Moorcroft Debt Recovery

[BillyBob1]

To cut a long story short, I'm in the later stages of applying for an IVA and still receiving numerous letter per day from my creditors.

 

I was hoping I could post the latest here along with my reply for some critique?

 

Hopefully my IVA proposal will be accepted as and when, in the meantime I'm just fending off the creditors daily 'Notice of Intended Litigation' letters and I hope me posting some examples here might help someone else doing the same.

 

Please see the following for the latest letter from Moorcroft Debt Recovery:

 

http://img23.imageshack.us/img23/4749/moorcroft.jpg

[BillyBob1]

And my reply:

 

Dear Sir or Madam,

 

Account Ref: **** **** **** ****

Your Client: Royal Bank of Scotland PLC

 

Further to your letter dated 25th September 2009, please be advised that you will not call to my home to collect any debt. Any communication regarding this debt should be sent directly to the insolvency practitioner working to assist me with my financial affairs. A proposal to repay any debt that you claim is owed will be made as soon as it is reasonably practical to do so. Your client has already been made aware of this and has continued to harass me. Please find attached a further instruction for you to deal directly with my insolvency practitioner.

 

Furthermore, should it be your intention to arrange a “doorstep call”, please be advised that under OFT rules, you can only visit me at my home if you make an appointment and I have no wish to make such an appointment with you. Should you ignore this, I assure you I will call the police and have any offending doorstep callers removed from my property.

 

There is only an implied license under English Common Law for people to be able to visit me on my property without express permission; the postman and people asking for directions etc (Armstrong v Sheppard & Short Ltd [1959] 2 QB 384 per Lord Evershed M.R.). Therefore take note that I revoke license under Common Law for you, or your representatives to visit me at my property and, if you do so, you will be liable to damages for a tort of trespass and action will be taken, including but not limited to, police attendance.

 

With regard to the fact that you claimed to have confirmed my occupancy with a major public utility, I note that you fail to disclose which public utility. I fail to see how this can be achieved without breach of the Data Protection Act 1998 and request that you send me the following information to allow me to consider bringing possible litigation against your company.

 

Information I request:

 

·The name and position of Person from your company requesting my occupancy details from the Public Utility

·The name of the Public Utility in question

·The name and position of the person who confirmed my occupancy from the Public Utility

·The contact details of all relevant parties

·The date the confirmation of occupancy took place

·The means by which the above information was requested and received

·Copies of all communications sent and received by your company

 

Further information may be requested from my solicitor.

 

Reply only with the above details, do not reply with your opinion as to whether a breach of the Data Protection Act 1998 has taken place.

 

Should you fail to respond to me with the above information, it will be assumed that the Notice of Intended Litigation received from yourselves (Dated 25/09/09 Ref: ***********************) deliberately contains statements that are untrue. This would of course be reflected in my vigorous defence of any litigation brought by your company.

 

Also, this letter is a formal request pursuant to s.78(1) of the Consumer Credit Act 1974. I require you to provide me with a true copy of the credit agreement relating to the above account, together with any other documentation the Act requires you to provide.

 

I expect you to comply fully and properly with this request, within the statutory time limit. You are reminded that should you fail to comply with my request, the provisions of s.77(6) will apply.

 

If it is your view that you are not the creditor, s.175 of the CCA 1974 applies in the case of a simple assignment, and places a duty upon you to pass this request to the creditor. In the case of an absolute assignment, you are a creditor as defined by s.189. If you contend that you purchased the rights but not the duties of any agreement, you are reminded that s.189 of the Act is clear that an assignment is of both rights and duties.

 

Your attention is drawn to ss.5(2), 3(b),6 and 7 of the Consumer Protection from Unfair Trading Regulations 2008 (CPUTR).

 

I enclose a postal order in the sum of £1.00, which is the statutory fee. Note that these funds are not to be used for any other purpose.

 

 

If you are unable to comply fully and properly with this request, you should confirm this in writing at the earliest opportunity, and certainly within the statutory time limit for compliance, and return the fee.

 

The information I request in this letter should be sent directly to me at the following address:

 

Mr Billy Bob

Address: *****************

Yours faithfully,

Mr B Bob

[mr.ton]

This threatogram youve received off Moorcroft is just standard template nonsense not worth the paper its printed on.

Send them a bemused letter or request a CCA off them...that'll shut them up

[diskmandave]

And my reply:

 

Dear Sir or Madam,

 

Account Ref: **** **** **** ****

Your Client: Royal Bank of Scotland PLC

 

Further to your letter dated 25th September 2009, please be advised that any communication regarding this debt should be sent directly to the insolvency practitioner working to assist me with my financial affairs. A proposal to repay any debt that you claim is owed will be made as soon as it is reasonably practical to do so. Your client has already been made aware of this and has continued to harass me. Please find attached a further instruction for you to deal directly with my insolvency practitioner.

 

Cut the rest out!!!

 

Far too much information that isn't called for..

 

Deal with the letter and nothing else, in a business like manner.

The quote above does just that without going off at a tangent..

 

Otherwise, yes, a standard template letter, I've got at

least a dozen of them for different creditors over the years!

 

Good luck, Dave.

[BillyBob1]

Thanks for the prompt reply diskmandave.

 

To be honest, my original letters contained just about that paragraph as recommended also by my IP, the rest is simply fluff to keep them busy for a couple of weeks.

 

The trouble I found is the creditors are not legally obliged to communicate direct with my IP until the IVA is in place (afaik - please correct me), and all but one so far have ignored my requests to direct their correspondance to my IP.

 

It really annoys me how, even after being advised that we're (my IP and myself) are trying to sort out a proposal for the creditors, I have to put up with daily 'Notice of Intended Lititgation' letters.

 

Again, I intend to make an offer to repay the debt via an IVA - the CCA bit is pretty irrelevant but keeps em busy!

 

The DPA bit is in there just to see what response I get back for the benefit of other people really, I noticed from a quick google it's on a lot of letters sent from Moorcroft.

[BillyBob1]

And finally a reply from Moorcroft.

 

http://img200.imageshack.us/img200/6334/moorcroftdr.jpg

 

I'm absolutely furious that these people have completely ignored the content of my previous letter to them (above). I'm sure they are breaching the OFT Guidelines on debt collection by using statements that are untrue on their correspondance with me, I'm going to get stuck into some serious reading shortly.

 

Is the conent of this letter correct - is it my responsiblity to contact the original creditor for the CCA request?

 

I'm also wording a reply, any further input will be greatly appreciated.

 

Thanks as always - billy.

[PGH7447]

load of carp, they are the ones who should get this after your request, wiat until the dealine of 12+2 days then send the account indispute letter to these fools

[Melbel]

Oh ive had the smae nonsense from them. They ignored all my letters apart from the one that went recorded delivery. Accused me of ignoring them!! and are now denying they received any letters.. (even though they replied to them))/.. im in the process of complaining to them same as you.. total morons

[bazaar]

Yep agree with PGH, wait until they default on your cca request, then send them account in dispute letter within which you tell them there will be no further payment without proof of debt.

You could have saved your £1 by going the CPR route seeing that theyve threatened legal action.

[BillyBob1]

Thank you all for your replies - they are very much appreciated.

 

I have drafted a letter ready to send to Moorcroft, please find it below. I apolgise for the heavy reading, I have commented out the standard 'account in dispute' part so anyone following this thread can skip through it more easily.

 

Ok, here goes:

 

 

 

 

Mr B Bob

23rd October 2009

 

Moorcroft Debt Recovery Limited

PO Box 17

2 Spring Gardens

Stockport

SK1 4AJ

 

Dear Sir or Madam,

 

Account Ref: ********************

Your Client: ********************

 

I wrote to you on the 28th September 2009 to address a number of issues. On the 21st October 2009 I received a letter from you that failed to answer any of the issues raised in my letter. For reference, please find attached a copy of my original letter.

 

In my original letter, I requested that you send me a true copy of the original credit card agreement pursuant to the Consumer Credit Act 1974. You failed to send a true copy of the credit agreement to me in the timeframe set out in the Consumer Credit Act. You claim it is my responsibility to write to the original creditor to request this document when this is not the case. As agents for the original creditor, it is your responsibility to send me a true copy of the original credit agreement when requested. As you have claimed otherwise, you have deliberately made a statement that is untrue. This is irresponsible and will not be tolerated.

 

If it is your view that you are not the creditor, Section 175 of the CCA 1974 applies in the case of a simple assignment, and places a duty upon you to pass this request to the creditor. As such, you have breached Section 175 of the CCA 1974.

 

 

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Standard 'account in dispute' bit

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Furthermore, you are aware that the Consumer Credit Act allows 12 working days for a request for a true copy of a credit agreement to be carried out before your client enters into a default situation. This limit has expired.

 

As you are no doubt aware section 78(6) states:

 

If the creditor fails to comply with Subsection (1)

 

(a) He is not entitled , while the default continues, to enforce the agreement.

 

Therefore this account has become unenforceable at law.

 

As you have failed to comply with a lawful request for a true, signed copy of the said agreement and other relevant documents mentioned in it, failed to send a full statement of the account and Failed to provide any of the documentation requested. You will also be aware of the CPUTR 2008 and the OFT's guidelines on debt collection which state under the title Deceptive and/or unfair methods - Examples of unfair practices are as follows - 2.8

 

(i) - 'Failing to investigate and/or provide details as appropriate, when a debt is queried or disputed, possibly resulting in debtors being wrongly pursued'.

(k) - 'Not ceasing collection activity whilst investigating a reasonable queried or disputed debt'.

 

Consequentially any legal action you pursue will be averred as both UNLAWFUL and VEXATIOUS. Furthermore I shall counterclaim that any such action constitutes unlawful harassment.

 

Please note you may also consider this letter as a statutory notice under section 10 of the Data Protection Act to cease processing any data in relation to this account with immediate effect.

 

This means you must remove all information regarding this account from your own internal records and from my records with any credit reference agencies. Should you refuse to comply, you must within 21 days provide me with a detailed breakdown of your reasoning behind continuing to process my data. It is not sufficient to simply state that you have a ‘legal right’; You must outline your reasoning in this matter and state upon which legislation this reasoning depends.

 

Should you not respond within 14 days I expect that this means you agree to remove all such data.

 

Furthermore you should be aware that a creditor is not permitted to take ANY

Action against an account whilst it remains in dispute. The lack of a credit agreement is a very clear dispute and as such the following applies. You may not demand any payment on the account, nor am I obliged to offer any payment to you. You may not add further interest or any charges to the account. You may not pass the account to a third party. You may not register any information in respect of the account with any credit reference agency. You may not issue a default notice related to the account.

 

 

#########################################

End of standard 'account in dispute' bit

#########################################

 

 

 

In your letter dated 25th September 2009 you claimed to have confirmed my occupancy with a major public utility. I asked that you justify this statement with evidence of such or admit to me in writing that you included a statement in your letter that you know to be untrue. You have failed to do this, in fact you completely ignored my request and made no mention of it in your most recent reply. This is utterly irresponsible and evidence that you are clearly unwilling to answer my legitimate requests will be presented to a court of law when required.

 

 

Section 2.1 of the Office of Fair Trading – Debt Collection Guidance states:

 

2 UNFAIR BUSINESS PRACTICES

Communication

 

2.1 It is unfair to communicate, in whatever form, with consumers in an unclear,

inaccurate or misleading manner.

By using the statement, ‘We have confirmed your occupancy with a major public utility’ you have clearly communicated with me in a misleading manner and as such have breached the guidance referred to above.

 

 

 

 

In August I wrote to all of my creditors and their appointed representatives to inform them that they should direct all correspondence directly to the Insolvency Practitioner working to assist me with my financial affairs. You ignored this request and continued to harass me with your repeated requested for payment in full of the alleged debt. Because of this you are also in breach of Section 2.8© and 2.8(d) of the Office of Fair Trading – Debt Collection Guidance. The relevant sections are detailed below.

Deceptive and/or unfair methods

2.8 Examples of unfair practices are as follows:

c. Refusing to deal with appointed or authorised third parties, such as Citizens Advice Bureaux, independent advice centres or money advisers.

d. Contacting debtors directly and bypassing their appointed representatives.

 

 

I request you clarify your position on the breaches of the Consumer Credit Act 1974 and OFT Guidance directly to me within seven days.

 

 

The harassment suffered as a result of your companies incompetence and failure to adhere to the guidance set out in the OFT Debt Collection Guidance has caused my partner and myself great distress.

 

 

I hope you feel that you are able to address and avoid ignoring the issues contained in this letter. The fact that you ignored the issues in your reply to my last letter proved beyond doubt that you are acting improperly.

 

 

I wish to avoid commencing legal action but feel that should you fail to address the issues contained in this letter to my satisfaction I will have no choice but to instruct my solicitors to commence legal proceedings.

 

 

I very much look forward to receiving your reply,

 

Yours Faithfully,

 

Gentleman that does no longer sign his name.