Harrassment from GE - help needed

[vickydumbell]

I have posted previous threads through out this forum to do with a long standing argument that my brother has with GE Money however he is now close to having a meltdown from continued harrassment by GE.

To cut a long story short, GE money took him to court and were granted a suspended possession order and the court made an order of money to pay. In the interim, my brother submitted a defence and it has been back to court a few times since and is set for a further 3 hour reading in November with an hour set aside for reading by the judge.

Despite the fact that an order by the court is in place, he has received repeated phone calls harrassing him to pay more money. Last week he sent them a harrassment warning letter and they are now harrassing him through the post.

The latest correspondence is claiming that he is in breach of the possession order made and that if he fails to contact them within 7 days of the date of the letter they will request a court baliff's appointment to evict him from the house.

He has not in breach of the order and can prove this. He has spoken to the court who have said that they can bring the case forward and that if they do that then the hearing scheduled in November would be cancelled.

GE Money have been instructed to provide a lot of information to the court for the hearing in November and we think they are trying to get out of that hearing by bringing the case earlier as they do not want a 3 hour hearing or to provide what the judge has ordered them to.

Where do we go from here? Would it be best to take GE to court for harrassment although that also will take time but I don't think my brother can take much more and is completely at a loss to know what to do to stop the harrassment.

If anyone can please help it would be greatly appreciated, thanks

[Amethyst]

Re: Harrassment from GE - help needed

Legal Beagles Consumer Forum

Most recent thread - save you having to repeat it all Vicky. Can you just fill in a little more whats happened in between times.

What breach of the possession order are they claiming ? Is this over the £9.06 they say the standard monthly installment has gone up since the original order ? (ie the payments they say should be 259.06 not 250 - which covered it when the order was made as the standard monthly installments were 198 ) Have they increased the interest rate again since ? My concern is if the posession order is halted on the terms of the standard monthly payment PLUS £50 for arrears , then you should be going with the variable interest too, so the change from 198 to 209 due to interest rises (so long as they are proper interest rises) stands as the normal monthly payment and the payment under the posession order should be 259.06 ) - If this went into court at the march review hearing and the judge agreed then I can't see they have much to go on - what was said at the hearing ?

I don't know about harrassment, I presume its an injunction thing, as this is really getting to your brother, they really do need to stop, its in the hands of the court and they should be dealing with it. You will, of course, be bringing all this to the courts attention at the hearing too.

[vickydumbell]

Re: Harrassment from GE - help needed

Thank you for inserting original thread, that saves me some more time.

The original order stated the 198 plus 50 towards the arrears and GE tried to increase the amount at the hearing in March stating that the monthly installments had increased due to increased arrears and the judge stated that the payments were to stand as they were originally stated so the order states a specific amount and not that the amount should increase should the monthly payment amount increase.

Also the monthly payment amount according to GE is not increasing due to an increase in interest rates but the fact that they are adding a £40 admin fee still each month and they are also adding there legal fees each month to his account, the last fee being £1000. Should they even be adding these fees when the determination of this case has yet to be made and they haven't actually been awarded costs by the court yet?

WE are fully intending to bring the harrassment to the courts attention and we are forwarding them a copy of the letter that was sent to GE with regard to harrassment but when we spoke to the court about forwarding them a copy they said that it probably wouldn't be read and would just go on the file.

I am just at a loss as to how to stop them from bombarding him all the time as November is still 2 months away and to hear from them on a daily basis and when the calls were 3 and 4 times a day and sometimes at 8 a.m Sunday mornings, it would leave anyone stressed out. Surely they are breaking the law?

[vickydumbell]

Re: Harrassment from GE - help needed

Forgot to add that nothing much has happened since the last thread other than the hearing took place and I have attached a copy of the order made by the judge at that hearing

[vickydumbell]

Re: Harrassment from GE - help needed

Can anyone tell me if GE can add their legal fees onto the account which is accruing daily interest also, despite the fact that the finding has not been made in this case, thanks

[Amethyst]

Re: Harrassment from GE - help needed

They can add them but whether the court will award them is another matter.


You'll need your own list of payments made and evidences for this next hearing too.

I would like to see a copy of the suspended possession order (from March as thats the most recent one isnt it?) as through the threads it has differed from ''awarded a suspended possesion order to pay the current monthly installment plus £50 towards the arrears, to be reviewed in 3 months" to "£198 plus £50 towards the arrears" and I'm sure you realise if its the former the fact his payments havent been increased from £250 to £259 at the interest rate variables make a difference.

[vickydumbell]

Re: Harrassment from GE - help needed

Yes, evidence will be from bank statements but also there is evidence from their own statements received that also show the payments made.

I can't locate the original order at the moment but will post as soon as I have found it. I think it was my use of wording of the 'current monthly instalment' rather than the order but can't recall exactly now, head is a bit pickled.

Thank you for you help. I will post again when I have obtained a copy of the original order.

[jonny88]

Re: Harrassment from GE - help needed

i have found that with these companies they usually expect people to roll over and just pay but as previously stated if you take out evidence i.e bank statements,letters and prove of the original order then you will be in a far better position to take them on.

[vickydumbell]

Re: Harrassment from GE - help needed

After a 2 and a half year battle, GE Money are gone.

They gave up going to court to have their costs assessed before being able to add to the account and the loan is now complete.

The Judge made an order saying they could add no costs or any additional interest in respect of these costs.

At last. GE Money are loan Sharks but witha credit license and I feel sorry for anyone who falls behind with this company

[bluebottle]

Re: Harrassment from GE - help needed

Hi Vicky,

The order the Judge made was one of the ways at his/her disposal for punishing GE Money for their behaviour. In view of what they did and the order made by the judge, reporting GE Money to the OFT is a must. What they did was a serious breach of the law, OFT Guidelines and contempt of court. This sort of behaviour is not the sort of behaviour OFT tolerate from CCA Licence holders. Get a letter of complaint in the post to OFT.

[vickydumbell]

Re: Harrassment from GE - help needed

I never thought of that.

I have complained to the financial ombudsman and the information commissioners office about them, more complaints to other organisations will only help, particluarly when I know others will have had the same problmes from this company.

[bluebottle]

Re: Harrassment from GE - help needed

I never thought of that.

I have complained to the financial ombudsman and the information commissioners office about them, more complaints to other organisations will only help, particluarly when I know others will have had the same problmes from this company.

Hi Vicky,

Any business offering consumer credit has to be registered and licenced by the OFT's Consumer Credit Licensing Department. The harassment GE Money engaged in in the lead-up to the hearing was illegal under the Protection from Harassment Act 1997 and it may well have amounted to Attempting to Pervert the Course of Justice and, almost certainly, Contempt of Court. Like I said in my previous post, the Judge's decision was, probably, one of the ways available to them to punish GE Money. However, as you say, it is likely that others have suffered in not dissimilar ways to your experience.

Many people feel that reporting such instances to OFT is a waste of time as nothing seems to happen. May I assure you that this is not the case. OFT monitor ALL complaints against CCA licence holders and, where necessary, will initiate enforcement action once they have sufficient numbers of complaints to justify action. A complaint in isolation won't achieve much on it's own, but in combination with other complaints, that's when OFT wield the stick.

Your case is particularly serious and I would complain to OFT. Stick to facts and lay it on thick.