No one is collecting the money owed

Tixy

HSBC may have sold on the debt to a debt collection company. You say they have informed him of the repayment terms - and then what? How did he agree he would pay them? are they expecting him to make a manual payment or set up a standing order? Did he say he'd pay by DD and give them his bank details? or what?

I would suggest he does a subject access request to harrington brookes - this will provide him with a copy of all information they hold in relation to the account and all correspondance sent. It will also allow him to check if HBrookes paid across the correct amount to HSBC in accordance with his agreement with them and they amount of payments he made to them.

Hopefully this may shed some light as to why they stopped dealing with your friend and who owned his debt when they last dealt with them (eg if it was a debt collector).

How long was he making payments into his IVA - as someone else queried are you sure it was an IVA and not a DMP?
Did he only owe money to HSBC? no other creditors included in his IVA?

Did he always make the agreed repayments on time? Did he have any change in circumstance just before HBrooks stopped dealing with him?

Yazmina

I know that they agreed he'd pay £300 a month for three years (less than £13k I know) by DD. I'm fairly sure it was an IVA. Would a DMP be collected differently?

He was only paying into the IVA for six months. I don't know how many creditors there were. As far as I know all the payments were paid on time by DD.

No significant changes in circumstances.

Tixy

An IVA lasts 5years (usually) and his name would appear on the insolvency register.
He should certainly know whether it was an IVA or DMP - he'll have signed documents and agreements from the debt management company. With an IVA the creditors have decide whether or not to accept it (they hold a creditors meeting and 75% of his creditors must agree to the IVA proposal).

A DMP is collected in a similar way - you pay a debt management charity or company, they pay your creditors each month.

If his total debt was £13k and he was expected to repay it in 3years then it would sounds like a DMP was more suitable than an IVA (thats not to say he wasn't sold an IVA by this company).