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Cabot trying it on for statute barred debt


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Hi,

 

we have not posted before, so please be patient - although I think I m pretty confident in my reading of this situation....

 

Old MBNA debt from 1999 passed to Crapbot in Oct 1999.

 

No payments to account since 2000 - I have the full statement of the account from Cabot with all the dates on.

 

We paid off our other debts when we were back on our feet after a period of voluntary agreement, but MBNA would not freeze interest or accept statement of means or reasonable payment offers- the debt stood at around 5,000 at this point. Our credit rating is 999 and we have no defaults showing on it and no problems getting mortgage or credit now.

 

On the advice of a magistrate, who helped us through all this, we stopped paying crapbot in 2000, actually hoping for a CCJ which would at least fix the amount at a reasonable level as we really had no money at this point. Nothing happened except a letter every 18 months or so with vague rumblings in them. And this is how it continued until LAST YEAR - when crapbot started chasing.

 

We have not acknowledged the debt or anything like that as it is our uderstanding is that this is now statute barred. They sent round a man from Robinson way last year - with no notice or appointment agreed I might add - and we served him with the limitations letter, plus a reference to harrassment etc - same copy we also sent to crapbot. They sent him back 6 months later and when I opened the door and he saw me, he said "You are the statute barred one, right"? And turned and went away. (never to be seen again).

 

Anyway, during the last few weeks, the letters have started again and they have culimnated in a "solicotors letter" from Morgans - part of the Crapbot group with no registration number on the letter. They are demanding a response under the Practice Direction blah blah blah and demanding £10,000 with possible legal costs.

 

I have copies of the whole file from the start with all the details of telephone calls they made to us - hundreds and hundreds of them - we had to change our number, so they show as bad numbers. I have all correspondence to MBNA etc etc and the dates of final payments made etc etc. Pkus a subject access request which we made in 2005 as we had a letter in July of that year. I am certain that Crapbot don't know I have all this.

 

I can scan any docs up if anyone needs to see them and I have prepared a letter to send back. I think the letter is good to go, but my husband wants me to consult with the forum - which we have followed over the years. Fantastic forum that it is!!! My letter references various statutes and consumer laws which I think we could use to claim costs and damages from Crapbot for their appalling handling of the case.

 

I know I sound upbeat, but believe me, when this was all full on, back in 2000, it caused my husband to suffer a devastating asthma attack which almost killed him and would have left me with 3 small children.

 

It is our intention to fight any court action and to counter claim costs once the claim is struck out.

 

Any comments, advice or ofers to read my letter would be very much appreciated. I feel that I have a bit of a score to settle and would be pleased to see battle commence. Thak you in advance.

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They are in clear breach of OFT & CPUTR. Once you have stated that a debt is statute barred they are to cease all collection activities until they prove otherwise;

Statute barred debt

2.13

This guidance applies to the pursuit of debt regardless of its age. We will be

carrying out further work on this aspect of debt recovery including analysis of

relevant legislation and practice throughout the UK.

2.14

In the past we have dealt with a number of statute barred debt cases governed by the Limitation Act 1980, which applies to England and Wales. Based on that experience our position with regard to England and Wales remains:

a.

we accept legally the debt exists

b.

it is the methods by which the debt is collected that can be

unfair as follows:

it is unfair to pursue the debt if the debtor has heard nothing from

the creditor during the relevant limitation period

if a creditor has been in regular contact with a debtor before the debt

is statute barred, then we do not consider it unfair to continue to

attempt to recover the debt

it is unfair to mislead debtors as to their rights and obligations, for

example, falsely stating or implying that the debt is still legally

recoverable and relying on consumers not knowing the relevant legal

provisions, and

continuing to press for payment after a debtor has stated that they

will not be paying a debt because it is statute barred could amount to

harassment contrary to section 40 (1) of the Administration of

Justice Act 1970

 

You should make a complaint to your local Trading Standards via Consumer Direct Consumer Direct - Contact us & the OFT The Office of Fair Trading: Contact us

 

[email protected]

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Also beware that Cabot will pass on the debt to another Debt Collection Agency usually this is a company called Ruthbridge, you need to dispute it due to it being statute barred as soon as possible, send the letter in the post above (send recorded), and just keep a heads up in case it gets passed on to another DCA (which they are not allowed to do) I have seen a few statute barred disputed debts that have been passed on and the next DCA will attempt to collect on it....once you state that you will not be making a payment towards a debt that is statute barred they MUST stop harrassing you - this is what the OFT say

 

Section 2.14 (b) -

continuing to press for payment after a debtor has stated that they will not be paying a debt because it is statute barred could amount to harassment contrary to section 40 (1) of the Administration of Justice Act 1970.

Have a look at this too - The Office of Fair Trading: OFT imposes requirements on Mackenzie Hall to improve handling of disputed debts

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  • 2 weeks later...

Hi again,

 

well, we got letter back stating that the debt is not statute barred as we "last acknowledged the debt on 15 November 2006, through Robinson Way: a payment of £1.00 was made on that date". I am interested to find out more about this so called payment and the account number it came from etc etc. Am I right in thinking that I have seen this sort of behaviour quoted on this site before?

 

Also,this date looks inaccurate to us as we are sure that we made Subject Access request the previous year. We made the £1.00 payment by postal order for a Subject Access request, which showed that the debt dated from 2000. Does it really matter, though, as they seem to be making it all up as they go along. Are they really this thick? How do they ever get any money out of people?

 

Further down the letter it says that MBNA Europe issued a default notice for this account on 2 April 2000 and as a result the "limitation period runs from this date!" So,if that is the case and no payments or written acknowledgements were made from April 2000 to Nov 2006, haven't they acknowledged in this letter that the debt is statutue barred? I can't get my head around that bit at the moment!

 

They say that it is their right to recover the outstanding balance on this account and can take action through the courts to recover the full amount - which has mow increased since the last letter to £11, 039.64 and ask us to contact them by phone. LOL. Why not just get on with it, then? In some respects, this looks like the only way to settle this one - cos they look to be doing illegal things -to me.

 

I have inserted some extra paragraphs into the original letter which I already posted here, ready to send back, but would be interested to hear your comments on this one.

 

I am awaiting the updates from OFT etc. Should I sent them this letter too?

 

Thanks.

Edited by upforjustice
Looked at Cabot letter again and had a revelation
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The clock towards being Statute Barred starts from when the last payment you made became due which if you paid monthly would be one month after your last payment not from when a default was registered....that is done several weeks/months afterwards.

 

They are trying it on with the £1, that was probably payment for the CCA request (a sar costs £10).

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They cannot register another default, only one can be made against an a/c.

 

If they continue to pursue make a complaint to Trading Standards via the Consumer Direct website; Consumer Direct - Contact us and the OFT by email [email protected] or their website The Office of Fair Trading: Contact us

 

Cabot have to prove a debt is not Statute Barred, so far they haven't.

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Ok,

 

as I have a bit of time today, for a change... and am of the type to see things through..

 

I have now gone through the file which I have on this issue:

 

A subject access request was made on 20th July 2005 and also a CCA request on the same date. Our letter states that the money (£1.00 and £10.00 must not be used for any other purpose).

 

Crapbot responded to these on 28th July 2005. However, on the file correspondence and records (which I have copies of, as I said before) the notes say that the postal orders were passed to Payment processing to be applied to Ops acct. (Maybe this should have read oops in this case). Anyway, I cannot find the abbreviation for this term in the list of abbreviations which crabot uses, and which I also have a copy of. They also tried to ring US on that date and this is recorded on the file as a bad number - cos we have changed it due to their harrassment during 2000.

 

The date of the "doorstepping" by Robinson Way was in 2007 as far as I am aware, and they were given a copy of the standard statute barred letter which also went to Crapbot. If they have applied a payment, isn't that illegal also? Isn't it funny that this alleged payment was made so close to the date that the account would become statute barred?

 

Now, this means that I am very interested about this £1.00. I know that they are hissing in the wind, but why should this be allowed to happen and they get away with it?

 

What is going to be the most effective way of dealing with this? Do I need to get a solicitor involved?.... as the communications are now harrassment.

Do I need to involve the police?... as someone is claiming to make payments in our name - and surely this is illegal?

 

I don't think that a quick in and out in court with the case thrown out and no further action as happens in our busy world, where only the bare minimum is done to deal with the immediate problem, is satisfactory.

 

And can I call evidence from Robinson Way and OFT if I did commence action myself in this case? And do I need to tell Robinson Way what crapbot are saying as it obviously involves them? (address, please anybody?)

 

Has anyone else dealt with this and how did you go about it?

 

I want to keep it in proportion in my life, as it is a small itch in a big body, but still.....

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