Elderbridge - Urgent help for vulnerable person

Grumpelstiltskin

You can download property title information from Land Registry, it costs £3

Search for property information from HM Land Registry - GOV.UK (www.gov.uk)

powerspowers

What a mess. I think I’d be taking advice from a local law centre or CAB if you have one and finding out what your nans options are. 

It might also be worth seeing if she qualifies for pension credit and having a full benefit check. 

Grumpelstiltskin

So for 4 years before his death the money came out of a joint bank account?

If so she didn't query it after his death if she didn't know anything about it?

Brie

I'm wondering what would happen if she stopped paying them.  It might get their attention.  It might get her a CCJ (but does that matter?)

I also wonder if her husband took this out without her knowledge and whether then it is enforceable after his death.  If it is a remortgage of "their" house then surely she would have needed to agree to it - even if that just means having signed paperwork he gave her without her understanding the implications.  These are the sort of issues a SAR will help with.  Until the records have been received I wouldn't consider approaching a lawyer of any sort other to to enquire what services they can offere without actaully engaging them.

y3sitsm3

Brie said:

I'm wondering what would happen if she stopped paying them.  It might get their attention.  It might get her a CCJ (but does that matter?)

I also wonder if her husband took this out without her knowledge and whether then it is enforceable after his death.  If it is a remortgage of "their" house then surely she would have needed to agree to it - even if that just means having signed paperwork he gave her without her understanding the implications.  These are the sort of issues a SAR will help with.  Until the records have been received I wouldn't consider approaching a lawyer of any sort other to to enquire what services they can offere without actaully engaging them.

Or it might get her evicted as it's a secured loan.

Brie

The link I posted earlier suggests that there is some compensation happening for mismanaged FirstPlus cases so I expect the claims specialists will be circling like PPI sharks.  Which generally means you can do it cheaper yourself.  Try doing a search for FirstPlus on MSE and if that doesn't work try DebtCamel.  There may be something circulating about this already.

Keep_pedalling

deanloco72 said:

Question - Will the SAR reveal what bank the money was paid into? 

I've found out what my Grandad also had a life insurance plan via 'Scottish Widows' which apparently covers the cost of the mortgage in the event of death but nothing has happened, another thing for me to check!

Blimey, it sounds like she has been paying years of interest because she was unaware of the policy. Did anyone try to administer his estate at the time?

If you don’t already have it she really needs to make a lasting power of attorney giving you authority to help manage her finances.

kaMelo

There are a number of complaints around Elderbridge / First Plus, usually related to the interest rates charged which for a mortgage are rather high. There are numerous threads about them on here also. As yet there is nothing to indicate they have done anything fundamentally wrong, the majority of decisions made by the FOS against Elderbridge are unrelated to the interest rates charged and there is certainly no indication of wholesale wrongdoing anyway.
With that in mind I don't know what the solicitor you refer to is talking about, settling out of court with whom , where and what exactly is being settled? 



At the moment the only things you know as fact are that someone applied for a mortgage, signed the paperwork and banked the money. As others have said a SAR may help shed some light upon the who, where and when and help decide what direction to take moving forwards




 

warby68

I wonder if the current loan was to repay an original long standing mortgage which reached its maturity date but which grandparents had no means of repaying and had to refinance by secondary, far more expensive lenders. That would explain no cash was seen from this amount.

I would check the expiry date of the life insurance as well. Unfortunately there is a possibility of it expiring before his death if it was related to a former mortgage rather than this one.

The above 'guesses' based purely on the ages of the parties involved.

powerspowers

deanloco72 said:

powerspowers said:

What a mess. I think I’d be taking advice from a local law centre or CAB if you have one and finding out what your nans options are. 

It might also be worth seeing if she qualifies for pension credit and having a full benefit check. 

She is still full time working (As she enjoys it and keeps her active she says!) She works in the nursing care home industry.
Thank you - It might have to be the case we contact someone who can help as we are a bit stuck

I was also sent a link for a law firm who apparently are aware that this firm mis-sold second charge mortgages prior to the financial crash. 

You can claim pension credit whilst working, you’d be surprised at what goes unclaimed