Bls Collections - Help Needed Please

[weatherwitch]

Hi, this is my first day on this site and I have found some very interesting reading. I have been paying BLS collections for over 10 years now and have missed the last 2/3 months payments. I have received several letters, the last one today which is quite threatening really, saying that they are likely to ask the court to enforce the judgement in one of the following ways:

 

Warrant of execution

An attachment of earning

A charging order

 

I have not phoned them or written but wondered what my first action should be.

 

Any help would be very greatfully received

 

Thank you.

[maroondevo52]

Hello and Welcome, weatherwitch.

 

I'll move this thread to a more appropriate Forum.

 

Regards.

 

Scott.

[cerberusalert]

What is the alleged debt you're paying?

[Deb T]

and the amount owing (roughly) would also be good to know.

[weatherwitch]

Hi, o/s balance is £21,833.53 for a loan and I have been paying £70 pm, it started off lower but has increased over the years.

 

Thank you for replies

[cerberusalert]

First send them a CCA request to see if they are entitled to collect this debt & if it's enforcable. If they fail to provide it within 12 working days from receipt, or the CCA is unenforcable you can legally withold any payment until they do. Send it recorded delivery enclosing a £1 postal order. When you get a reply, scan it & remove any identifying details and post it back here where we can have a look at it. We'll advise you from there;

 

Dear Sir/Madam

 

Re:- Account No: XXXXXXXX/Your Reference Number: XXXXXXX

 

This letter is a formal request pursuant to s.77/78 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 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.

 

Furthermore, with regards to the quantity and frequency of telephone calls that I have received from your company, which I deem to be personally harassing.

 

I have verbally requested that these stop, but I am still receiving calls. (Delete if necessary)

 

I now require all further correspondence from your company to be made in writing only.

 

You are reminded of the following under Consumer Protection from Unfair Trading Regulations 2008.

 

Trading Standards can bring about a prosecution if, with the object of coercing another person to pay money claimed from the other as a debt due under contract, he or she:

 

(a) harasses the other with demands for payment which by their frequency, or the manner or occasion of their making, or any accompanying threat or publicity are calculated to subject him or his family or household to alarm, distress or humiliation;

(b) falsely represents, in relation to the money claimed, that criminal proceedings lie for failure to pay it;

© falsely represent themselves to be authorized in some official capacity to claim or enforce payment;

(d) utters a document falsely represented by him to have some official character or purporting to have some official character which he knows it has not.

 

I am of the view that your harassment of me by telephone puts you in breach of the Consumer Protection from Unfair Trading Regulations 2008, and the Protection from Harassment Act 1997.

 

If you continue to harass me by telephone, you will also be in breach of the Communications Act (2003) s.127 and I will report you to OFCOM, Trading Standards and The Office of Fair Trading, meaning that you will be liable to a substantial fine.

 

Further to this if it is your intention to arrange a call from your 'Doorstep Collectors', I note that there is only an implied license under English Common Law for certain people to visit me on my property without express permission; the postman and people asking for directions etc (Armstrong v. Sheppard and Short Ltd [1959] 2 Q.B. per Lord Evershed M.R.).

 

Take note, I revoke license under English Common Law for you, or any of your representatives to visit me at my property and if you do so without my permission, you will then be liable to damages for a tort of trespass. You would also be conspiring in a trespass if you sent someone to visit me nevertheless. Any trespassers you attempt to send therefore will be dealt with accordingly.Be further advised that any further telephone calls from your company will be recorded.

 

(Print in red optional addition)

 

I look forward to hearing from you.

 

Yours faithfully **Edit to suit**

 

(Print do not sign signature)

[weatherwitch]

Many thanks indeed cerberusalert, at least I have something to start with as I wasn't sure how to do it, much appreciated. I will be back on here in the future with their response.

 

Thanks again,

 

weatherwitch

[Deb T]

What was the original amount of the loan?

Who was it originally with?

Was it assigned to BLS Collections or are they simply an appointed collection agent?

Do you own your own home?

[weatherwitch]

Hi DebT,

 

What was the original amount of the loan?

Think it was around £30K

 

Who was it originally with?

Lloyds bank

 

Was it assigned to BLS Collections or are they simply an appointed collection agent?

Not sure exactly what you mean but I think it was assigned to them

 

Do you own your own home?

Yes

[cerberusalert]

What was the original amount of the loan?

Think it was around £30K

I'm afraid the letter I advised you to send in post #6 isn't suitable as a loan of £30K is not covered by the CCA 1974.

 

It would be better to send a sar which will cost £10 http://www.consumerforums.com/resources/templates-library/86-debt-collectors/576-subject-access-request-debt-a-dca with this you'll still get a copy of the agreement & also copies of statements etc which will show if there are any unfair charges + PPI you can reclaim. This needs to be sent to the original creditor.

 

If the debt has been sold on through the years it may be necessary to send one to the new creditor at a later date to see what has occurred with the a/c since.

[cerberusalert]

I have received several letters, the last one today which is quite threatening really, saying that they are likely to ask the court to enforce the judgement in one of the following ways:

 

Warrant of execution

An attachment of earning

A charging order

 

Have they already obtained a CCJ against you? If not they can't do any of the above.

[weatherwitch]

Hubby seems to think it is less than 30k but to be honest we can't remember, it was two loans of 13k I think and that was on top of a small loan.

 

They have not obtained a CCJ against me.

 

Thanks

[cerberusalert]

If there are three seperate loans you could send the letter in post #6 for each or the SAR for all of them. One sar covers all the a/cs that you have with the same creditor.

[cerberusalert]

Just to explain a little, if these are three separate loans and have not been consolidated into one they are covered by the CCA 1974 and should be looked at individually... each will have a separate agreement. If they have been consolidated it will put it over the threshold of £25K which was the limit covered by the CCA 1974 at that time, so will have to be looked at differently.

 

If they are still separate loans the chances of one or more of them being unenforceable have increased.

 

Have you received any 'Default Notices' or 'Termination Notices' for any of these yet?

[weatherwitch]

Ok, thank you. So do I send 3 separate postal orders if I think it is for 3 different loans?

 

No I have not received any 'Default Notices' or 'Termination Notices'

[cerberusalert]

So do I send 3 separate postal orders if I think it is for 3 different loans?

If they're three separate loans and are being chased by they same people you can send the 3 CCA requests together with one £3 postal order. Mark each CCA request with the a/c number.

[weatherwitch]

I only have one account number though and it looks like they have lumped it all together as one amount due, will this matter at all?

 

Thanks

[cerberusalert]

They shouldn't have lumped all three together, just send the one CCA for now using the a/c number they've given you & we'll see what that throws up.

[weatherwitch]

Ok, thank you very much for your help and I will let you know what happens.

 

[weatherwitch]

Hi again, I don't know if any of this will help me but I have had a root about and have found all (I think) of the original documentation relating to my loans, some dating as far back as 1996. A very interesting point here is that they have put a cross in the optional loan repayment protection box, something that I don't remember requesting as we had other plans in place and also considered our employment to be of a safe nature and not a job that would become redundant (true) as we are still employed by the same company.....could this help my cause?

[cerberusalert]

You'll be able to reclaim the PPI and any unfair charges. Once we've been able to check the enforcibility of the CCAs or not it will be necessary to send a sar to see exactly what the state of these a/cs are.

[magicpuppy]

We deal with BLS and LTSB. We are the same company (BLS AND LTSB) for example, i could have a call come through for BLS then the next call would be LTSB. Once your account is in recoveries all intrest and charges are stopped. in collections they hit you with charges and intrest (unaceptable i know) they offer settlements if you have not missed payments and its usually above 50%. Euro debt are the best debt management company to go with if you are having difficulties (not the free ones as they are in it with the banks) the letters that bls or lloyds send you threatning this and that, asking for the balance in full is their first approach, if you can not pay this then they will negotiate with you on a figure you can manage per month. Just wanted to make aware that BLS and LTSB is the same company. I had a customer who phoned in (came up BLS as he had phoned the bls number) then said he would not deal with bls, he would only deal with ltsb, i gave him the number for lloyds, he phoned back and got me again. We are not heartless robots, we are with the people that take out loans or credit cards or overdrafts with no intention of paying it back, then obviously they will have court judgements etc, the people that want to pay back their debt are not treated badly. if you ignore your debt then thats when they will pass your debt onto horrible debt collectors who are not going to let you get away with running away, they will come to your door and they have every right, their not doing anything ilegal.

[Deb T]

We are not heartless robots, we are with the people that take out loans or credit cards or overdrafts with no intention of paying it back, then obviously they will have court judgements etc, the people that want to pay back their debt are not treated badly. if you ignore your debt then thats when they will pass your debt onto horrible debt collectors who are not going to let you get away with running away, they will come to your door and they have every right, their not doing anything ilegal.

 

First off, welcome to CAG, interesting side of the story but not one I'd agree with. First off, the lenders have in the past been altogether irresponsible in first their lending practices, as long as you could sign your name the money was pretty much yours, the lenders pay scant regard to peoples circumstances...nothing must get in the way of their profit so to speak. At the same time as this the lenders hook people in with all kinds of offers and 'good deals' but once their in the interest rates seem to go up, charges are applied etc....and when people fall on hard time as they inevitably do when situations like the credit crunch etc...the lenders do what? nothing, a big fat zero, they don't lower the interest rates, they are oblivious to a customers circumstances and they continually ramp up the pressure/charges/threats until something gives which is usually their customers (nice way to treat them isn't it) and what do lenders do when things go awry? they wash their hands of the customer, mark their credit files accordingly, farm out the debts to their hired thug subsidiarys who will stop at nothing, lie through their teeth and add money on to the original bill...all in the name of good business?.

 

In my opinion LTSB are one of the very worst lenders out there with their collections department being one of the worst in the business. As for coming to peoples door and they have a right to do so, really? Where is that then?

 

All things considered the banks are among the most corrupt business models out there, I have as much respect for them as they do fo the woman/man in the street ...which in my opinion is zero.

 

Stuff BLS and LTSB and all who sail in her.

[angrydebtor]

if you ignore your debt then thats when they will pass your debt onto horrible debt collectors who are not going to let you get away with running away, they will come to your door and they have every right, their not doing anything ilegal.

 

have you ever heard such nonsense lol

i laugh at such comments as "not going to let you get away with running away" errr and what can they do exactly? the answer is sweet fa other than go to a court. the dca industry really does delude itself that it has all these powers over the public that is does not. sure they can come to a persons door but then can simply be told to go away and if they refuse thats were the police are called to make them go away and other authorities get involved like the oft and trading standards

[weatherwitch]

Hi, I have now received some correspondence from BLS after I sent them a CCA letter, I also enclosed a £1 postal order which they have taken as a payment toward my loan. I have put a copy of the letter on this link, hope it looks ok and you can read it, if you click on the letter it should zoom in.

 

Any further advice would be very welcome as I am not sure what steps to take now.

 

Many thanks

 

BLS 1

BLS 2

Edited April 11, 2010 by weatherwitch