need some help on a dmp but have other troubles

funkyfish586

A v long story but the shortened version is that when we sold our house last year we did it through a private sale, the guy who bought the house contacted me off Gumtree to say could he come around & have a look, we were selling through halifax at the time. Anyhoo he bought the house & halifax started demanding their 'finders fee' claiming that the guy could have seen the advert through the website or driven past the house & seen the halifax for sale sign. Basically their word against ours he was not introuduced by halifax but yet they still want £1500 for doing nothing at all, they only got one viewing in 6 months! Anyhoo, we wrote to the property ombudsman asking them to review the case & make an official complaint. After 6 months of back and forth they have wrote to us this morning to confirm that we will have an answer in 1-2 months. Im really worrying myself as if they do rule in halifaxs favour we cant afford to pay them . Does anyone know what will happen if we cant afford to pay them, will we have to go to court ? Weare on a dmp with payplan and could afford to pay them a monthly fee but not the £1500 upfront as we are just scrapeing by now . I know its not strictly a debt question but can anyone help, im 8 months pregnant & so worried about it alll as i think its very unlikely they will rule in our favour x

Tixy

Hi funky

Fingers crossed it goes your way. Did you ever manage to get the buyer to confirm in a letter that they saw it on gumtree or anything?

Anyway - I expect that should it go against you, you would need to add the debt to your DMP, and offer monthly payments.

It would just be an unsecured debt like your others so no reason they should have priority over any other creditor. Of course they might not like it, and could (like any creditor) try to get a CCJ against you but if they see your income & expenditure and see that the DMP offer is all you can afford hopefully sense would prevail and they would accept it.

If they did take you to court you would have to ask to pay in installments (which might well be the same figure you are offering on your DMP).

Broken_hearted

Good luck hope you win.

Nargleblast

Suggest you also ask this question on the House Buying/renting/selling forum, might get some more ideas there. Certainly do not think of handing over £1500 at present, not whilst the case is in the hands of the ombudsman. And read your Halifax contract very carefully, there might be something in the small print that you can use. Good luck.

Hannah_10

Just a thought but do you think there's any chance of him sending a letter to say he discovered the house on GumTree? Couldn't do any harm to knock the door and ask him I would guess.