Furniture Credit help needed

Salsa_2-2

I wonder if anyone can offer advice on my situation.

About 18 months back I purchased £3000 furniture from Courts, with finance from Open & Direct for £2600 on a 12 month interest free period. Courts made the first delivery, and only delivered 80% of the goods, and the sofa's were of the incorrect colour.

Open & Direct immediately started the loan repayments. Of course I was not happy with this, as I had not yet received all of the goods, and cancelled the direct debit and told them that until such time as I received all of the goods, I didn;t think the credit agreement was valid. About 4 months later, we finally received the right colour sofa's, but not the other 20% of the goods. Courts then went bust, and KPMG (the liquidators) basically refused to help any further and so the other 20% of the goods were written off.

By this time, O&D were talking about court referrals etc, but agreed that really they shouldn't have started the credit, and so were happy for me to start making the £2xx per month payments for the next 12 months.

Every month, they were chasing the first 4 month payments, and calling them arrears, but after speaking with the manager's every month, the situation was put on hold until the following month.

After 6 months of the same thing happening, I got fed up and offered to make full and final settlement just to get things finished and stop all the hassle.

I agreed a final payment date of 30th September, and the final amount was for £964. When I went to pay the final amount, I was told that on the 26th September, interest of 29.9% had been added, and so now the owed amount was £1200.

I am now at a stand off with them, and have a complaint going through the process. I am basically saying I am happy to make full and final payment of £964, even though I had not received all of the goods, but not to pay the additional £300 or so interest which had been applied 5 days prior to my settlement date.

Foolishly, I do not have any written evidence of this, apart from my continued letters of complaint. Can anyone advise where I stand legally with this? Will I have to pay the final £300 interest despite all of the other problems?

illmonkey

I've had something similar to you before.

Basically, what i done was wrote a stern letter stating what you have here, the fact that you want to settle it, and they took to long etc. Include a cheque for the ammount BEFORE the APR was added, and say in the letter that you now see this case closed.

They will proberly just take the money and close the agreement.

I dont know if other MSE's will agree, but it worked for me. But it was a smaller ammount, £250.

file_wizzard

Salsa wrote:

Foolishly, I do not have any written evidence of this, apart from my continued letters of complaint. Can anyone advise where I stand legally with this? Will I have to pay the final £300 interest despite all of the other problems?

I think the only way forward on this is to reiterate to O&D that this is your full and final settlement offer.

Given the history you have described the only other option O&D would have is take you to court for the outstanding balance, and I cant see any Judge awarding in their favour.

As you have quite rightly stated the credit agreement was not honoured from their side ( i.e their clients court furniture ) as not all of the goods were delivered. a pro rata payment was agreed as a gesture of good will by yourself, although technically you could of refused point blank as they have not honoured their part of the contract.

In short, stand you ground, explain that if needs be you will defend your actions in court and see what they say.

My guess is they will get out while the going is good and accept your very generous offer

jen_jen_2

i think they will take the money and run if you put it in writing.

courts have gone bust and as the open and direct credit was ageed by courts this is will come under the consumer credit act rules which state that open and direct are just as reponsible for the goods as courts. if you have not received all the goods o&d are obliged to resolve the issue, eg by reducing the amount you owe or finding you the remaining 20% of goods.

if they dont accept the offer and your not willing to back down (i wouldnt) they can take you to court and you can defend the action, this will enable a judge to decide what you should have to pay if it doesnt go your way and the judge says full amount owed what have you lost??

skintchick

Thh court costs, as if they lose they will have to pay the other side's as well as their own.

Salsa_2-2

Thanks to you both.

FileWizard, yes my original idea was to refuse payment point blank, but I am working hard to clear my credit rating, and so I just want to get this cleared.

A few people did advise me not to make payment, but there is the additional difficulty that this credit is with the ex-gf, and so the quicker it is over the better!

Just seen next two posts as well - yes, I expect them to take the money. If not, I guess I don't have much to lose by going to court. Thanks for the advice, and I'll let you know how I get on!

Salsa_2-2

Just had a call from O&D, and it seems that you were right!

When I questioned if the credit agreement was valid, things all of a sudden started to go in my favour!

They tried to claim it was a seperate agreement to the furniture, and any amount outstanding is still owed. When I stated that I had not received all of the furniture, and that I would challenge the validity of the credit agreement, in court if necessary, the amount dropped from £1350 to £912 in 2 mins. :j

It then dropped another £150 in 5 mins, if I can provide proof of non-delivery and a statement to validate this. So, it looks like I could be paying £750 to clear this. :j

It's still a little bit over what all the furniture was worth, but a whole lot better than a court telling me I had to make a payment of £1300+

Thanks for all the help :beer: :T :beer:

file_wizzard

Salsa wrote:

Just had a call from O&D, and it seems that you were right!

When I questioned if the credit agreement was valid, things all of a sudden started to go in my favour!

They tried to claim it was a seperate agreement to the furniture, and any amount outstanding is still owed. When I stated that I had not received all of the furniture, and that I would challenge the validity of the credit agreement, in court if necessary, the amount dropped from £1350 to £912 in 2 mins. :j

It then dropped another £150 in 5 mins, if I can provide proof of non-delivery and a statement to validate this. So, it looks like I could be paying £750 to clear this. :j

It's still a little bit over what all the furniture was worth, but a whole lot better than a court telling me I had to make a payment of £1300+

Thanks for all the help :beer: :T :beer:

Good news all round then !

Well done ;o)

illmonkey

please mail a cheque for 33% of the money saved to myself. the other 2 33% to the other money savers.

only joking!

Well done, i hate to do it to the poor people having to sit in call centers all day, but be agressive is the only way to get anywhere!

file_wizzard

samgoffe wrote:

Well done, i hate to do it to the poor people having to sit in call centers all day, but be agressive is the only way to get anywhere!

You dont have to be aggressive, just right ! ;o)

YorkshireBoy

The OP has had a result with the finance provider, which is good.

However, before I parted with any "full and final" payment, I think I'd be checking my £2 statutory reports to see if the lender has registered any "late payments" or "arrangements to pay" on my file.

They'll be a lot harder to get removed once the contract has been completed.