Written by John Kruse, one of the leading experts on Bailiff Law, this consumer friendly guide is essential reading for anyone who comes into contact with a bailiff.
The book is easy to understand and clearly explains the rights
a bailiff has, and also what they cannot do when collecting debts and repossessing goods etc.
hi can you help
about 3 yrs ago i had a halifax credit card. i got made redundant and hit hard times. couldn,t afford the min payments on the card but i did pay some each month. then the card reached its limit ( £1000 i hadn,t been using it it got there with interest and late payment charges). i phoned them to ask them to stop the charges and come to some agreement to pay it off. they weren,t interested. then i started getting over limit charges as well as latepayment charges. they phoned me every night demanding payment in full, they would not except any payment agreement they just didn,t care about my circumstances. in the end i just told them to stick the card where the sun don,t shine and i,ll see them in court.then came the phone calls from the debt collectors i told them the same, then came the collectors at the door they got the same responce. finally i got a court summons which i was sure was a scare tactic. so i decided to defend it . i sent in my defence stating that the charges were to high and the refused any offer i made to pay it off as and when i could ( the card was at £1900 by then. i recieved a letter from their solicitors stating they were droping the case because it would cost more then i actualy owe. week later i got a letter from halifax stating they had closed my current acct. and taken the money to pay my credit card( there was only a few pounds in it because i suspected they would do something like that and i had already opened an acct. with another bank)
bear with me nearly there.
that was 3yrs ago, i am now getting phone calls from a company claiming to have bought the debt from halifax. i have never heard of this before. i now have a job and could pay it but the thought of a company buying peoples debts (and they probably only paid a few quid for it) and making money from other peoples misfortune makes me angry.
has anyone else heard of such companys(i thought they only existed in gangster movies)
anyway i have told them i,ll see them in court. does anyone think they will pursue the debt or just give up like halifax, when they realise they can,t scare me with court action which i expect makes 80% of people pay up.
If the Halifax withdrew the case on their own backs they can no longer persue the debt. Do you have the letters etc from ? if so send a copy of this and the letter recieved from the DCA to their solicitors and word it something like this
halifax
xxxxxx
xxxxxx
xxxxx
dear sir/madam
re case number XXXXXXXXX
i note that in year you withdrew the above action in court at which point i was about to defend. i understand that as you withdrew this concluded this episode and also that i owed you nothing. i now note that X years later you have sold this to XXXXXXXXX who are now chasing me. please confirm what the hell is going on ? i await your reply.
miss XXXXXX
use the exact language used. you should recieve a reply of some sort to this. most probably you will recieve a letter confirming that the debt has been recalled and written off