Husband under Court of Protection applied for credit

[cellist]

Hi,

 

My husband suffered a serious brain injury some years back and after a few years it became clear that he was no longer able to manage any kind of finances.

 

His solicitors suggested the Court of Protection which they set up and managed on his behalf, but it was very, very expensive and once all his savings where gone and they where only managing his benefits the cost was almost as much as they where.

 

We recently switched to myself managing the CoP which means that I have a special bank account and his benefits go into that, his bills are paid and then an allowance is transferred to a bank account he can access.

 

I've been trying to sort through all his stuff and I've found a number of credit cards that he's managed to apply for and use. The solicitors 'should' have blacklisted him with all credit agencies and as part of the CoP you:

a) Can no longer have any credit.

b) You are no longer able to sign any legal documents.

c) Your financial decisions are legally made by someone else.

 

I've returned the cards to the companies and made them aware of the situation.

 

I'm assuming that since he should have been blacklisted, unable to apply for credit and unable to sign legal documents that the CCA's are at the very least unenforceable, illegal and that any debt built up is effectively written off?

 

If anyone has experienced similar or has any advice on what sort of problems we might have because of this.

[dx100uk]

depends when he took them out

electronic sign ups started in 2001

but until apr 2007 they would need a signed agreement to enforce it.

 

 

dx

[cellist]

The thing is he doesn't have the 'legal' right to sign a document, pretty much like a 4yr old can't apply for a credit card.

[ericsbrother]

then the contract isnt valid so no credit agreement. THAT WONT STOP THEM GETTING DEBT COLLECTORS TO TRY THEIR LUCK.

[Ruleoflaw]

Ask the solicitors for an investigation of the matter. If they won't do that or won't accept responsibility, report them to the Ombudsman for regulating solicitors. This is clearly negligence. Consider suing in the solicitors for losses and everything else.

[cellist]

They may have failed to alert the credit agencies, but I imagine that will be between them and the credit card companies.

 

In any event neither myself nor the protected person can be held liable, me because this all came about before I took over and the protected person because they aren't legally able to either sign documents or take out credit.

[Ruleoflaw]

Why do not tell the solicitors who caused this problem, if they were to contact them they should be able to sort this error out. Your defence is that the credit card contract were illegal however, it does not mean that the companies won't do all they can to get their money, including using debt collectors. Try not to worry at this early stage though.

 

 

First of all find out how much the debts are, owed to whom, and report back to us here. You have potential claims in solicitor's negligence ..and other areas known as trustee liability (ie relationship of trust)...so breach of trust. You could also report the solicitors to their relevant ombudsman. However, let's deal with the actual losses first, is my opinion.

[cellist]

They all appear to be writing the debt off, bit less stress as I've inherited this from the Solicitors who where supposed to be managing his affairs.

 

I guess there's little else they could do in the circumstances really.

[th3joker]

I don't for a second think they would get anywhere in a court. They might try debt collectors but since the courts wouldn't allow any kind of warrants they could do nothing but phone and write to you in the hope that you would cave in.

 

The debt is unenforceable since the contracts aren't legally binding.