Hello and advice please

[lesson learned]

Hi, just joined because site looks good.

I'm in a DMP administered for me by a national charity into which I pay enough to meet around 70% of the contracted payment to each of my creditors. The DMP has been running since 2007 and whilst, with the agreement of the charity, I have missed a few payments since then it is generally in good order.

Following xmas I was in a bit of a mess due to unexpected events and I rung my mortage lender NRMA to see if they would accept a reduced payment. I had quite a debate with the first advisor who said whilst I might make a reduced payment they wouldn't agree to it (an arrangement) until I had done an income and expenditure form. I explained they already had the latest sent to them from the charity (origionally it was a together mortgage and before Northern Rock would accept the DMP the secured the unsecured part by way of a CCJ and that forms part of the DMP. The origional secured mortgage I pay direct to NMRA and it was that I wanted to reduce for February only). She managed to dig this out and said I had x amount left per month, which I couldn't understand and had to ring off to look into. The amount she said was actually the amount of the DMP. I rang back to explain and got a much more sympathetic person who basically said it would be ok to make a reduced payment so long as I re-instated the full amount plus a very small amount (from what the dmp shows I have a to show good will from March. However, she said she available for personal expenditure) couldn't formally agree it until the payment I had made had cleared and to ring back tomorrow as she would put full notes on the system etc. When I rang back I got another unsympathetic person whose primary objective was to get me to completely renegotiate the DMP so that NRMA get most of the payment to clear the mortgage arrears which stand at just over £2000.

I said I understood about priority debts but that in term of the overall mortgage size, length and the negative equity I wasn't prepared to upset the whole DMP for £2000. After much debate she spoke to a supervisor and agreed to my terms for 3 months. Saying that I would then have to change the DMP. I have no intention of doing that and will be looking to keep the payment to NRMA the same, which is a little more than the contractual payment. They might not agree and I might incurr some charges but I dont think a court would look sympathetically on any legal steps they tookproviding I maintain the contractual payment from now on . I would appreciate views.

Thanks

[labman]

Re: Hello and advice please

Have you talked to the charity who administers your DMP? If not, I think they should be your first port of call.

[lesson learned]

Re: Hello and advice please

No Labman not yet because I don't want to upset the DMP arrangement which keeps creditors off my back and works 97% of the time. If I'm in a position where that becomes the only option then I will. You know, the more I deal with these creditors the more obvious their assertiveness training becomes. I have even rung up to make payments and as soon as I have gone through security I am reminded of how my account stands today and asked whether I propose to clear it. Generally people aren't in debt for fun and if they had the means to clear it or preferrably avoid it in the first place, they would. My point is, next time I speak to NMRA I will likely get someone who will agree to extending the agreement under which I pay more than the contractual payment anyway. To be honest I stopped worrying about this stuff a long time ago.

Thanks

[labman]

Re: Hello and advice please

Personally i think they'd be stupid to even try to force you to renegotiate your entire DMP due to what I gather is a fairly insignificant chunk of overall debt.

This is for a few reasons. Firstly, a DMP is not a contract. Either side can back out at any time without giving any notice to the other party or any reason why. Your payment is therefore not a contractual payment, it is an agreed payment - a gentleman's agreement if you like. If you mean the payment to which you originally contracted, they really should not have a problem - I suspect they're just following their training and being bloody minded. Secondly, they only stand to lose out. If your DMP charity is worth their weight in salt, if a creditor brings unnecessary pressure to bear on one of their clients, they should bring equal pressure to bear back on the creditor. Finally, any DMP only works on a pro rata basis - it is the only fair and equitable way to distribute any monies available for creditors. As soon as one starts rocking the boat in an attempt to get a larger slice of the pie for themselves, everyone is likely to suffer.

As you say, you have a good understanding of priority debts and non-priority debts. I think you are right in thinking that it is most likely, were they to try to initiate legal proceedings, that they would be laughed out of court. Why would they? They're getting paid the vast majority of the time knowing you have financial issues. They must have thousands of customers who are far worse than you. You can only pay what you have got, and inevitably sometimes things happen which you have not foreseen. This is exactly why a DMP is a living thing, it's not agreed then left. It needs to respopnd to changes of circumstance, whether that be for the better or for the worse.