Bristol and West's debt counsellor

greenspun.com : LUSENET : Repossession : One Thread

Having missed two recent monthly mortgage repayments I was today visited by a debt counsellor from "PDP Management Services Ltd" acting on behalf of my mortgage lender, Bristol and West. During the course of my meeting - which I was told was purely to establish my income and expenditure and arrange repayment of the arrears - I was asked a series of questions about my house including it's condition, decoration, internal and external features, gardens, fencing. I was even asked if the interior was contemporarily decorated. The counsellor also advised me he had taken a photograph of my house.

When I asked the purpose of this questioning and the photograph the counsellor replied; " I have no idea what they use this information for.....it's just bureacracy and they don't do anything with it". I found this suspicious and having read this website about such counsellors I now realise that this man was collecting information for Bristol and West to assist with a possible repossession case.

Is this acceptable behaviour ? Surely the debt counsellor would know exactly why he was asking these questions and yet he claimed to have no idea ? I find this behaviour very underhand and unsavoury but guess I have no redress in the matter ? I would appreciate any advice and commments, especially from people with similiar experiences. Thanks in advance.

-- JonF (jonnyf@bushinternet.com), August 10, 2004

Answers

Jon,

Have you contacted the lender direct about resolving the two missed payments ?

Regarding the practices of PDP Management Services Ltd you could start by contacting the Office of Fair Trading see: http://www.oft.gov.uk/news/press+releases/2003/pn+97-03.htm

Read the dowload too - Under 'Unfair Business Practices' take a look at 2.2b, and 2.2c - "I have no idea what they use this information for" could be relevant here. Also look at 2.7, 2.12. You may find more.

Also take a look at my postings regarding the "CML" under the posting "court next week" August 06, 2004. Bristol & West are members of the CML and should abide by the Mortgage Code.

Mark.

-- M Amos (idgroms@hotmail.com), August 11, 2004.


Hiya Jon, I spoke to a solicitor about mortgage arrears when i had to go to court about mine, and he told me that building society's and banks don't usually take you to court if you only owe 2 months or less, but a lot of these banks etc, add the next monthly payment into the arrears as i found out! I don't know about your mortgage comapny, but the Halifax only wrote to me once in 9 months to say i owed "x" amount,I think these establishments think just because we are "joe bloggs" we don't know anything, there is help out there, but like you say you have to find it yourself, no-one will tell anybody anything these days.

-- jane (janey1@emailaccount.com), August 17, 2004.

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