Last year we were very grateful to receive funding from Hawke’s Bay Foundation which enabled us to help empower our clients to manage their financial situations and plan for their future.
Recently a bank referred a gentleman to our service as he was facing a mortgagee sale. He had received a letter five weeks previously advising him of the situation but only decided to contact us less than a week till the deadline given.
After a lot of negotiating with the bank in Wellington, we managed to buy time and the end result was that we avoided a mortgagee sale.
We worked with local lawyers getting free legal advice, the District Council, Meridian and Spark on a payment plan to clear his arrears and keep up with the current payments.
Together with the bank we set up a structured account system and automatic payments. We organised counselling for the client with a local service and negotiated with the Justice Department to clear his fines.
We contacted Work & Income as we realised he wasn’t getting his correct entitlements and involved his family in some of our conversations.
This support happened over a period of 4 months.
Update
Our client came in recently, very proud of himself as he had just under $1000 in his savings account. (Incidentally this resulted in a marriage proposal as the client felt he needed a good woman to keep him on track!)
Carmel Thompson
CHB Budget Services