Loan Tip: Co-Borrowers Cancelling Redraw Facilities

Where a person is a borrower with someone else, i.e. a co-borrower, they can ask the lender to cancel any redraw facility on their joint loan.


This is because of clause 56 of the Code of Banking Practice (2019).
https://www.ausbanking.org.au/wp-content/uploads/2019/06/Banking-Code-of-Practice-2019-web.pdf


Example

Homer has recently discovered ‘**** fighting’ – not that one, the other one, roosters. He made a bet on a red rooster and then won up big. He celebrated with a stop off at Red Rooster on the way home for a half BBQ chicken and chip, but he was back again the next day – in a dingy shed on a rural property hidden from view.

Betting on cocks became a regular past time.

Marge soon noticed a $2,000 withdrawal from their home loan – which is about $180,000 ahead in repayments with this amount available as redraw.

She also notices some chicken feathers in Homer’s clothes and his shoes smelled like their garden.

Marge followed Homer one day and this found out his habit of betting of **** fighting.

She immediately rang her bank and ask them to cancel their redraw facility. The bank manager said umm I can’t just remove a redraw facility and she said look at clause 56 of the Bank of Banking Practice, subsection (b) in particular. She then put it in writing and noted that if the bank did not do this, she would deny liability for any future advances from the loan.

The next time Homer was on his way to the shed he stopped off at the bank and tried to withdraw $5,000 only to be told there is nothing available to be redrawn on this loan.