New DMP - Natwest / FairfaxDrydens advice

SquirrelNuts

Hello fellow DMP'ers

Following a recent divorce, I realised late last year that I was unable to continue servicing my debt payments and decided enough was enough and that it was time to kick off a self-managed DMP plan (for the second time, first DMP was a good ten years ago). I have set up the DMP following the advice on here and templates from NedCAB. Total unsecured debt is almost £80k.

Most accounts have defaulted (eventually - took forever!) and I'm setting up payment arrangements which is going well for most of the accounts and I've even had some reduced settlement offers made to me which is promising.

The one account which is not quite going to plan is a personal loan from Natwest for approx £9k, I had only taken out the loan a few months prior to entering the DMP in late 2023 so made only 2 or 3 monthly repayments against it. The loan Defaulted in June and has immediately been passed over to DrydensFairfax. The letter from Natwest informing me of this stated:

"Further to our recent correspondence we have been unable to agree a suitable repayment plan. Therefore your account details have been passed to Drydens Solicitors to commence legal proceedings to recover money and/or assets owed to the bank."

The letter then goes on to state that Drydens will be in contact etc. 

I managed to get hold of the Drydens email address so I sent through a letter to them proposing a repayment plan along with supporting I&E evidence. 

I have had a response from Drydens as follows:

"Without Prejudice

Thank you for coming to an arrangement to make payments towards your balance. The arrangement is accepted on an informal basis due to the length of time this will take to clear the outstanding sum and as we have advised you, whilst the agreement will limit potential enforcement, it will not prevent legal proceedings being taken against you.

The details of the arrangement are: x

All payment arrangements are subject to review at our discretion and can be terminated at any time.

As discussed, we are now instructed to proceed with legal action with the intention of applying for a Charging Order. If this is granted by the Court, the Charging Order will be registered at the Land Registry, in much the same way as your mortgage, in order to secure the debt against your beneficial interest. 

In the event of a sale or re-mortgage you may have to repay the amount outstanding to our client. If the Court grants the Final Charging Order, the outstanding balance is still required to be paid and additional enforcement action could be taken in the event that any agreed repayments are not maintained.

Please continue to maintain payments under this arrangement in the meantime, but do not hesitate to contact us if you can offer an increase or lump sum payment in the future as our client may consider an offer of a reduced amount to settle your account providing this is affordable to you. We or our client may also contact you during the arrangement period to provide you with information about your account. It is important that you contact us if you are unable to maintain the agreed regular payments.

Yours faithfully Drydens Solicitors"

I havent had a Letter of Claim, or indeed any other correspondence from Drydens and havent discussed anything with them either other than the offer letter and I&E that I sent.

I am wondering what options I have to steer them away from applying for a CCJ as a CCJ could be problematic for my job.

One thought is that I could complain to Natwest that the Loan was unaffordable given I already had a substantial amount of debt and I had my current account with them at the time so they would have been aware of the volume of debt repayments I was already making when they approved the loan. If I go down this route is it likely that legal proceedings could be paused whilst they investigate?

I am unsure what other options I have other than wait for Dryden to write back. I noted the suggestion of a reduced settlement in the letter, but dont know what % discount they are considering at this stage nor do I currently have funds to make a lump sum payment.

Any advice would be welcome

many thanks

fatbelly

Start making the payments

Start an affordability complaint

https://debtcamel.co.uk/refunds-large-high-cost-loans/

Deal with the formal letter before action if/when it comes. 

https://debtcamel.co.uk/letter-before-claim-ccj/


They are a long way from getting a ccj and what they say about a CO is not quite correct, if your house is jointly owned

SquirrelNuts

Hi fatbelly, thanks for the quick reply.

Standing order set up for the monthly payments, and first one already made so that is in motion now.

Thanks for the debtcamel link re: affordability complaint, I will look at kicking that off that later.

The house is jointly owned with ex partner. I have been reading the Charging Order myths thread which has been really useful information too.
 

sourcrates

 A restriction is the best they can do when a property is jointly owned, which won`t affect you unless you choose to sell.
Courts use same budget for setting payments as you use currently.

All the CCJ does is secure the debt for 6 years, nothing more.

SquirrelNuts

The house is actually SSTC at the moment so I expect the sale will be completed long before a CCJ or Charging restriction becomes a possibility.

I have now sent an affordability complaint through to Natwest, and have asked them to pause any legal proceedings whilst they investigate the complaint.

Thanks again for the advice fatbelly and sourcrates (and others) - its so reassuring to have experienced people helping out on here, and it really is very much appreciated.

Sly72

sourcrates said:

 A restriction is the best they can do when a property is jointly owned, which won`t affect you unless you choose to sell.
Courts use same budget for setting payments as you use currently.

All the CCJ does is secure the debt for 6 years, nothing more.

"All the CCJ does is secure the debt for 6 years, nothing more" so what happens after 6 years if you pay or dont?

RAS

After 6 years, you still "owe" the money but any creditor has to ask special permission from the court to enforce the CCJ. Highly unlikely to be granted.

There are some debt companies that bulk buy carp debts and hope to extract some value, but they should go away if told they've missed the boat. 

SquirrelNuts

Its been a while since I updated this thread so here is current status...

Drydens sent me a Letter of Claim which I responded to as per advice on the debtcamel link. At the time the affordability complaint was still progressing with Natwest so Drydens confirmed they would wait for the outcome.

Natwest subsequently rejected the affordability complaint so I escalated to Financial Ombudsman Service.

Around the same time, Drydens excitedly sent a letter through saying they would recommence legal action after Natwest had made their decision until I let them know that it is now with FOS.

Since then, the case has been waiting for a case handler to be assigned... it has been quite a few months now - FOS appear to be really busy at the moment - but in the meantime I continue to send my monthly payments as per DMP and all is quiet from both Natwest and Drydens.

Oh.. and my marital home sold last year as part of my divorce so their grand plan of trying to secure the loan against the property has long gone.

In other news... AMEX agreed to a very generous settlement discount this month - they wiped over 8k off the debt owed so respects to them and I really appreciate their pragmatism and support in helping me clear my debts. A few other lenders have been very reasonable too, complete opposite to Natwest.

SquirrelNuts

just to add - total unsecured debt now down to £66k from almost £80k in July... definitely moving in the right direction

SquirrelNuts

I now have a decision from FOS on the affordability complaint. Although the investigator didn’t think that the lending checks carried out by NatWest were proportionate the outcome is that no further action needs to be taken.

Given that a Letter of Claim had already been issued by Drydens (which I responded to at the time requesting supporting documentation on 'Part I' of the claim form which hasnt been supplied yet.), what should I expect next?

Is it customary/typical for Drydens to make contact again with me or will they just go straight for court proceedings even though they havent provided the docs requested?

I would prefer not to have a CCJ on my file, but on other hand if it goes to Court the monthly payments awarded will be tiny due to my affordability so not sure what Natwest would get out of it now tbh - especially as I dont have any property to secure the loan against now. 

I *may* be able to ask a family member to help with me out with making a F&F settlement offer (although whether or not they agree is still to be confirmed). Does anybody know if Natwest even considers offers / discounts to settle in these circumstances when they are litigating or do they doggedly go for the full amount that is owed?

ManyWays

This all seems rather unusual. Was this debt to NatWest a personal debt, because it's uncommon for a high street bank to go to court for a CCJ quickly for a personal debt? How much equity was there when the house was sold and what did you do with your half?  If you took the NatWest loan just a few months before the DMP, do you agree with the FOS assessment that the loan was affordable, if not have you asked for this to go to an Ombudsman to be looked at?