Loan Arrears help please?

MikaDavid

We have a bank loan, in personal names, unsecured, but all built up due to business debts. The loan has 7 years to run and currently stands at £29,750 and all repyaments have been made and in full and on time until the end of last year. Due to illness and subsequent bereavement within the family, which led to us working less hours (we are both self employed) with increased expenses for fuel to get to and from the hospital , we were unable to make the loan repayments during this time . We were transferred to their risk team. We did not make payments for a period of five months September - January.

We immediately contacted the bank explaining our difficulties, confirmed that we were sure that things would improve and asked for some breathing space while we got back on our feet. They asked us to contact a debt management charity for advice . We did this and advised the bank that based on a minimum wage they suggested much smaller repyaments but we knew things would improve by the beginning of this year and a DMP wasnt a route that we wanted to go down. Things did improved we secured new contracts for the rest of the year and told the bank in January that we would begin repayments in full in February but we were unable to clear all of the arrears immediately. These amount to £2K . They then asked for an I&E based on our minimum income which we provided, stating that this was MINIMUM as requested , but this did show that we could meet our repayments, its was the arrears that we couldnt find immediately. . They then said that we needed to meet with a different advisor on specified dates to explain to him in more detail the nature of our income and business. We work very very irregular hours , 28days a month. We explained that the only way to meet on the specified days was to cancel work, therefore losing income and potentially not working for our clients again which we couldn't risk, particularly as we were trying to get back on our feet again and get ourselves straight financially , but we did arrange a meeting for the end of March .

In the meantime , we met February's payment in full and on time with an overpayment of £50 towards the arrears, not much but we thought that we were showing willing. the original guy from the Risk team has emailed to say that as we have not made arrangements to meet with the suggested person and not cleared the arrears , and as we have not provided proof that we can meet the loan repayment that they are shutting down our current account, no longer wish to provide us with banking facilities and are passing the loan to a Debt Collector., but we have 30 days to come up with the arrears and this will all stop. I explained that we had completed the I&E as requested and what else did he want ?. He says that he wants proof of our arrangements with our other creditors, but we don't have any arrangement's with them, so I am unsure what I am supposed to provide him with.

So my questions are - We have discovered that the person he wants us to meet at the end of March is from the Mortgage Dept, therefore we assume they will try and get the unsecured loan turned into a secured loan. Not something we are keen to do. Our mortgage is high enough as it is with a small amount of equity in our property. . Can the bank force us to do this even though we are now meeting the repayments with a small amount towards the arrears , can they refuse our payments and take us to court over the arrears and put a charging order on our home ? I am so worried about losing our home over arrears amounting to £2K . We have banked with this bank for over 25 years and we are shocked that we are being treated this way , considering they know the reasoning behind the arrears. This is a very difficult time for us still coming to terms with the bereavement and this is causing even more stress. I don't understand why they cant accept we can beginning to pay again and put an arrangement in place for us for the arrears without all this added worry ?

I know this is a long winded post, but if anyone could please offer some advise on the way forward or what they consider the banks next move to be , or what they can and cant do in this situation it would be much appreciated.

Surely if we continue to meet the repayemtns plus a bit extra, they cant refuse the money but could they still take us to court ? If it were to go to court would a judge look favourably on us ? I dont understand why they are being so difficult, we can give them the money again now, just not a lump sum of £2K to clear the arrears .

Thankyou.

dotdash79

They have been quite patient already with you being 5 months behind, but what I would do it write a letter and set out how to bring the loan back under control within 6 months.

The current over payment will mean that it will take almost 4 years to pay back.

They can take you to court now as you have defaulted and they could obtain a CCJ, they could request a charge against your property or make you bankrupt. Remember you don't just owe them £2000 you owe them almost £30,000.

You need to be more aggressive in paying the money back have you got anything you can sell?

Also I would be looking at opening basic bank accounts at another bank as precaution.

MikaDavid

dotdash79 wrote: »

They have been quite patient already with you being 5 months behind, but what I would do it write a letter and set out how to bring the loan back under control within 6 months.

The current over payment will mean that it will take almost 4 years to pay back.

They can take you to court now as you have defaulted and they could obtain a CCJ, they could request a charge against your property or make you bankrupt. Remember you don't just owe them £2000 you owe them almost £30,000.

You need to be more aggressive in paying the money back have you got anything you can sell?

Also I would be looking at opening basic bank accounts at another bank as precaution.

Thankyou for taking the time to reply.

I appreciate that we have nearly £30K to pay back, we have been making payments for the last three years towards the loan without a problem. The small overpayment was just for February as we were waiting for money to filter through. If we managed to find the £2K arrears in the next few months I am wondering what the likelihood is of them still obtaining the CCJ. If we continue to make the monthly repayments ,raise the £2K and get everything back on track is that still a possibility do you know ?

We dont have anything to sell to raise that kind of money , only the house or car but that's needed to get to and from work so that's not an option.

We have large contract coming in so we will hopefully have this cleared, in the next few months, I am just worried now what their plans are. I have heard that RBS aren't the easiest to deal with in these situations.

We have a basic bank account opened already.

Sorry for all of the questions. I am having sleepless nights over this one. Thankyou.

bigadaj

Keep communicating with them and keep records including telephone conversation records and who you've been speaking to.

This shows your trying to do what you can and should forestall any enforcement action, or at least mean you are more kept informed as far as possible.

If they do try to enforce then any court will look more favourably if you demonstrate you're doing everything you can.

MikaDavid

bigadaj wrote: »

Keep communicating with them and keep records including telephone conversation records and who you've been speaking to.

This shows your trying to do what you can and should forestall any enforcement action, or at least mean you are more kept informed as far as possible.

If they do try to enforce then any court will look more favourably if you demonstrate you're doing everything you can.

Thats great, I think the thing that's confusing is they email / write and ask for one piece of information, we provide it, then they ask for something else and the goalposts keep changing. The letters they are sending arent particualrly consistent. We have communicated with them every step of the way and followed everything up in writing.

We have a face to face meeting at the end of March which is the earliest we can do.

Your replies are appreciated. Thankyou.

IainHL

Personally I would suggest, as they are being difficult, that you should keep off the phone, and instead do everything in writing. That will at least make it far easier for you to prove what was said and agreed, should the need arise.

MikaDavid

IainHL wrote: »

Personally I would suggest, as they are being difficult, that you should keep off the phone, and instead do everything in writing. That will at least make it far easier for you to prove what was said and agreed, should the need arise.

Thankyou, we have only had one conversation with them which was back in September , we have refused to speak with them since and have corresponded only by email or letter.

The meeting at the end of the month will be face to face. They want to meet at the house, I dont think so !

AMILLIONDOLLARS

Continue to make the over-payments and put in writing what your proposals are. Similar thing happened to me and hubby, we offered them £50 repayment but they took us to court anyway to try and get a charging order. Judge had all the paperwork before him and ruled in our favour and threw out their case.

In the meantime if you can improve on the repayment ratio, please do.

Good luck

AMD

dotdash79

MikaDavid wrote: »

Thankyou for taking the time to reply.

I appreciate that we have nearly £30K to pay back, we have been making payments for the last three years towards the loan without a problem. The small overpayment was just for February as we were waiting for money to filter through. If we managed to find the £2K arrears in the next few months I am wondering what the likelihood is of them still obtaining the CCJ. If we continue to make the monthly repayments ,raise the £2K and get everything back on track is that still a possibility do you know ?

We dont have anything to sell to raise that kind of money , only the house or car but that's needed to get to and from work so that's not an option.

We have large contract coming in so we will hopefully have this cleared, in the next few months, I am just worried now what their plans are. I have heard that RBS aren't the easiest to deal with in these situations.

We have a basic bank account opened already.

Sorry for all of the questions. I am having sleepless nights over this one. Thankyou.

Sorry I didn't want to sound mean but try and put it as Halifax's point of view. If you are getting inconsistent messages it might be worth raising this as a formal complaint.

Good luck and I hope you manage to sort it.