Hello and Help

[vickydumbell]

Hello everyone, help needed

I am trying to find out some information to help my brother who is back in court again on Wednesday against GE Money and I will be going with him to try and help.

To cut along a story short, he took out a fixed sum loan agreement with them in 2007 and unfortunatley fell behind with payments due to a change in his circumstances. They would not accept his offers to clear arrears so they took him to court.

He asked for a copt of his credit agreement and the copy they have sent differs from the original copy he has in terms of the dates of the signatures and the APR variable rate.

Is this enforceable or is he at risk of having his house repossessed.

[Guest]

Re: Hello and Help

Presumably this is a secured loan?

[vickydumbell]

Re: Hello and Help

Yes it was secured on his house. Also when he has received the copies of the documents submitted to the court there is a copy of a signed mortgage deed with a witness signature (broker) which he says he did not sign and certainly was not witnessed by anyone and his signature looks debatable

[Guest]

Re: Hello and Help

What is his intention here? It would appear to be a little late to attempt to deny any liability for the loan, since he has been paying it and has ended up in court, facing a repossession order, for failing to maintain payments.

It is unlikely that repossession will take place, provided that this is the first hearing and he will probably be able to obtain a suspended possession order, which will allow him time to repay any arrears. Although, you state that he is "back in court" next week. What stage are proceedings at?

Suggesting that he has not signed particular documents, given that he has clearly received the money and was paying it back until his circumstances changed, is not going to help him very much.

[vickydumbell]

Re: Hello and Help

It is the second hearing. At the first the court very nearly gave GE money a repossession order but when his partner broke down, they set an amount to pay and then said to return in 3 months to review it.

I am going to go through the figures exactly this weekend to check what has been paid against what they say are the arrears but they have also charged him £40 each and every month that his account is in arrears and with arrears of over £1000 they keep mounting and he seems he will never clear his arrears.

Does it not matter that their agreement does not match his original agreement?

He was never trying to get out of paying for the money he borrowed from them but trying to arrange to pay and all they seem to be doing is adding more and more charges to the debt so that he will never be out of debt.

They claim they sent a default notice in Nov 08 by first class post which again he didnt receive and he was never made aware of the £40 charge until recently so his debt has increased dramatically and he now owes more than he borrowed 3 years ago.

What can he do to stop a respossession order and actually repay the debt without incurring any more charges that will make the loan unrepayable for many years.

A loan of only £6850 including broker fees, now stands at roughly £10,500

[Guest]

Re: Hello and Help

First of all, try not to panic - it is unlikely that he will lose his home but there are certain things that he must do. The first of which is attend the hearing. This is very important. If he does not attend then the Judge will have no option but to grant possession. There is the very slight possibility that GE will not attend, but this is highly unlikely.

Your brother can rely on s.36(2)(b) of the Administration of Justice Act 1970 which allows the court to suspend the possession order for such a term as the court considers reasonable. If the debtor can repay with in the reasonable time no possession order is granted.

Under s.8 AJA 1973 in exercising the powers under s.36(2)(b) the court only has to consider the sums payable in arrears and not any term which may render the full amount repayable.

What amounts to a reasonable period will depend on the circumstances of the case and can include the whole remaining term of the mortgage as occurred in Cheltenham & Gloucester v Norgan. This case also stated the factors the court will take into account when deciding what is reasonable, these are, ability to make payments now and in the future, likely duration of financial difficulty, reason for arrears and the period of agreement remaining.

Essentially, if your brother can show that he can pay off the arrears over the remaining period the court will not order possession.

If your brother has not already done so then he should complete and take three copies of this form with him.

Her Majesty's Courts Service -Forms and Guidance


He must make sure he completes it fully and gives the lender's representative and the Judge a copy.

As he has fallen behind with the payments already and reached this point, he will need to show the Judge that this will not happen again and that whatever arrangement he makes, he can stick to. Make certain that he has a plausible and credible story for why he has fallen behind again.

If he can show why he had problems and that he should not experience them again then he should find that the Judge will be sympathetic to his plight. However, do not expect anything from the GE representative, they are not there for him.

He must present his case clearly and concisely and make sure he has a good, sound reason for the arrears and a plan going forward with regard to reducing them and paying off the debt.

The charges issue can be brought up, given that £40 per month, on top of the payments does not help, however do not expect to get an easy ride over this. Those days are over. Nevertheless, your brother should challenge them to provide proof that his account is costing £40 to administer in arrears, although frankly if the hearing is next week, this has all been left a little late.

Finally, with regard to the agreement, I fail to see what benefit there is to creating a fuss over documents at this stage, given that he does not deny the loan. The key here must be to stave of repossession and if he chooses to argue about paperwork, he can do that later when he has a better idea of his future.

[vickydumbell]

Re: Hello and Help

Thank you very much for your help. I am going to look in depth at what he has repaid already etc and work out how much it would cost to repay the loan over the remaining term. I will post a reply to let you know how he gets on. I am just worried that if GE can get away with what looks like an incorrect copy of a credit agreement, what else are they getting away with in terms of charges etc. Thank you again

[vickydumbell]

Re: Hello and Help

Attended the review hearing and the court are going to set another date in which to hear my defence which I am to submit to GE by 24th March. Fingers crossed that I do it right as all I have to go on is the copies of the witness statements from the claimants to refer to, in order that I can word my defence in the same way.

[vickydumbell]

Re: Hello and Help

As I said in my earlier post, I am submitting a defence to GE's claims.

If anyone with a legal background could have a quick look at what I have done so far with regard to the Witness Statements I am looking to submit with regard to am I doing it in the right way could help me at all it would be greatly appreciated, thanks