Question relating to Debt Managers Ltd and requesting my CCA

[sedonarocks]

Hi all,

 

This is my first venture into a forum of any sort so I hope you can help.

 

I was made redundant in 2001 and spent a year unemployed. I had an account, overdraft and personal loan with Barclays that fell into arrears. Barclays sold this debt to Debt Managers Ltd in Sep 2002 after I had missed 4 payments on an agreed repayment plan due to more employment difficulties. At this time the debt was approx £8200 in total.

 

I have been paying a monthly sum to DM's Ltd, defined by income and expenditure which doesn't really make much difference on this debt. In parallel to this I recently subscribed to Experian and everything was ok. The Debt showed regular payments for recent years. However, a Default has now appeared against this account unexpectedly, issued by Barclays or DM's (I'm not entirely sure), and it is dated Feb 2005.

 

My question is, although the Default will expire early next year after 6 years, would requesting my original Barclays CCA via a "letter N" to DM's be likely to result in DMs Ltd ceasing their chasing activity if they can not provide it, and if so could the default then be removed?

 

I'm concerned that as I have made payments to DM's already, that I have inadvertently acknowledged the debt as true yet not really managed to clear any of it still.

 

Sorry if this is a bit garbled, I'm not used to having to explain this kind of thing. Basically I feel pressured and tied into DM's payment plan when I think it could actually be unenforceable if I had the correct way of raising this.

 

Unfortunately, due to poor organisation on my part in my early Twenties and some over-diligent shredding activity, I do not have any paperwork relating to the Barclays accounts.

 

Any comments or suggestions would be most welcomed.

Thanks,

[Pinky69]

You are perfectly clear. You feel you have acknowledged the debt by paying it but you want to query whether it is enforceable, which you are quite within your legal rights to do anytime. Just because you have been paying it does not stop you asking whether they have any lawful right to collect it and to stop paying it if they don't. Don't worry about the past - we have all been there. Send a CCA request, print don't sign the letter, and enclose the £1 postal order. They have 12(+2 for admin) days to reply and if they don't send a copy of your agreement in that time you can out the account into dispute.

[sedonarocks]

Thanks so much for this, it feels like a weight is lifting!

 

If they can't provide this and I do instigate a dispute, are there any templates for letters I can use in this particular scenario?

 

Also, I'm a little concerned about taking it to dispute actually - I mean what if it is reviewed by the relevant ombudsman and they find I am liable after all, would it mean I have absolutely no choice but to continue the payments?

 

Sorry, you've probably been asked all this so many times but I couldn't see any posts similar to this scenario...

Thanks again,

[Pinky69]

There is an Account in Dispute template if you need it. The Ombudsman won't review anything unless you ask them to and you have to have exhausted your complaints to the DCA first. Also the Ombudsman is a waste of space on agreements and takes the view you owe the money whether you do or not so you would be wasting your time there. It is sufficient in law to dispute an alleged debt which has no agreement and you can decide whether to pay or not if the agreement is unenforceable. If you do decide not to pay (as I did), there is nothing they can do about it. A DCA like Debt Managers has no legal powers whatsoever.

[sedonarocks]

Ok thanks for this. I will get the CCA request letter off to them recorded delivery with a £1.00 postal order and take it from there. Hopefully they will have nothing to back up the enforcement. One concern I have is that they do already have my signature on the debit card mandate that I signed for them to debit my card each month. I'm not implying this could somehow find it's way onto a credit agreement but we'll see! Thanks for your help