Dispute with Erudio

[robobot]

Have name changed for this. Not sure if this would be best posted in money matters or legal but really need some advice.

DH took out a DRO in 2017 which was discharged in 2018. Stepchange supported him to complete the application for the DRO. Insolvency service agreed it and we thought it was dealt with.

One of the creditors listed in the DRO was Erudio. They continued to pursue him for the debt and ignored any correspondence he sent confirming the DRO. Eventually he sent Erudio a formal complaint. No response received to this until 13 months later when a second complaint was made.

Erudio have now taken out a CCJ against him although he knew nothing about this until he checked his credit record recently.

There is a court hearing in a couple of weeks to have this CCJ set aside.

Erudio claim that they should not have been listed in the DRO as it was a student loan.

For clarity student loan was taking out in 1998.

Have had numerous contact with Stepchange who insist it was a qualifying debt and have this in writing.

Have now had a letter from insolvency service saying that it isn't a qualifying debt for DRO but they would only check debts qualify for a DRO if they are disputed by
creditors and Erudio did not dispute it.

Erudio claim they were not informed it was part of a DRO and if they were they would have disputed it.

We are confident the CCJ will be set aside as we have evidence we didn't know about and also believed the debt to be included in the DRO.

However this will not resolve the issue of whether or not the debt should have been included, who is at fault here and how we proceed.

We can't afford to pay this debt and the situation is now causing considerable stress.

Any advice on how to proceed would be gratefully received? Is legal advice our only option?

Should add that the original paperwork from the insolvency service clearly states that Erudio is a qualifying debt.

If there's a court hearing then you could use legal advice, definitely.

But what I would do is put all the evidence in a letter, arranged in time line order (the date and what happened on that date). Attach copies of all paperwork. Send it to the alledged creditor by recorded delivery.

There is a small chance that when they see your argument written out clearly and with supporting evidence that they will decide it's not worth pursuing.

It'll be handy for the hearing in any case.

Thanks for the reply.

We have done a timeline as part of the application to have the CCJ set aside and sent it to Erudio twice when we have sent them a complaint but they refuse to accept it.

There has been a fault at some stage but none of the involved parties (Erudio, Stepchange and Insolvency service) will accept it was them so we are just in the middle of this messy situation.

Have started looking around for legal advice but have no idea what we're looking for or if we can afford it.

This is really interesting (sorry). I always thought student loans couldn't be included in a DMP/DRO. I'm sure you'll get the CCJ put aside, but I can imagine the Erudio loan itself won't get fully written off. A lot of people have been successful with negotiating payments for F&F settlements though with Erudio. Caveat - I do not nor have I ever had an Erudio loan. I would advise you post on MSE Forum as there's always been a lot of Erudio conversations over there!