Father in a pickle

nads75

My dad has just left my house in a complete mess having taken a few letters that were addressed to him from the marital home, he has recenlty separated from his wife and it appears she has run up a huge debt in his name. Just the few letters we have here are totalling £10000+ and im sure thats the tip of the iceburg. Some are credit cards, some are loans, lots in his name alone (that he has no idea about until tonight) and some jointly, again he has no idea. He has not had a hand in any of the house finances and was shocked to find he has all these cards, he is 60 years old and can just about manage to understand how deposit money into a post office, so doesnt understand how she could have taken this money out in his name. Obviously it is fraud and we really need to get him to a soliciter, he is recently unemployed and has emphysemea so i am trying to set him up with Disability living allowance and a bedsit or something so i should be able to sort out legal aid too (I hope) Im wayyyy in over my head with helping him out and need more advice. Is he really liable for the debt?
Ive a feeling she is selling the house without his knowledge too?? can that be done? and is prob running off to spain leaving him in a right mess.

I dont want to contact all these companies with my address as i dont want the credit rating problems (only just got out of difficulties myself) or bailifs calling here but i have to help him somehow. any suggestions? will CAB be any help and how much input can i have helping him as he is really useless when dealing with authoities so i have to talk for him.

Hope someone can help.

Nadia

fatbelly

nads75 wrote: »

Ive a feeling she is selling the house without his knowledge too?? can that be done?

No, not if it's jointly owned.

Contacting CAB and taking all the paperwork in seems a good first step. You can attend with him

He also needs to do a credit check to find out what debts there are in his name. Your credit rating cannot be affected by these debts unless you have joint financial products with your dad (so don't)

Bailiffs cannot be instructed until there is a county court judgement which has been defaulted upon. So don't panic.

How does he feel about the police getting involved?

nads75

Right having done a credit check it appears he owes £104,000!!!!!

The last remortgage is only in his name?? for 94,000 plus 10,000 in cards.

He is 59 yrs old and picture home loans gave him a 84 grand remortgae in 2006 with repaymets of £907 a month over 289 months!!! meaning his last payment to picture would be when he is 83!!! that cant be right, would you get accepted if that was the case? or has she removed her name at some point? and does that mean the house is in his name only now?

There are 4 (no.8) notices on his report (meaning credit agreement has ended!) and 2 at no.4 (meaning 4 missed payments) He is sooo up the creek.

There are also 55 accounts that he is named on as a joint holder with the wife!

I think the police really need to be involved now, should i still do CAB first? Im assuming the police will stop her leaving the country?

thanks for the advice fatbelly

BlondeHeadOn

I think the involving the police is the only sensible option - this sounds way above a CAB enquiry now! Fraud is a criminal offence.

Let us know how you get on.... and every good luck to you and your dad, it's so nice he has you to help him.

RAS

nads75 wrote: »

Right having done a credit check it appears he owes £104,000!!!!!

The last remortgage is only in his name?? for 94,000 plus 10,000 in cards.

He is 59 yrs old and picture home loans gave him a 84 grand remortgae in 2006 with repaymets of £907 a month over 289 months!!! meaning his last payment to picture would be when he is 83!!! that cant be right, would you get accepted if that was the case? or has she removed her name at some point? and does that mean the house is in his name only now?

There are 4 (no.8) notices on his report (meaning credit agreement has ended!) and 2 at no.4 (meaning 4 missed payments) He is sooo up the creek.

There are also 55 accounts that he is named on as a joint holder with the wife!

I think the police really need to be involved now, should i still do CAB first? Im assuming the police will stop her leaving the country?

thanks for the advice fatbelly

Hi

You need to get a CIFAS marker on his credit record to warn other creditors of the possibility of fraudulent accounts being taken out in his name.

Open him a basic bank account and get his income paid into that. Adviseany existing joint bank account that all further debits must be authorised by both signatories. if possible cancel existng DDs from that account first.

You also need to check the Land Registry to see in whose name the house is currently held.

he needs a lawyer and to talk to the police. i suggest you go with him.

if the accounts were taken out before April 2007, then the creditor has to provide a signed Consuer Credit Agreement when asked. This would show up anything that was obtained fraudulently, although there is the risk that she applied on-line.

nads75

Ok ive got a few documents from the house and she is having his newly applied for job seekers allowance paid into their joint account, so we have been down to Lloyds to explain that we need a basic account (did this on Monday) and when I seen the credit report I thought the bank account would be rejected, but in fact he had the card delivered to my house today, so that’s one good thing I can now change his address and payment details over to this new account.
We are still waiting to see if his joint savings account (£13-20grand im unsure of amount) has been used up by her too, but if not he will transfer the balance into his new account.

How do I go about a CIFAS marker? I will write to the Halifax joint current account and explain the fraud, but unsure how he could cancel the DD’s? I do have the account number and sort code from his jobseekers allowance forms.

I think all were out before April 07? It appears he has loads more that were out in 2004/2005/2006 but these were settled and paid with no problems (almost like she was increasing his credit rating?? Im so suspicious) She works in insurance so may well have applied on line while in work? Only time will tell with this one.

Funny but dad and I have such an on-off relationship that its pretty lucky we are on speaking terms right now as he has no one else to help. I will let you know what happens, its CAB tomorrow morning (have to sort out housing and DLA etc too) and the police. Lucky my boss is an understanding chap eh!

RAS

hi

it is protective registration - info here http://www.cifas.org.uk/

You might need to wait until he has spoken to the police as it may be unwise to alert her to any concerns immediately.

Depending on the police response, you might need to make a Consumer Credit Agreement request for every account open in his name or in joint names. If this is not signed by your father, then he is not liable for the debt, unless they had reason to believe that he had authorised an application on-line.

You will find a chat with one of the debt charities, particulalry NDL http://www.moneysavingexpert.com/loans/debt-help-plan#help useful.

HannaB

I didn't want to red and run. I would just like to wish you and your father luck. My father is the same age and I can only imagine what a horrible situation this must be for both of you.

H x

Jesthar

Oh, Nadia, what a horrible situation! *hugs*

Regarding the house, somewhere in my brain a vague memory is suggesting there is some sort of notification a solicitor can file to prevent a jointly owned home being sold without the consent of both parties, or at least making it more difficult? Can't remember enough about it to find anything on google, though - anyone around who has a clue as to what it might be and if it might be useful? And my apologies if it is my brain playing tricks on me...

Regarding online applications (warning, computer geek alert! ), you said your Dad isn't technically adept? If that is the case, does he have a computer/internet at all? If not, and the applications were made online, that might work in his favour. I don't know if the financial institutions record the unique IP address of the computer which makes a particular application (which could clearly identify the location of the computer an application was made from), but date will be recorded, and time of day also, possibly. If any of these have online banking, then the logging systems of those might well record the IP address of the accessing computer if it's ever been used.

Online applications will probably require an e-mail address (I'd be surprised if they didn't!), so if your dad doesn't have one, or if he does and his address wasn't used, that's another suspicious point. Phone numbers, too, if they were required - I presume he hasn't been getting phone calls about this, which (as many here will tell you) he likely would be for the accounts with 4 missed payments if they had his phone number, so I'm thinking that any number given was not his?

Let us know how things go with the police and CAB? Really hoping everything works out OK.

~Jes

RAS

nads75 wrote: »

so i am trying to set him up with Disability living allowance and a bedsit or something

Not sure the bedsit is a good idea. If it is his house or partly his house he needs to stick tight, partly becuase possession is 9 tenths of the law.
ALso
a) he is not going to get social housing if he owns property.
b) he is not going to get housing benefit easily if he owns property

nads75 wrote: »

so i should be able to sort out legal aid too (I hope)

Doubt if he is eligible if he owns property.

nads75 wrote: »

Is he really liable for the debt?

If he signed the Consumer Credit Agreements.

nads75 wrote: »

Ive a feeling she is selling the house without his knowledge too?? can that be done?

You require the signature of the persons whose names are listed on the Land Register.

nads75 wrote: »

The last remortgage is only in his name?? for 94,000 plus 10,000 in cards.

He is 59 yrs old and picture home loans gave him a 84 grand remortgae in 2006 with repaymets of £907 a month over 289 months!!! meaning his last payment to picture would be when he is 83!!! t

and does that mean the house is in his name only now?

It costs £3 to get a copy of the Land Registry file.

nads75 wrote: »

There are 4 (no.8) notices on his report (meaning credit agreement has ended!) and 2 at no.4 (meaning 4 missed payments) He is sooo up the creek.

* measn no payment for the last 8 months of the account, 4 means for the last four months

nads75 wrote: »

There are also 55 accounts that he is named on as a joint holder with the wife!

How many of these are live? You may need to take action to stop any more being added tothem.

nads75 wrote: »

Im assuming the police will stop her leaving the country?

Is this a joke or is she from overseas?

Ames

Just to add to what RAS said, if there have been any remortgages for purposes other than home improvements then the state wont cover them, just the original mortgage.