Engage credit beaten for now!

[cofibelle]

Hi there, we have been in the same situation as a lot of people who are dealing with Engage credit, we were with Future Mortgages who sold us on approx Nov 2010, did the usual thing with Engage we could only pay what we could afford due to my wife loosing job then only getting part time work etc, they said fine try to pay £300 our mortgage was at the time £570, we did this as best we could but were hit with more problems, told Engage of course they said fine. At that point we didn't know what type of company they are. In Sept 2011 we tried to sort things out by asking to go interest only and pay off the arrears, or capitalise, obviously they just flatly refused. The next thing we get told that they are takeing us to court as our arrears were £8.500. We had made an offer of the cmi plus £50 which was refused in Sept we paid it in Oct and Nov anyway and made part payment this month.

 

Today was our day in court (19/12/11) the possession order was thrown out completly, allowing no appeal or any cost as Engage had not followed protocol. They had stated on the court form that no offer had been made in the last 3 months which it had and we had made payments. This was picked up by the judge when he looked at recent letters from them and us, us making the offer and them refusing dated before they applied to the court. The judge saw this as basically trying to fool the court, and he wasn't pleased.

 

We were lucky we had all our documents with us and that he wanted to see them otherwise it would have been missed, The judge also said of one of their letters that it contained a joke as it says "we would like to make you aware that repossession of your property is the last course of action we would want to take" he said that obviously it was their first course of action.

 

This really has been a lucky escape for us just because we did our best to sort things out, and Engage were too keen on getting their pound of flesh, maybe some of you out there are in the same spot, please check all your letters ect, and take as much correspondence with you to court. They may have made the same mistake with you.

 

Engage are a xxxxxxxxxx dispicable company and treat people like xxxxxx.

 

I hope some of you may get the break you need

[rebel11]

Hi cof

 

Excellent result, well done, just keep an eye on them.

[cofibelle]

Thanks, we will do, as the judge said you now have a very angry company on your hands, just to say we were given a lot of help from the local authority housing section and also we had invaluable help from Shelter Cymru, despite us being over the income threshold we had some brilliant advice from their solicitor. We would never have known about them but for the local council telling us, so I would advise people to do the same, if you can't afford a solicitor. Thanks also to this forum i've had some great advice and also just reading other peoples experiences has helped a lot

 

No doubt we will receive some more Bull S from Engage but for now we have a repreve. Best Xmas present ever.

[Ell-enn]

Well done, glad you got the help you needed to beat these eejits in court Hope you can now relax and enjoy Christmas in your home.

[cofibelle]

Thanks for the support, we'll do our best, but they don't know how much strain it puts on your life and relationship, and that's the real price you pay. Thanks for everyones help.

[cofibelle]

Hi there and a happy new year to all,

Just a quick note, we received a letter from Engage on the 19th December funnily enough stating an interest change due to a rise in LIBOR, is this a usual rise, seeing as they are not really a mortgage company? Any help would be greatly appreciated.

[AllyCorc]

Hello! first I would like to say well done for your win in court. We went to court with Future before our account was 'sold' to Engage and managed to keep our house because of their incompetence. So far so good we are paying our full mortgage plus a little off the arrears every month. However, these interest rises due to an increase in the LIBOR rate has slowly been increasing the amount we have to pay over the last year and I worry that we are being taken for a ride as other people I know with mortgages have been static since the start of the credit crunch. If anyone out there understands this LIBOR rate I'd also appreciate some advice.

[Lea_HTH]

Hello! first I would like to say well done for your win in court. We went to court with Future before our account was 'sold' to Engage and managed to keep our house because of their incompetence. So far so good we are paying our full mortgage plus a little off the arrears every month. However, these interest rises due to an increase in the LIBOR rate has slowly been increasing the amount we have to pay over the last year and I worry that we are being taken for a ride as other people I know with mortgages have been static since the start of the credit crunch. If anyone out there understands this LIBOR rate I'd also appreciate some advice.

 

LIBOR is the rate that banks lend for loans of high risk - the higher the risk to the bank, the higher the interest rate. (That is a very simple, basic explanation as it involves slightly more than that - but this is essentially what it comes down to if your mortgage/secured loan is linked to LIBOR and not the BoE rate. In times of financial stability the two rates are rarely more than a quarter of a percent apart, but the risk factors increase in recession periods and so the rate of LIBOR increases to protect the lenders from higher levels of default. BoE on the other hand, is virtually risk free lending and therefore the rate remains more constant.

 

To answer the question before yours: the rate of interest is indicated in your contract, so whoever 'owns' the loan can fluctuate the interest according to what is contained within the contract relating to interest. There is nothing untoward about this.