HFC Secured loan - Restons seeking possession & no arrears- Please help

[Jaffa1961]

Hi

Any help gratefully received.

 

I entered into a loan with HFC ten years ago. I made payments fine until I lost my job. Eventually I got work and paid the arrears but in the meantime HFC referred the case to Restons. I have been paying them for a year and a half.

 

I admit that I sometimes paid them late, payments were meant to be made by the 1st of the month but always paid religously every month. Due to ill health my payment in January was made on the 16th of the month.

 

I was shocked to receive a possession notice and the hearing is scheduled for next week. I have made numerous calls to Restons to query this but they say it is in my contract, I have not adhered to the payment terms.

 

I have asked for the amount to settle. On the court papers they say £10554 (I have paid £517 since they were issued)

 

I have just had a call from them and they say i owe £11023.57, which includes their costs. They say if I go to court the costs will go up. I don't know what to do, I don't want my house repossessed. I have scraped together £10000 which I thought I would owe. Will the judge have mercy on me or is it best to pay them off.

 

I am angry with myself but these charges seem extortionate. On the court papers they say costs £0.00.

 

Can anyone advise?

[Lea_HTH]

Goodness, don't let them bully you.

 

Yes, the costs of going to court will be passed onto you, but it is preferable for you to allow a judge to adjudicate on this, rather than have these people think they can beat you with a stick.

 

They are correct in thinking they can take you to court for being late with payments - but they are incorrect in thinking that they will get much out of it other than their costs of taking you there, because with no arrears at all, there isn't a judge in the land who is going to make a possession order, let alone a suspended one.

 

The amount you owe is small - so it may be that your loan is regulated by the Consumer Credit Act 1974, and if it is (check your original loan paperwork), then the judge will have jurisdiction to be able to change your payment date, since that appears to be an issue that you have with making payments on time. However, this is an application you will need to make to the court, it is not something you can request the court consider in defence to a possession claim (you will be making an application for a Time Order).

 

Costs are listed as 0 on the court paperwork, because all costs arising will be contractual (your original contract will state they can charge any costs of legal action to your account).

 

Write to them, tell them that you wish to discuss a full and final payment with them and offer them say 7.5k. They will probably tell you that they want more, in which case you can say that is all you have, or up it a little. Don't offer the full 10k immediately.

 

You may also be able to claim any charges they have made to your account - every time you are late paying, they will almost certainly have added a charge.

 

How much was the original loan for?

How much have you paid so far?

Are you certain you have no outstanding payments?

[Jaffa1961]

Hi Lea

Thx for the reply. The original loan was for £40,000. I have been paying for eight years at £513.71 per month, so £49,316.16.

 

The loan is being handled by Restons who are extremely agressive. I tried to agree an f &f with them two years ago but as it is a secured loan they were not interested.

 

At present I DO owe the March payment of £513.71, which I have held back as I didn't want to pay that on top of any agreed settlement. I have not had any breakdown of charges nor any Default Notices from Restons. To be truthful I am not sure if they need to provide these.

 

I am very scared as I don't want a suspended possession order and have read horror stories on here about judges ordering repossession. However I am not a risk at all as I have never been more than two weeks late with a payment and have absolutely no arrears.

 

Would it be worth paying them off and fighting the charges later?

[Lea_HTH]

Don't withhold the March payment - they can and will use that as a missed payment in a repossession hearing. Pay it - you can always reduce your full and final offer by taking into account any payments you make whilst negotiating.

 

You can send the company a Subject Access Request Notice (you will find various copies of this letter all over the forum that you can adapt to your own needs), and they will have to provide you with all the information they hold on you, which will include all statements, you can send the same letter to the original lender too. Once you have this, you will be able to work out what charges have been made. They have 40 days to provide you with this information, so it is essential that you continue making payments in the interim if you do not want to face proceedings in court.

 

It is doubtful that a court would make any kind of order because you are regularly two weeks late with payments - so long as arrears aren't building up, that is virtually a non-issue that the lender could rectify very easily by changing your payment date. A court will not look kindly on them bringing you into court for such nonsense, let alone award them possession.

 

I think it's worth negotiating a full and final settlement, but I think you should get all the information via the SAR notice first, so you can make an offer that reflects what you still owe, not including their charges, which are undoubtedly unreasonable.

 

Do not be bullied by these people - it's easier to negotiate whilst you still owe them money, rather than paying them and trying to get it back thereafter.