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HFC Bank, unlawful default? URGENT ADVICE NEEDED
netso
Posts: 8 Forumite
Hi everyone, Please could you have the patience to read this and please bear with me, I am in so much distress....
We have just sold our house and when we visited Natwest for what we thought was a staight forward margage change over had turned into a nightmare. When we moved into our current house 2 years ago my husband sent a letters to everyone informing of new address etc, after a few months he lost his job and we struggled but managed to keep ourselves afloat, keep mortgage and everything paid. However, just before christmas we rang up to see how much was left to pay off our sofa (with dfs) and were astonished to find that they hadn't changed their records with our new address and had apparently been chasing us for payment for last few months!! My husband apologised etc and said it was a mistake and over sight and had we have received any letter, of course we would have paid, we just didint know as no letters came!!! We did not know that the payment had not been being taken!!
The balance was £545.00 which was paid immediately in full and our credit report shows 'satisfactory' now. However, the company HFC Bank are refusing to remove the default from Equifax and as a mother of two young children I am terrified as our mortgage is now in the hands of natwest who have asked for evidence from HFC that it has been paid (we are still awaiting a letter).
We have never in 5 years had any other problems and the mistake was not really our fault as we never got a letter and didnt realise that payments werent being made.
Do you think we have a case for getting this default removed?
If anyone could be kind enough to help me I would be so grateful, Thanks so much
We have just sold our house and when we visited Natwest for what we thought was a staight forward margage change over had turned into a nightmare. When we moved into our current house 2 years ago my husband sent a letters to everyone informing of new address etc, after a few months he lost his job and we struggled but managed to keep ourselves afloat, keep mortgage and everything paid. However, just before christmas we rang up to see how much was left to pay off our sofa (with dfs) and were astonished to find that they hadn't changed their records with our new address and had apparently been chasing us for payment for last few months!! My husband apologised etc and said it was a mistake and over sight and had we have received any letter, of course we would have paid, we just didint know as no letters came!!! We did not know that the payment had not been being taken!!
The balance was £545.00 which was paid immediately in full and our credit report shows 'satisfactory' now. However, the company HFC Bank are refusing to remove the default from Equifax and as a mother of two young children I am terrified as our mortgage is now in the hands of natwest who have asked for evidence from HFC that it has been paid (we are still awaiting a letter).
We have never in 5 years had any other problems and the mistake was not really our fault as we never got a letter and didnt realise that payments werent being made.
Do you think we have a case for getting this default removed?
If anyone could be kind enough to help me I would be so grateful, Thanks so much
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Comments
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Hi
Are you certain that DFS were one of the people you wrote to about the change of address? (I don't suppose you can prove that you sent it?)
Why was it not being paid? did they try to take DDs that bounced? Did you not see these on your statements?
HFC should certainly mark your credit file as satisfied if the full outstanding amount has now been paid but it may be that they have followed the correct rules regarding the default.A smile enriches those who receive without making poorer those who giveor "It costs nowt to be nice"0 -
Send a SAR request to HFC Bank/DFS whoever placed the default. http://forums.moneysavingexpert.com/showpost.html?p=33791933&postcount=24
See if they send back a default notice, if not then they have not correctly followed the procedure and it must be removed. As default notices must be sent to you.
If they did send one, but to the old address, you will need to prove you sent them the new address and they failed to update it on there end. Like Tixy i am also curious how did you make payments, was it by DD or did you get billed monthly my letter. DD is the way most things are done now and change of address would have no affect.Although no trees were harmed during the creation of this post, a large number of electrons were greatly inconvenienced.
There are two ways of constructing a software design: One way is to make it so simple that there are obviously no deficiencies, and the other way is to make it so complicated that there are no obvious deficiencies0 -
Hi, thanks for replying!
Yes we wrote to the finance company who the sofa was with. They made no effort no contact us, we have always been on electural roll so there would have been no problem in finding us. We didn't know, they say they never received the letter. If we were trying to avoid paying, why would we have telephoned them to clarify that our payments finished soon. We don't know why the DD failed, especially for 4 months in a row, it doesn't make sense. My husband didn't check the statements and we were not notifed that DD had failed, it was totally a case of 'we just didn't know'. As we didn't receive any letters or calls from them we assumed all was ok. As no default notice was served to us, is this an unlawful default?? All has been settled now, we bent over backwards to HFC when we heard, we were devastated!!0 -
Default notice only has to be served to the address they have on record, it could well been it went to the old address.
I would query why the DD had failed, if they had a DD setup ask them why they stopped taking payments as a change of address does not affect a DD. If they choose to stop taking payments you could argue it is there doing that the account fell into arrears they merely had to take payment themselves as that is what the DD allows them.Although no trees were harmed during the creation of this post, a large number of electrons were greatly inconvenienced.
There are two ways of constructing a software design: One way is to make it so simple that there are obviously no deficiencies, and the other way is to make it so complicated that there are no obvious deficiencies0 -
Hi
Yes we always paid by DD, it was the second sofa we had with them, we never even missed a previous payment. We don't know why DD payment went wrong. I cannot prove I sent the letter, as it was such a long time ago. All i know is they never tried to servce me a default notice0 -
How are you sure they never tried to send a default notice or warning of arrears, if you moved and they only had the old address on record. They would never know your new address or that you had moved so sent it to the old address.Although no trees were harmed during the creation of this post, a large number of electrons were greatly inconvenienced.
There are two ways of constructing a software design: One way is to make it so simple that there are obviously no deficiencies, and the other way is to make it so complicated that there are no obvious deficiencies0 -
We have tried arguing all of the above, with no avail, we just get some horrid person stating the same thing (there's nothing they are prepared to do about the default, even though it is settled. I think one DD failed due to lack of funds when my husband lost his job but it would have cleared the second month. Why don't these companies contact the bank if there is ever a problem, it would be much easier as sometimes things can go undetected unless you are looking at statements every day??0
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DarkConvict wrote: »How are you sure they never tried to send a default notice or warning of arrears, if you moved and they only had the old address on record. They would never know your new address or that you had moved so sent it to the old address.
We sent a change of address letter to everyone so we cannot understand why they didn't get it??
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I would also have a word with your bank as to why the DD's were not paid. Its unusual for DD's not to be paid, providing there is enough money to cover them, and if there is not enough money, then they generally write and tell you, and usually charge 25 quid:mad:0
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Is it still worth putting a claim in?0
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