yada yada. I wasn't an expert in pension funds, neither was there any good information for consumers. You could say my ignorance is now costing the nation every month - or you could say finance companies taking the piss out of customers' good faith is costing us.
I couldn't understand why the bank didn't accept my "zombie" offer at the time and, as I said, knew several other people who were trying the same thing. If the problem were a matter of the bank's interest in preserving long-term value from a loan gone wrong it would have made sense. But it's better for the bank's books to own property and to give someone else a mortgage on it, which is also an asset. As Filibear pointed out above, they can also 'bank' the evicted resident's outstanding debt even if there's no chance of its being paid back.
I don't want this thread to be about me though.
Homelessness in the UK increased by 23% last year. There will be a fresh epidemic in April 2015. This is because councils will no longer be obliged to rehouse the homeless in their local authority. They'll be able to send them anywhere there is a cheap place. Currently the only borough with excess cheap housing is Cleveland (Middlesbrough). People will be told to move wherever rents are cheap, leaving their jobs and schools behind. Councils will not be obliged to help with moving costs. This will create poverty ghettoes in the very boroughs that are already suffering the worst under-funding. Meanwhile, millions more homes will become empty in better-off areas. The vast majority of these empty properties will be owned by banks.