In September 1999 my brother purchased a suite of furniture at D F S on a 12 month interest free basis. The suite was delivered in November 1999. Everything fine and dandy.

August 2000 my brother contacts First National Tricity Finance to notify them of his change of address and bank details. On the phone he was told it would take 4 weeks for the Direct Debit to be made up and would he pay the first instalment by cheque, which he did. Unboknownst to him no such Direct Debit was made and therefore the instalments have not been made. Surely an error of the lender? NO notification has been received by my brother of shortcomings in the loan. On contacting First National Tricity Finance my brother is told that they have no record of him having any dealings with him.

Now, some 5 months later, he comes home from work to find a card shoved through the door from Fleetwood Debt Recovery Services saying to contact them urgently. On phoning Fleetwood my brother was informed that their records weren't on file. He phones again today to find that he has been given 48 hours to pay the entire amoutn of the suite which he cannot afford to do.

I have told my brother not to allow them entry to the house and to give them nothing if they turn up. I feel that this is the fault of First National Tricity Finance but I need to know where my brother stands and has someone boo-booed along the way?

Please can you advise us?

-- Sean P. Smith (Bournemouth_Night_Manager@Business-Post.com), January 17, 2001

Answers

Dear Sean,

I'm sorry that your brother appears to have been the unfortunate victim of a clerical error. However, this site deals with the issues surrounding the repossession of peoples' homes.

Have you tried your local Citizens' Advice Bureau? Their advice is free.

Good luck - I hope that you and your brother manage to resolve the problem soon.

-- Catherine Adams (catherine@olias.co.uk), January 18, 2001.

There is a fair bit of case law on this...which I am sure the CAB will confirm. Whilst the Finance Co definitely screwed up, the final responsibility lies with your brother to ensure that his payments are made on time. He must have checked his bank statements, and realised that the DD's were not going out. If he didn't, then it's really his own fault to be honest. The debt collectors can be called off and I doubt he will have to pay the whole amount now, but he will have to pay all the missing payments (as he would have had to pay those anyway) and he should immediately furnish a bankers draft to the Finance Co for this amount. Your brother technically defaulted, so the record will remain on his file. I know it's not what you wanted to hear.

-- Too scared to say (iwasduped@yahoo.com), January 18, 2001.

Actually I've seen some stuff about this kind of situation the the Observer newspaper recently, I think. The Observer has a supplement called Cash, and a problem page written by Neasa MacSomeone. In these cases, investigated by her, I think the customers were vindicated.

But yes, this is not the right site for your query!

-- Eleanor Scott (eleanor.scott@btinternet.com), January 20, 2001.