Advice please with solicitor's letter received re unknown Halifax debt

[JD2009]

My daughter has recently received a letter from HL Legal Solicitors acting on behalf of CapQuest Debt Recovery Ltd, relating to a debt CapQuest allegedly purchased from Halifax PLC for almost £3000, which she has no knowledge of. The letter goes on to say that in April 2008 a Statutory Demand for bankruptcy was sent to her and that no response was ever received. (She has no knowledge of this either). Further, it goes on to say that in July 2007 she agreed to repay the debt at £45 per month and that payments were not maintained. (Again, this cannot be the case as this is the first correspondence she has seen with regard to the alleged debt). They continue by saying that if she fails to contact them a Bankruptcy Petition will be issued.

 

My daughter has no knowledge of this debt, although she did have an account and Credit Card previously with Halifax. Following an acrimonious split from her partner early this year, Halifax wrote to her regarding an outstanding £1,100 balance on her credit card that her ex-partner had run up as an authorised user. (He had suppressed all correspondence and she was naively unaware of this debt also). A full and final settlement at approximately £800 was agreed and paid in respect of the credit card debt. (At the time, she had enough to cope with and I had not discovered CAG, so "helped her out" of what we thought was an isolated problem). Also at that time Halifax were asked whether there were any other amounts outstanding and she was told no.

 

To further complicate matters: Following the split with her partner, the house they privately rented was lost and she and her four year old daughter are presently residing temporarily at our house. The letter she received was redirected by the Royal Mail.

 

My initial thoughts were to write to the solicitors denying any knowledge of the debt or their allegations of earlier correspondence and/or agreements to pay and demand that they return to CapQuest /Halifax to provide legal proof of the debt. However, as I have said above, neither CapQuest nor the solicitors are aware that my daughter is currectly living at our address and I am wary that adverse information could be registered against our address.

 

Any help and guidance would be very much appreciated.

 

Thanks in advance (and apologies for the length of post explaining the background).

[silverfox1961]

Hi,

It can be a bit quiet on here at the weekends so don't worry if you don't get an immediate reply. If you need more help than I'm giving, just "bump" your posts.

 

For now, have a look here

 

The Consumer Forums - Debt collectors

 

Letter 18 is the one.

 

DO NOT sign it. only print your name

send by recorded delivery to HL (this is important) Do a track and trace via the royal mail website to confirm it has been delivered and print off the proof of delivery. Keep the post office receipt too.

 

fox

[WelshMam2009]

Do you challenge and in doing so divulge that your daughter is residing at your address?? Has to be your decision. However, as her parents, your daughter will not be too difficult to find using tracing agents and Halifax are reknowned for using Power2Contact.

 

It sounds as if the ex has been having some fun and games with this one. Was the card cancelled?? Are you sure that it was a full and final settlement and not partial?? (Sorry, hope this isn't insulting!!)

 

In terms of the statutory demand, do you know if the bankruptcy petition went ahead?? Companies shouldn't be making idle threats that they have no intention of carrying out.

 

It all seems rather peculiar and, personally, I would be inclined to send the "prove it" letter. Don't disclose what you have but dig out all correspondence relating to the full and final settlement so that you have it to hand.

 

There isn't much else you can do until you receive a reply and hopefully this all begins to unravel.

 

Whatever happens, there are plenty of experienced and qualified people on this site who will be able to guide you as and when the time arises.

 

Best of luck!!

[JD2009]

Many thanks for the quick response silverfox1961. Your thoughts are along the same lines as mine, which is very reassuring.

 

I have read the letter template you are suggesting and think it is more than appropriate. My only concern is that any letter would, by necessity, need to give mine and my wife's address as being my daughter's temporary address and I am aware that DCA's etc. are not averse to ignoring what they can and cannot legally register with CRAs. Do you or anyone else have any thoughts on this point? I really cannot see any way around the address issue and do not feel that ignoring the letter entirely is a good idea.

 

Thanks again.

[cerberusalert]

An address is not blackmarked only the person & unless you have some financial association with your daughter, such as a joint bank a/c, you will not be linked to her.

 

Although once they do have an address for her there's no telling what other skeletons will start falling out of the cupboard. It may be wise if she checked her credit file too just to see what might be lurking around the corner.

[JD2009]

Do you challenge and in doing so divulge that your daughter is residing at your address?? Has to be your decision. However, as her parents, your daughter will not be too difficult to find using tracing agents and Halifax are reknowned for using Power2Contact.

 

It sounds as if the ex has been having some fun and games with this one. Was the card cancelled?? Are you sure that it was a full and final settlement and not partial?? (Sorry, hope this isn't insulting!!)

 

In terms of the statutory demand, do you know if the bankruptcy petition went ahead?? Companies shouldn't be making idle threats that they have no intention of carrying out.

 

It all seems rather peculiar and, personally, I would be inclined to send the "prove it" letter. Don't disclose what you have but dig out all correspondence relating to the full and final settlement so that you have it to hand.

 

There isn't much else you can do until you receive a reply and hopefully this all begins to unravel.

 

Whatever happens, there are plenty of experienced and qualified people on this site who will be able to guide you as and when the time arises.

 

Best of luck!!

 

Thanks WelshMam2009.

 

Yes, my daughter's ex certainly was and still is having "fun and games" in making matters far more difficult than they should be! So much so that if I posted regarding other issues, it would read like War and Peace! It wasn't until he left my daughter and Granddaughter that we discovered various worrying correspondence that he had obviously hidden so well even he had forgotten about it. The problem is trying to piece together the bits and pieces and that, to date, we have not found any other correspondence in regard to this specific issue. All added to his being very difficult and verbally threatening with regard to seeing their daughter! An absolute nightmare! (My daughter has recently sought the services of a solicitor with regard to the non-financial issues, but at this stage the restrictions of legal aid entitlement mean that dealing with the financial matters cannot be taken on by the solicitor, although the solicitor is aware of what looks like a fraud situation).

 

To answer your question regarding whether bankruptcy proceeding were ever issued, we are presuming not as the letter refers to my daughter having this "one last chance" to prevent that happening by contacting them.

 

The correspondence with Halifax regarding previous settlement of her credit card balance is presently being stored by a very good friend along with many of her possessions and we will ask him to dig out the letter, which we are certain did refer to "full and final settlement", however, our worry is that this latest issue may relate to another unknown debt previously sold by Halifax that has been incurred by her ex in her name.

 

 

P.S. Thanks also to cerberusalert for your response. I agree that it would be wise to obtain a credit report for my daughter. Just so much to deal with at present that it's all quite overwhelming for her. Thanks for the advice.

Edited May 17, 2009 by JD2009