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Hi, my Barclaycard has been in dispute for 3 months or so after the normal Application Form situation arose.
I have told Barclaycard I'm prepared to recommence payments on my card once they subtract from the balance a number of PPI payments, plus charges. I will pay irrespective of the absence of an executed agreement.
Anyway, they refused and passed the account onto Mercers; to whom I ahve written 5 times. As they incessently threaten 'doorstep collection' within 3 letters I have included the wording:
' For the purposes of absolute clarity: please note that I am only prepared to communicate with you in writing. Moreover, should it be your intention to arrange a “doorstep call”, please remember that there is only an implied license under English Common Law for certain people to visit me on my property without express permission; the postman and people asking for directions etc (Armstrong v. Sheppard and Short Ltd [1959] 2 Q.B. per Lord Evershed M.R.).
Please therefore take note that, I revoke license under English Common Law for you, or your representatives to visit me at my property and if you do so without my permission, you will then be liable to damages for a tort of trespass. You would also be conspiring in a trespass if you sent someone to visit me nevertheless.
Should it be necessary, I will obtain an injunction.'
Mercers involved an organisation called power2contact, who I also wrote to and advised the account was in dispute, my letters were being unanswered and advising the extract above.
Imagine my surprise today when someone from power2contact came knocking at my door. I told him to leave as he was trespassing, but what options do I have given the above?
Re: Home visit: Barclaycard / Mercers / Power2Contact
Hi BS and welcome to the BC forum (which is where I'll move this in a mo).
This won't be an instant solution, but I think you need to put your dispute on a proper footing for starters.
This can be done by following the Reclaiming Charges Guide in Link No1 in my signature below. You need to quantify the charges you've suffered, put them on a spreadsheet (Simple or Advanced) and sent off a Prelim Letter to BC. From what you say, I assume you DO have the necessary a/c statements. If not, you need to send an SAR.
The PPI issue should be addressed separately and you'll get help with this in the PPI forum.
I think you've jumped the gun a bit here which is why they're ignoring the approach you've taken.
Once you send the Prelim Letter, the a/c will be In Dispute and you should have (a bit) more success getting BC or Mercers to communicate with you.
Any help and advice is offered in good faith, based solely on my own knowledge and on experience gathered from this site. I am not qualified to offer legal or financial advice, which you should seek from an expert before making any important decisions. My opinions are therefore offered without liability.
Re: Home visit: Barclaycard / Mercers / Power2Contact
Sorry, should have been more clear. I requested a copy of my credit agreement back in March. I got no response, and thus wrote to Barclaycard at the end of April, telling them that their actions had placed the account into dispute – letters from here, all greatly appreciated. Without response, I wrote again in mid-May, enforcing the position I’d articulated in my April letter. I wrote again towards the end of May, after I’d received an unsigned application form, and unassociated terms. At this point, of course, I was citing all correspondence as account 'in dispute'.
I received two letters from Barclaycard during June, both of which were standard letters, containing usual rubbish; one of which was entitled ‘final response’.
The account was then placed into the hands of Mercers, whom I wrote to in mid-July immediately after hearing from them. Since, I’ve written 7 letters to Mercers – none of which have drawn a response. Below is an exert from a letter I sent mid-July after receiving yet another of their standard letters, or postcards:
'For the purposes of absolute clarity: please note that I am only prepared to communicate with you in writing.
Moreover, should it be your intention to arrange a “doorstep call”, please remember that there is only an implied license under English Common Law for certain people to visit me on my property without express permission; the postman and people asking for directions etc (Armstrong v. Sheppard and Short Ltd [1959] 2 Q.B. per Lord Evershed M.R.).
Please therefore take note that, I revoke license under English Common Law for you, or your representatives to visit me at my property and if you do so without my permission, you will then be liable to damages for a tort of trespass. You would also be conspiring in a trespass if you sent someone to visit me nevertheless.
Should it be necessary, I will obtain an injunction.'
Nevertheless, I heard from Power2Contact in early September, telling me that Mercers couldn’t contact me!?! I wrote back and drew their attention to the unanswered letters, and copied Mercers on this correspondence too. I also included the quotation above.
I have since written to Barclaycard and Mercers again; the a Mercers letter threatened a home visit within 48 hours within a letter posted second class that took 3 days to get here!!
Next thing, someone from Power2Contact is at my door.
Now, I got rid of him easily enough, but I had people here and it was embarrassing. I have since reported all parties to the fos, but from previous experience, then can be slow and toothless. Are there any other avenues I can explore? They have ignored every letter to date, and carry on Tonka Toy-style doing whatever they wish.
Re: Home visit: Barclaycard / Mercers / Power2Contact
Carefully adapt this letter, then send it to BC and copy to Mercers. Keep a copy by the front door for P2C as well.
There seems to be no quick answer to this situation - they will eventually back off but it seems to be a slow process.
Account In Dispute - FORMAL COMPLAINT
Ref:
Dear Sir/Madam
Thank you for your letter of xx/xx/xx, the contents of which have been noted.
You have failed to respond to my legal request to supply me a true copy of the original Consumer Credit Agreement for the above account.
On the **DATE** I wrote to you requesting a copy of the credit agreement and other information under the Consumer Credit Act 1974 (Sections 77-79).
On **DATE** a member of your staff signed for delivery of my written request and I have an electronic proof of delivery showing their signature and the date.
To date you have failed to comply with these requests in any way, whether by confirmation of receipt of the request or by supplying the requested documents.
These documents I requested should be readily available as proof of your legal right to collect this account under the Consumer Credit Act 1974.
In my letter of the **DATE** I made a formal request for a copy of the signed, executed credit agreement for the above account under section 77(1) of the Consumer Credit Act 1974. In addition a full statement of this account should have been sent to me detailing all debits and credits to the account.
Furthermore, you are aware that the Consumer Credit Act allows 12 working days for a request for a true copy of a credit agreement to be carried out before you enter into a default situation.
This limit has expired.
As you are no doubt aware section 77(6) states:
If the creditor fails to comply with Subsection (1)
(a) He is not entitled , while the default continues, to enforce the agreement.
Therefore this account has become unenforceable at law.
You have failed to comply with a lawful request for a true, signed copy of the said agreement and other relevant documents mentioned in it, failed to send a full statement of the account and failed to provide any of the documentation requested.
Consequentially any legal action you pursue will be averred as both UNLAWFUL and VEXATIOUS.
Furthermore I shall counterclaim that any such action constitutes unlawful harassment.
Please note you may also consider this letter as a statutory notice under section 10 of the Data Protection Act to cease processing any data in relation to this account with immediate effect.
This means you must remove all information regarding this account from your own internal records and from my records with any credit reference agencies.
Should you refuse to comply, you must within 21 days provide me with a detailed breakdown of your reasoning behind continuing to process my data.
It is not sufficient to simply state that you have a ‘legal right’. You must outline your reasoning in this matter and state upon which legislation this reasoning depends.
Should you not respond within 14 days I expect that this means you agree to remove all such data.
Furthermore you should be aware that a creditor is not permitted to take ANY
Action against an account whilst it remains in dispute.
The lack of a credit agreement is a very clear dispute and as such the following applies.
* You may not demand any payment on the account, nor am I obliged to offer any payment to you.
* You may not add further interest or any charges to the account.
* You may not pass the account to a third party.
* You may not register any information in respect of the account with any credit reference agency.
* You may not issue a default notice related to the account.
I reserve the right to report your actions to any such regulatory authorities as I see fit.
You have 14 days from receiving this letter to contact me with your intentions to resolve this matter which is now a formal complaint.
Despite my letter regarding ANY communication from your company, which stated that I require ALL communications in writing, your telephone calls continue.
This behaviour constitutes harassment; the letters stated quite clearly to you that I require ALL communications in writing for future use. Do not telephone me again - remove any telephone numbers you hold for me from your systems.
Your telephone calls are in breach of the Office of Fair Trading guidelines. If you continue with them after the receipt of this letter an official complaint, together with a log recording the times and frequency of the calls will be passed both to that office and to the Trading Standards office. For your information note that ALL telephone calls are taped.
This type of debt collection method is contrary to the ‘Administration of Justice Act 1970’ in that it is intended to cause alarm and distress to the recipient. Your methods will not be tolerated. A formal complaint, containing copies of all correspondence including yours, has now been submitted to the relevant authorities. This will be relevant to questions of your fitness to hold a licence under the Consumer Credit Act, whether or not it results in a prosecution.
Take further note that continued telephone calls after the receipt of a request not to call may constitute a criminal offence under Section 127 of the Communications Act 2003.
Communicate in writing and ONLY in writing, your telephone calls will NOT be answered.
HOWEVER, CALLS WILL TRIGGER COMPLAINTS TO THE REGULATORY BODIES.
I would appreciate your due diligence in this matter.
Any help and advice is offered in good faith, based solely on my own knowledge and on experience gathered from this site. I am not qualified to offer legal or financial advice, which you should seek from an expert before making any important decisions. My opinions are therefore offered without liability.
Home visit: Barclaycard / Mercers / Power2Contact
payments, plus charges. I will pay irrespective of the absence of an executed agreement.
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