Damned Wescot

[cazbo60]

I am having serious problems with this company - they wrote to me regarding a lloyds tsb account that was so old that it was in my maiden name, I got married over ten yrs ago!

 

I wrote to them & told them that this debt was statute barred as it was over 6yrs old & they have sent me an account statement, apparently from lloyds, it doesn't have any lloyds account numbers on it so I am unable to tally it up to any paperwork I have but I did have an idea that because on the statement it said I had made payments to an "agency" that I had dealt with this previously.

 

I then realised that I had settled this account 5yrs ago with Global Debt Recovery, my question is can Wescot now come to me for the balance, when I have a letter from Global Debt saying that they accepted my last payment as full & final settlement?!

 

I have requested an original CCA from Wescot to try to prove that this has been settled but I haven't told them I have this letter from Global yet, as I want to gather everything to make a cast iron case against them. I am just unsure as to whether or not they are entitled to persue the balance when I have settled this with another DCA.

 

PLEASE HELP:-o

[BankFodder]

Make sure that you know what the rules about statute barred debts are.

 

Has there been any time since the debt fell due in which 6 years have passed in which you did not make any payments or in which you did not acknowledge the debt.

If the answer is yes, then the debt became statute barred and it cannot become "un-barred".

 

However, assuming that when you last dealt with it 5 years ago, it was still a valid debt, then as only 5 years have passed, the debt is not statute barred because 6 years have not passed.

I hope that you are keeping up with this.

 

Now we have to look at the idea of full and final settlement agreements.

 

I have to say that I am worried about this because my view is that they are not really binding. There is no contractual law reason why they should be.

 

It is just a matter of the creditor agreeing as a matter of honour, if you like, that they won't chase you for the rest of the debt and that they will write it off.

 

However - unless there are some other laws which I am not aware of (entirely possible), then a F&F agreement has no binding effect and in theory a creditor set about claiming the rest or could sell the remainder of the debt on to someone else who in turn will start claiming.

 

Now, it may well be that many people within the debt collection industry don't realise the fragility of a F&F agreement and they believe themselves bound by them -but maybe not.

Of course it wouldn't help the industry much of they started ratting out on their agreements even if they weren't binding - but you never know. It is a nasty industry and even amongst the Nasties - there may be some Super-Nasties who are prepared to abandon all of their scruples in order to claw away every red cent of money that they can lay their hands on.

 

All of this is to explain that your F&F is potentially nothing more than a piece of paper.

 

However, it is all you have.

 

I suggest that you write to them with a copy of your agreement and point out to them that the matter is settled and that if they bother you any further then you will report them to TS and the OFT.

 

See what happens.

If they come back and tell you that the F&F is not binding and that they intend to pursue you for the rest, then you are on shaky ground.

Let us know about it because it will be a serious matter for the debt collection industry and for the huge number of people who have already entered into F&F agreements.

 

In fact if the credibility of F&F agreements were undermined then I think that the debt collection industry would lose money as a result because there would be no point in entering into compromise agreements.

 

Before you write, however, how long is there to go before the 6 years is up?

 

If you do write then make sure that your letter very clearly states that you do not acknowledge any indebtedness to them for any reason.