Is this really Legal?

[wardie2437]

In 2006 we took out a Secured Loan via Ocean Finance (GE Money). The property it was secured on was in MY NAME SOLELY. However my wife was forced to sign in order we got the loan.
In 2009 we were repossessed, the mortgage was paid off okay but there was a shortfall of about £16,000 (Which has escalated to £25K which GE Money wanted back) They passed this to DLC. My point is that DLC are going after my wife and ONLY my wife even though the original property was not even in her name. Is this really legal?

to add insult to injury our joint bank account which had a £2K overdraft with HSBC fell into arrears. Now HSBC are pursuing ONLY my wife and not me. Why her and not me?

both of these companies know my wife is now very seriously ill and awaiting a lung transplant, and is unable to work (this is why these debts occurred in the first place).

We are now in rented accommodation, we own no car or any other possession and I lost my job a year ago and became a full-time carer for my wife.

How far will these companies go to get the money back? Will they hound my wife - would they change their mind and go after me - I could handle it much better than she would?

Thanks

[Garlok]

Re: Is this really Legal?

Hi wardie,

Sorry to hear of your troubles and the appalling attitude of your creditor. It is a sad fact that in this so called civilised society of ours if you reveal any weakness whatsoever to creditors they WILL exploit this deliberately to get you to capitulate. It is my personal belief that many actually operate a criminal policy in this respect. In our own cases an open accustaion in writing has brought no denial to us or our solicitors in over two years.

However take a look at the OFT website and their guidlelines for debt collection. There are regulations in place under which creditors must take into account physical and mental distress and vulnerablity. Creditors have been forced to write off much debt because of this.

I am sure someine will be along shortly who has specific knowledge of these types of circumstances and will give better advice than I can.

regards
Garlok

[wardie2437]

Re: Is this really Legal?

thank you so much for this advice. It really helps

[Angry Cat]

Re: Is this really Legal?

Please view the following:
http://www.oft.gov.uk/shared_oft/bus...bt-letters.pdf

In particular, xi

[Angry Cat]

Re: Is this really Legal?

wardie2437, for your information:
http://www.moneyadvicetrust.org/imag...lines_2007.pdf

Please, read the MALG guidelines through carefully, as they do apply to those who suffer from both mental and physical health difficulties. Of course, sadly both are often linked...

It really is about time that the financial industry started to "Comply"!

[CleverClogs]

Re: Is this really Legal?

It really is about time that the financial industry started to "Comply"!

It really is long overdue for the financial industry to be forced to comply but, as the Office of Faffing and Twaddling has now resumed its hibernation cycle, that hardly seems likely to happen before that role is handed over to the Fundamentally Supine Authority.

If one considers serious illness as a form of disability, however, it might be possible to use the Equality and Human Rights Commission to persuade the companies to behave themselves better.

[Garlok]

Re: Is this really Legal?

Serious illness particularly chronic illness such as heart disease IS considered a disability along with various forms of arthritis and I know for certain that HMRC send out assessments for things like tax credits which state at the top "You are Disabled" to people with conditions such as these.

regards
Garlok

[wardie2437]

Re: Is this really Legal?

I think what you're missing on the initial question is not the fact my wife is quite seriously ill (she is) - and they should take that into account.
its the fact that GE Money forced us BOTH to sign for this secured loan. How could my wife legally sign for this when she wasn't even on the mortgage? And secondly why are they pursuing her ONLY and not me or both of us?

[Garlok]

Re: Is this really Legal?

Hi wardie,

As I said earlier, exposing ANY weakness to the parasites means that they WILL EXPLOIT that weakness in an effort to get you to capitulate and that it seems is what they are doing from your explanations so far.

My humble suggestions therefore and those of others I would suspect are to firstly getting them off your wife's and your back so that you have some relief and peace of mind. The regulations in place allow you to demand that from them.

Secondly an examination of the initial and current legal position has then to be made to settle the matter once and for all. Unfortunately, in principle Contract Law seems to take the view that you can put anything you like into a contract as long as you can find some foll to sign it. I am not suggesting that you are a fool by the way. However we are not all lawyers hence the reason for a complex array of regulations and Statutes supposedly put there to protect us all from the malpractices of big business and their greed.

I hope that I am wrong but I can see no problem with them getting both of you to sign for the loan. I assume both you and your wife were domiciled at the property at the time and that you were married. In my humble opinion that ties both of you togther as the security might I stress might be worthless to them with a sitting tenant as your wife would become should you alone have defaulted.

What I cannot understand is why on a technical front they are pursuing your wife alone unless it is as stated above.

I hope that more legally minded than I will be along to get their teeth into this one for you.

regards
Garlok

[wardie2437]

Re: Is this really Legal?

yes - your last point baffles me as well. Yesterday we actually found out one of the debts (our old joint bank account - which they are pursuing JUST my wife for) MetCol services have informed her that they will consider waiving the debt with a letter from her GP or consultant. If they accept this then presumably they will come after me

[Caspar]

Re: Is this really Legal?

For personal reasons I am not willing to go into details, but you will have to trust me when I say I speak from a lot of experience. You need to collect together every shred of medical evidence you possibly can, copy it, the more serious or the higher ranking the person seen the better; Similarly the more frequent any appointments are, the better for your position. When you have this you need to send it repeatedly to the company in question quoting ALL relevant legislation, this includes, but this is by no means a comprehensive list, OFT Guidelines on Debt Collection, MALG Guidelines, the Lending Code, the Consumer Protection from Unfair Trading Regulations 2008 etc... etc....

You will almost certainly have to keep on about how serious the illness is and the distress being caused by it in order to make them listen.

My experience has been that by doing this about 97% of companies do listen eventually. There are always some who just seem to think they can do what they want and I guess this is when courts come into play if you are willing to take it that far.

Best of luck.