Help needed.. Can Perfect Homes/Temple Finance Take Me To Court??

[moobear13]

Please Help..!

 

I opened a account with perfect homes just before christmas 2013 for a new settee as i wasnt able to afford a new settee straight out right.

 

I was meant to pay £32 + pence a week but only got paid fortnightly (benefit payment.)

 

i paid £70 + pence every fortnight which included the late fee.

 

Which they moaned at because the payment was a week late (but always paid the full 2 weeks payment!)

 

At the time of getting the sofa we was in a position to pay as we was receiving my partners DLA.

 

Since then our DLA has been stopped due to it changing to PIP (Put a new claim in)

and couldnt afford to keep up the payments of £70 a fortnight.

 

We get our money on a saturday & i paid PH on that day.

 

We didnt receive a payment on the normal saturday so obvs had to wait till monday.

 

They rang up on the saturday & said that because i was always late in making payment they was coming to take the sofa.

 

I then shunted it to the side (Silly thing to do) and this all happened 15 weeks ago.

 

My debt built up & i have had numerous phone calls from temple finance, (PH's creditor)

threatening to take me to court & getting mouthy at me down the phone so i hung up & ignored every phone call.

 

a man from temple finance came today and

i answered the door thinking that it was someone else.

 

He said i MUST make a FULL payment of £526 Today otherwise they are taking my sofa.

I told him im in no financial situation to be able to make the payment.

I explained our circumstances, and he still said i either had to pay £250 at least otherwise he was going to apply to court.

 

He said i could get a custodial sentence, tagging & a community order and still have no sofa at the end of it all..

 

what is the chance of going to court over it?

 

Has anyone else been taken to court over it?

 

Is there any help i can get?

 

thanks

[renegadeimp]

Hes compleyely wrong in every regard.

[dx100uk]

he shouldn't be making those kinds of threats

 

he is not the police or a judge.

 

sadly we see this alot here.

 

dx

[Bazooka Boo]

What utter tripe!

Being in debt is NOT a criminal offence, you should have laughed in his face at that!

 

I seriously hope you didn't pay him anything?

 

If any other random stranger turns up on your doorstep in the future, your ONLY words will be ''I am not discussing this on my doorstep, please leave or I will call the Police and have them remove you''

Then shut the door, if they remain on your property or sat in a car outside, then ring the police and report that their is a stranger on/watching your property who won't leave when told to do so, and you fear they will cause a breach of the peace.

 

If you can also, record the ''daz'' doorstep challenge!

Incredible, absolutely incredible.

 

Now to make all those complaints to Temple finance direct, and Perfect Homes, the the FCA too.

 

You have considerably more legal powers than this great lummox ever will have, he needs to be getting his P45 through the post..

 

As for the telephone harassment, as you have found out, it is utterly futile talking to these telephone jockeys over the phone, so if they ring 'laugh and hang up',

they get the message eventually, alternatively send PH/temple finance this telephone harassment letter, send it ''proof of posting'' which is free from the PO counter.

http://www.consumeractiongroup.co.uk/forum/showthread.php?387366-Harassment-amp-Threat-of-Doorstep-Visit-%28update-21.04.2014%29

 

It seems this outfit is a particularly nasty one at that, and will fabricate stories to involve the police.

So my advice would be to NOT get into any protracted discussions on the doorstep, film everything if they do turn up, if you don't recognise them simply don't open the door, if they start banging on it and you feel threatened/intimidated then call the police.

 

Have you tried to talk to the store manager (IN WRITING) and set up a new payment plan?

How many of these late payment fees have they charged you?

 

Keep EVERYTHING in writing only.

Keep a diary of events.

NO phone calls.

[moobear13]

Thats why i just ignored it all. Easier to ignore than it was to get threatened by them. He shown me a photocopy of a letter that he said was a court proceeding that happened with a man because he failed to pay PH. The man had been charged with Fraud & theft of someone elses property. On the bottom it said that he had been sentenced to 200 hours of unpaid work & a tagging curfew.

Really dont know what to do. Hes given me a week to sort something out but being a mum of 4 young children, times are hard.

[moobear13]

I have paid about 4-5 late fees.

He said that i should just buy a sofa for £80 and give them the settee back then no court proceedings will take place, that is why he is coming back next week, to see if iv got the £250 min so i can keep sofa or to see if iv got a new sofa. No i didnt pay him a penny.

Sorry what is FCA? Im new to this.

[moobear13]

Can they take me to court over this? Or are they just using scare tactics?

[Bazooka Boo]

FCA = Financial Conduct Authority

http://www.fca.org.uk/site-info/contact

Click on the link and they have a freephone number you can call, or send them an email.

 

Don't believe a single word he said, it is ALL lies, he needs to get another job telling stories to children his own age, clown.

 

You MUST NOT speak to him on the doorstep again!

 

Start a written dialogue with the store manager, this type of bullying and intimidation needs to be stamped out, so a very robust complaint should be sent to them,

and the FCA above.

 

First things first, I would get a complaint off to the manager at whichever store you had the settee from.

 

 

FORMAL COMPLAINT

 

Dear Sir/madam,

You can accept this correspondence as a formal complaint regarding the conduct of your employees and continued telephone harassment against myself.

On DD/MM/YYYY I took out an agreement with yourselves for a sofa, since then I have fallen into serious financial difficulties which has resulted in me unable to make certain payments on the sofa.

 

I have received numerous phonecalls from your other trading name Templar Finance and have been subjected to some very immature threatening language over the phone, which has been recorded and logged, by time and date should the Financial Conduct Authority (FCA), who you have been reported to, request it for their investigations. I am now informing you, that you are no longer permitted to harass me by telephone and should you continue to do so I will report you to the local police for the criminal offence of harassment and also to Ofcom for the misuse of the communication network.

 

I am also removing your implied rights of access to my property, as the last unsolicited caller made some very disturbing allegations and unfounded threats in an attempt to intimidate me into handing over cash on the doorstep, this is also part of my complaint made to the FCA, and if it continues, I will make the relevant departments, including my local constabulary, aware.

 

Everything is to be kept in writing so I have a paper trail of evidence, I am hopeful that this matter can be sorted amicably and the use of puerile threats and intimidation will stop.

 

I look forward to your timely response, in writing.

 

Regards

 

 

 

Edit it to suit, use it, don't use it, but you really need to start a written dialogue with them, then you can look at getting all those unlawful penalty charges refunded.

[Bazooka Boo]

Can they take me to court over this? Or are they just using scare tactics?

 

Puerile scare tactics, threatening court as a means of debt collection.

[i hate bailiffs]

 

He said i could get a custodial sentence, tagging & a community order and still have no sofa at the end of it all..

 

o

 

If this silly little man comes on to your property tell him to go and play with the traffic

[Conniff]

In answer to your question posed twice, yes they can take you to court and reclaim the furniture plus you have a ccj against you.

[renegadeimp]

I think he means criminal court, as thats what the muppet show is threatening.

[Conniff]

Ah right. Criminal court definitely not, to stop paying is not a criminal matter.

[Conniff]

Any developments moobear ?