Lender has terminated my loan in error, where do I stand

Conrad2

Tixy wrote: »

If you can provide the just the factual details of what happened and the dates etc without the stuff about unequal relationships and emotional stuff about how its making you feel...

Fair enough, I have confused the issue.

Received notice of a phone call c 6 Sep.
Contacted lender to warn them that I may be getting scammed. They told me not.
Phone call not received 8 Sep.
Received notification of default c 15 Sept with deadline to comply of 29 Sep. Options if non payment i brief: 1 termination of agreement;;;4 passed to collection agency.
Checked available information, confirming that all payment had been made to lender via DD and on time.
Complained to lender via website re their error c 16 Sep. Still no respnse to this.
Received collection notice 27 Sep.
Wrote letter of complaint to lender c 27 Sep, notifying that I do not accept default, and require correction and apology and that I considered agreement to have been terminated given that they had put collection in train. Cancelled DD (due to lenders termination).
Lender attempted to take payment via DD 1 Oct. Wrote letter reiterating reason for DD cancellation.

SeanG79

Conrad2 wrote: »

Fair enough, I have confused the issue.

Received notice of a phone call c 6 Sep.
Contacted lender to warn them that I may be getting scammed. They told me not.
Phone call not received 8 Sep.
Received notification of default c 15 Sept with deadline to comply of 29 Sep. Options if non payment i brief: 1 termination of agreement;;;4 passed to collection agency.
Checked available information, confirming that all payment had been made to lender via DD and on time.
Complained to lender via website re their error c 16 Sep. Still no respnse to this.
Received collection notice 27 Sep.
Wrote letter of complaint to lender c 27 Sep, notifying that I do not accept default, and require correction and apology and that I considered agreement to have been terminated given that they had put collection in train. Cancelled DD (due to lenders termination).
Lender attempted to take payment via DD 1 Oct. Wrote letter reiterating reason for DD cancellation.

So why did you cancel the DD in August as per your initial post if the problem only arose in September?

Conrad2

Sorry. Wrote Aug, meant Sep.

redpete

Sounds like you made lots of assumptions about what had happened and failed to sort it out with the lender and took actions that made the situation worse(why not call them again when you got the second letter instead of cancelling the DD and entering a complaint via the website?).

The initial problem might not have been your fault but your subsequent actions (and lack of correct actions) have made it worse, so some of the blame does lie with you. You are in a worse situation because you decided it was totally up to the lender to sort out a problem when you are not even sure that they have understood what the problem is.

I would call them up and calmly and clearly explain the sequence of events and ask what they suggest should be done now.

I would like to state here that there has been no default, and that all payments have been made as scheduled.

until you cancelled the DD.

they have taken repayments out of my hands, leaving me in a difficult and stressful situation.

you took away their ability to take payments by cancelling the DD.

I told the call center staff that the lender was obliged to contact me in a civil and informed manner to which I would reply.

Making the situation more confrontational than it needed to be.

I have taken this to mean that the agreement has been terminated and that the lender decided not to give me the time promised.
...
I had cancelled (the DD) on 27 August.
...
(I am) completely innocent in this
...
As I see it at the moment, there is no agreement, and that is in no way my fault.
...
I do not see that it is down to me to correct the error made by the lender
...
I strongly feel it is now down to the lender to contact me to put a new agreement in place
...
If and when they come to me I am ready to talk, but I feel that it is down to them to come to me.

Can you see a pattern here? A certain level of arrogance (you might prefer a different word) that is a significant reason the situation has not been resolved.

And forget about claiming compensation for the stress etc. - it will complicate the situation further for no reason.

Conrad2

I realise this is getting very confused, mainly because of vaguaries only first message. I realise my words could be seen as arrogant, but in reality it is anger and frustration. I have gone, in the space of about 18 days from a borrower who has never defaulted to having a collection order against me. This has all happened very quickly, and the lender, despite any errors on my part, has acted very wrongly.

Is it correct that they should ignore my complaints?

Is it correct that they should not honour their deadline?

Is it correct that they can pass the debt on to a collection company and still try to take direct debit payments? I cannot believe that people here think it is wrong to prevent them from taking any more money than they are already entitled to.

I am perplexed that everyone seems to think these issues are unimportant compared to me protecting myself from their error. If there is no recourse for these actions, the banks are fee to do what they like with us.

From the replies I get the idea that most people seem to think there is no smoke without fire, and have jumped to the conclusion that I am not telling the whole story. Well I am. And I find it almost as unbelievable as the rest of you, and even more surreal for some verging on aggressive responses on this group.

It may sound arrogant, but it is TRUE to say that I am an innocent, if misguided party here, seeking help.

Hanky_Panky

Instead of asking lots of question on here why are you not calling them right now to find out what the hell is going on ??

Seriously - call them now, immediately.

Conrad2

Please, I have contacted them by registered mail explaining everything from my side. I have made a complaint via their own online channels, which they have not replied to. Right now, I am more inclined to contact citizens advice or a solicitor. I want to know what I am obliged to do legally with regard to my lender breaking a perfectly good agreement, whilst ignoring my complaints and failing to observe their own deadlines. If there is no recourse, there is something wrong.

If they want to continue with the original agreement, in light of their error, then it must be down to them. If they prefer court, then they must justify their oversights in dealing with the error.

I didn't cancel the agreement. My actions did not lead to cacellation of the agreement, and if they had responded to me when I complained, this could have been avoided.

Why is everyone here putting the onus on me to correct their error. They are already aware of my feelings, opinion and evidence. and I await their response. I would have thought that was perfectly reasonable in any other situation where an agreement was broken. So why not with banks?

Angry_Bear

What you should have done (imo) is left the direct debit paying the agreed amounts on the agreed dates. Raised a complaint wuth your lender and with the debt collection agency and kept your loan and false default separate.

However, you've now cancelled the DD and have missed a payment (although only by a couple of days). I would call them now and make your regular payment that was due yesterday(?) over the phone. Make it clear that you will continue to do so on time for the remainder of your loan term. Unfortunately, just because they have made an administrative error doesn't mean you don't have to keep up all your contractual payments. You might want to point out that you have only cancelled the DD due to confusion because they have sent you incorrect information - you would expect them to make sure that no "late" markers are added to your credit report because of this.

Then I'd suggest you ask them about the status of your "default" and the debt collection agency your loan has supposedly been assigned to. Ask them for something in writing stating that all payments have been made in full and on time. Assuming the debt collection agency is a separate company and not just another department of your lender, write to them with a copy of this letter refusing to pay and disputing the debt.

Then get copies of all 3 of your credit reports and carefully check the information recorded on them.

Just my 0.02.

Conrad2

redpete wrote: »

Sounds like you made lots of assumptions about what had happened and failed to sort it out with the lender and took actions that made the situation worse(why not call them again when you got the second letter instead of cancelling the DD and entering a complaint via the website?).

I have made no assumptions. The lender may not pursue full repayment when an existing agreement is in place. To request a third party to recover money when such an agreement is in place clearly breaches the agreement, thus terminating it. Cancelling the DD, set up to service the terminated agreement, prevented them from unlawfully taking money from my account, and I would have been mad to allow them to do that. The money would have disappeared into a black hole as no agreement is in place, chiefly because the lender, through their actions, terminated it.

Please, everyone, try to understand; once the collection of the debt was passed on to the collection company, there was no more agreement. The money taken from my account would not have gone to service the debt.

Your post seems to demonstrate a great contempt for anyone attempting to stand up for themselves in the face of what may seem to some to be a juggernaut. Insisting that the lender provide me insignificant tidbits of information such as the date of the default (they can't provide one, because there wasn't one) the value of the default sum, or even the account on which the 'default' was made; none of this was provided in the first communication, so insisting on such being provided seems like common sense to me, but I know you see it differently.

I received the notification of default from the lender c 15 Sep, it quoted an account number and a figure, but still no reference to a date. It threatened to take action (in this order: termination; deduction; seek full payment; assign collection agency) should the sum not be paid by 29 Sep. From 16 Sep, the lender had received a complaint explaining their error (this is not in question, I received an automated receipt), made in the manner provided for raising such service issues on their own website; no response has been received to this complaint.The letter from the collections company was dated 24 Sep, five days before the end of the deadline given. You may feel this is all proper and above board for a bank

Does anyone here think they wouldn't be at least a little miffed if they were being told they had defaulted with no definitive information to support the claim? Yet on this forum, requesting such is seen as confrontational..

I am sorry, but this is not my fault, and the lender will know that even if you don't recognize it. How they deal with it is a different matter.

molerat

OP, when you are in a hole stop digging. They seem to have made a mistake and you have made matters worse by your actions and not following the correct complaints procedure. You need to speak to them and start grovelling.

The lender may not pursue full repayment when an existing agreement is in place. To request a third party to recover money when such an agreement is in place clearly breaches the agreement, thus terminating it. Cancelling the DD, set up to service the terminated agreement, prevented them from unlawfully taking money from my account, and I would have been mad to allow them to do that. The money would have disappeared into a black hole as no agreement is in place, chiefly because the lender, through their actions, terminated it.

What a load of !!!!!!!!