have i got a case ????

My daughter has a loan account to which i stupidly agreed to be a guarantor...unfortunately she missed last months payment and as i am UN-employed with NO benefits or income i was unable to pay the arrears..
My wife also has a account with the loan companies SISTER company ...she is not a guarantor to my daughter's loan and the 2 accounts are completely separate..It transpires that last week my daughters loan company accessed my wife's details from its sister company , phoned my wife divulged the fact that my daughter's account was in arrears and requested her to make the payment for my daughter . She refused as she had no knowledge of the account as both companies have different names.Today my wife discovered that my daughters Loan company has accessed her (my wife's) bank details from its sister companies records and taken the arrears from her (my wife's bank account)...Is this legal?? I consider it as theft as they had no permission and possibly fraud,,or breach of privacy ..we have contacted the bank who are trying to reclaim the funds and the financial ombudsman ....plus a letter of complaint is on its way to the company recorded delivery ...Do we have a case , not because we cant pay , but the UN-ethical unauthorised access to my wife's bank account and disclosure of our personal loan account info to a third party...
thanks in advance

Re: have i got a case ????

I would have thought that they were most definitely out of order. Pay a visit to your local CAB, they'll give you proper advice.

Re: have i got a case ????

Yes I think so. Your Data Protection hasn't been adhered to has it.
Your wife knows of your Daughters loan and she now knows of hers.
Even if its a family thing its still your own information not everyone else.

Theft = In common usage, theft is the taking of another person's property without that person's permission or consent with the intent to deprive the rightful owner of it.

I used to work in a Solicitors and could I just suggest that if you
do send letters to this Company. Always do send it by recorded
delivery (which you have done) but also put on the top of the
letter

Without prejudice

This legal term implies that anything on that letter cannot be used
against you in Court should they see something on that letter that
incriminates them that wasn't true and visa versa.
Its a great legal cover for anyone writing letters that could go
against them for whatever reason.

Another thing is never use your card details for anything like a loan
as it could be used at a later date should that person default on
future loans.

That's all I know and you do need some legal advice. You can get
20 minutes free time with any Solicitor who has 20 minutes spare. This enables you to check what your rights are before you go head long into something you might not know much about.
Hope you get it sorted soon.

regards Sandymc

Re: have i got a case ????

I would phone the CAB first, then go from there - I would say you have a case for them to answer - bloomin cheek of 'em !

Re: have i got a case ????

It would appear that your wife has a case UKmartin, but just check what terms you agreed to when the guarantor arrangements were made for your daughter's loan. If it was a joint agreement between you and your wife at the time of the loan being taken out - even though your wife may subsequently have opened an account in her name only, then I would think they would have a call on your wife's assets as well in relation to this loan.

Re: have i got a case ????

We have a similar thing to you ukmartian but not as bad as yours.
My wife agreed to be guarantor for a Car Loan that our youngest son took out.
I was against it from the start but she went ahead.

Everything was fine until he defaulted on the loan and that's when we found out that they'd both been scammed and the 'Car Loan' was in fact a Personal Loan with my wife as a guarantor!

Before we could even respond to rather nasty letters and 'phone calls from Barclays Partner Finance they black-listed my wife's name, meaning she cannot get any credit now even if she wanted to but she also cannot get a proper Bank Account either.

We tried CAB - absolutely useless and the only other way was through expensive solicitors, which we could not afford as nobody believed they were conned.

You might find you'll have to go to your CAB first to get an appointment and that may be days or even weeks away - we had that problem.

We couldn't leave it as Barclays were threatening bailiffs etcetera so we dealt with them ourselves but your case is beyond my experience.

We had another case where threats were made to force us to sell our house and we had to deal with that ourselves too because we were given a deadline of 14 days and CAB said they couldn't fit us in for 3 weeks!

My advise is contact CAB or even go in and ask because if they're like ours locally, you need an appointment and even then it may only be 15 minutes.

There are supposedly lots of avenues for help in situations such as yours but you may be shocked at how long these things take and quite often you do not have the luxury of time.

We finally got a response from an Ombudsman 3 months after we dealt with the thing ourselves. stevmk2

Re: have i got a case ????

If it was you that was the gaurantor, and the loan company took the money from an account that was not yours, then is is theft from your wife's account.

Re: have i got a case ????

I was going to suggest the Financial Ombudsman or your wife's bank. I expect the Ombudsman is very busy at present. I don't think your wife's bank should make payments without her making some sort of arrangement, wouldn't the loan people have had to serve a CCJ or something, the bank could be at fault, surely if that was allowed anybody could take money out without your permission.

Re: have i got a case ????

UK Martin, I'm really not qualified or experienced in debt law but I do know it can be complicated and I don't have much faith in the CAB. If you can find (and get 20 minutes consultation with) a really knowledgible solicitor you'll know where you stand.

Some 40 years ago I needed a guarantor for a relatively small loan, I asked my Dad if he would do it and he refused, even in those days the law was complicated and tended to favour the lender not the borrower or the guarantor.

About 15 years ago my brother needed a much biger loan and asked Dad to be a guarantor, he again refused (Well he could hardly agree having said no to me all those years before ) anyway, my brother then asked me, I had become a little bit wiser by then and I reluctantly told him NO.

As Aerolor says here, you need to read the agreement in detail including all the small print and I do mean ALL of it, it may take you several hours to go through it all but it's the only way to know if you have a case or not.

Re: have i got a case ????

I still don't think they can seize your wife's assets without going to court, if it went to court then an affordable payment would be arranged. My ex was always in financial trouble. I know you need to get advice, doesn't sound right!