Friend borrowed money for van in OH's name

System

This discussion was created from comments split from: Struggling with debt? Ask a stepchange debt adviser a question.

Myci85

After some advice please, sorry its lengthy!

My OH agreed in 2015 to be a guarantor for a 'friend' to help him buy a van. His friend was bankrupt so my OH stupidly agreed for the payments etc to come from his bank, with his friend paying him. 

Fast forward to 2022, we're trying to improve his credit score to enable us to buy a house, and it's not great due to his friend stopping making payments for this van about 3 years ago, with multiple missed payments before that. When he told me about all of this, I pointed out he should never have been accepted as guarantor as he wasn't earning enough at the time. He tried to contact the finance company and they ignored him, so he took it to the financial ombudsman. We've gone as far as we can with them and they've decided that he should have known in 2015 it was not affordable and have complained sooner, and as 6 years have passed, they can't consider the complaint. This particular finance company I know has not won any of the complaints taken to the ombudsman on grounds of affordability checks (I've read through all the history on ombudsman site) as they have never been able to prove they lent responsibly, so I'm certain if it was within the 6 year timescale, my OH would have won. 

Now as the complaint went on, my OH had a hunch that the paperwork was changed at the time his friend took out the finance, and my OH was put down as the sole applicant. The final decision from the ombudsman has indeed confirmed he is shown as the sole applicant. My OH has no paperwork to check, and he is dyslexic so stupidly just signed the documents based on what they told him at the time. 

I want to know if he would have a case to take the finance company to court? I am 90% certain the company never did the affordability checks they should have done, and whilst I'm not sure how he could prove that he was told he was being guarantor, he had no driving licence until 4 years later, so I don't know how they could say the van was being financed for him?

Any advice would be gratefully received, as until we can sort this out, any hope of getting a mortgage is non existent.

sourcrates

Already re-posted, duplicate thread. 

Apologies.