please help.. my son, computeach & clydesdale financial services

[chesham]

hi

im doing this at 4 a.m as cant sleep for worrying about my son and his partner..

last year he decided he wanted a career change and signed up for a computeach computer course,costing £5000! he was guaranteed a job at the end of it?!! anyway he has received one lot of work which he never completed and nothing else from these people, i think he hoped they had gone away and forgotten about the money he owed them.....

 

I don't mean to sound negative or patronising, but if he signed up to a course, and just didn't bother with it, then what can be expected of that? The loan with the bank is a contract with your son, not computeach and so despite his misgivings with the course or it's content, the money still needs to be paid back.

 

If you lent someone some money to do something, and they didn't do it, would you think they were reasonable in saying they couldn't pay you back ?

 

I mean, some common sense may need to be applied here - he joined, didn't like it but just kept quiet and didn't do anything about it - and now they say (quite rightly) they want their money back (which they LENT your son for the purposes of the course) so, in essence, it needs to be paid back! If he was still on the course, then he would be required to pay it back anyhow, and if you take out a loan with a bank, then there really is not much chance of them forgetting about it.

 

My advice is that it will never go away, they will never forget about it and the money WILL need to be paid back. I would stop fighting the fact that it is owed and stop thinking that the money won't need to be paid back - and concentrate on what CAN be paid and approach the bank to come to an agreeable repayment scheme.

[chesham]

Also, is this a career development loan? If so, then there are different terms and conditions within this, one of which I believe says that the money is repayable despite the success or completion of the course which the money was used for.

[chesham]

hi chesam

i see what your saying, he shouldnt have signed up in the first place it wasnt that he just didt bother but he works long hours as a farmer and they have a small child, maybe he was a bit naive, but my argument is he hasnt had £5000 worth of anything and had he had a loan from a bank then at least he would have had some money in his pocket or something to show for it.

i dont know if it was a career advancement loan or not, i will read the agreement carefully

 

Ok, a couple of points here.

 

If he worked long hours as a farmer and has a small child, why did he sign up to a course which does require some form of long term commitment?

 

He HAS had £5000 worth of something - the course! Purely because he didn't choose (or couldn't continue) with the work on the course is not really an excuse to breach a contract.

 

The loan was from the bank - if he didn't arrange it, then it would have been done on his behalf by the bank. I am 99% sure that the loan was a career development loan, which would mean the funds were supplied only for the funding of the course with a specified funder - and I am 99.9% sure that the bank would not have released funds without a signiture from your son.

 

As mentioned previously, your son has to take some responsibility for his actions. He wanted to do a course, recieved the payment for it, and decided not to do it - in law, an inconvenience is no defence for a breach of a contract in any circumstances - indeed, the very nature of a voided contract in law is that a contract must be fustrated by the impossible and not by a simple fact which makes it inconvenient or more expensive to see through to the end.

 

He did have £5000, the nature of the loan means the funds go to the institution and not the student, he cannot back out of owing the money because he changed his mind about doing it.