Debt Managers Ltd

[HighWayMan]

Hello All,

 

I found this site yesterday while searching for information on Aktive Kapital. I've now probably spent 4 hrs reading posts and what a great site this is.

 

Before I start tackling bank charges I have a more pressing matter.

 

The reason I was looking for Aktive Kapital was yesterday morning I received a letter from Debt Managers Ltd on behalf of client Aktive Kapital. It is a "Urgent Final Demand" for the payment of £754.

 

Firstly I have never heard of Debt Managers Ltd, and also have not received any other demands from them, and secondly I have never heard of Aktive Kapital.

 

I phoned Debt Managers Ltd and tried to get some information out of them which was extremely difficult. They wouldn't tell me who Aktive Kapital are or what the debt is for other than "something you bought on finance in 2001". I can not recall buying anything on finance in 2001. I also asked if they had purchased the debt and they responded "it has been passed to us".

 

Having read so much on this site I believe the best course of action is to send a CCA letter to Debt Managers Ltd. I cannot find a template for this so please could someone post a link. Should I be sending a Data Protection letter to Aktive Kapita as well? Is there anything else I should be doing at this stage and is this the correct course of action?

 

Any help here would be greatly appreciated.

[maddyrose1664]

Dear Sir

 

I do not acknowledge ANY debt to your company. I require you to supply the following documentation before I will correspond with you further on this matter.

 

1. You must supply me with a true copy of the alleged agreement you refer to. This is my right under your obligation to supply a copy of the agreement, under the legislation contained within s.78 (1) Consumer Credit Act 1974 (change this to s.77 (1) for fixed sum credit such as loans etc).

 

2. A full statement of account.

 

3. A signed true copy of the deed of assignment of the above referenced agreement that you allege exists.

 

You are notified that you are obliged to supply these documents, whether or not you are the original creditor, under s.189 of the Consumer Credit Act 1974. I enclose a £1 postal order in payment of the statutory fee, PO Serial Number xxxxx.

 

Non-compliance with my request is a criminal offence under the above Act and will result in a report being submitted to the relevant statutory authorities.

 

As you are aware, a credit agreement that is not properly documented and signed by the customer is totally unenforceable under the Consumer Credit Act and therefore is a complete defence to any court claim that is issued.

 

Take note at this stage, that any legal action you may contemplate will be both vigorously defended and contested.

 

Yours faithfully

 

 

 

There's the letter.

 

I think it's a bit dodgy that you've never heard of these companies. Are you absolutely positive you didn't buy something on finance? Have you paid anything to these people? Finance companies change their names or merge quite a lot so bear that in mind too.

 

I think you should establish exactly what this debt is before you do anything.

[maddyrose1664]

Just found out Aktive Kapital used be called Sharpbranch Ltd. Does that name ring any bells?

[HighWayMan]

^^thanks for the letter.

 

No I'm not 100% sure I didn't buy something in 2001, 90% sure. I try not to buy things on finance except once I bought a bike, but that was in about 1998.

 

I have definately not heard of these companies before but I believe Aktive Kapital may be linked to Providian. The only thing I had with them was a Credit Card which has been paid off in full (I have all statements) but that was taken out late 2000.

 

As regards to what the debt is for, they would not tell me.

 

 

 

edit ** I have not heard of Sharpbranch before.

[maddyrose1664]

In that case I would write to them immediately and tell them that until you know what this debt is regarding you will not cooperate. They have a duty to tell you.

 

Have you paid them anything at all? Or being paying a direct debit since 2001?

[HighWayMan]

I've paid neither company any money directly but as you said if they were under a different name then possibly.

 

The only things I have on direct debit I can account for, internet, mobile phone etc.

 

So I'm a bit lost on who they are. Strange thing, while on the phoone I noted that they have on file all my info except for a telephone number. The person kept asking for it so I told them if they didn't have it on file I wasn't going to give it to them. I have lived at the same address for 24 years and our telephone number has never changed.

 

If I send the CCA letter the response should help inform me of what the debt is for.

[maddyrose1664]

I think that's a good idea. You might have a bit of digging to do to find out who the debt began with. It sounds like it has been passed around a lot.

 

Let us know how you get on.

[maddyrose1664]

Just thought of something else you could do. If you go to Credit Reports: Get your Credit Report from Experian UK you can register for a months free trial. You can get a copy of your credit reference file and on there are the addresses of most if not all of your creditors. That might shed some light.

[HighWayMan]

Yep thanks, registered this morning but am still awaiting a password to come through. I'll post whatever appears on it.

[HighWayMan]

Ok I got my credit report bits today.

 

There are several items on there, everything I can think of even down to mobile phone bills. There is nothing I can think of that does not appear on there, everything that does and is outstanding I can account for eg bank loan, mobile phone. The rest simply says 'settled', even the financed bike that I thought may be the route of this.

 

Now this 12/30 days has been settled they have until the 16th to reply.

 

Still holding tight! But would love to know what this debt is for.

[maddyrose1664]

 

Still holding tight! But would love to know what this debt is for.

 

Me too!

[HighWayMan]

Hey again,

 

This morning I woke up to a letter from Debt Mangers Ltd.

 

It appears that they knocked the £1 PO I sent off the total of the debt. The letter states that: -

 

"The information requested by you is not available to us and in view of this we have closed our file and rturned it to Aktiv Kapita"

 

I didn't expect them to give in this easy. Should I now go after Aktiv Kapita or should I sit tight and wait for them to come to me?

 

Needless to say, as I received no information at all I still have no idea what this is all about.

[maddyrose1664]

Go after Aktiv if only to find out what this debt refers to. I'm dying to know!!

 

This is weird!

[HighWayMan]

I'm a little concerned that if I go after them then it's possible they could turn around and issue me with all the documents and request their money.

 

But if they come after me can I have them for breach of the Data Protection Act on the grounds that: -

 

• Debt Managers issued me a letter saying my details had been passed to them by Aktiv and they're chasing it
  
• They can't provide me with the documents, making it illegal for them to chase

In my mind this makes Aktiv in breach of the DPA as Debt Managers aren't supposed to have my data.

 

I think I'll file this under my "weird and unexplained" folder just in case Aktiv are in possession of the docs.

[HighWayMan]

Been a few months and this thing just keeps on going.

 

Early in October I received a letter from Aktiv Kapital (UK) Ltd stating that I have accepted the debt because I paid money in to the account. This happened to be the £1 Postal Order sent to Debt Managers Ltd. It continued ".blah.blah.blah..please pay".

 

Well, I had no intention of responding with another CCA letter at that time, figured if I have to send them £1 i'd let them spend that in chasing. So, back end of October I receive another letter, please pay or we'll take you to court.

 

Fine, on 2nd November I sent the CCA letter. On the 7th I received a acknowledgement from AK and a "we aim to provide you with this same information within the statutory 30 day period."

 

30 days??? I thought the period was 12 days, then they have a further 30 days before they are breaking the law?? Please correct me if i've misread any information. This puts the 42 day deadline at 13/12/2006 by my calcuation.

 

Then on 29th November, 27 days after posting the CCA letter, a futher letter arrives enclosing a copy of the original agreement, fully signed by myself.

 

It turns out this is over a P.C. bought, don't remember where from Curry's or Comet, something like that but at least I now know what all this is for....result in my book. This agreement is dated 14/03/2001, over 5 years ago. looking back through bank statements I paid 5 payments up to August 2001. At this time i lost my job so stopped all direct debits. Two months later I moved out of the address, that was the last heard of this until the Debt Managers letter.

 

That is all that was enclosed, no statements, no deed of assignment.

 

I remember reading that a debt becomes void if there is no acknowledgement of the debt within a 5 year period. Is this correct and does it apply in this situation?

 

Also if there is no Deed of Assignment i can't guarentee that the original creditor won't come after me as well, once I've paid up.

 

So, where do I go from here?

 

Thanks again maddyrose for all your help on this. At least we know what it's for!!

[HighWayMan]

Can anyone help me on the above? I'm really unsure where to go from here.

 

I've also read a debate on whether under the CCA they actually need to provide the Deed of Assignment.

 

Is there a route that I should be taking from here?

[HighWayMan]

Bump....I could really use someone's help now. I have a feeling I should be receiving a further demand in the next few days.

[NemesisRanger]

I've just been scanning through your post about Debt Managers Ltd.

I too have a letter from them demanding payment of a debt to a company that I've never heard of for an amount that I don't know of!

I was starting to think that it was a bogus company trying to con money out of me with a false debt, until I searched the internet for Activ Kapital and Debt Managers Ltd.

One reason I was thinking this, is because my name is slightly wrong on the debt, the middle initial is wrong, so is that my get-out clause?

Now I'm beginning to wonder could I really have an outstanding debt I forgot about!?

Although my "Activ Kapital" appears to be different to yours.

My 'debt' is with "Activ Kapital FI-Bennetts (Retail) Limited"

I can only find Activ-Kapital on the Internet, nothing about the rest of the title.

Have you heard anything else?

Is there anybody else out there that has encountered this company?

[tomcat2]

Hi - I'm just new to this forum and i'm very glad that I have discovered it. I have also received threatening letters of demands by AKTIV Kapital, claiming that I owe a debt to Barclays Bank (£518). I have no recollection of that debt and fear a bogus claim. After much searching on internet and calls to Debt national helplines, I was advised to call the debt company to clarify what the debt was. In the phone call to AKTIV they advised me that this debt dated back to 1997 and had I lived at a particular address - (I hadn't) which AKTIV claimed that I had resided at . They then said they would 'continue with their investigation'. Today I received another letter from Pargate Investigators Bureau (all that for £500!) saying that they would 'commnece inquiries into your current financial position. We will arrange for a visit from a collector or one of our trace and audit investigators' :o.

 

My query is:

1. Do I send the debt company a letter demanding clarification of the debt and proff that they have that I have resided at claimed address- if so, does anyone have a sample?

2. If I did owe the debt could I quote them the 'statute of limitation Act'?

3. Do their demands fall under harassment and how could I get them to stop?

 

Thank you in advance to anyone with suggestions!

Tomcat2

[noomill060]

Do not do anything that could be remotely interpreted as acknowleging the debt. I wouldnt make any further contact with them at all.

 

The debt is Statute Barred as it is over six years old.

 

Acknowleging the debt reactivates it! Dont do it!!!

[tomcat2]

Thanks for your reply - I understand that I shouldn't acknowledge debt - the one contact I had over the phone with them was to deny the debt. Should I, in any case, put it in writing to them and to request that they stop harassing me?

 

Ta!

[noomill060]

No. No. No.

 

A thousand times no.

 

Thats what they want you to do so they have something paper with your signature to wave about.

 

Contact Trading Standards when you tire of the phone calls and when you are ready to start playing with them.

 

Keep a note of the times and dates of the phones calls and all the letters they send you.

[noomill060]

Dont identify yourself when they ask you to confirm your name and post code. Just tell them to *% off whenever they ring.

[noomill060]

But keep a note of the times and dates they ring. When you have a few weeks worth of phone calls, contact Trading Standards.

[tomcat2]

Thanks again for replies.

I've got the message - I WILL definitely not be contacting them. Just to clarify the matter, they don't telephone me but send me letters every week with increasing demands - I actually threw away the first couple as I thought they were bogus claims - but as those letters got more threatening, citing that they would damage my credit rating and refer me to a solicitor, I got nervous.

 

I'll ignore them and keep you all posted on outcome - so glad I've found this forum with all your helpful suggestions!