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Thanks for this...now that I read it, I am not sure how applicable it will be to my case for which I may need to start a new thread but a bit of background:
I have an unsecured loan to which i was making payments until things got tough and I couldn't anymore. Subsequently, I wrote to the compnay and started making token payments. What do I know - i got a call saying the whole debt had been written off. I asked for this in writing but got nothing. About 4 months ago, I got a default notice, contacted the company and was told that was so unlikely cos it was too early in the life of the loan. I demanded a statement of acct from inception (2005).
About a month later, I went away and came back to find confirmation in the statement that it had indeed been written off, and then reversed about 18mths ago (isnt this odd?) and now sold to the mean l**k financial who are demanding immediate payment. I been thru the motions of a CCA and SAR and it seems the agreemnt is definitely properly executed and enforceable.
The fact is that I have been making token payments of £35 all this while. Would you think I can get it returned to the original lender? Am out of work and almost at my wits end!!!
If there's nothing in writing to confirm that the debt was written off, I doubt there is much you can do if the OC or subsequent owner of the debt decides to pursue this.
Any help and advice is offered in good faith, based solely on my own knowledge and on experience gathered from this site. I am not qualified to offer legal or financial advice, which you should seek from an expert before making any important decisions. My opinions are therefore offered without liability.
Thanks for this - alas!! a glimmer of hope. The OC is GE Money. I had tried through another post to find others who might be used to this lender's unsecured loans. The statement they sent in response to my request in late April shows the write off, and then reversal (they didn't send any statements b4 then) but l**k have conveniently left this out of a print out of "all" transactions they sent to me last week. I also have a note of the name of the individual who told me it was being written off. Do you think these are sufficient proof?
Any help and advice is offered in good faith, based solely on my own knowledge and on experience gathered from this site. I am not qualified to offer legal or financial advice, which you should seek from an expert before making any important decisions. My opinions are therefore offered without liability.
Thanks for moving the thread. It had a bal of ~£21k at the time, now 29k with interests and charges. Actually, the person called and was about to launch into the 'you have not kept up with making full monthly payments' speech and then said: 'oh, i see this is about to be written off' and ended the call. At this point, I had actually been making token payments of £35 per month for about 2 months.
I asked for confirmation in writing and heard nothing further from them so I simply continued making the payments. The statement history sent to me in April shows the write off, a reversal and then credit amounts of the monthly payments so I guess, the statement at least offers some proof that I haven't made up the story. The l**k statements though have completely omitted this.
I have to move quickly on this so have drafted a letter to GE (have 14 days to get back to l**k re payment proposals, which they never accept cos they prefer charging orders) but I think I should also SAR the account, as I may well need other backup log entries and manual adjustments made to the account.
Beyond this, I have no idea. I note though the wiki caselaw/examples on estoppel seem to say it affords fairly non-contentious and straightforward applications.
Are there any more legally attuned folk on CAG who might be able to offer an opinion?
I can see nothing in your post above which would help back up any contention that the loan was written off.
I suspect that the person to whom you spoke meant that the debt was being written off on THEIR books, as it was being passed on, or sold, to a DCA.
Do Link now own the debt or are they chasing on behalf of the OC.
If you haven't yet done so, I suggest you fire off a SAR to GE Money now. This will give you some protection against a court claim and/or charging order, if there are penalty charges which have been added to the account.
Write to Link saying there are charges on the a/c which are legally challengeable and you have taken this up with GE Money. As the account is now in dispute, they must refrain from any collection activity until the dispute is resolved.
Any help and advice is offered in good faith, based solely on my own knowledge and on experience gathered from this site. I am not qualified to offer legal or financial advice, which you should seek from an expert before making any important decisions. My opinions are therefore offered without liability.
Thanks for the last post - just when I thought I had something to cheer me up a little. The statement entry says 'bad debt write off' and is dated 02/2008. It was sold in 07/2009 so it took them 17mths during which I was still paying off the account. I'll have the SAR in the post Friday but I already have an exhaustive statement and the penalty charges don't seem to add up to much, sadly.
There is also the unfortunate matter of the quality of the project that was financed by the original loan - it is falling apart and I have been in dialogue with the suppliers to try to fix it but so far, hitting several roadblocks.
Just a quick update, complaint sent to ask why it was sold considering the DN had been verbally challenged in April and also a paragraph on quality issues of the project of whch GE was already aware.
SAR also sent to GE. I am holding my breath. I have 12 days to reply to link following receipt of their copy of agreement and other information in response to a SAR
Just a quick update, complaint sent to ask why it was sold considering the DN had been verbally challenged in April Unless this was done in writing, you may have nothing to show that a challenge or complaint was made at the time.
.... and also a paragraph on quality issues of the project of whch GE was already aware. Not a clue what this refers to, or whether it's relevant to the case.
I have 12 days to reply to link following receipt of their copy of agreement and other information in response to a SAR. You don't HAVE to abide by their deadline. Counter this by setting the a/c in dispute re default charges as advised 3 posts back.
If you are quite sure the agreement is enforceable, fine. If you are not certain and want it looked at, hide your personal date and post the agreement here for opinion.
Any help and advice is offered in good faith, based solely on my own knowledge and on experience gathered from this site. I am not qualified to offer legal or financial advice, which you should seek from an expert before making any important decisions. My opinions are therefore offered without liability.
I think am shooting from the hip at the moment, just so it is not perceived that something or other was not protested, but know this is at the risk of muddling up all/some the issues...
Regarding the challenge, am hoping the SAR will show this cos they sent my entire statement which i requested because the agent i spoke to challenged the likelihood of a write off - as always, didn't have the time to followup on it until I got a letter from link.
On the quality issues...sorry, am being a bit cryptic as I don't know who might be reading these. Basically, the loan was taken to finance a home improvement project, which has developed serious quality issues acknowledged by the company. I am assuming I may have a right to sue the finance provider (in this case GE), under the CCA.
The link letter is drafted, ready to be posted tomorrow - thanks for this.
Here is a copy of the agreement & the conditions (on reverse of cover page).
Is it sufficient to say one can cancel the agreement & a copy of how to cancel will be sent, or would the OC really have to have sent these to be compliant? I know for certain I did not receive any notice of how to canx
I am looking at the APR at the moment - i can see it falls outside of the >0.1% below />1% above bracket as per the tutorial on un/enforeceable agreeents in this forum. I am not sure that I am reading this correctly though...
I've looked over the agreement and it appears to contain the Prescribed Terms as necessary and your signature, so I agree that it appears to be valid and enforceable.
If you want to get anywhere with complaining about poor quality of work, either with the contractor or GEMoney, you should deal with this promptly. The longer you leave any complaint, the less likely you are to succeed. Keep everything in writing so you have a complete paper trail.
Another place where I think your suggestion, that the loan was written off, will fail is that you continued to make payments. The fact that they were token pay'ts I think is irrelevant. Personally, I'd forget this particular avenue.
Any help and advice is offered in good faith, based solely on my own knowledge and on experience gathered from this site. I am not qualified to offer legal or financial advice, which you should seek from an expert before making any important decisions. My opinions are therefore offered without liability.
Thanks for this. My thoughts exactly about the token payments. I am completely overwhelmed with the whole thing, which is complex and cannot afford to pay a lawyer for litigation so am trying a DIY approach with the letters. I am not sure though at what point the finance company is liable for the poor quality work. I have already established a complaint with the contractor, which was also advised to the finance company. I would have to decide by the end of the day tomorrow whether to pay for 1-2hrs of advise and then take it from there myself. You may have heard of the Essex hairdresser by now- she managed it at the high court.
Have you spoken to any local solicitor to see if they offer an initial free consultation.
I know this won't help you do it DIY, but you may at least get an opinion as to whether you have any case worth pursuing.
Also, it may be worth posting your query (about whether the Finance Co is jointly responsible for problems) in the Gen'l Consumer Issues forum - General Consumer Issues - The Consumer Forums
Any help and advice is offered in good faith, based solely on my own knowledge and on experience gathered from this site. I am not qualified to offer legal or financial advice, which you should seek from an expert before making any important decisions. My opinions are therefore offered without liability.
thank you so much, you have been so helpful. I have a list of local solicitors that I am ringing through to this afternoon with the objective of getting an initial appointment.
I will also try the general cons forum as per your post.
Here is a copy of the agreement & the conditions (on reverse of cover page).
I am looking at the APR at the moment - i can see it falls outside of the >0.1% below />1% above bracket as per the tutorial on un/enforeceable agreeents in this forum. I am not sure that I am reading this correctly though...
Hi slick, are you able to shed any light on how the APR stated in an agreement is supposed to work in light of steven4064's tutorial on CCa agreements?
Any help and advice is offered in good faith, based solely on my own knowledge and on experience gathered from this site. I am not qualified to offer legal or financial advice, which you should seek from an expert before making any important decisions. My opinions are therefore offered without liability.
atom02 -v- GE Money
but a bit of background:
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Originally Posted by atom02
