Absolutely furious with DFD, both sides of story

[cj2300]

Hello all,

Some of you may remember I have posted recently about my mum and her husband who had found themselves unable to pay their bills anymore and were passed by CAB to DFD.

To sum up as quickly as I can, they were told that on debts of 70k combined they would pay £145 per month as this is all they can afford. There is 70k equity in the house which they were told wouldn't factor into this and that they had a good chance with the IVA.

In addition my mums husband who is 79 was told to leave his part time job because his earnings wouldn't be reliable for the IVA to be based on and he was told to do this immediately. So he did as instructed. They were also told to just make token payments towards the bills again they did this.

Today they had their scheduled phone call to go over things and have been told there is no way they can do an IVA as there is too much equity in the house.

At this point i have to say what on earth is going on here!!!!!! my mums husband has now left his job and is £500 per month worse off and they have not been payng the bills as instructed. How can this happen surely they don't just let any old numpty answer the phone.

You may recall i had huge concerns about all this having been through an IVA myself and asked for advice on here. I then gave my mum a list of questions to ask and she was assured that it had a good chance of being accepted given their income etc. But it didn't even have the legs to be proposed.

I am absolutely furious, my mum is so upset and now fears losing her home.

We really need some advice from people who actually have a clue, and some idea of what to do to make a complaint about DFD

My mum and her husband have only been married for two years, the house is totally mums and they have not done any rennovations or improvements since marriage so I am hoping he can go bankrupt and my sister and I can somehow manage my mums debts

They were told by DFD that he couldn't go bankrupt as they were married but I am inclined to think this is not true.

Sorry for the long post folks but any advice greatly needed and appreciated

[Declan at DebtFreeDirect]

Hi CJ2300
I’m taking this issue very seriously and I am going to thoroughly investigate this. Could I please ask if you could drop me an email with you Mum and Stepdads case details as I am going to listen to the calls and get to the bottom of this.

I hope you can bear with me as I will want to help as best I can and also sincerest apologies for what has happened.

Thanks

[kallis3]

I knew you would pick up on this one Declan. I hope you can get it sorted.

[Broke of London]

This is appalling and it was thoroughly irresponsible of anyone to suggest your stepfather quit his job. You absolutely have grounds for complaint and should seek legal advice as well as complaining to DFD, the Office of Fair Trading and whoever their professional body is. Did they know about the equity at the outset?

[Declan at DebtFreeDirect]

Hi Jan
I will do what I can with this.

Thanks

[kallis3]

Hopefully you can help.

[Broke of London]

Forgot this is your lot Declan! I can hear how annoyed you are.

CJ, Declan is great and you are in good hands.

[Declan at DebtFreeDirect]

Thanks BOL
Your right I am annoyed and want to get to the bottom of this.

Thanks

[cj2300]

Hi Declan,

I have sent the names to you. At this stage I am not sure there is anything you can do, given mums husband has left his job and cannot get it back, but if this is the advice someone is dishing out they have to be stopped.

In answer to a previous question, yes the house equity was stated from the start and they weretold because they had a mortgage the house belonged to the mortgage company first so it wouldn't be involved.

I got them to ask the question "what is to stop any of the creditors petitioning for your bankruptcy" they were told that wouldn't happen

Thanks

Caroline

[Broke of London]

Hi Caroline, this sounds very serious and if DFD find they are at fault I would consider pushing for compensation for loss of earnings. As I said, Declan is great and will get to the bottom of this for you.

[kallis3]

You can rely on Declan to get to the bottom of this if he can.

[RHB]

I fail to see why your mums husband left his job? Was it so he would pay back less money? Are you sure they didn't get confused somewhere along the line because some of this "advice" really doesn't ring true.

[RHB]

How much debt has your mum got in her name or joint names btw?

[cj2300]

Hi, they were told because of his age and because his hours were subject to season he would not be able to include this in the IVA proposal.
I was unclear at first as to why this could not be included and they could have offered a higher monthly payment.

[MelanieGiles]

Clearly, on the face of it, there has been some very inappropriate advice provided here - probably by a call centre operator rather than someone relatively experienced - which may be a disadvantage of using one of the larger firms. This should not happen and is something the OFT are taking very seriously. How lucku we are on the forum to have Declan representing this firm. He never tries to hide behind problems, and has a difficult job to do which he carries out tremendously well.