In a bizarre twist today

(because last week I illegally had my car repossed, the finance company, Welcome,

didn't have a court order and I have paid well over a thord of the HP agreement),

I got a letter from Bramber of Steyning who state that I owe MCE Portfolio Ltd. £6325.31,

the originating client being British Credit Trust Ltd for a previous car I had (not the one from Welcome Finance)

The £6k+ was the balance owing on a HP agreement some years ago after they repossessed the car and sold it at auction.

However they did not obtain a court order (not to my knowledge anyway) and I had paid, by the skin on my teeth,

JUST over the neccessary third (around £3000) that meant that they should have obtained that court order.

I will be writing to tell them this

how do I best report them?

they have been phoning me every single day for the past few months and leaving messages on my home and mobile numbers,

sometimes several times a day and the calls - which I refuse to answer

- have become more and more frequent.

That can't be legal surely?

EDIT: Having had a quick look at my file

Bramber have been on the case for over a year, and have rung me incessantly during this time.

They must have made literally thousands of phone calls.

I got a final demand from them as long ago as 6 May 2006,

then they were apparently claiming the money for MIM Servicing LLC

but still quoted the originator as British Credit trust.

Other debt collection agencies that this has been through are Central Finance Ltd and Marlin

No it's not legal. Send them this letter http://www.consumeractiongroup.co.uk/forum/bank-templates-library/37006-harassment-telephone-response-letter.html

You may also wish to look at this to help understand your rights Debt Help UK : Administration of Justice Act 1970 | UK debt consolidation service with free help and advice | UK debt consolidation service with free help and advice

Many thanks for that,

I'm not overly concerned - just warning them that I will be claiming

since the car was reposessed illegally should be enough to quell any ideas they may have of bankrupcy,

but I was never quite sure how or where to go about reporting them.

I am already about to take on a solicitor to recover the £7,500 I have paid to welcome Finance,

who repo'd my car without a court order last week,

the only fault being that I have to pay the legal fees upfront

which is going to be a struggle and it would be very difficult to finance a similar claim against this lot.

I fairly sure they couldn't make you bankrupt anyway as the amount owing is in dispute.

You could report them to the FSA, OFT and Trading Standards. If I think of of anyone else I'll let you know.

Not sure if you can report them to FOS but worth a try.

Just a note: I just phoned Debt Help UK and to be quite frank the guy I spoke to was about as much use as an ashtray on a motorbike.

I told him that they continue to phone me every single day, sometimes several times a day, and he said there is nothing I can do about that - he suggested I change my number.

I told him that as far as I am concerned the debt which they claim I owe is non-existent as they took the car illegally, the guy didn't have a clue about the reposession terms and said that I would probably have to pay up or accept that I will be made bankrupt.

I told him that as they did take the car illlegally I was enititled to my money back and he said "That's just your word against theirs, you're wasting your time".

I thanked him "for nothing", told him that the only person wasting my time was him and suggested that he didn't purport to offer advice until he knew what he was talking about.

Bloody hell - it must be jobshare (or rather jobsworth) week down at Debt Help UK!! Have you thought about giving CCCS a try? CAB is another option (although they seem to vary a lot in how good they are).

Just a note: I just phoned Debt Help UK and to be quite frank the guy I spoke to was about as much use as an ashtray on a motorbike.

who are these people?

the only two you need to call are National Debtline and CCCS as they are charities and VERY well trained.

Many thanks for that, I'm not overly concerned - just warning them that I will be claiming since the car was reposessed illegally should be enough to quell any ideas they may have of bankrupcy, but I was never quite sure how or where to go about reporting them.

 

I am already about to take on a solicitor to recover the £7,500 I have paid to welcome Finance, who repo'd my car without a court order last week, the only fault being that I have to pay the legal fees upfront which is going to be a struggle and it would be very difficult to finance a similar claim against this lot.

you could probably do this yourself, it's no more difficult than claiming bank charges back.

A bit different from you rest, or is it the beginning of......?

This is the first time I've had one of these through the post, it's a MESSAGE EXPRESS DEPT heading post card that reads underneath

please contact us on 0800 180 4127 - I have check this number into google and comes up branber debt recovery

I cant think of anyone that I'm owing, however; the post card was not addressed to myself it was to THE OCCUPIER.

Should I be worried bout this if it hasn't been addressed to me personally, does anyone advise ringing to find out what this is about, or should I just ignore otherwise they would've had my name on it?

I have seen on 'who called me' site that they ask you for your d.o.b and name, but I will not give that kind of info over the phone due to the data protection act 1998 unless I know who they are...

Help...

daktadre Make a complaint to Trading Standards as this company are in serious breech of OFT guidelines.

OK I will try to keep this a simple as possible since it goes back a bit.

I found out tonight via my credit reference file that there is a CCJ for just over £10,000 lodged at Northampton CCBC in July 2010.

This was sent to my former address and I'm assuming at this point that it is a debt that Marlin allege I owe for a car purchased on HP back in December 2001.

The original lender was British Credit Trust.

Marlin have been writing to me for years but I have never responded or acknowledged the debt in any way.

The car was repo'd in 2003

- I forget the date

- and to my knowledge was taken without a court order;

if there was one I never saw it and as such was taken illegally as I had paid over a third of the H.P. agreement, just, if that includes the deposit.

Not much I can do about that now, but the point is the debt now claimed is invalid because it is banned by statute because of it's age.

How do I go about dealing with this?

I know I'm going to have to contact the court and ask for the debt to be put aside

- the fact that it was served at an address I left in 2009 is sufficient enough cause to have it set aside regardless of anything else

- but obviously I want to get rid of this completely and have it removed from my credit reference file.

so they got a ccj in july 2010

are you SURE you made no financial transaction

in the 6yrs previous

if you did not

then you are home scot free the CCJ is def invalid

and must be removed

as the debt was SB'ed

dx

Absolutely 100% certain - as mentioned the car was repo'd in (early) 2003 and I certainly havent paid anything since, and I never reply to DCA letters.

Apart from sending Marlin the SB letter, what's the best way to go about getting the court order removed and getting the detail removed from my credit reference agency file? Do I expect them to deal with the court order issue or do I need to do it?

ok i'll get someone to pop in and check i'm correct...

dx

Much appreciated, thank you.

HI Sey

DX as asked I pop in.

The debt was already SB when the claimant attained the CCJ therefore you can set a side on the grounds of SB and bad service of the summons.

Regards

Andy

Unbelievable! Well not really, I know how these tossers operate, but the recorded delivery letter I sent has been refused and sent back to me.

What now? My instinct is to refer the matter to the financial ombudsman.

Incidentally I've written to the court to get the judgement set aside, but am I correct in thinking that if they call in the bailiffs in the meantime they can only act at the address on the original court order?

Well, unsurprisingly,

Marlin have decided that the debt isn't statute barred because they obtained a court order in 2010.

Which of course is totally irrelevant as it should never have gone to court in the first place, having been SB'd before 2010.

I have only just got the N244 form back from the court to complete to get the court order set aside

(having originally been advised that all I had to do was write to the court with the relevant details and proof, which I did).

In a show of not-unexpected incompetence, the court originally sent the form to my old address

- the one at which the judgement was served

- despite the fact that my covering letter clearly pointed out that one of the reasons for applying to have the judgement set aside was because it was sent to my old address.

I'm not happy about the £80 fee the court are asking for, and don't fancy my chances of successfully claiming it back from Marlin,

but will be applying anyway and doing whatever I can to claim it back - are you listening Marlin?

However any further advice would be appreciated - thanks.

It's the only way to go.

The set aside with not make the debt go away, it will only restart it to the point that you can now defend it.

As it was Stat Barred and Court papers sent to old address, it should be a slam dunk. Don't deal with Marlins, just the court.

You'll be able to enter a defence and if you win you reclaim the £80 and costs.

Jogs

Thanks, that was my instinct anyway. Marlin have proved impossible to deal with anyway, but that will ultimately be to their disadvantage.

Briefly,

I had a car on HP,

paid over a third,

lenders (British Credit Trust) repeatedly ignored my requests to take the car back,

as I was entitled to request after a third had been paid,

4 months on I cancelled the d/d and stopped paying.

A couple of weeks later they towed it away.

I don't remember the figures involved but I know the initial loan was £10,000+

and I owed under £5,000 at the time they took it, so I had definitely paid more than a third off.

They continued to ignore my claims that I owed them nothing as I was entitled to hand it back penalty free, and chased me for years.

I ignored them.

They eventually passed it over to Marlin, I'm not sure when.

I first got a letter from Marlin in June 2012, telling me I owed £10249.

I later got a statement showing:

Opening balance: £6324

20-12-2006 Legal costs £1.00

26-07-2007 Bank giro +£43.00 (CREDIT)

03-11-2011 Legal Bal Adjsmt £4268.18

21-12-2011 Legal Bal Adjsmt +£4268.18 (CREDIT)

21-12-2011 Legal Bal Adjsmt £3967.43

Current Balance: £10249. 74

I discovered at this point that a CCJ had been entered for the above amount in June 2012, but at an address I moved out of in 2010.

The issue now is that I need to do something about it as we have to move out of our home at the end of the month, which is rented,

but this CCJ is preventing me from renting anything else as I'm ailing the credit check.

Thing is, we need to live somewhere!

Is there any way of getting this set aside?

To sum up, I shouldn't owe anything in the first place,

the original debt is 12 years old

and the CCJ was entered at my old address two years after I had moved.

I have none of the original paperwork except for three letters from Marlin in 2012,

and the only time I have contacted anybody since the car went was a letter to Marlin in 2012 stating that I believed the CCJ was invalid as the debt should be statute barred, which they refuted.

Seems I am still being penalised for a 12 year old debt.

Any advice appreciated,

can't afford a solicitor and CAB were less than helpful.

Seems nobody deals with anything except simple cut n' dried cases these days.

Three years down the line from the CCJ you might have problems with the set aside application

The Judge can only say no so worth a chance if the debt is 100% statute barred

chances of set a side imo zero, it would have been up to yourself to notify any creditor of your new address

payment made 07/07 so ccj stopped the sb clock

the problem stems back to you not Voluntarily Terminating the agreement under s99/10

it was treated as a voluntary surrender, so leaving you liable for the full agreement

I didn't make any payment in 2007.

I believe this is an "invented" payment added to the account to get around the SB.

They can't have any proof that I made the payment because I didn't.

I have never ever dealt with third parties for payments, including DCAs and never will.

I made absolutely no contact whatsoever with the company from a few months after they took the car.

I would not have made a payment for something I didn't owe in any event.

I did voluntarily terminate. It's the company who didn't comply.

The termination request was made by me requesting (in writing, several times) that they terminate the agreement

as per the details of the contract as I had paid more than one third.

They repeatedly ignored me, and eventually I parked the car up on a secure driveway,

told them where it was and to come and collect it.

Three years down the line from the CCJ you might have problems with the set aside application

 

The Judge can only say no so worth a chance if the debt is 100% statute barred

Why should it be a problem if it went to my old address two years after I had left and I didn't know about it?