Cabot reneging on account closure letter

Jossa69 · 21 September 2018 at 3:35PM

Hi I hope I'm posting in the correct place?

I had two loans with Black horse finance and was in a debt management plan with payplan when, Black horse decided to 'lose' my payments and thus put a restriction and an equitable charge on my property, I the went into an IVA in 2008 who continued to pay the payments for the loan to Hillesdean who then became DLC. In April 2016 I made contact with DLC and they told me the accounts were closed and sent me a letter saying as much. I asked them at the time if they would remove the restrictions and they said yes.

Unfortunately between then and now my husband died and I have only just started to follow things up.

Black horse still have the restrictions on my property and informed me that I needed to contact Cabot and have them contact Black horse confirming the letter I recieved.

I did so and Cabot asked for a copy of the letter and also were very cagy and said they had to investigat, my alarm bells began to ring!!

They have informed me today that the letter sent two and a half years ago is a mistake and they are sorry!!!!!!

I have told them as far as I am concerened the laetter is binding as I would not be able to teun the tables this way if the boot was on the other foot, I asked him straight if he was saying that they could renege on the letter and he wouldn't give me a straight answer.

I'm in a bit of a muddle now as I don't really know what to do. They are trying to reopen the accounts and set me up to pay more even though my IVA is finished and I am now left with an interest only mortage that I was told by PayPlan to move to and a restriction and equitable charge that are going to cause me problems with a remortage....that if I can even get a remortage!

Can anyone help? and advise would be gratefully recieved.
Andrea

National_Debtline · 21 September 2018 at 4:00PM

Hi Jossa69 and welcome to MSE,

First of all, I would like to say that this is quite a complicated area and you may require some legal advice on this situation. I would also suggest you try and check the terms and conditions of the IVA agreement.

Generally speaking as the IVA has completed successfully, and this creditor was included in that, the charge should be able to be removed (as the debt no longer exists), however, this is not something that normally happens automatically - as neither the court or land registry will be aware of the IVA without being told. The creditor, who obtained the charge, is normally the one who needs to get this removed. So, if Cabot are saying they cannot remove the charge, that may be correct, as it would likely need to be Black Horse.

You should try and speak to your Insolvency Practitioner and see what they can do to help first of all. If they can't help then you could consider raising a complaint with Black Horse about removing the charge and escalating the matter to the financial ombudsman but you will probably need legal advice as well. Best of luck,

Laura
@natdebtline

sourcrates · 22 September 2018 at 3:48PM

Hi,

Can you just clarify one thing for me please.

You say you went into an IVA in 2008, but you continued to make the payments to hillesdean.

Do you mean the loan was (A) Included in your IVA and paid out of the creditor funds at the end of your arrangement, thus the debt is no more.

Or (B) you continued making normal contractual payments to this debt, which would actually be against the terms of your insolvency ?
I`m hoping its option (A).

If it is (A) you need to send the charging order removal request to Black Horse, as they were the original creditor, supply evidence that the debt was included in the IVA, and make it a written complaint.

Also send a letter to Cabot (stay off the phone to them please, everything should be in writing only from now on) to remove them from the equation, as it appears they have bought an unenforceable debt which was subject to an insolvency, advise them you will not be paying any further sums to this debt, and they should return the account to Black Horse forthwith or become a part of your complaint which may very well end up with the financial ombudsman, which option would they prefer ?

Jossa69 · 24 September 2018 at 11:39AM

Thank you for taking time to reply.
To clarify;
2007 was in payplan debt management and paying Black Horse through them. Black Horse claimed they were not getting the payments and they put the charges on my property. I went to the court with evidence but the judge was not prepared to listen. Even the solicitor for black horse told me to seek legal advice after the case he told me strictly off the record I'd been treated wrongly.
2008 went into IVA and yes the account was paid through this. I have ALL the statements from Dcl and payplan so I believed the account was settled when my IVA finished.
2016 get a call from DCL wanting to reset up payment, I told them the account was part of my IVA and therefore settled. They called back and confirmed this and I asked for a letter confirming this from them. I also asked that they inform black horse so that the charge could be removed.
2018 I contacted the land regisitry and the told me the charges were still there. So I contacted black horse who confirmed the account was with DCL. Eventually after loads of agro I found out they were no longer trading and the account was with Cabot. Called blackhorse again and they confirmed this. They wouldnt except the letter I had front DCL and told me I had to contact Cabot and get them to send a letter. When I tried to do this I was told they had very little information and could I send them a copy of the letter. After doing this they then said that the letter was a mistake and they wanted to arrange a new payment plan. They even asked me for the amounts I was paying through my IVA! !!! I refused to speak with them any more and told them they had to contact payplan and that's were I am now.

sourcrates · 24 September 2018 at 4:42PM

Do you have your original IVA paperwork at all ?
Do you have a certificate of completion for your IVA ?

If not, contact your Old IP and request copies.

Any debt included in an IVA is written off on successful completion of that IVA.

It should be a simple task to :

(A) Show Cabot the debt was included in the IVA.
(B) Send the same evidence to black horse who should then remove the charge.

I can`t see how they can deny the evidence you have already sent them.

Don`t be led from pillar to post, send written complaints to both companies, they have 8 weeks to provide you with a satisfactory explanation, stay off the phone, do everything in writing so you have a paper-trail, you can escalate to the FOS if you are still not able to reach agreement.

Just_Di · 25 September 2018 at 3:03PM

Jossa69 wrote: »

I had two loans with Black horse finance and was in a debt management plan with payplan when, Black horse decided to 'lose' my payments and thus put a restriction and an equitable charge on my property, I the went into an IVA in 2008 who continued to pay the payments for the loan to Hillesdean who then became DLC. In April 2016 I made contact with DLC and they told me the accounts were closed and sent me a letter saying as much. I asked them at the time if they would remove the restrictions and they said yes.. . . .

Black horse still have the restrictions on my property and informed me that I needed to contact Cabot and have them contact Black horse confirming the letter I recieved.

I did so and Cabot asked for a copy of the letter and also were very cagy and said they had to investigat, my alarm bells began to ring!!

They have informed me today that the letter sent two and a half years ago is a mistake and they are sorry!!!!!!

I have told them as far as I am concerened the laetter is binding as I would not be able to teun the tables this way if the boot was on the other foot, I asked him straight if he was saying that they could renege on the letter and he wouldn't give me a straight answer.

You need and deserve a straight answer from Cabot.

I would send a Subject Access Request to both Cabot and Blackorse to establish exactly who said what to whom and was it logged on the system.

There may also be assignment chain issues if the debts travelled from Blackhorse to Hillesden (dlc were probably acting as their DCA) to Cabot.

How much were the CCJs which triggered the Restrictions?

I'm sorry for the loss of your husband.

Di

Jossa69 · 27 September 2018 at 1:38PM

I've contacted payplan my IVA people they have said they are going to contact Cabot and black horse. They have assured me that the account is settled and the charges should be removed. ..so watch this space. Thank you to all of you for you help and kindness. It is much appreciated.

Cabot reneging on account closure letter

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