Harrington Brooks Failed to Make Payments **WON MASSIVE REFUND**

[Out For Justice]

Long story short

 

I entered into a DMP in March 2012.

It was with Harrington Brooks.

I paid every month from conception of the plan in full without missing a payment or paying late etc.

 

When letters from my creditors (6 credit card companies) kept coming and phonecalls saying I needed to make payments etc.

 

I chased Harrington Brooks and was repeatedly fobbed off with a variety of excuses.

 

Two of my debts were sold on to Aktiv Kapital

(who have been very helpful in helping me to ascertain exactly what has been happening)

 

another was passed into the management of Mercers (Barclaycard's in house company I believe).

 

After much investigating into what was happening

 

I discovered, to my horror that Harrington Brooks had failed to make payments as agreed with my creditors.

That's not to say they didn't may ANY payments

- they did

- but in most instances they were less than the agreed amount

and were not made within agreed timescales.

 

So some of my creditors received nothing for weeks on end

and then received a token gesture payment.

 

Occasionally they were paid more than the agreed amount

- but only after weeks of non-payment into the plan.

 

When I found out what was happening I binned off Harrington Brooks

and dealt with my creditors directly myself.

 

Some of them will not now allow me to set up a "formal" arrangment

because for the last 12 - 18 months in their eyes

I have not stuck to previous agreed formal arrangments.

 

One in particular has said that I will not now be able to set up such an agreement with them for the next 5 years.

 

My credit rating rather than improving has deteriorated because of Harrington Brooks mis-management.

 

As a result of all of the above I wrote to Harrington Brooks concerned making a formal complaint.

 

They admitted they had made mistakes and offered me £150 ex gratia payment as a gesture of goodwill.

 

I declined this and took my complaint to the financial ombudsman.

 

An adjudicator from their service found in my favour and advised that Harrington Brooks

should pay me over £3k which they have calculated to include

 

interest and charges added to my debts,

 

amount paid into my plan by me less the amount paid out to my creditors from the plan,

 

a nominal amount for "distress and inconvenience suffered".

 

It was recommended that this be settled by the third week in March.

 

The deadline came and went and

 

Harrington Brooks asked for

- and were given

- an extension in order to complete their investigations.

 

Harrington Brooks complained that they were not able to check the facts given

because I have now revoked their authority to deal with my creditors.

 

The information given was backed up by the information the adjuicator had accumulated during her enquiries

- supported by documentary evidence provided by the credit card companies and Aktiv Kaptial and Mercers.

 

The second deadline has now passed and

 

the FOS adjudicator is trying to contact the case handler at Harrington Brooks but that person is "unavailable".

 

A colleague has said that they will look at my case if they can.

 

Meanwhile the deadline has been extended again to the end of this week.

 

I am informed that if Harrington Brooks do not agree with the adjudicators recommendations

that I have the option to have my case put in front of the Ombudsman

but that can take months and months - currently 6 - 9 months.

 

So my questions (sorry for the long post!) are these:

 

What are the alternatives to the Ombudsman?

 

Are there any legal firms who specialise in taking on such cases?

 

I keep reading about the "Ministry of Justice"

 

- who are they are should I be making them aware of my case?

 

If I did what juristriction (if any) do they have?

 

Does the Office of Fair Trading or Trading Standards have any juristiction over Harrington Brooks?

 

The FOS adjudicator has said that the Financial Conduct Authority regulates the industry

- does anyone know how to go about raising an official complaint with them to have this company investigated?

 

Since this happened to me I have googled about Harrington Brooks and found that I am not alone.

 

There are lots and lots of other people who have had this happen to them,

 

one of whom ended up receiving a CCJ because Harrington Brooks had not made a single payment

to her creditor whilst telling her that it was all in hand.

 

So, given that I am not an unfortunate isolated incident,

 

how do I/we take action to see that Harrington Brooks is either prevented from trading in this way again and/or has it's licence revoked?

 

Harrington Brooks has several different trading names

and I have found a not insignificant number of threads complaining about them on this group.

 

I have also noticed that the trend of those complaining is to pay Harrington Brooks in good faith

and when the letters and phonecalls from their creditors don't stop to discover eventually

- usually after 6 months or longer

- that Harrington Brooks has been making no or very little payments.

 

At this point they sack them and make other arrangements.

 

Very few of the people affected seem to have been successful in obtaining a refund of their monies paid to Harrington Brooks

whether or not they were passed on.

 

in effect Harrington Brooks is lining their nest from this very nicely and getting away with it.

 

How can we call a halt to this?

 

It's scandalous and in my view nothing short of both theft and fraud.

[renegadeimp]

Sadly, you have found the reason why CAG and other sites always advise people NOT to use a fee paying DMP. They are not in business to help you. They are in business to make as much of a profit as they can.

[JoeyJoeC]

As long as the total amount is less then £10k, you should be able to take the claim to a small claims court.

 

Sadly, you have found the reason why CAG and other sites always advise people NOT to use a fee paying DMP. They are not in business to help you. They are in business to make as much of a profit as they can.

 

Exactly. Anything they do, you can do yourself, without the added costs.

[Out For Justice]

Yes hindsight is a wonderful thing but

 

at the time my options were limited because I am self employed.

 

This particular company came highly recommended by a friend of a friend

- who it turns out received £100 of Tesco's vouchers for recommending them.

 

The card companies would not at the time set up a payment plan with me simply putting on more pressure to meet the minimum payment amounts.

 

With a very sick (nearly died 3 times) son in hospital it was with great relief

I handed the whole thing over to this particular DMC

who said that they would do a better job,

quicker than any of the free services.

 

I took what I was told in good faith having researched them and found lots of positive reviews about them online

- which, incidently, are still there.

[Out For Justice]

Your in the wrong place get on {removed] take control don't let them companies frighten you or back you into a corner.

 

Thanks for the advice but that wasn't what I was asking for in my post.

 

I've already taken control - did that months ago.

 

As far as my creditors are concerned they are being paid every month,

the interest and charges are frozen

and I will be debt free at the end of it all.

I'm dealing with them directly, myself.

 

It's fair to say they did frighten me at first

- but at the time I was dealing with a very sick child, which in turn meant I was unable to work

and everything was going from bad to worse.

I just couldn't deal with the stress of it.

A friend of a friend recommneded the DMC.

[dx100uk]

name and shame please

 

dx

[Out For Justice]

The company is Harrington Brooks.

[dx100uk]

I would if yo have not to date

 

send HB an SAR

 

and get everything they hold on you.

 

i'd move the complaint forward to the ombudsman

 

and look at contacting the MOJ

 

whom I believe also regulate these companies?

 

dx

[Out For Justice]

dx100uk Thank you for taking the time and trouble to post.

 

I'm just curious as to why you suggest the SAR .

 

The claim will move forward to the Ombudsman on Monday next week should there not be a full response by close of business tomorrow.

 

I'm just wondering if it would be worthwhile organising some kind of collective case against them

since there are so many in the same boat.

 

I really feel very strongly that someone needs to try to bring a halt to the way they are duping people into believing that their debt problems

are being dealt with when in reality they are making the problem much, much worse. They are preying on people at their weakest.

 

It seems to me that the vast majority of people simply bin them off and lose the money they have paid them and believe, in all good faith,

that they have passed on to their creditors.

 

So in effect HB are coining it in by simply giving a bad service. It's all wrong and it need to stop.

[renegadeimp]

You cant bring a collective case against them. Thats what the regulator is there for. They deal with all disputes.

[dx100uk]

you need the sar to get every piece of evidence out of them.

 

sadly, the WHOLE debt collection industry is the same.

 

someone said somewhere that 75% is NOT EVEN OWED in the first place

for various reasons.

 

that's why DCA's and DMP's are such big business.

 

if you scratch deep enough

most are owned by ex staff of one another anyhow.

 

and sadly there are 1000's of mugs that fall for DCA/DMP crap every hour.

 

dx

[renegadeimp]

Dx is dead right. Go look up Link financial and tell me that doesnt make you want to punch a brick wall.

[Out For Justice]

I did actually notice when I looked up HB's GM and senior staff on linked-in how incestuous it all is.

 

Dreadful. The whole system is flawed that they are able to get away with it.

[renegadeimp]

Sadly thats how the UK system works. And when the owners of these companies donate to the relevant parties in power, it is unlikely to change.

[Out For Justice]

Ok now had a counter offer from Harrington Brooks

considerably lower than the original amount suggested by the Financial Ombudsman's adjudicator in her findings.

 

No apologies or explainations as to why they didn't stick to the payment plans they negotiated on my behalf.

 

Does anyone know of any specialist solicitors who deal with issues like this?

 

Ideally I'd like to explore all options before responding to them.

[PARA HANDY]

I too have had the misfortune to have a DMP with Harrington Brooks.

 

I can relay a similar tale of mismanagement on their behalf and

 

the truth is they are only interested in making money for themselves and not helping anyone with their debt problems.

 

I have recently told them where to go and will deal with my creditors directly

I certainly will not give Harrington Brooks one more penny and will also be complaining to the financial ombudsman.

 

I would hope that anyone who has had similar problems with this bunch does the same,

 

I am not totally interested in getting money back from them but would like to see them brought to book for the practice

they are getting away with and help prevent them from doing the same to others .

 

Stand together and complain

 

contact your MP

 

Harrington Brooks and others like them need to be be put out of business

 

or new laws need to be put in place to prevent the current practice they use

Meantime dont use this Company

Edited June 15, 2014 by ims21

[citizenB]

I think perhaps you should make complaints to the MoJ and the FCA. These companies have to be regulated - if what has happened to you is widespread then the company should be investigated.

 

You have the adjudicators decision in your favour which is going to be a great help should you decide to bring an action against HB yourself. If you do start action yourself then the Ombudsman will not continue to look into your case.

[Out For Justice]

I too have had the misfortune to have a DMP with Harrington Brooks. I can relay a similar tale of mismanagement on their behalf and the truth id they are only interested in making money for themselves and not helping anyone with their debt problems. I have recently told them where to go and will deal with my creditors directly I certainly will not give Harrington Brooks one more penny and will also be complaining to the financial ombudsman.

I would hope that anyone who has had similar problems with this bunch does the same, I am not totaly interested in getting money back from them but would like to see them brought to book for the practice the are getting away with and help prevent them from doing the same to others .

Stand together and complain contact your MP Harrington Brooks and others like them need to be be put out of business or new laws need to be put in place to prevent the current practice they use

Meantime dont use this Company

 

 

Well Para and the others following this sorry tale

 

I have had a big refund from Harrington Brooks.

 

The Financial ombudsman's adjudicator made her recommendations and

 

HB dismissed them saying that in their t's and c's they stipulate that they don't guarantee to get any interest charges stopped.

 

The adjudicator agreed with them that this was a fair point and asked me what I wanted to do.

 

HB had made a much lower (about half the original amount recommended) counter offer.

 

I gathered a lot more information from my creditors

- full transactions reports of every correspondence between them and HB.

 

For one company it went on to 12 pages over the 18 month period.

 

Mostly showing them chasing HB for missing money.

 

The choice then was to accept their lower offer or ask the case to be referred to the actual Financial Ombudsman for final judgement

- but I was told this process could take 6 - 9 months.

I did neither.

 

I made a counter offer at which I said I would settle which was roughly halfway between

what the adjudicator had originally recommended and what they actually offered.

 

The adjudicator said she would put my suggestion to them but could not put it to them

as her recommendation given what they had already counter stated.

 

Long story short they agreed to settle for that amount and paid up very quickly in the end.

 

It took an awful lot of time and effort on my part to write to all my creditors several times

and then to put it all into something which could be used but well worth it.

[dx100uk]

so how did you calculate what they owed you

 

and why do you think the Ombs was wrong? too low?

 

seems to me you sold yourself short, sri if I've misread?

 

dx

[Out For Justice]

I thought that the adjudicators first decision was fair and just.

I didn't agree at all with her revised figure - i.e. the offer from Harrington Brooks however I am self employed and time is money to me.

 

To wait for the Financial Ombudsman to make his final ruling in 6 - 9 months time

and then that being likely he may find what the adjudicator had said in her revised ruling should stick seemed to me to be a bit of a lottery.

 

So rather than spending anymore of my valuable time I decided what I would be happy to accept

(bearing in mind their first "and final" offer was a paltry £150 before the involvement of the adjudicator)

in order to draw a line under it all and it not to take up anymore of my time.

That was the figure I proposed to them and they agreed.

 

I don't think I sold myself short since there the adjudicator advised that her revised finding was in her opinion fair,

she didn't view what I asked for as being reasonable I don't think.

 

She made it clear that she wouldn't put it forward to them as "her recommendation".

 

I came out a few thousand better off than when I started the process.

[dx100uk]

ok well if you've a few £1000's in your pocket job done why worry about £150...?

 

well done

 

glad we helped

 

dx

[Out For Justice]

Thank you. I'm not worried about £150. That was the amount offered by HB before the financial ombudsman or the FO adjudicator was involved - i.e.where they started off. Quite frankly it was insulting.

[citizenB]

atandy, I will move your post to a thread of its own. Having tacked onto the end of a Success Story, members will not respond with such urgency.

 

I will put a link back here for you and also send one to your private message inbox.

 

 

http://www.consumeractiongroup.co.uk/forum/showthread.php?434293-Re-Harrington-Brooks-Failed-to-Make-Payments

 

Link to atandy's own thread.