Amigo Loan - death of Guarantor

tonyenglish

Hi,
A while ago my mother in law approached Amigo to try to claim a refund based on the loan being mis sold - she was the guarantor and had been making the majority of the £240 a month payments.  Amigo contacted her to say that things were being looked into.  However shortly after she passed away suddenly.  A couple of days after her death she got an email from them.  The important bit is shown below.  They did indicate that she could approach the financial ombudsman

'We write further to our recent correspondence to let you know that we are continuing with our investigation into your concerns.

I am sorry to say that we have not yet been able to issue a response to your complaint. We are presently experiencing a large number of customer enquiries and the Covid-19 crisis has impacted our ability to respond as quickly as we would like. I am sorry about this delay, but want to assure you that we have not forgotten about your concerns and we will be issuing a full response as soon as we can.'

We had to inform Amigo that she had died because they were trying to take payment from her account which had been frozen because of her death.  We had assumed that her complaint would still be dealt with.  That was back in August.  Towards the end of September, my wife contacted Amigo to see if there was an update on her complaint.  The response she got was on October 1st was...
'Thank you for your email. As XXXXX has sadly passed away, can I ask for what purpose you are wanting an update on the complaint, as we cannot collect the debt from XXXXX?'
and since then we have heard nothing, despite responding and chasing via email. 

My wife is the executor of her estate and we want to know if it is possible for her to progress matters on behalf of her estate.  Essentially she was a pensioner relying on the state pension with significant outstanding debts.  She died owing about £20k on various credit cards - debts that she could have paid off had she not been stumping up for the amigo loan.

Regards,
Tony

Brock_and_Roll

We one thing is certain here - the executor of the estate has 100% right to pursue any debts owed to the estate or pursue any claims. Should just be a matter of sending over the probate documents.
Aside from the credit cards debts mentioned, I assume that the estate is not insolvent, because if it was there would not be much point pursuing the case further.
As to whether there is a chance of success, that of course depends on the details of the claim and the circumstances - do you know all these? Is the original borrower who defaulted still around?

tonyenglish

Hi, thanks for responding.  The original borrower is still around.  It happens to be my sister in law who is a bit of a nightmare!  The estate is solvent as she owned her own house when she died.  The loan wasn't affordable because she only had the state pension as income and had other significant outstanding debts.  £240 per month is a fair chunk of your state pension!  
After we sent the death certificate it seems like they have assumed that her death is the end of the case she raised with them.  My point is that we want it continued.  My feeling is that we should write it all out and go straight to the ombudsman, especially as the person at Amigo refuses to reply to our mails.

Thrugelmir

What does the wording of the guarantee say? 

macman

I suspect that Amigo will not engage with the executor further until such time as you have got probate.
The Ombudsman won't look at it unless you have no response after 8 weeks, or have a deadlock letter.

tonyenglish

Thrugelmir said:

What does the wording of the guarantee say? 

No idea. The complaint she raised was about it being missold. They obviously didn't do the affordability checks as her income was small and the other debts would have come to light. 

tonyenglish

macman said:

I suspect that Amigo will not engage with the executor further until such time as you have got probate.
The Ombudsman won't look at it unless you have no response after 8 weeks, or have a deadlock letter.

Cheers - hadn't thought of that.

SuperAllyB

Be warned that in the event of any claim failing, Amigo will claim the full amount outstanding from the estate.

My wife's ex-husband was guarantor for a "friend" who stopped paying as soon as he died, and they claimed the full amount from the estate which was due to go to my step-daughters.  Being dead doesn't remove any guarantor responsibilities in their eyes.

bris

As executor it's very important you get it right, any mistakes can make the executor personally liable.

It should, at this stage be assumed the estate has to pay the debt. This can be challenged with the ombudsman but if you want the estate wrapped up it needs to be paid and then claimed back on behalf of the estate if the ombudsman agrees it should.

superbigal

I assume the original borrower will be a recipient of the Estate ?  If so you would hope that they would want to pay the debt themselves as opposed to expecting the other beneficiaries to lose out.

Silvertabby

superbigal said:

I assume the original borrower will be a recipient of the Estate ?  If so you would hope that they would want to pay the debt themselves as opposed to expecting the other beneficiaries to lose out.

Don't bank on it.  My sister borrowed £10K from our great aunt, to help start up her own business.  It was meant to be an interest free loan, but my sister never paid a penny.

When our great aunt died, she left £10K to both of us - cash to me, and loan write-off to my sister.

Fair?  Not according to my sister, who reckoned I'd robbed her of her inheritance.  Even our parents thought that I should share my £10K with my sister.