Link Financial - Is debt now statue barred?

[Kazzie]

Hi all

I would appreciate it if someone could advise me on what my next step should be.
Link Financial contacted me out of the blue in June of this year concerning a debt that there hadn't been any contact on since September 2001.

I requested a CCA from them on the 25th June of this year and they have just sent it to me (dated 17th September). It's definately a copy of the agreement and not an application form and it contains all the prescribed terms including our signature.

Am i right in assuming that they cannot continue to pursue me for this debt as 1) it is now statute barred and 2) they didn't send me a copy of the CCA within the required time limit.

When i wrote requesting the CCA i said that i did not aknowledge the debt and that the £1 enclosed was not to be used to reduce the amount outstanding on the debt. Despite this they wrote back saying that

"No administration charge has been applied to your account at this time and therefore any payment made with your request has been applied to reduce your outstanding debt"

I am concerned that as they have done this there has now been activity on the account which would stop it from being statute barred.

They are now writing to me asking me to contact them concerning paying off the debt and i would be grateful if someone could advise me on exactly what i should tell them (other than the obvious )

[twofoot]

Slimey devils. I'd send them a statute barred letter, nothing more. Their reply will probably be that you acknowledged the debt with a £1 payment but don't let that wash. When they reply point out that you made no payment and refer to your CCA letter. Tell them they were the ones that made the payment not you. They can't get away with doing what they did. I don't consider myself an expert but have been reading this forum for quite a while and read several hundred posts and I'm pretty sure I'm right in what I say. No doubt one of the more experienced will pop in and confirm.

[ODC]

Send them the Statute Barred Letter M contained here http://www.consumeractiongroup.co.uk...templates.html

[djdave]

Presumably your CCA letter informed them that the £1 was for the Statutory Fee? If they've used it for any other purpose then, in my opinion, that could be viewed as theft. I'm still waiting for my quid back from these jokers.

[rowbo1071again]

Thought once it was statue barred that was it? They can't say differently if that wasn't your intention not to pay, £1 was for CCA and you have records to prove that. No judge will uphold this type of tricky I think, just my humble.

[ODC]

Once an Debt is Statute Barred it cannot become unStatute Barred even if a DCA conned you into making a payment. The £1 fee you sent is a staturtory fee for a copy of your CCA. If they chose to use it towards an alleged debt thats their problem not yours. For all you care they can put it on the gee gees. It will make no difference

[Kazzie]

Ok, will send them Letter M. Thanks for the help and the reassurance.

[Curlyben]

Keep us updated as to their response.
Seems to be the time of year for Statute Barred chasing.

[Kazzie]

Hi all

I sent letter M to Link Financial and have not heard anything else from them so far (fingers crossed!).
At the same time I CCA'd the rest of my creditors and am not too sure how to deal with the reply i've had from 2 of them. Any advice on dealing with them would be greatly appreciated.

Lewis Debt Recovery sent me this in response to a CCA request:

"We refer to your letter dated 'blah blah blah' and note your request.

We would like to confirm that this account is not subject to an assignment. We are not the creditor nor are we the data controller, we therefore suggest that you submit your request to the company concerned. Please find enclosed the fee for £1.00 which represent the fee you originally sent to our office.

The account will be held for 21 days in order for you to obtain the relevant documentation. Upon receipt of the documentation please resume the regular instalment payments you have been paying to the account to prevent any further action being taken against you."

Should I now do as they say and send the CCA to the original creditor?

I am also confused by this response from Aktiv Kapital after sending them a CCA request:

"We have requested a copy of the original application form from the originator, however they are unable to retrieve this from their archives, as this is an aged debt.

You have previously made payments on this account on a regular basis. Therefore you have admitted liability to the above outstanding account and had no valid explanation as to why you are now refusing to pay the amount owing by you."

Should I respond to this and if so what should i say? Thank you in advance for any advice offered.

[Curlyben]

OK Lewis are spouting sh!te as under s175 if they are acting as agent, which it appears they are, then they have a duty to pass this request to the OC for action.

Originally Posted by CCA s175

Where under this Act a person is deemed to receive a notice or payment as agent
of the creditor or owner under a regulated agreement, he shall be deemed to be under a
contractual duty to the creditor or owner to transmit the notice, or remit the payment,
to him forthwith.

Basically it is up to THEM to supply the information as they want payment.

Now AK. Hmmm so they are admitting that there is NO agreement.
So sad, too bad.
NO CCA = No Enforceable debt.
It is immaterial whether you have previously made payment, you no longer acknowledge any debt to them.

Without the executed agreement they CANNOT take any action

Your next course of action is WAIT on BOTH accounts and see what they have to say next.

[Kazzie]

Ok, will sit tight and wait. Thanks very much for the advice Curlyben

[Kazzie]

Hi again all

Of the 20 Debt collectors i CCA'd some have closed the account, some have not replied at all yet and some have asked me to wait why they try to obtain the CCA from the original creditor. Only 3 of them are continuing to hassle me (by letter) now.

Could someone please give me some advice or point me in the direction of a suitable letter i could send them to get them off my back. The three concerned are:

1) Aktiv are continuing to send me hassling letters concerning the account i mentioned earlier even though they have admitted there is no Credit Agreement. They are now pretending that i have made a payment recently and are hassling me by letter to ring them (which i would never do!)

2) Robinson, Way & Co have admitted that there is no Credit Agreement but are hassling me with letters such as this:
As a simple Assignee from the original creditor we have acquired the rights but not the duties of the creditor as defined 189 (1) of the CCA 1974 and accordingly are entitled to pursue the customer for the monies that remain due by reason of section 136 of The Law of Property Act 1925.

3) BLS have completely ignored the CCA request and are sending me letters every couple of days hassling me to ring them.

Thanks again for any help and advice.

[Curlyben]

Well this is quite straightforward really.
For AK and RW&c, they are both out of the game and refuse to admit defeat.
This should do the trick, but RW&c wont give up without a fight.
They are, of course, talking totally ballhooks and IF they respond to this letter then we'll really kick them where it hurts, in their wallets

Originally Posted by letter for AK & RW

ACCOUNT IN DISPUTE
Dear Sir/Madam,
I refer to my recent correspondence with your company concerning this alleged debt, copies of which are enclosed for your perusal and ease of reference.
As **DCA** have failed to comply with my Consumer Credit Act request and admitted that the alleged signed executed agreement is unavailable enforcement action is impossible under section 127 (3) of the Act.

The Consumer Credit Act allows 12 working days for this request to be carried out before your company enter into a default situation. If the request is not satisfied after a further 30 calendar days, Your company commit an offence. These time limits expired on XXXXXXXX and XXXXXXXX respectively.

As you are no doubt aware subsection (6) states:

If the creditor under an agreement fails to comply with subsection (1)—

(a) He is not entitled, while the default continues, to enforce the agreement; and
(b) If the default continues for one month he commits an offence.

Therefore as at XXXXXXXX this account became unenforceable at law and it is now my intention to refer this matter to the enforcement authorities.

If **DCA** chooses to ignore my dispute and attempt enforcement, I will initiate legal action and file reports with the appropriate authorities, including, but not limited to, Trading Standards, Office of Fair Trading, Information Commissioners Office, Financial Ombudsman Service and possible court action.

It is also my belief that your continued pursuance of this matter also constitutes an
offence under Section 40 of the Administration of Justice Act 1970.

Failure to respond favourably to this letter within seven (7) days of receipt will result in immediate litigation being commenced against your company without further notice.
I also require a copy of your internal complaints procedure as further action may be necessary.

I would appreciate your due diligence in this matter.

I look forward to hearing from you in writing.

Yours Faithfully

As for BLS have they sign for your CCA or encashed the payment ?

[Goldlady]

It took me three attempts with BLS before they cashed the cheque (acting on behalf of Lloyds). No agreement can be found, but they are insisting that is not going to stop them - we shall see.

[Kazzie]

Wow, thanks for the speedy reply Curlyben, will send letters off to them on Monday.

I can't be sure if BLS ever got the letter as theirs was one of the seven out of twenty that come up as 'info on your item is not yet available' from the Royal Mail website.

I gave someone else £20.00 to write me out 20 cheques and stupidly made the error of not keeping a record of what cheque i sent to what creditor, so can't even check if BLS have cashed it or not .

Good luck with BLS Goldlady. Hope you get them off your back soon!

Incidently, does anyone know if Buchanan, Clark + Wells are the same company as Moorcroft?

[Kazzie]

I am interested to know if Buchananclark + Wells are part of the same group as Moorcroft for the following reason.

I was paying a monthly amount to Moorcroft for a debt to Lloyds Bank. I suspended these payments to Moorcroft when i started my action against Lloyds to reclaim my penalty charges as the account was now in dispute.

Lloyds then Counterclaimed me for the total amount of the debt that i was paying off to them via Moorcroft. As part of my defence to Lloyds Counterclaim i CCA'd Lloyds and the CCA has never been produced (this all happened about 4/5 months ago).

Lloyds defence and counterclaim was subsequently struck out by the judge because Lloyds failed to submit their AQ. I then applied for judgement and won.
I informed Moorcroft that i will no longer be paying this debt as 1) no CCA concerning the debt was ever produced and 2) the entire claim had been struck out by the courts.

I have heard nothing about this debt since, until a demand for it via Buchananclark + Wells arrived a few days ago.

I presume i should now write to Lloyds directly to stop them from passing this debt on again, or could Moorcroft have passed it on without Lloyds knowledge? I have searched the forums and looked in the templates section but can't find a letter that seems suitable.

I am sick to death of Lloyds and thought my battle with them was done and dusted. I am amazed that they are still chasing me for this debt despite not being able to produce the CCA and it being struck out in a court of law. They've left me wanting to drag them by the eyelashes through pig Sh*t.