22.04.22

There are several frustrating parts to being a debt adviser, but broadly they boil down into three categories: frustration with clients, frustration with creditors, and frustration with the rules, which is typically insolvency.

This particular story has a tiny bit of frustration with the rules, a bit more with the client, and an awful lot with the creditor. 

Several months ago, I helped a client to set up a payment plan to a bailiff company collecting unpaid council tax (well, overpaid council tax support - but it's treated the same). I had directly agreed this with the bailiff company, and impressed upon the client the need to maintain his payments, ideally through setting up a standing order.

He did not set up a standing order. I open my emails after the Easter weekend to find a picture of a bailiff letter.

I call the client.

"Have you kept up with the payments?"

"I thought I had but when I called the number they said I missed one in March. I've gone on their website and made it now. The guy wants £500."

Alright. I know in March that this client suffered a bereavement - and he also has a (mild) learning difficulty, which together probably accounted for the oversight. The big problem here is that he has a car. He uses it to get to work about 40 miles away, but it's at risk if bailiffs visit the property, because 'it's essential for my commute' doesn't put in the category of exempt goods, and even if it did, it'd be worth more than the pathetic £1,350 threshold (or the £2,000 DRO vehicle threshold).

My client doesn't seem to have got anywhere with the bailiff company, so I contact them. I explain the situation, and that it was a genuine error. "OK, no problem, we'll get that reinstated."

Score!

But then... "Ah, sorry, as it's been passed to the agent, you'll need to deal directly with him."

"But he's employed by your company."

"Yes, but I can't take the account back."

"That's absurd."

"Unfortunately I can't do anything. You'll need to speak to him."

"Will he accept the same arrangement you were about to?"

"I can't speak for him. But I'm sure if you send him the I&E it'll be fine."

Oh dear.

Bailiff companies are bad enough. Bailiffs themselves... well, it won't surprise you that when I contact the agent, he's only interested in one thing, and it's not whether my client can afford to pay. It's what he can push my client into paying, which he will apparently assess when he visits the client's property.

I call the head office back and explain what's happened. This time I get a different person and am treated to a lecture about how I 'should have ensured my client makes the agreed payments', which is the point at which I lose my rag a little. It gets worse when they can only suggest that I send an email, to an address that I know won't get a response for a month. Not much good in an urgent situation, fuckwit.

Anyway.

In the end, the client borrows £500 from a family member to appease the bailiff, and the debt returns to the head office, who happily reinstate the previous arrangement. I go for a long walk, and life goes on.

__

What should have happened differently here? Firstly, undoubtedly, the client should have set up standing orders so he couldn't accidentally miss a payment. Save standing over him while he did it, I'm not sure what else I could have done to get him to do that, but perhaps there was something.

That, however, is about where his responsibility ends. The bailiff company could have acted very differently once he'd missed his payment. I doubt it's in a way that can sustain a complaint, but they were clearly not being helpful here.

They could have let me - as the adviser, and the person who had negotiated the arrangement - know that the client had missed a payment, and I could've tried to ensure he caught up. They could also have told the client, and given him a short window to make it good. 

They could also have accepted that this was an honest mistake, and worked with me (and the client) to get things back on track. He actually does want to pay!

And they certainly could enable their call centre staff to recall an account from an agent rather than put their staff in a very unfair situation, and put my client in an impossible position - stuck between a call centre with no power, and an agent who has no interest in the client's I&E.

They were just waiting for him to mess up. And from their point of view, they got £500 out of him, plus his ongoing monthly payment. The fact he now owes a family member instead means absolutely nothing to them. They got paid, job's a good'un.

I'm not a militant adviser. It's not my job to stop anything at all happening to my clients that they don't want - and sometimes my clients do things that have me pulling my hair out. 

Creditors and their agents have a right to collect debts owed to them. But they really, really don't have to be such bastards about it.