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I have been contacted by Capquest regarding an outstanding debt that they said I owed. I went through all the usual channels of denying all knowledge of it (as I didn't recognise it and believed it had nothing to do with me) and asking them not to contact me anymore etc.
I sent them (by recorded delivery as suggested) a request for them to provide me with proof that the outstanding debt was indeed mine, giving them the obligatory 12 days to do so. I heard nothing inside the alloted time but I have now received something from them 27 days later (15 days overdue but still - I now find out - within a 30 day period they are allowed to respond in). Unfortunately I now realise that this IS a debt owed by me. It has been in the hands of a debt management company for the last 5 years which I was under the impression I had finished paying at the start of this year.
They have now supplied me with a copy of the original agreement made by me with the lending bank, but with one major thing missing - MY signature!!
Does this mean that because they have failed to supply me with a signed copy of the original agreement within the requested time period (as laid out by the authorities) that they can no longer pursue me for the money owed?
I am unsure as payments were being paid by me through a debt management company up until January 2010.
It has been in the hands of a debt management company for the last 5 years which I was under the impression I had finished paying at the start of this year.
You should get in touch with the DMC to find out what the status of this a/c is.
They have now supplied me with a copy of the original agreement made by me with the lending bank, but with one major thing missing - MY signature!!
They are allowed to do this but if they wish to pursue through the courts you can bring them to strict proof to produce a signed agreement.
Does this mean that because they have failed to supply me with a signed copy of the original agreement within the requested time period (as laid out by the authorities) that they can no longer pursue me for the money owed?
You can dispute the debt or refer them to the DMC.
Thx Ceberus, can I still dispute the debt despite them sending me the unsigned "proof of debt"?
Yes, I'd be tempted to send them Scotts letter below & see what their response is;
Re: my request under the Consumer Credit Act 1974
Thank you for your recent letter sent to me, the contents of which are noted. I appreciate your quick response to my original letter. However, the reply received by me does not fulfil your requirements under the Consumer Credit Act 1974.
The Act demands that I be supplied with a true copy of any properly executed credit agreement that exists in relation to the above account. I may ask for this on demand providing that a fee of £1.00 is paid. This fee was sent with my original letter.
My request remains outstanding. The items you sent in your reply, does not constitute a true copy of any credit agreement that may or may not have been signed by me on the opening of this account. It neither confirms that I am liable for any alleged debt to you, nor gives me any chance to evaluate whether any original agreement was ‘properly executed’.
I still require you to send me a true copy of the original credit agreement that you allege exists. As you will know, under the Consumer Credit Act 1974, a judge is not permitted to make any enforcement order unless the creditor can provide a true signed copy of the original credit agreement. This means that unless you can produce such an agreement, this alleged debt is not enforceable in law.
You had until XX/XX/2010 to provide me with the true copy I requested. You are now in default of my request. Any account I hold with you is now in legal dispute. Whilst the account remains in dispute, you are not permitted to ask for any payment, nor am I obliged to offer any payment to you. Furthermore, whilst the dispute remains, you are not entitled to charge any interest on the account, nor make any further charges to the account. Additionally, you are not entitled to register any information on this account with any credit reference agency.
To register information with a credit reference agency, you must have written consent from the customer to collate and share such information. This consent is given in the form of a signed credit agreement, so until you produce such an agreement, you may not do this.
The requirement for consent to share data is a clear requirement of the Data Protection Act 1998. any such attempts to share my data without my consent will be met with a complaint to the Information Commissioners Office
To sum up, I will not be making any further payments to you until you provide me with the document I have requested. Whilst you remain in default of my request, you are not permitted to take any action against this account. This includes adding further charges and passing any information to the credit reference agencies.
If you intend to send a reconstituted copy of the CCA you must declare the reason why it has been reconstituted and if the original exists and in what form (microfiche) etc.
Should you not have any signed credit agreement in relation to this alleged debt, please confirm this in writing to me.
Letter sent as suggested, (see post #4) and response received today. I originally sent them a request for an original copy of the allegd debt, they replied with a copy of an agreement, but unsigned. I then sent a further request for the original copy of the signed agreement, to which they have now replied with the following statement.
"We thank you for your recorded delivery correspondence and respond as follows:- We can confirm that the copy agreement/statement of account was sent to you on: 26 July 2010".
Should I now respond again stating they still haven't supplied me with the true copy of signed original as requested or should I just ignore it til I hear something more? Surely they are still in default of my request?
Speak to the DMC and find out what the state of the account is, why did they cease payments?
Capquest should have sent a statement of account with the CCA request.
Did you stop the payments to the DMC,
I have no legal training, any knowledge I have has come from this forum, and my own experiences. Always balance up any advice you get with your own common sense.
Having received only an unsigned copy of an agreement from Cap Quest and further requesting a copy of the original signed version, I then received a letter from them stating they had supplied me with it already (the only thing I received was the unsigned copy). After advice, I decided to not write to them again but instead wait for their next move. They have tried to contact me by phone, calling at least once a day, each time leaving a message on my answerphone for me to call them. Obviously I have not done this as I have previously stated to them in a letter that I will only make contact in writing.
I have this morning received a letter from H L LEGAL Solicitors stating that thye have been appointed by Cap Quest on behalf of the alleged debtor. It goes on to say that unless I pay the account in full in the next 7 days court proceedings may be issued against me without further notice.
It says at the bottom of the letter that all communications must be sent to Cap Quest Debt Recovery, does this mean that H L LEGAL Solicitors are part of Cap Quest?
Should I respond? If so, how? All suggestions and advice very welcome.
Right, so here we are with the absolute latest. I have requested a copy of the original agreement from Capquest 3 times now and they have failed to produce it. Now they are in default of my request, can I send them a letter warning them to stop trying to obtain the alleged debt from me, and threatening to involve the OFT and FO if they do not cease their demands?
I am taking their inability to supply a copy of the original alleged agreement that they haven't produced it because they can't produce it.
They continue to try and contact me by telephone (I am ignoring their calls) despite me writing to them over 2 months ago stating that I would only correspond via mail.
Hi I believe that you can treat the blank agreement as a reconstituted agreement so you could amend the following letter and post recorded del.
Dear Sirs,
Thank you for your letter dated nn/nn/nnnn.
You have chosen to respond to my CCA request by providing a reconstituted agreement. While this may satisfy a CCA request, it is not enforceable in a court of law.
I now request you to confirm that you actually hold a copy of the original signed agreement. If you do not hold an agreement, then I require you to confirm this, or if you do hold the original signed Agreement then I would ask for you to advise me in what form.
I can think of no valid reason why you should provide a reconstituted version when you could have simply photocopied the original-if it exists.
I would remind you that the OFT state that creditors should not imply or state that an enforceable agreement exists if that is not the case.
I look forward to receiving your response within 14 days if I do not I will then consider the alleged debt to be unenforceable at that time.
prrof of outstanding debt
company for the last 5 years which I was under the impression I had finished paying at the start of this year.
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Originally Posted by hammertime68
