UPDATE – in April 2022 the administrators said there was unlikely to be any money to pay any refunds to customers. See below.
On 20 March 2020, BrightHouse went into administration.
BrightHouse sold electrical appliances, furniture, computers and mobiles on hire purchase. Its customers made weekly payments, sometimes described as “rent-to-own”.
Coronavirus has meant that its 240 shops have had to shut and many customers are likely to be asking for payment holidays as their income has fallen and they can’t manage the normal weekly payments.
But BrightHouse’s finances were already precarious before Coronavirus. In February, it was reported that BrightHouse was “close to collapse” and it was said to be applying to the FCA for a Scheme of Arrangement that would let it limit what it had to pay in refunds to customers who had been sold goods on unaffordable credit.
With the new coronavirus problems this month, it is not surprising that BrightHouse has given up and gone into administration.
Some 172,000 people were buying an item from BrightHouse at the end of December.
Background – BrightHouse’s high prices
The FCA found that high product prices plus high interest and the cost of insurance and warranties meant a customer could pay £800 over three years for a fridge that would cost £260 on the high street.
This cost is very high for many BrightHouse customers – only one third are in work and a half have children.
BrightHouse hasn’t been checking properly that the credit it is giving is affordable. The FCA says a loan is unaffordable if paying it leaves a customer so short of money they get behind with essential bills or have to borrow more.
So customers have been making increasing numbers of affordability complaints. Brighthouse has said:
the level of redress claims from customers is putting increasing pressure on the available liquidity in the group.
Are you still paying Brighthouse for an item?
You may be struggling to pay the amounts even if you haven’t been affected by Coronavirus. If this is happening to you, contact BrightHouse using the form here http://www.brighthouse.co.uk/contact-us and ask for the payments to be reduced. Just say what you can now afford to pay.
You may be worried that the goods may be repossessed. This is VERY unlikely to happen.
Repossessing goods at the height of social distancing is going to be very hard. And I expect the administrators would much prefer to get reduced payments from you than have a lot of second-hand items to have to try to sell!
BAD NEWS – there will probably be no money to pay any refunds to customers
The latest administrators report says:
“it is unlikely that a distribution to unsecured creditors will be made.”
That is legal jargon for saying that customers who were sold items on unaffordable finance (“the unsecured creditors”) will not be paid anything at all.
Because of this, there is little point in making an affordability complaint now and I have deleted the section in this article that explained how to do this.
Craig says
Has anyone actually heard anymore from Brighthouse I put a complaint in january 2020 they acknowledged that but not heard anything else apart from a email telling me I could have 75% knocked off which I told them there was a complaint they tryed to tell me I had to pay and they deal with it later so I sent them a copy of a article on step change saying not to pay if there a complaint and they gone quiet for last 3 4 months I know they prob can’t give us anything but I paid well over what items where and shouldn’t been given items so want it offset and removed from my credit report
Christina Leigh says
I made a complaint in April 2020. Still been making payments in the meantime but I rang and emailed today to say that I wouldn’t be making anymore payments until the complaint had been dealt with. The call handler was rude and said I shouldn’t have got the items in the first place if I couldn’t afford them. Carol refused to provide me with her surname/managers details stating I had enough information to make a complaint against her for being rude. I began to record her and asked her to confirm she was refusing to provide me with her managers info and she confirmed that was correct.
Linda says
I recieved a letter from them with my arrears on it and they are now charging me for arrears even tho i have an affordability complaint in!
Craig says
Ah ok then so there still up to there old tricks then if u look up bright house on stepchange it comes up about not paying them if there a undelt complaint in they been dead quiet since I sent them a screen shot of that without charging me extra from what I’m aware maybe will work with u
Linda says
Thank you craig i will try that
Craig says
https://www.stepchange.org/brighthouse.aspx
This was the article I used it’s 3rd paragraph down I just screen shot it and sent it to them
Hannah Longman says
Hi I have complained to brighthouse for an irresponsible lending in April this year. Its with customer relations joint administrators I have still not heard anything ill I keep getting is there is no time scale when it says it takes 8weeks yet I’ve waited 4 months to get interest back on all items .as I’ve been with brighthouse 13 years
Craig says
Proberly have a long wait I put a complaint in January 2020 I got a acknowledgment then and then they went bust and heard nothing more except trying to offer me 75% off the items which I told them I have a complaint and should not pay anything like step change have advised and I had a letter saying they removed interest over a 6 month period as they never sent me some letter when it was due I think we got a long wait from them lot
Daniel @ Bridget says
My wife phoned the administrator today trying to sort things out she got put on to some manager she explained the situation and he hung up the phone she phoned back several times and he cut her of every time she is now phoning customers service who is of no help atall we are now going to stop payments until it is all sorted out we have struggled to pay as much as we can in past 2 years we offers £10 each per week and they refused it we will wait until they contact us and accept the amount we Ofer’s if not we will not be paying them atall we have been with the company for 26 years way back when it was crazy George never missed payment has sent body had the same problem as us
adele says
Hi – I put in a claim for irresponsible lending with Brighthouse in March 2019 using Ingram Toft. After a few months I then asked Ingram Toft to send my claim to the Financial Ombudsman but then Brighthouse went into administration in March 2020 so X {claims firm] told me I would have to be patient – that was over 2 years ago – I regularly send emails to X for updates but am just told to be patient as Brighthouse are in administration. I put in my claim over 3 years ago – surely I should have had an update by now – is there anything I can do or anyone I can contact about this as X don’t seem to have done much for me over the last 3 years.
Sara (Debt Camel) says
Claims firms aren’t generally much help and the one you named is no exception.
The administrators said in April that it is unlikely that there will be any money for distribution to people that should have got refunds, so they will probably not even ask people to make claims.
Who is getting the money? Well reading the latest administrators report https://find-and-update.company-information.service.gov.uk/company/00785922/filing-history it sounds like Greensill – the large finance company advised by David Cameron who itself filed for insolvency protection last year – got £30million. Nice.
Do you currently owe them any money?
adele says
No – I managed, with help, to clear all my debt to Brighthouse – put in an irresponsible claim with them through X in March 2019
Sara (Debt Camel) says
then I am afraid you should expect to get nothing.
Do you have any other debts you could make affordabilty complainsts about? Has a credit card or catalogue or overdraft increased your limit to a level that was unaffordable?
adele says
Yes I have a couple of ongoing claims. I think that Brighthouse should just close all the claims against them instead of keeping people waiting for years – it is like everything has gone really quiet since they went into administraion in March 2020 – would be good if they could just make some sort of anouncement that everyone who has put in a claim will get nothing and then that will be the end of it – sad for everyone who has put in a claim like myself but it is better than all this holding on and being patient for an update that never comes.
Paul says
If everybody stops paying them they will eventually have to windup, at the moment they are still making 100s of thousands a week which are going to creditors and not customers, once the company has gone it will be removed off your credit file, while they are making money they will never stop, the same thing happened to wonga, once people stopped paying the company ceased to exist and was removed off peoples credit files.
Dave L says
I’ve made a complaint about Brighthouse and GT to the ICO for failing to update peoples credit files . Brighthouse found my complaint in my favour but then refused to compensate me and said I had no other recourse arrogantly. Wrong ICO now investigating them
Paul whitehead says
Brighthouse always have been a joke of a company, the downside of all this is no matter what investigations take place now it’s over and done with, nothing left to investigate, no money to pay out, it’s just done, we just need them off our credit files.