Help - GE money evicting my mother

[bigjayce]

I need help

 

My late father took out a secured loan with Frredom Finance over 6 years ago, he took out an insurance policy on it which they charged £3500 for up front and sent documents for a comapny called Pinnicle of Cardiff. My father died at the end of that year and I found all of the documents in his files, my mother had no knowledhe of the loan as my father wasn't a nice person and if he told you to do something ie. sign that - you did it end of.

 

I claimed on the insurance and was told by the insurance company that the loan didn't cober death, I asked for a copy of it and low and behold - death cover was included, so I reclaimed.

 

During this time I was contacted by GE Money saying they had taken over collection of this from First National who it was with and they required payments of £1354 per month to clear the amount, my mother gets £600 per month pension so that wasn't acceptable, I informed them about the insurance and they put things on hold till it was sorted (not stopping interest and charges mind)

 

The insurance company then informed us that my father had cancer when he took the loan out and therefore they wouldn't pay out, GE then informed us that the debt now belonged solely to my mother and she would have to pay the lot back.

 

We went to court on 14th June 2007 and the judge gave a suspended order saying we had to pay the £302 monthly payment and £131 of arrears, noboby seems bothered about the fact that my mother had no knowledge of any of this - just pay up and shut up.

 

We started paying the monthly amount striaght away but GE then sent us a letter saying that the interest rate on the arrears was more than we were paying back so the deby would never go down and we had to up our payments - I asked a legal person and they said if that's what the judge said to pay - that's what you pay.

 

In this time I went to a company called project zero and told them about the case - they said that basically the PPI had been mis-sold and therefore the debt could be deemed unenforceable and written off - I gave them the case straight away and hoped they were right - 18 months later after being told the case was with a solicitor or a barrister I finally found out they had done nothing at all and placed it with Wade and Co. The wrote to GE straight away who basically said 'nothing to do with us go see Freedom' so Wade wrote to them and they haven't responded yet.

 

We haven't been making the payments over the past few months because I am self employed and things have been really bad - GE called the other day followed by letters from Eversheds saying they were enforcing the warrent and now were waiting for an eviction date. I called Wades and they phoned GE informing them of the case in hand and asking for an 8 week suspension to get all of the paperwork back in to which GE refused.

 

I have downloaded an N244 and am waiting for the court letter and not sleeping well as you would expect.

 

My mother is 60 and has no where to go if this all happens, she is also a foster carer and has 3 children with her at the moment who will all suffer badly if they have to leave this home.

 

HELP - please someone - what can I do ???

 

Jayce

[dx100uk]

We went to court on 14th June 2007 and the judge gave a suspended order saying we had to pay the £302 monthly payment and £131 of arrears, noboby seems bothered about the fact that my mother had no knowledge of any of this - just pay up and shut up.

 

have you this paperwork & did it mention interest in the judgement?

 

dx

[bigjayce]

I will have it in my files somewhere but until I find it I won't know

[surfaceagentx20]

Jayce,

 

This is an extraordinary tale and you're right, your mother needs help.

 

The facts seem to be that your late father took out a loan of money secured on property in which he held a legal interest. All this was over six years ago, ie before 2003. At the time your mother knew nothing of this. I take that to mean your mother had no legal or other claim to hold an interest in the property on which the loan was secured and hence had no say in whether or not the loan was to be secured on that property or not? If otherwise and for example the property was jointly owned by both your mother and father or was a property in which your mother and father both resided as husband a wife, please say so.

 

If your mother did hold some interest in the property then she ought to have been required to sign the security papers. If so then she would have known about it before the loan was advanced, unless of course her signature was forged. Alternatively she was duped or suffered duress or undue influence to secure her signature.

 

Can I ask what the loan was for? Was the loan for the benefit of both your mother and father or for the benefit of your father only?

 

The law recognises that wives can be influenced by their husbands and in terms of property and security for loans, will ordinarily impose a duty on the lender to satisfy itself that the wife received independent legal advice before deciding to sign the security document. The purpose of the loan may be to the wife's manifest disadvantage. you may care to consider the opinions of the House of Lords in RBS v Etridge for example to get a flavour of what I am talking about and the development of the law in the wake of Barclays Bank v O'Brien (1994)

 

Were any O'Brien type defences advanced on your mother's behalf. Was any legal advice taken before the court decided to make a suspended possession order?

 

Of course, if O'Brien type defences were advanced, those defences would only go to attack the security. It would not attack the question of the liability of your father's estate to meet the debt as if it were unsecured. In those circumstances a money judgment against the estate would be enforceable against the assets of the estate which would include your late father's interest in the property.

 

Besides some background concerning the ownership of the property then, some more stuff on the purpose of the loan and the circumstances by which the agreement came to be signed and some more background to the handling of your father's estate would be handy. Likewise details about the legal proceedings would be helpful as well. Who was the Defendant, the executors, your mother alone? Who? Were the proceedings mortgage possession proceedings or if not then what?

 

I'd like to have thought there was some arguable defence here. My major concern is that a final decision was made over 2 years ago with no appeal. That said, it's worth flushing out some more facts in the hope that doing so produces possible angles and lines of enquiry.

 

Moving on, what are the current arrears under the July 2007 order? Would bringing the arrears up to date be manageable?

 

x20

[bigjayce]

Oh thats a lot to take in!

 

My mother and father jointly owned the house, were both on the mortgage and lived together as husband and wife, My father was a nasty piece of work, so much so that I have spent the last 2 years in therapy working through the psychlogical truma I suffered right up to his death, believe me, if my father said do something you did it and you didn't ask questions. I have seen my mother take some horrendous beatings at his hands over the years so she wouldn't have questioned anything. The loan would have been for him, he had just become captain of the local golf club around that time and also had golfing trips to Florida and portugal around that time so I would guess most of the money went there oh and to his mistress !!!

 

No defences were offered at the time - I was given an advisor when I arrived at the court - I told her the story I have told this forum and she basically worked out how much would need to be paid each month and put that forward - it was as if I hadn't bothered speaking at all.

 

As for my fathers estate - I handled that, he had nothing in the bank, no life insurance, no savings and he'd even stopped paying the endowment so there was a shortfall so there is still over £4k outstanding to the Halifax.

 

Does that make any sense ?

 

 

Jayce

[bigjayce]

A letter has just come giving an eviction date of 17th August - I've got an N244 ready to fill out but if anyone can give me pointers I would appriciate it

[jansus]

Bumping your question up for some help as this is complicated.

 

There are several problems as to find out the full story you would need copies of all documents and even if the PPI was mis-sold then it would depend if the actual documents were signed by your mother ( whether under duress or not)

 

So to make it clear do you think the original forms for the loan were signed by your mother ( not knowing what she was signing) or not signed by your mother at all?

 

Is there equity in the property ?

 

On the PPI did your fater answer relevant health questions honestly - in other words did he say he had had cancer - or he was not asked - or he was asked but did not answer correctly?

 

If the loan was in joint names have you done an SAR to gey all the details or does the solicitor have all the details.

 

So to summarise the loan PPI is in dispute?

You need to suspend possession to sort that out?

You need more dtails about what happened when the loan was taken out?

Your mother has been maintaing the payments requested by the court - but due to interest rate changes ( or charges ??) you are not reducing the arrears?

Have you had any recent statements about the loan or arrears ?as you will need to agree the amount before going to court.

[bigjayce]

So to summarise the loan PPI is in dispute? - YES

 

You need to suspend possession to sort that out? - YES

 

You need more dtails about what happened when the loan was taken out? - Yes but since my father is dead I'm not sure how this will happen :S

 

Your mother has been maintaing the payments requested by the court - but due to interest rate changes ( or charges ??) you are not reducing the arrears?

 

As best she can but as they ask her for £460 per month and she only gets £600 a month pension it's not easy

 

Have you had any recent statements about the loan or arrears ?as you will need to agree the amount before going to court.

 

Just got one through - with the added interest and charges the statement shows the initial loan plus over £19000 added on top :S

 

 

I put an N244 in on Thursday sent special delivery to the court but I haven't heard back yet - repossession is Monday :S

 

 

 

HELP

[jansus]

Can you post up your defence in the N244 ( with personal details removed )

 

I guess you need to check with the court whether you have got a hearing and then I hope Ell- enn will be along to see if you need anything else

[bigjayce]

I have attached it - spoke to the court yesterday and they said if I can get it in today them I will definately get a hearing before monday.

 

I have attached the N244 but if someone can make it sound better I would appriciate it

 

Jayce

n244_e - Copy.pdf

[bigjayce]

UPDATE

 

The immediate crisis seems to have been avoided!!

 

 

GE have suddenly found the payments they said we hadn't made and have cancelled the eviction order - very confused :S

[jansus]

Do you have that in writing ?

 

And as you say very confusing if you have not made payments?

 

Ia

[jansus]

Sorry my lap top playing up big time.

 

I am a bit suspicious about this especially as you admit there are arrears - be careful.

 

By the way if the mortgage was in joint names I dont see why your mother can not do an SAR to get all the facts on the PPI and the mortgage.