Cant see a way out of this debt

molio67

Hi there,


I'm new to this. Ive read a couple of posts and thought id post my own to see if anyone has any ideas as to what I do with the situation I'm in. My partner has a friend who (a good few years ago) when I got into financial difficulty offered help. We both cant get credit so she offered to help with getting us a loan in her name. Over the next 5 or so years she got us more loans and topped up loans to the extent that we totally lost control as to what we owed her ( IE Total sum ).


Were not shying away from the fact we owe money however we know of several people she has done this with in the past and think she is scamming us (and whoever else she is doing it with)


She paid for her very fancy wedding, and went on a fantastic honeymoon and bought their first house (deposit, not outright) while she and husband were on a relatively poor wage each. They were constantly throwing money at us over the years. Some of these were payday loans topped up and up with crazy interest rates.


The problem is now that we have really hit a serious financial issue and missed some payments over the past year. Its now got to the stage that we are paying almost £1000 per month and the debt is sitting at around 30k (or so they say).


I know its a messed up situation with not knowing how much we owe etc but it was getting topped up left right and centre and I'm almost certain that they were gaining in all this (IE a few hundred pounds here for them on the side and a few hundred there)


Anyways were we stand now is that we cant afford to pay £1000 a month and one of the loans is protected against their home and they are getting lots of letters and people at their door. Weve been short on most payments over the past year now due to the fact that its crippling us.


The husband is now going nuts wanting debts paid. There isn't much we can do however he is now getting his dad involved who is a bit of a gangster which is now taking things to a different level altogether.


I really don't know what to do here

obay

This sounds like a loan shark situation.

You need to report this to get this to stop. (However, please wait for other posters to confirm this.)

Edit for link:
https://www.gov.uk/report-loan-shark

I'm 95% sure this is what is happening in this instant.

fatbelly

molio67 wrote: »

Anyways were we stand now is that we cant afford to pay £1000 a month and one of the loans is protected against their home and they are getting lots of letters and people at their door. Weve been short on most payments over the past year now due to the fact that its crippling us.


The husband is now going nuts wanting debts paid. There isn't much we can do however he is now getting his dad involved who is a bit of a gangster which is now taking things to a different level altogether.


I really don't know what to do here

You are saying that one of the loans is secured against their home? The lender's home? How do you know? Have you checked the Land Registry?

It would be a very stupid Loan Shark who funded their lending with a secured loan but who knows?

If this is legitimate lending (and that sound dubious) they have court as their recourse.

I agree that you should let the Loan Shark team look at this (do it straight away - you should find them very professional) but also you should contact the police if there are any threats being made here.

T-G-C

As the previous poster has advised, in the first instance of a threat from this "gangster" inform the police immediately of the situation.

This is a unique situation, because under the Consumer Credit Act, all of this debt is in their name, meaning you owe nothing by legal obligation. I am not for one second suggesting that you should not honor your commitments to them, but demand to see evidence of the monthly repayment for each loan she took out on your behalf and then pay accordingly. For all you know, she and her husband could be charging more than the contractual repayments and profiting from you. It could even be that she has paid those debts off or never sourced them from a lender in the first place and is now charging you repayments at her own measure.

Your suspicions seem realistic from what is described. I would also ask to see evidence of the loan being secured against their property and the corresponding documents allegedly posted to them. She is not legally obliged to show anything to you, as it is her named debt, like you are not legally obliged to pay her anything, as it is not your named debt, but for the purposes of your own verification of not being defrauded out of undue funds, I would ask them to show the above before making further payments. It could well turn out that you have already repaid the debt and beyond, with these people fabricating everything you have been told about it so far.

I personally cannot see why someone would take out loans etc. for a friend of a friend, so that in itself tells me there is a catch to all this.

enthusiasticsaver

You need evidence of all loans taken out. Gather the records of all payments made to them. Any threats take to the police. Technically you are not legally liable for any of these debts but I agree this sounds like these people are loan sharks.

molio67

I have seen proof of loans and there is defo one against their house. Problem is that they other loans were topped up so many times that I don't know my are from my elbow. They have defo made some sort of cash off us but now due to the situation it's biting them in the !!!!.

System

fatbelly wrote: »

You are saying that one of the loans is secured against their home? The lender's home? How do you know? Have you checked the Land Registry?

It would be a very stupid Loan Shark who funded their lending with a secured loan but who knows?
.

They're probably lying about that to get paid more back per month

sourcrates

molio67 wrote: »

I have seen proof of loans and there is defo one against their house. Problem is that they other loans were topped up so many times that I don't know my are from my elbow. They have defo made some sort of cash off us but now due to the situation it's biting them in the !!!!.

Sounds to me like a boyfriend/girlfriend operation, who thought it would be a cracking idea to obtain a secured loan against there house, then go into business as loan sharks, and make lots of money.


Amateur hour springs to mind, people like this don`t provide statements, or a breakdown of where your money has gone, your options here are limited, either just stop paying them, hope everyone else does too, and they go out of business, or drop a dime to the old bill anonymously, the cycle has to be broken here.

fatbelly

molio67 wrote: »

I have seen proof of loans and there is defo one against their house. Problem is that they other loans were topped up so many times that I don't know my are from my elbow. They have defo made some sort of cash off us but now due to the situation it's biting them in the !!!!.

Legally that's their problem.

Have you talked to the Illegal Money Lending Hotline on 0300 555 2222?

You can also email the Illegal Money Lending Team at reportaloanshark@stoploansharks.gov.uk

or text loan shark and your message to 60003.