Contents of Link Financial letter....

[Qami]

Hello everyone, hope your enjoying your weekend. In regards to the letter I mentioned a few days ago from Link Financial, here is the contents:

 

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Re, Investigation of Assets.

 

We have recently, without success attempted to contact you with regards to your outstanding balance with us of (Amount). Your refusal to deal with this matter has prompted our office to make an enquiry under the land registration act 2002.

 

You are recorded on the proprietorship register at HM Land Registry as holding beneficial interest in the property (My address). This means you may have significant asset, one that can be used to enforce a county court judgement by way of final charging order.

 

Although we have not added interest to the outstanding balance, once placed with our legal department we will seek to impose our full legal rights.

 

For the avoidance of doubt, failing to contact us on (Their number) will result in our proceeding with further recovery action. You may also contact me on the above email address.

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So what does everyone think about the recent letter above?. Should it be taken seriously? (Keeping in mind I don't know what the amount is for, and I certainly have not taken out finance or made any payments towards finance for at-least 7 or 8 years. If it turns out to be finance from the distant past I don't know what steps any debt collectors took to try to retrieve the alleged debt as I have moved several houses since. Also keep in mind I have hardly ever spoken to debt collectors, certainly not in past several years, I refuse to speak to them in any shape or form, I will only speak to them in the future if I have too)

Edited February 1, 2009 by Qami

[PGH7447]

what is the debt in relation to?

 

do you recognise the debt?

[PGH7447]

http://www.consumeractiongroup.co.uk/forum/debt-collection-industry/180665-link-financial-final-charging.html

 

does it relate to this thread?

if so see the answer that was already given

[Qami]

Hiya PGH. Yes it relates to the mentioned thread, last time I didn't specify the contents of the letter they sent me hence I have specified contents of letter as I want some opinions on the letter.

 

http://www.consumeractiongroup.co.uk/forum/debt-collection-industry/180665-link-financial-final-charging.html

 

does it relate to this thread?

if so see the answer that was already given

[PGH7447]

looks like a standard threat-o-gram

 

if you do not recognise the debt then send the letter in the original post and see what they come back with

[Qami]

Thanks PGH. The only reason I have not replied yet is because I noticed on a recent credit report from call credit there were several addresses linked to me under "Linked addresses", I recognise some of the addresses but not all, the company who linked them is called "Debt Managers LTD", I have never heard of them. My concern is that if Link Financial have seen these addresses on my credit file then perhaps they are sending letters to me to all the addresses shown on credit file hoping to find me. I just fear a situation where I contact them and they think "Yes we have finally found where the fool lives now lets milk him". Under these circumstances do you or anyone else on here feel I should send the mentioned letter regardless?.

 

looks like a standard threat-o-gram

 

if you do not recognise the debt then send the letter in the original post and see what they come back with

[Pinky69]

My view is that where they were threatening to put a charging order on my house for what may be a unsecured debt that may or may not be mine, I would want to know whether or not they have any legal right to collect the debt in the first place and whether or not there was a credit agreement. That means bringing the issue out in the open but you have a better chance of challenging it legally that way rather than hoping they won't find out where you live - they are not going to go away if you try to hide or ignore them.

[Qami]

Thanks Pinky. I guess I felt it was a waste of a stamp responding to letters full of empty threats. However, if senior members like yourself (And the other experts on here who have been of tremendous help) feel it is better to respond then I will most likely take that route. Once again, thanks.

 

My view is that where they were threatening to put a charging order on my house for what may be a unsecured debt that may or may not be mine, I would want to know whether or not they have any legal right to collect the debt in the first place and whether or not there was a credit agreement. That means bringing the issue out in the open but you have a better chance of challenging it legally that way rather than hoping they won't find out where you live - they are not going to go away if you try to hide or ignore them.

[tronny]

hi qami unless you have defaulted on a ccj regarding this alleged debt they cannot apply for a charging order against any property you own. if no ccj has been registered then cca them and take it from there. apologies if i have missed anything.

[cerberusalert]

What is a Charging order?

A charging order is an order from the court placed on a debtor’s property (house or land) for monies owed to a lender.

If you have borrowed money and the money is not secured and you have not kept to the repayment arrangement, a lender can request the court to place a charging order on your property so that when the property is sold you will have to pay that debt off first before any of the proceeds are given to you.

In basic terms, the unsecured debt becomes secured on your property.

 

When can a lender apply for a charging order?

Before a court will consider an application for a charging order, the lender must have issued a county court judgement and you must have failed to make payments on that judgement or not paid the judgement according to the requirements of the court.

 

 

What happens when I receive a charging order?

The lender will apply to the court for a charging order, once the court has considered the application and is satisfied with the application, you will receive the order on a N86 form.

The form will include information regarding the time and date of the hearing when the judge will decide if to make a final charging order.

If the judgement is put in place, you will receive a N87 form (Final Charging Order), this form will also be sent to the lender. The lender will then need to inform the Land Registry of the order.

 

 

Will I be forced to sell my house or land?

You are not under any obligation to sell your property once the final charging order is in place, however, there are some extreme circumstances where a lender can apply to a court for force of sale. This is, however, rare and the court would have to agree to the application before such an order would be served.

[Qami]

Thanks Tronny. No you've not missed much. I've been at my current address for around 3 years no CCJ has been registered at this address, however I am not 100% certain if there has been a CCJ registered at one of my previous addresses. I don't think so but am not 100% sure.

 

hi qami unless you have defaulted on a ccj regarding this alleged debt they cannot apply for a charging order against any property you own. if no ccj has been registered then cca them and take it from there. apologies if i have missed anything.

[Qami]

Thanks Cerberusalert. That's put things a lot more into perspective.

 

What is a Charging order?

A charging order is an order from the court placed on a debtor’s property (house or land) for monies owed to a lender.

If you have borrowed money and the money is not secured and you have not kept to the repayment arrangement, a lender can request the court to place a charging order on your property so that when the property is sold you will have to pay that debt off first before any of the proceeds are given to you.

In basic terms, the unsecured debt becomes secured on your property.

 

When can a lender apply for a charging order?

Before a court will consider an application for a charging order, the lender must have issued a county court judgement and you must have failed to make payments on that judgement or not paid the judgement according to the requirements of the court.

 

 

What happens when I receive a charging order?

The lender will apply to the court for a charging order, once the court has considered the application and is satisfied with the application, you will receive the order on a N86 form.

The form will include information regarding the time and date of the hearing when the judge will decide if to make a final charging order.

If the judgement is put in place, you will receive a N87 form (Final Charging Order), this form will also be sent to the lender. The lender will then need to inform the Land Registry of the order.

 

 

Will I be forced to sell my house or land?

You are not under any obligation to sell your property once the final charging order is in place, however, there are some extreme circumstances where a lender can apply to a court for force of sale. This is, however, rare and the court would have to agree to the application before such an order would be served.

[Qami]

Furthering to the letter as shown at the start of this thread, before deciding which would be the best letter to send the DCA I wanted to find out a little more about the alleged debt. I sent a very brief email to the DCA asking them to shed some light on the alleged debt as I have no knowledge of it. I did not receive a reply by email but today I received the following letter (Note there is a contradiction between the letter they sent me last week and the letter I have just received).

 

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Re, your agreement with abbey plc relating to acc number (My alleged acc number)...

We write to introduce link financial ltd to you. Link Financial is the current owner of the outstanding balance. Abbey has now assigned Link Financial the outstanding balance due under the personal loan agreement. As a result of this assignment the full amount of the outstanding balance is due to us immediately. (Then the letter goes on to say that I should not make any payment to Abbey but instead pay them (Link Financial) directly, etc etc)

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I feel there is a contradiction between the two letters they sent me. The first letter (shown on top of this thread) states that they have failed to contact me without success, which implies that they have owned this alleged debt for minimum several months. However on the second letter shown above it states "Abbey have now assigned Link Financial the outstanding balance (sip)", this to me implies that Abbey have only just assigned the alleged debt to Link Financial.

 

My question is as follows: Could the above contradiction (If the experts on this board feel it is indeed a contradiction) be used to my advantage?.

 

On a separate note, I have this week sent Link Financial a CCA request, advising them I have no knowledge of the debt so require the original agreement etc of the alleged debt. I enclosed one pound fee making it crystal clear that it is not to be used for any other purpose. Sent by recorded delivery.

 

PS: I have only asked for help on this board very recently, in such a short period of time the quality and amount of advice I have been given is unbelievable. I would just like to say that I will never take for granted all the invaluable advice I have been given. I am sure all the other posters on here, who have benefited from this board are just as grateful. There are no words to describe how amazed I am, not just at the quality of the advice given, but the fact some of the experts who are very busy but still take the time-out to assist those who need assistance. Thank you so much.

Edited February 5, 2009 by Qami

[cerberusalert]

DCAs spew these letters out willynilly, the threat monkeys that push the buttons do just that...push buttons in the hope that they'll get a reaction from you. Unfortunately for them, people that read this site gain enough knowledge to know how to respond to their inane threats and they hate it. You can take control from them and reverse the situation by putting them on their 'back foot' & then laugh when they start throwing toys out of their prams.

 

Darwins missing link...DCA Man.

[Qami]

Hello everyone. Today I received a letter from Link Financial (In-case your wondering no it wasn't a Valentines card haha). The letter from Link was in response to a CCA request I made a couple of weeks ago. Firstly I would like to say that after reading various posts I was aware of the dirty tricks some Debt Collection Agencies play where they use the £1 statuary fee to reduce the alleged debt then a few months down the line they claim you have already made a payment towards the debt hence you acknowledged the debt. So for this reason, as advised by the experts here, I made it crystal clear to Link Financial that the £1 fee is the statuary fee not to be used for any other purpose.

 

What has really annoyed me about this letter is that Link Financial have played the same trick that I thought they might play. I specifically stated in the CCA request letter that the £1 fee is the statuary fee which is not to be used for any other purpose. I also high-lighted this clearly on the back of the postal order (I made a photo-copy). Now this is the letter I have just received (Anything in BOLD is written by me):

 

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Our Ref (Their ref number)

Originator: (Name of alleged originator)

Acc number (Alleged acc number)

 

You have recently made a request under section 77/78 for copies of various documents.

 

As you are aware (But I am not aware?, I’ve never acknowledged any debt) Link Financial purchased your debt from (Name of a Bank) on (Date they purchased alleged debt in 2007) and as such we do not always hold this documentation. We have recently requested a copy of the agreement and the most recent terms and conditions your account was operated under, and we look forward to sending this in the near future, however please be advised this can take up to 30 days to provide.

 

No administration charge has been applied to your account at this time therefore any payment made with your request has been applied to reduce your outstanding balance (But I specifically stated that the £1 fee is the statuary fee not to be used for any other purpose?). However where cost is incurred by Link for the provision of any statements by the vendor we will pass these charges to you.

 

Your account has been put on hold for the next 14 days for you to contact this office with further details as requested above (But Link have not requested any details from me?).

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As you can see despite my best efforts to make Link aware that the £1 statuary fee was not to be used for any other purpose they deliberately used the £1 fee to reduce the alleged debt. This tactic I am sure is used so that in the near future they can turn around to me and say "But you've already made a payment so why are you disputing the mentioned account".

 

My question is what complaint letter can I send to Link to get the £1 statuary fee removed from the alleged account and be used/refunded in accordance with the terms and conditions of the act?. And in regards to the documentation Link claim they will request from the Vendor, does anyone know what Link are likely to supply me with?, keeping in mind that I have checked my past records which show I have been financially clean for at-least 7 years.

Edited February 14, 2009 by Qami

[cerberusalert]

In the unlikely event that this was ever brought to court you can produce your CCA request as evidence (both your copy & theirs), so it would be 'game over' for them anyway.

 

Their is no need to complain to Link because what they have sent you is a preprinted letter which the monkey who places in the envelope has no comprehension of.

 

Depending on what you requested SAR or CCA would determine what you receive back. A CCA would be your agreement, where an SAR would mean every piece of data they have on you including payments, but that would have to be from the original creditor.

[Qami]

Thanks Cerberusalert. I sent them Letter N from the templates on this forum, adding that I acknowledge no debt to their company. I'm just frustrated they have added the £1 stautury fee to my alleged account, I just want the £1 statuary fee to be either used for it's intended purpose or refunded, so that I know where I stand. One reason for this is that I am going on holiday soon for several weeks I just don't want Link to be abusing the situation in my absence. I guess I will just wait to see what they come up with. Thanks again Cerberusalert.

 

In the unlikely event that this was ever brought to court you can produce your CCA request as evidence (both your copy & theirs), so it would be 'game over' for them anyway.

 

Their is no need to complain to Link because what they have sent you is a preprinted letter which the monkey who places in the envelope has no comprehension of.

 

Depending on what you requested SAR or CCA would determine what you receive back. A CCA would be your agreement, where an SAR would mean every piece of data they have on you including payments, but that would have to be from the original creditor.

[Pinky69]

It doesn't matter what they do with the £1 - they can shove it up their jacksies if they want. All that matters is that you sent it in accordance with the requirements of a CCA request under the Act and have proof that you did so.

[Qami]

Well said Pinky. I'll just wait to see what they come up with in their next letter.

 

It doesn't matter what they do with the £1 - they can shove it up their jacksies if they want. All that matters is that you sent it in accordance with the requirements of a CCA request under the Act and have proof that you did so.

[Qami]

Hello everyone. Furthering to my previous messages I would like to give an update. Firstly, just to recap, a couple of months ago I received an "Investigation of assets" letter from Link Financial asking me to make payment towards an "alleged" debt. As advised by some of the helpful experts on here I sent off the CCA request letter. I received a reply which stated that they will contact the bank to gain the required info and will get back to me within 30 days. The £1 fee which I sent Link Financial was illegitimately used by them to reduce the outstanding balance of the "Alleged" debt even though I had made it crystal clear that I want the fee returned if it is not used for its intended purpose. It has now exceeded 30 days and I have not heard from Link Financial.

What I would like to do now is, A) Inform Link Financial that the 30 day time-scale is up and request that they send me a letter confirming they will not contact me again in relation to the alleged debt. B) They should return the £1 fee which was illegitimately used to reduce the balance of the "Alleged" debt. Can someone please show me an example letter based on the factors above which I can send to Link Financial?. This will be much appreciated.

[Qami]

[Qami]

[heliosfa]

I've just read through your thread, and noted a few points that have gone unanswered. I don't suppose you could answer them?

 

Have you ever had a "Personal Loan" with Abbey?

If you have, did you leave it outstanding?

If you did leave it outstanding, when did you last make payment to it?

 

If you can post this info up, I'm sure some people can help you out with the next step!

 

Thanks,

H

[Qami]

I am not 100% certain if I have had a loan from Abbey however I am 100% certain that I have not taken out any loans nor paid towards any loans for at-least 7 years.

 

I've just read through your thread, and noted a few points that have gone unanswered. I don't suppose you could answer them?

 

Have you ever had a "Personal Loan" with Abbey?

If you have, did you leave it outstanding?

If you did leave it outstanding, when did you last make payment to it?

 

If you can post this info up, I'm sure some people can help you out with the next step!

 

Thanks,

H

[Qami]