Long DMP - Time to Rock the Boat

[Tarka]

My wife and I have been on a DMP for the last 7 years with Stepchange with debts of around £63k and currently paying around £245 a month.

Up to now we have paid off £25.5k of the £63k with an end date of 2031.

We are stuck with a £80k Together Mortgage paying interest only and a secured loan with £13k owing (4 Years left) both of which we are up to date with.

The house may be worth £85 - £100k if I could get it into a saleable condition.

I'm sure only one of my creditors (maybe NRAM Unsecured Mortgage element) issued a default at the time, which has since dropped off my credit file earlier this year.

Only two of my thirteen DMP debts are currently showing on my credit file, the unsecured element of my Together Mortgage (£15k) and an old Barclaycard (£200)

The reason I am here is to canvas opinion on what I should do next.

I have been happily chipping away each month, but recently I have read about going down the UE route.

50% of the debts are with the likes of Moorcroft / IDEM / Hoist / Link / Cabot

Ideally I would like to be in a position where I am paying off more of my secured loan, and then get back to repaying the mortgage and getting away from NRAM / Landmark.

If i rock the boat and send out CCA letters, to see if they are UE, will I need to go self managed?

Will it mean the old accounts will start popping up on my credit file again?

Do I sent out CCA Letters to them all or just the likes of Moorcroft etc?

Thanks for you help!

[Joanna Connolly Solicitors]

Hello

I’ll take a proper look at your whole post tomorrow

May I just confirm that your NRAM Together mortgage (including the unsecured loan element) has been assigned to Landmark.

If so when (what year) did you take out the mortgage and how much was the unsecured loan at that point?


Di

[Joanna Connolly Solicitors]

I made another post on your thread but it seems to have vanished.

I’ll try again tomorrow.

Di

[Tarka]

The mortgage has been assigned to Landmark, it was taken out in 2006.

The unsecured was around £20k I think

[Joanna Connolly Solicitors]

The mortgage has been assigned to Landmark, it was taken out in 2006.

The unsecured was around £20k I think

An obvious question but is/was the original NRAM mortgage in joint names?

Di

[Joanna Connolly Solicitors]

Up to now we have paid off £25.5k of the £63k with an end date of 2031.

. . . . Only two of my thirteen DMP debts are currently showing on my credit file, the unsecured element of my Together Mortgage (£15k) and an old Barclaycard (£200)

. . . . 50% of the debts are with the likes of Moorcroft / IDEM / Hoist / Link / Cabot

.. . . .If i rock the boat and send out CCA letters, to see if they are UE, will I need to go self managed?

Will it mean the old accounts will start popping up on my credit file again?

Do I sent out CCA Letters to them all or just the likes of Moorcroft etc?

I'll try to answer some of your questions in no particular order.

An account can only be defaulted once. Six years to the day of the default the entire entry should vanish from your credit file. This may explain why there are only two of your thirteen debts still showing.

Once they're gone they're gone, and no new defaults can be registered by a subsequent debt purchaser.

The s 77-79 CCA Request should be sent to the current debt owner, so not the original creditor, nor the DCA.

It's up to you whether you decide to go self-managed but I think you'll find if/when any of your accounts are deemed unenforceable you may consider whether you should continue to pay these through a DMP, or at all.

Sometimes a debt owner will concede the debt is unenforceable, and then close the account (not often enough!) but StepChange or any other DMP provider will expect you to continue paying the same amount to them each month, and use the 'saved' payment not being sent to a creditor to spread between the other creditors. You may find a clean break makes you feel more in control of the situation.

The best way to tackle this (before 2031!) is to start a diary on the forum with a separate post for each of your thirteen debts and then every time something happens you post about it on your thread so members can make suggestions on your next step.

If you read this thread you'll see how things work > https://all-about-debt.co.uk/forum/d...-read-me-first

If you find any of the links don't work that may be because the website moved to a new server recently so some technical blips have occurred. Post on your thread and someone will help you find what you are looking for.

I look forward to helping you both.

Di

[Tarka]

Diana thanks, apologies I've been trying to get together as much information as I can to start a diary.

Is there a way of telling what accounts have been defaulted and those that haven't?

When we went onto the DMP back in 2008/2009, and stopped paying the full payments I assume the original creditor would have defaulted the account then?

I remember getting default letters but can't remember who from.

[Joanna Connolly Solicitors]

Diana thanks, apologies I've been trying to get together as much information as I can to start a diary.

Is there a way of telling what accounts have been defaulted and those that haven't?

When we went onto the DMP back in 2008/2009, and stopped paying the full payments I assume the original creditor would have defaulted the account then?

I remember getting default letters but can't remember who from.

That's a bit of a hypothetical question which would be best answered when you list your debts one at a time as each situation can be different depending on whether the financial product was a credit card, loan, HP agreement, or current account overdraft etc.

However, an account should be defaulted 3 - 6 months after you breached the contract (e.g. didn't pay the monthly minimum amount etc). That's the ICO guidance.

Barclaycard are notorious for registering defaults months/years late.

Six years to the day after the default is registered on your CRA file the whole account should vanish from sight. So if an account is not showing on your CRA file that implies it was defaulted more than six years ago. But that is only an indication.

If an account has been terminated and assigned (sold) to a debt purchaser before it was defaulted by the original creditor then they may have a problem if they try to win in court.

If the Default Notice was 'bad' (didn't comply with s87(1) CCA etc then the fact it was served may be irrelevant.

I hope I've answered at least some of your question

Di