Understood....theyve had two grand in twelve months thanks mainly to my brother's (mistaken) good intentions, so I would wager theyve covered what they paid Halifax for the debt

The reason I mentioned the two defaults, are that they both show up whenever I visit Clearscore or Credit Karma as being detrimental factors. I guess I should register an error notice (or whatever its called) with Equifax and Transunion

Thanks as always for the sage advice

A couple of things to report....apologies for not posting sooner, as been back and forth to docs and hospital.....

I realise these should have been raised sooner however the last twelve months have been all over the place following my surgery:

(i)   I have two defaults on my credit file for the same amount (Halifax and Cabot). When I asked Halifax to remove theirs, they refused and said the issue was with Cabot. When I raised it with Cabot, they took it to mean I was making a formal complaint (I wasnt, but hey go for it) and started the eight week dispute window.

(ii)  When Cabot took over my debt, I asked for a statement detailing the six months leading up to the date of default, as I did not agree the balance. They said they would have to get it from Halifax, however a year later still nothing. I raised this issue again in October, and once again they triggered the complaints procedure

Had a letter today, saying they were having trouble resolving the disputes and it may take longer than the statutory eight weeks. If that is the case can I formally dispute the debt at that point?

I ceased payments in September as was recommended here, but anything that makes my position a bit stronger would be welcome.

TIA

No dx - same address throughout

Im familiar with the whole CCA route having done several, many years ago, but as you say, being a relatively recent online application, I wouldnt hold out much hope.

I honestly dont know whether to

(i) carry on paying £25 a month for a quiet life and wait for them to notice they arent getting my bros money (not keen on that idea)

(ii) cut the money down to £10 or even £1, just in case it did go to court, where I would be perfectly happy to plead my case to a judge and say I could only pay what I was able to (rather than outright stopping)

Are Cabot's prone to litigation? Could I use the failure to provide any statement as a reason to at least pause any payments?

Edit.....urgh just realised option (ii) would just endlessly reset the SB clock. Sorry, I did say I often dont think straight these days. I will follow your best advice

Sorry dx...I did answer your original question.....

April 2017 (definitely by online application)

Thanks - I will dig through my papers and try to find the first few bits of correspndence I received from them

Well that was easy to answer. Should have done more research before bothering the good people on this site

I have:

(i)   A letter from Halifax saying they have assigned all their rights under the original agreement to Cabots

(ii)  A letter from Cabots saying they have recently bought the account

At the time, I did request a full statement from Cabots as my record keeping at the time was needless to say, not good. They said it would have to come from Halifax, but when I contacted Halifax they somewhat stonewalled me by saying I was no longer a customer on their system. To be honest I gave up in disgust at the time.

I wish I could turn the clock back and stop my bro from paying these people money, but he really did act with the purest of intentions. When I think about it, Halifax have already trashed my credit file, so would having the debt marked "partially settled" really make any difference?

Card was taken out in April 2017. Applied online Im 100% certain

I did wonder what would happen to any residual balance. I guess if they got tired chasing it, I couldnt really stop them selling it on to the next bottom-feeder in line

Did Cabot buy the debt for pennies in the pound you think, or are they collecting for Halifax? My contempt for the latter is limitless, given their total lack of empathy at the time.

Its been a while since I had to use this site, but having rebuilt my life with the help of wonderful people here, fate dealt me some more bad cards, and things have got messy again

having thought to be suffering Long Covid in 2021, my mental health really deteriorated to the point where my brother dragged me to A&E. There I got the news that I actually had a massive brain tumour which was causing all my symptoms. Whilst not cancerous, the consultant said to me (and I quote) "In six months time without surgery, you will only be fit for staring out the window". Needless to say I was admitted for major surgery.....

Sorry for the major waffle.....

for a long a period of time I didnt know what I was doing and my financial state fell off a cliff. My Halifax card was defaulted in the very month I was having brain tumour surgery, and they wouldn't remove the marker even when given an explanation. The debt was then sold (I presume) to Cabot

Unbeknown to me, my kid brother started paying them £125 a month, purely to protect me from any stress upon release from hospital. I know what you are going to say about being a DCA cash cow but he acted with the best of motives and he didn't know the ins and outs of the debt world.

I have instructed him to stop paying, but this has upset him and my dear old elderly mum. I can only afford to pay them £25 a month max but I dont want Cabot benefitting from my brothers kind heart.  Out of the blue today my mum offered to pay £1000 as a full and final settlement offer. I think that is a lovely gesture, but I think it is too much as she only has her pension and her savings.. however the stress of finding out about this debt has made her unwell - she wants it to go away.

What is your very honest opinion on all this? I must confess I dont have the appetite I once did for letter tennis, and I certainly dont want to be hassled on the phone repeatedly. Cabot have apparently been very nice, but then they would be when they are getting £125 a month from someone who isnt the creditor!

If £1000 is offered and accepted then about 45% of the original debt would have been repaid. I probably know what you are going to say (dont do it) but please bear in mind my health and circumstances.

I would sincerely appreciate your advice....I do have trouble thinking straight these days

Thank You

Not 100% sure as its been a while since I worked in the business, but I believe in the event of a total loss, they ask you to settle all outstanding premiums as the insurance on that vehicle has ended for good.

Are they asking for the whole premium or pro-rata to date of accident?

If your son had fully comp insurance, his insurance company would handle everything inc chasing the third party, however if he had TPFT cover, you will probably end up handling this yourself direct with the other party's insurer.

You need to get other opinions, but its my understanding that product liabilty insurance covers against installed goods being defective and causing damage to property. That ismt the same as a halfwit builder taking a good product and installing it badly imho

https://www.simplybusiness.co.uk/insurance/faq/what-is-product-liability-insurance/

Public liability covers damage to members of public by the builders actions....ie tiles fall off roof and hit a member of public

Employers liability covers injury to builder and people working for him on site....ie someone falls off a ladder and cant work for 6 months

Product Liability Insurance is for where the product being installed is defective in some way....ie he installs a faulty electrical item and it cathes fire

Builders Professional Indeminity (quite rare) would cover against his mistakes and omissions

Contract Works Insurance covers jobs that are underway and get messed up by outside forces such as fire and flood.

Most builders of any repute would probably have 1 and 2, the rest is a maybe

Hope this helps....im not an insurance expert, just work for some brokers doing their books etc for 20 years and have heard lots of tales

You need to find out what cover he has.

Over 3 years later, my brother has had yet another OPC chase up letter....over 5 years since the original incident

Usual threatogram advising to him pay or will consider immediate court action. My initial reaction was to file it with all the others, however he was concerned that the advice on other consumer sites is now not to ignore such letters, and send in a sternly worded letter stating your intention to defend any action etc

Seeing as CAG has steered me right on all other matters, and that this is so old it is outside POPLA, I would appreciate some confirmation of correct action

Given that it was dark, peeing with rain, he was visiting me and can call me as a witness, surely this one is a load of old bull?

When you sued these people originally, was it definitely a limited company (or PLC or LLP) that you listed as the defendant?

Oh well....did another credit search today and the Cabot/M&S defaulted account is still showing there 12 days after it should have disappeared.

I guess its a complaint/request to Cabot asap. Equifax seem to have a labyinth of online menu options to follow before you can get anything done

Why is nothing straightforward?

Should the CRAs automatically remove a 6 year+ defaulted debt or do I need to do something myself?

Just got an Equifax Report today, and was rather disappointed to see that this M&S Card debt is still showing despite an (incorrect) default date of 30.05.10

Aye - just fancied having an extra string to my bow in case I was to get some demented old judge who accepted the default date on my credit file was the relevant date.

Anyway will just wait and see if anything arrives in the post

I read somewhere that Marlin Financial were sold to Cabot recently.

In the last week Ive started to get 2-3 calls a day on my work telephone number (Im self employed and work from home) - they always ask me to go through security and I always refuse politely and put the phone down.

I think they are getting into a lather having seen the default date registered with the CRAs is 20.05.10......only thing is, this debt is statute barred from quite a while back. Last payment date October 2009, Default note dated early Jan 2016 with 14 days to rectify.

Fully anticipating getting a last minute court claim if they are working off their wrong date on file

Will have to formulate a defence that mentions statute barred AND change from storecard to credit card without paperwork

Do not assume that the default date on your credit file is actually the date that your account was put in default - often there can be many months between the default notice being issued and a default being registered with the credit agencies.

There was seven months difference on two of my accounts, and many others have had big differences between the two dates.

Was this always a credit card, or was it one of the many in house store cards that was converted to a credit card?

Your relevant dates are even closer to mine than I originally thought.

You must not assume that the default date on your CRA is the same as when a default notice was issued to you. In my case there was six months difference and I know from reading other forum links that this was pretty typical. Barclaycard (often via Moorcroft Debt Recovery) would issue a default notice, but carry on charging on late fees and interest for many months before giving up the ghost and assigning the debt.

The statute barred period runs to six years from the first cause of action, not from when it got registered with a CRA. A default notice will give you a set period to rectify the breach (in my case 17 days) after which they can unleash hellfire and brimstone on you. Your date of last payment gives a good chance of staute barred, but getting sight of the default notice/rectification date would possibly make it rock solid.

The interest rate thing looks like a typo - 8% interest on £11k for around 6 years is not far off the interest figure you quote

Is 29.07.10 the date that is showing as default date on your credit file?

If thats the case, then the actual date you would have received a default notice was probably several months previous.

(The dates you are quoting are very similar to my own case)

I would hazard a guess that 29.07.10 is the date that MKDP took over your debt, and thats the date they registered with CRA?

In my case, last payment was 09.10.09,

default notice issued 11.01.10 with 17 days to rectify the breach..

...all of which passed the six year mark with nothing from Hoist.

In your case, your last payment was a month later (would be useful to get the exact date)

but you could still be okay for statute barred.

From what Ive read on these wonderful forums,

while some judges allow statute bar to run from date of last payment, some work from default notice date

- so best to cover all bases.

If it helps stiffen your resolve, I just searched Link Financial at Companies House, and they made £4million profit in their last published accounts......poor dears

Ive been going through a similar situation as yourself with MKDP (Now Hoist Portfolio) and Robbers Way.

My last payment was October 2009, default note 11.01.10 and rectification date on DN of 28.01.10

My default was actually registered with the credit agencies with the same date MKDP took over the debt (July 2010). It seems that Barclaycard like to fleece people for a few extra months interest and charges before throwing in the towel.

Would be interested to know if yours was the same.

Having exchanged views with slick, its my view that the cause of action date is no later than the rectification date on the DN. After that date, they could have chosen to commence legal action - the fact they chose to delay is down to them and should not alter the start of the limitation period.

Its entirely possible this is a bit pessimistic, and the cause of action is more closely linked to the date of last payment.....as im sure you know by now, its all a bit vague

Ultimately though, I firmly believe that this whole debt is now statute barred. Given the following key dates, would you not agree?

Last payment : 10th October 2009

Default Note Issued : 11th January 2010

Date Stated on Default Note to rectify breach : 28th January 2010.

I must admit I was getting twitchy each day the postman came up to the end of January, but given their lack of legal action, I dont see how this debt can now be enforceable

BCard.pdf

Here is the letter I referred to....didnt realise things had to be PDF these days

Hi Slick

Today I received a response to my CCA request direct from Barclaycard.

Whilst the letter contains nothing much that hasnt been seen on these forums many times before, there were two things of interest:

(i) They openly admit that "due to circumstances beyond our control, we no longer hold a copy of your executed agreement". Hmmm who does control storage of agreements then?

(ii) They make reference to Regulation 9 of the CNC regulations, the gist of which seems to be that for old agreements, they can just send copies of terms and conditions. I guess this is for S77/78 purposes but not for enforcement? However, you always run the risk of getting a judge who pays no attention to such things and allows it.

Even more amusing was the fact that nothing was actually enclosed with the letter....so round we go again with letters to B/Card and Robbers Way.