Credit Agreements and Mental Illness

michael1983l

iolanthe07 wrote: »

As I understand it, you have to have been sectioned under the Mental Health Act to have any hope of convincing a lender that you were not competent to sign an agreement.

I fear you are probably right.

Thomas_Hardy

michael1983l wrote: »

I just about held on to my job but my employer was made aware of the situation and adjusted accordingly. I was on lots of medication at the time but was not hospitilised as the main criteria for that is being a danger to myself or others of which I was not in their interpritation. I was classed as extremely high risk for suicide.

Like the poster below has stated though, I think it is unlikely that they would consider this and I accept that really. It is just a shame that my foreseable future is ruined because of the effects of an illness I had no control over.

There is no need to be sectioned in order to lack capacity (someone can have full capacity but still be sectioned, and vice versa), but I doubt any lender (or court) would entertain your claim if you were able to hold down a job during this time. It would be difficult to argue that you had the capacity to work, yet not to make basic financial decisions.

I would focus your efforts on managing your repayments. Best of luck.

FireWyrm

iolanthe07 wrote: »

As I understand it, you have to have been sectioned under the Mental Health Act to have any hope of convincing a lender that you were not competent to sign an agreement.

I did manage once in my capacity as a CSO to organise a cancellation of a phone contract due to the fact that the consumer had the mental age of 8. The consumer was contacted out of the blue by a cold caller who 'sold' her a contract but it was a hard fight for the consumers' legal guardian to prove.

This is generally what is meant by 'diminished responsibility', in that the consumer could not have understood their rights or responsibilities according to the contract and therefore it was not enforceable.

Bi-polar sufferers are still reasonably functioning adults - if not, they should be in protective custody of some sort. This is pretty much the criteria in the end.

lou1983

My thoughts on this are broadly in line with what has already been posted. Your basic arguement is that you did not have capacity to take outcredit agreements as you were unable to use / weigh information related to the decision at the time due to your mental state. Difficult to prove unless detainec under the mental health act during the episode of illness...even if you had been it doesnt neccesarily follow that u didnt have capacity although it would add weight to your arguement. Do you have a cpn who could help you deal with this? E.g help you approach lenders. It is common consequence of bipolar and they should be familiar with how to help. Also please think seriously about putting systems in place to prevent it from happening again. Have a look at the office of public guardian around appointing a power of attorney who could manage your fina ces in the event of becoming incapacitated due to illness again. Good luck with all this. Remember ur not alone

michael1983l

By cpn I assume you mean community nurse? Yes I do thanks. I am in a very unique position as which the cpn agreed when I explained my prediciment. I cannot currently face up to my debts because I have a large loan to my parents that was taken before any of this financial mess and any steps I take to sort my finances out would mean that they would stop me paying my parents, of which they could not afford to pay themselves and would leave them in a real mess.

So basically I need to duck and dive until I finish paying my parents at which point I can sort my own finances out. Unfortunately that doesn't bode well for my mental health in the mean time.

I have taken steps with my personal finaces already like you suggested. I have a managed bank account of which they take care of my bills and just give me the rest.

Thank you for taking the time to help.

lou1983

Is it possible to return any of your purchases even if you dont have receipts etc. Have had vaying degrees of sucess with this.it is often difficult to forget an encounter with a customer in the grip of a manic episode and you could explain the circumstances? I successfully returned a 6ft wicker reindeer in a similar situation!

Takeaway_Addict

Whilst I sympathise and I really do you've twice mentioned about unfairness regarding paying it back after being ill but its also not fair on the lender who unless they knew you had issues to not get at least their money back (not inc interest)

michael1983l

lou1983 wrote: »

Is it possible to return any of your purchases even if you dont have receipts etc. Have had vaying degrees of sucess with this.it is often difficult to forget an encounter with a customer in the grip of a manic episode and you could explain the circumstances? I successfully returned a 6ft wicker reindeer in a similar situation!

I pretty much do not own a single thing, only the clothes on my back. Anything of any value has been sold in an attempt to get myself back on track.

michael1983l

Takeaway_Addict wrote: »

Whilst I sympathise and I really do you've twice mentioned about unfairness regarding paying it back after being ill but its also not fair on the lender who unless they knew you had issues to not get at least their money back (not inc interest)

I understand your viewpoint and I did mention a couple of times that it was nobody in particular s fault and especially not ther lender(in most cases) in some of the last loans taken out it would have been clear from my credit file that something was wrong, lots of new accounts and 20 or 30 credit searches in the space of a few days, desperatly trying to find a payday loan lender to get some money for food. They still lent the money and if they had taken 1 look at the credit file it should have been obvious they should not have done.

However I am not after getting the debts written off completely, I am after the debts being reduced so they are at least at a managable level. But this does not appear likely to be possible.

I may be forced with having to excile myself abroad eventually as I cannot continue to live like this and I also do not have the means to deal with the debt at its current level.

DS4215

Have you tried speaking to one of the mental health charities (MIND or Bipolar UK)? - they may not be able to help with the position that you are currently in but could be able to suggest ways to prevent it happening in future.

If not, they may be able to put something in place to help sufferers of this illness in future.