Loan challenge failed - solicitors left us high and dry!

Dabooka

Something's not adding up. Surely you wouldn't let it go on for six months without expecting the "solicitors" to do something about it and blindly keep paying them each month to do nothing?

Rafter

mabski is right - unenforceablilty doesn't mean that your credit rating won't be trashed if you don't keep up payments. It just means that the loan isn't enforceable under the consumer credit act.

There is still a defacto contract between you and the lender though. You received money and you were paying it back. The bank isn't a charity and therefore some sort of interest would be due.

If they are a firm of solicitors regulated by the law society then you should be able to get some sort of redress - but ultimately it was your decision to stop paying the loan company.

Sorry

R.

ILW

jimmack wrote: »

Hi all

My question is; can the solicitors leave us in a worse position than when we started our engagement and simply walk away? We have no idea how we can affordably repay the loan, what the new terms may be, or even if we could negotiate terms. We don't even know who now owns the loan.

What about our severely damaged credit rating - aren't the solicitors responsible for ensuring it is repaired?
I'd like to think the solicitors have been professionally negligent and would be happy to sue if the consensus agreed (and I knew of a good solicitor who might take this on!)

Any advise would be gratefully received.

Jim

Technically, you instructed the solicitors so unless you can prove negligence it appears you will have to live with the consequences.
Bear in mind that if you do try to sue them and lose you could end up with having to pay all their costs as well as your own.

[Deleted User]

Firstly, I'm glad as you got what you deserved.

Secondly, I'm confused by your actions - something doesn't add up.

You mentioned that you paid your loan direct debits to the solicitors - is this correct? Why would you do that?

As bad as some solicitors are - and there are plenty - they tend to be on the more honest side of deceitful and although some may be 'rubbish', genuine bona fide solicitors are unlikely to be fraudulent. I'm confused as to why therefore you're suggesting they asked you to pay your DDs to them (ignoring the fact a DD is from you to the lender) in the interim. The lender wouldn't accept their payment as it's your loan and the money needs to come from you.

I would have expected them to have told you to pay your DDs while they look at enforceability.

Nothing really adds up here, I'm afraid. It just doesn't make sense. Either they weren't real solicitors (and you've been scammed - and deserve it) or else you're not revealing the whole truth. What happened in those six months after they stopped working? Why didn't you do anything during that time?

I've got a really novel solution though: why not pay what you owe?

ILW

Deleted_User wrote: »

I've got a really novel solution though: why not pay what you owe?

Heresy

Burn the witch!

_Andy_

Deleted_User wrote: »

I've got a really novel solution though: why not pay what you owe?

Don't be ridiculous - that's so last season.

~Brock~

Deleted_User wrote: »

You mentioned that you paid your loan direct debits to the solicitors - is this correct? Why would you do that?

As bad as some solicitors are - and there are plenty - they tend to be on the more honest side of deceitful and although some may be 'rubbish', genuine bona fide solicitors are unlikely to be fraudulent. I'm confused as to why therefore you're suggesting they asked you to pay your DDs to them (ignoring the fact a DD is from you to the lender) in the interim. The lender wouldn't accept their payment as it's your loan and the money needs to come from you.

I would have expected them to have told you to pay your DDs while they look at enforceability.

Nothing really adds up here, I'm afraid. It just doesn't make sense. Either they weren't real solicitors (and you've been scammed - and deserve it) or else you're not revealing the whole truth. What happened in those six months after they stopped working? Why didn't you do anything during that time?

As far fetched as it sounds, there are some firms of solicitors who have actually advised customers to stop paying their debts (such is their arrogant confidence that the agreements are unenforceable) and instead make the monthly payments to them instead as part payment of their fees.

I don't know about you but I find such practice absolutely disgraceful.

The advice to stop paying the debt, even though nothing has been agreed in court, is indefensable.

What has happened since is that a number of court cases have gone in the lenders favour which has thrown the smug smirk off their faces and caused many agreements to have actually found to be perfectly enforceable. Also the McGuffick case has confirmed that there is nothing to stop lenders continuing to report the non payment of the debt to credit reference agencies, thus destroying the customers credit rating.

Such bad practice needs to be weeded out and IMO these firms should be shut down, after being made to pay appropriate compensation for the damage caused by their greed.

ILW

~Brock~ wrote: »

As far fetched as it sounds, there are some firms of solicitors who have actually advised customers to stop paying their debts (such is their arrogant confidence that the agreements are unenforceable) and instead make the monthly payments to them instead as part payment of their fees.

I don't know about you but I find such practice absolutely disgraceful.

The advice to stop paying the debt, even though nothing has been agreed in court, is indefensable.

What has happened since is that a number of court cases have gone in the lenders favour which has thrown the smug smirk off their faces and caused many agreements to have actually found to be perfectly enforceable. Also the McGuffick case has confirmed that there is nothing to stop lenders continuing to report the non payment of the debt to credit reference agencies, thus destroying the customers credit rating.

Such bad practice needs to be weeded out and IMO these firms should be shut down, after being made to pay appropriate compensation for the damage caused by their greed.

They can only do it because people are trying to wriggle out of their debts, bit chicken and egg as far as who is being the most greedy.

RobertoMoir

jimmack wrote: »

dmg24

I wasn't seeking moral judgement - you don't know, nor have you asked about our circumstances so I think this very unfair. However, thanks for the response - we have challenged formally and given the firm 10 working days to respond.

Jim

The "circumstances" don't really matter - you clearly had the money to continue to pay and you chose to pay it to the solicitors instead, so whatever your circumstances were, they were not that you did not have the money to pay at all.

You can, as others have advised, formally complain about the solicitors if you believe they have advised you badly, however at the end of the day they are your representatives acting on your instructions - you will have to accept some responsibility for the situation as well.

Even if the solicitors are found to have given you especially useless and negligent advice and you win buckets of compensation from them it won't alter the fact that you made the choice to give the money you had set aside to repay your debt to the solicitors instead of making your repayments with it, and it won't alter the fact that the lender are annoyed at not being paid, and won't alter the fact that they've expressed their feelings on the subject, so to speak, in your credit records. There isn't a magic "do the last 18 months over again" button in real life.

iolanthe07

Deafening silence from OP - I wonder why?