Rockhag Vs Bryan Carter & Co Solicitors.**WON THEY GAVE UP

[rockhag]

I'm basically in a bit of a pickle and need to vent some steam here. I apologise in advance for the length of this but I'm trying not to miss anything out.

So I received a letter from this solicitor firm dated 20/11/07:

"AMOUNT NOW DUE: £633.11

Dear Miss Rockhag

We write with regard to this account which remains outstanding.

Proceedings have been issued in Northampton County Court under case number XXXXXXXX and judgement entered against you on 1 Feb 06 in the sum of £493.86. We have established that you are currently resident at this address and now intend to take steps to enforce the judgement.

Please contact us by telephone on 0870 1125138 blah within the next 10 days to arrange payment failing which a warrant of execution will be issued without further notice. If it necessary to issue a warrant, Bailiffs will be instructed to attend upon you and secure your property to repay the debt as a result of which additional costs will be added.

Yours sincerely

[EDIT]

From what I can establish from the numerous phonecalls I've made today is that this is from a catalogue account I apparently had with Great Universal between 2000 and 2005. The property this debt is from I moved out of in 2002 and had a redirection in place for a year afterwards. I can't recall ever having an account with Great Universal or Shop Direct so I really think this debt which has been racked up in my name has been done so fraudulently by the people who my parents sold the property too back then and it's taken 2-5 years for this to be chased up with myself. I rang GUS who couldn't find any details for my name, the address I moved from in 2002 or the supposed account number I had with them. This is all I have. I rang Bryan Carter and spoke to the most unproffessional and rude woman I've ever had the misfortune to deal with to ask for a copy of the credit agreement and all of the information regarding this debt and she point blank refused saying "we dont have it and that it's impossible" and told me that GUS would have all this. I did tell her I had rang them and they had no records of this account whatsoever and she just told me to "stop being so rediculous as I'd have accepted the deliveries so that was their proof".

The only other situation that may have caused this is that around 2001/2002 I lost my job and had to set up a DMP with CCCS who have been fab. I did have 1 catalogue account at the time but I'm pretty sure it wasn't a GUS one. At the time CCCS took this account into my DMP I owed £769.95. The debt was then transferred from whichever catalogue company it was to Charles Howard & Partners and CCCS paid them until March 2006 to which their cheque was returned to them with a letter saying they were no longer dealing with this debt and had ceased trading. CCCS sent me a letter advising of such and advised me to ring them which I did who told me that they had gone bankrupt, ceased trading and were no longer chasing it. Since then the remaining £386.76 has been wiped off my dpm and I was told not to worry about it. I'm now wondering if in February this was sold from Charles Howard (I can't even ring them to ask what catalogue this was from as they don't exist any more from what contact information I've tried for them) to Bryan Carter and this is what the letter is about. Like I say though whichever catalogue I did have an account with I notified them of my change of address and also I think if it was the same account then instead of the letter being headed re: catalogue they would have been re:Charles Howard & Partners instead surely???

I've wrote the standard letter asking for a copy of the credit agreement and will be sending that tomorrow via recorded post along with the £1 postal order and also will be sending a copy of their letter with a covering letter to the Legal Complaints Service as I'm aware (thanks to this forum) that they "supposedly" ceased trading back in February. I also have the county court forwarding what details they have to me as well as a form to have the case set aside (which will cost me £75) until I sort this out. I'm also in the process of getting credit reports from both experian and equifax too.

Is there anything else I can do or any other advice anyone can give me with regards to this? It's taken up a whole day so far and a hell of a lot of tears and I'm really upset.

[sillygirl1]

HAve you contacted the court, it may be possible that their statement is false (it has been known) and that Bryan Carter haven't got the authority to collect on the debt. From what you say I wouldn't contact Experian for a copy of your credit report as this could open a whole can of worms.

Somebody else will be along to give you advice soon.

[rockhag]

Originally Posted by sillygirl1

HAve you contacted the court, it may be possible that their statement is false (it has been known) and that Bryan Carter haven't got the authority to collect on the debt. From what you say I wouldn't contact Experian for a copy of your credit report as this could open a whole can of worms.

Somebody else will be along to give you advice soon.

I have contacted the court. My post above says so.

How would this open a can of worms???? That's making me even more worried now.

[rockhag]

I've since found out that this is not for Great Universal as told by Bryan Carter. The letter says it's for Shop Direct Financial Services which is a Littlewoods owned company which will explain why GUS couldn't find any information for me. Thing is I have never had an account with Littlewoods until this Summer when I successfully applied for and opened an Additions account (this will be how they found my details I guess).

I know I've never had an account with them because I used to work for them around 2001/2 and if I ever wanted anything from their catalogues we could order in person at the call centre where I worked as we would get a discount and pay in cash at the time which is what I used to do. Even then I don't even think I ordered more than 1 item, if that. for about £20.

[rockhag]

This is the letter I'm sending Bryan tomorrow too:

I DO NOT ACKNOWLEDGE ANY DEBT TO YOUR COMPANY

With reference to the above agreement, I would be grateful if you would send me a copy of this credit agreement.

I understand that under the Consumer Credit Act 1974 (Sections 77_79), I am entitled to receive a copy of my credit agreement on request. I enclose a payment of £1.00 which represents the fee payable under the Consumer Credit Act.

I understand a copy of my credit agreement should be supplied within 12 working days.

I understand that under the Consumer Credit Act creditors are unable to enforce an agreement if they fail to comply with a request for a copy of the agreement under these sections of the Act.

I look forward to hearing from you.

Yours faithfully

Miss Rockhag

[sillygirl1]

There you are then, a 'pshing trip' from Bryan Carter which needs to be reorted to the FSA< OFT and the solicitors boards, can't remember offhand who they are.

Please go ahead and report them as clearly some kind of fraud has taken place.

[rockhag]

Originally Posted by sillygirl1

There you are then, a 'pshing trip' from Bryan Carter which needs to be reorted to the FSA< OFT and the solicitors boards, can't remember offhand who they are.

Please go ahead and report them as clearly some kind of fraud has taken place.

I fully intend on doing so.

[spamheed]

You may wish to take a look at this thread:

http://www.consumeractiongroup.co.uk...olicitors.html

[rockhag]

If you look on the last post on that thread you'll find I already have.

[rockhag]

I rang Shop Direct Financial Services today and they had nothing on their records for the account number I was given by Bryan Carter or for the address that this debt was allegedly created at. It honestly looks as if Mr Carter has just pulled a random debt, and my name out of a hat and wrote me a letter hoping I would just pay it?????

[rockhag]

What I've done today:

* Wrote standard "I do not acknoledge this debt" letter to Bryan Carter.
* Bought, crossed & photocopied £1 PO.
* Wrote complaint letter to Legal Complaints Service with photocopy of Bryan Carter letter.
* Emailed Financial Ombudsman regardin BC.
* Filled in request for a credit report from Experian with £2 PO enclosed
* Sent all letters off via recorded delivery.

I'll probably report BC to the inland revenue as well but I need to see what the LCs and FO say first.

I can't think of anything else I can do now except wait.

[rockhag]

Ok I recieved copies of my credit reports from both experian and ecuifax which both show this court case on them. Theres no evidence of me ever having an account with Shop Direct for the time period that's been suggested on either but there is a linked address shown up on the experian report which just says "Linked addresses are created by lenders when you move or when you tell us your previous addresses. This information shows addresses that you have been connected with." Which makes no sense whatsoever. Bryan Carter recieved the letter which I sent then 8 working days ago and I have to fill in the court form today.

Also I want to know this. When I finally sort this out is there anyway I can claim back the expenses incurred from sorting this out? It's going to cost me £75 to get the court case set aside, never mind the postage costs, phonecalls, etc. Also so far this has took me 13 hours of time and I am classed as self employed so can i pursue for loss of earnings as well against Bryan Carter?

I'm also assumming that once this is sorted out that this claim will be removed from both of my credit records as well?

[sillygirl1]

You need to find out from Experian who linked the address and why, it sounds as if the people who bought your old house may be responsible for this debt. You now need to send a CCA request to Bryan Carter (or another Subject Access Request request) and see what happens next.

[rockhag]

Originally Posted by sillygirl1

You need to find out from Experian who linked the address and why, it sounds as if the people who bought your old house may be responsible for this debt. You now need to send a CCA request to Bryan Carter (or another S.A.R - (Subject Access Request) request) and see what happens next.

I sent the CCA request off last week as I said. The linked address has been made by Shop Direct too. Sorry I should have said.

[Newborn]

As I understand it you now have an incorrect default CCJ against your name. I think you need to work at getting this set aside first. There are better brains than mine on this site who will guide you through this.

Newborn

[rockhag]

Originally Posted by Newborn

As I understand it you now have an incorrect default CCJ against your name. I think you need to work at getting this set aside first. There are better brains than mine on this site who will guide you through this.

Newborn

I've filled in the relevant form to get this done and wil be sending it off to the court with the £75 tomorrow.

I was wondering that once this is sorted out would I be able to claim the court fees, missed hours where I could have been working and costs back from Bryan Carter as well.