Change of DCA and Attachment to earnings

[andycuk]

Hi Folks

 

Hope you can advise me of what to do next with regard to the follow.

 

I will try to outline this as clearly as possible.

 

Bought a Land Rover on finance.

 

Got into finacial difficulties during divorce, Land Rover not interested and told me to sell it and repay finance. Which was done.

 

Deficit of £1800 which was taken to court for recieved a CCJ followed by attachment to earning of £40 per month at source from my employers.

 

£40pm stopped in February 2009 so assumed had paid it all off.

 

Letter today from a company called Link Financial Outsourcing, stating they have purchased the Debt from Ford Credit Europe PLC (finance was with Land Rover Finance so why its Ford now do not know) and that the account is £657.16 in default.

 

They are demanding full payment in 7 days and threating to pass on to a DCA or a Solicitor and take Legal Action to either recover vehicle, enforce a judgement on an asset or property or instruct baliffs to sieze goods.

 

Can anyone please tell me where I stand and what should I do now.

[unclebulgaria67]

Didn't Ford own Landrover for a short period? If so, this might explain why Ford finance is involved. Check your finance documents, as should be contained in the small print.

 

Check your statements to see how long, you were paying the £40 per month. If you don't have statements, your bank can provide these. If they charge per statement, it might be cheaper as a Data Protection, subject access request, for which they can only charge a max of £10.

 

Send Link Financial a letter explaining the situation as you outlined in your post, asking them for full details. Advise them that you were making regular payments to x company via a Direct Debit arrangement, but that this company stopped collecting the payments. Ask them to find out why this was, as you thought the account had been repaid in full.

 

Send this letter by recorded delivery. This is important as companies like Link will not be interested in getting involved in investigating what happened with the account. They are just payment collectors, not customer service account handlers that are willing to look into anything you write to them about.

 

If they ignore your letter and try to take this to court, you will need the letter and recorded delivery slip to help with your defence. The court will must likely then reject any claim by Link on the basis you had made reasonable enquiries with them, which they failed to respond to.