Apex Credit Management Harrassment

[jwcottingham]

Hi All,

I’m currently receiving telephone harrassment from Apex Credit Management Ltd.

Here’s a bit of background..

 

I separated from my 1st wife in January 2001.

At the time we had a joint Barclays current account with an overdraft facility.

When we separated my wife left & I was unable to contact her.

I immediately informed Barclays of the situation & wanted to close (or at least freeze) the account.

They stated that they could not do this without both signatures.

 

The account was over it’s £500 overdraft limit so this was brought back within the limit, and I stated that I would not be held liable for the debt on the account (basically my wife took the account from a healthy credit to over the overdraft, but that’s a different story).

 

During 2001, 2002 and 2003 Barclays kept contacting me to collect the debt, however I refused to accept that the debt was mine & re-stated (rightly or wrongly) my non-acceptance of liability.

 

I heard nothing more until September 2009 when I started receiving threatening letters & frequent phone calls from Booker Management Services Ltd, who had bought the debt from Barclays. Again I refused to accept the debt and sent dispute letter M at the end of September 2009. All contact from Booker stopped immediately.

 

Three weeks ago I received 2 letters (sent together) – one from Booker, one from Apex Credit Management. These stated that Apex has purchased the account and I now owe them £540..

 

As I had already had success with the dispute letter I sent this again, this time to Apex.

I received a letter from them a couple of days later (which made no reference to my letter) saying they were disappointed I had failed to respond to their first letter, and ending with ‘We would like the opportunity to resolve this situation with you without the need for any involvement from our Solicitors".

 

The part which is particularly annoying though is their phone calls

– In addition to calling my house they are calling my office out of hours and leaving messages on the answer phone.

 

The latest one included their full company name and stated that I must call them immediately or face furthr action.

Thankfully I know the folks who take our calls & retreive the messages or this would be much more embarrassing than it already is.

I have no idea how they got my office number – certainly not from me.

 

I have now sent letter M again, together with the letter in #2 of this thread

I haven’t sent the cca letter unfortunately – whether I’ve messed up a bit there I don’t know – I was under the assumption that as no admission of liability or payments have been made in over 9 years that this is now statute barred?

 

Would appreciate any advice / thoughts / comments anyone may have!

 

 

Regards,

 

 

Jeremy

[silverfox1961]

Most definitely statute barred by your account of things.

Letter 2 here:

 

http://www.consumerforums.com/resources/templates-library/86-debt-collectors.html

 

Make sure you send it to them by Recorded Delivery and track it via the royal mail website.

If they try to say it isn't SB, make a formal complaint to them and inform trading standards

Forgot a bit. If you ex had been paying any of this debt in the previous 6 years then I don't think it would be SB

Edited August 24, 2010 by silverfox1961
added a bit

[harrassed senior]

You can also send this:

 

Re: Harassment by telephone

 

ACCOUNT NUMBER: XXXX

Dear Sirs

I am writing in relation 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.

I am of the view that your continued harassment of me by telephone puts you in breach of Section 40 of the Administration of Justice Act 1970, 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.

Be advised that any further telephone calls from your company will be recorded. (**Even if you don‘t yet have recording equipment!!**)

Yours faithfully,

[NAME HERE]

 

Section 40 of the Administration of Justice Act

“S40 Punishment for unlawful harassment of debtors.

A person commits an offence if, with the object of coercing another person to pay money claimed from the other as a debt due under a contract he- harasses the other with demands for payment which, in respect of their frequency, or the manner or occasion of making any such demand, or of any threat or publicity by which any demand is accompanied, are calculated to subject him or members of his family or household to alarm, distress or humiliation; falsely represents, in relation to the money claimed, that criminal proceedings lie for failure to pay it; falsely represents himself to be authorised in some official capacity to claim or enforce payment; or utters a document falsely represented by him to have some official character, or purporting to have some official character which he know it has not.

A person may be guilty of an offence by virtue of sub-section (1) (a) above if he concerts with others in the taking of such actions as is described in that paragraph, notwithstanding that his own course of conduct does not by itself amount to harassment.”

[jwcottingham]

Many thanks for your replies. I'm confident that my ex hasn't made any payments as the amout they claim is owed hasn't changed.

By the time I posted this thread I'd already sent a couple of letters:-

 

Dear Sir,

 

Apex Reference: #######

 

You have contacted me regarding the account with the above reference number, which you claim is owed by myself.

 

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

I am of the view that your harassment of me by telephone puts you in breach of Section 40 of the Administration of Justice Act 1970, 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.

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 an appointment with you.

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 and Short Ltd [1959] 2 Q.B. 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, then you will be liable to damages for a tort of trespass and action will be taken, including but not limited to, police attendance.

Please treat this also as a formal complaint, and send me a copy of your company complaints procedure.

Be advised that any further telephone calls from your company will be recorded.

I await your written confirmation that this matter is now closed.

Otherwise I will have no option but to make a complaint to the trading standards department and consider informing the OFT of your actions.

I look forward to your reply.

 

Yours faithfully

 

 

together with this one:-

 

WITHOUT PREJUDICE

Dear Sir/Madam

 

Apex Reference: #######

 

You have contacted me regarding the account with the above reference number, which you claim is owed by myself.

I would point out that under the Limitation Act 1980 Section 5 "an action founded on simple contract shall not be brought after the expiration of six years from the date on which the cause of action accrued".

I would also point out that the OFT say under their Debt Collection Guidance on statute barred debt that "it is unfair to pursue the debt if the debtor has heard nothing from the creditor during the relevant limitation period".

The last correspondence/payment/acknowledgement or payment of this debt was made over six years ago and no further acknowledgement or payment has been made since that time. Unless you can provide evidence of payment or written contact from me in the relevant period under Section 5 of the Limitation Act, I suggest that you are no longer able to take any court action against me to recover the alleged amount claimed.

The OFT Debt Collection Guidance states further that "continuing to press for payment after a debtor has stated that they will not be paying a debt because it is statute barred could amount to harassment contrary to section 40 (1) of the Administration of Justice Act 1970".

I await your written confirmation that no further contact will be made concerning the above account and confirmation that this matter is now closed.

I look forward to your reply.

 

Yours faithfully

 

I posted these recorded delivery yesterday, and I have an electronic proof of delivery and signature - the letters were delivered at 9:02am this morning.

 

However... between 12:45 & 1pm this afternoon Apex were on the phone again.. They left a voicemail on my home phone number demanding that I call them urgently. They also called the switchboard at my office, stating their full company name and asking to speak to me - they were transferred to my extension but left no message (I was at lunch). The calls to my office are now starting to get rather embarrassing and it's this that's annoying me more than anything else.

 

I'm now intending to contact trading standards tomorrow to start taking this further, as I'm getting increasingly stressed & frustrated at the way they're acting.

[jwcottingham]

No calls from Apex today.

I phoned consumer direct to ask their opinion of this. One of the first questions they asked was have I moved during the time since the debt arose(2002). Yes I have - in 2006. They asked if I'd informed them of my new address.... I spoke to Barclays in 2003 and told them I did not accept the debt, then heard nothing else. The last thing on my mind when I moved 3 years later was to tell them! The next contact was last year from Booker.

Consumer direct said that if Barclays / Booker / Apex had made reasonable efforts to contact me within a 6 year period (even if they didn't actually speak to me), then they in effect had another 6 years in respect to statute barring......

 

Regarding the phone calls to my home & work - they basically said Apex could ring me as often as they wanted between 8am and 8pm & there's nothing I can do about it, other than asking them to stop. It's up to them if they take any notice or not.

 

Fianlly, they advised me to conatct the OFT to tell them I'd asked Apex in writing to stop calling to see if they think the behaviour is unfair.

 

I must admit that's left me feeling a little deflated.. Will be calling the OFT tomorrow to see what they say, but would appreciate any commetns in the meantime.