Final communication letter from Red threatening SD

[Big Shoooz]

I have received the following letter from Red DCA regarding an old Shop Direct debt of £447.08:-

 

Final communication

This is the final communication you will receive from red Debt Collection Services in relation to payment of this account. It is very disappointing that you have chosen not to respond to any requests for repayment despite us offering you on a number of occasions the opportunity to pay a small monthly amount to clear this debt.

What happens next

The next contact you receive will be from a process server who will be serving you personally with a Statutory Demand. If you fail to comply with the terms of a Statutory Demand, Lowell Portfolio I Ltd (Lowell) may petition the Court for your Bankruptcy. Alternatively, you may receive a letter from the Court regarding legal proceedings, which Lowell may issue against you or a debt collections agent who will be visiting you at home to discuss repayment. If you require any further information regarding any of the above then please call 0113 308 6004 where an accounts manager will be able to help you.

If you want to avoid any further action you must set up a payment plan now. We are still willing to accept monthly payments of £15 but you need to set this quickly as we will shortly be taking one of the steps outlined above. Please call us or complete the mandate overleaf to arrange payment. You can set up a Direct Debit on line go to www.lowell.co.uk

Yours sincerely,

Kevin Allmark

Collections Manager

 

First of all, the letter has come from Red so why are they directing me to contact Lowells.

Secondly, surely they can't send an SD for a debt less than £450 can they?

Thirdly, I do have another Shop Direct debt of £1426.21 with Lowell....can they add both together and issue a SD?

 

Any advise on what my next step should be will be greatly appreciated thanks.

[lincsloon]

Lowells, Red and Hamptons are all the same company operating from an office in Leeds.

[PGH7447]

have you asked for the credit agreement yet?

[harrassed senior]

Unless you signed a new Agreement they cannot combine 2 seperate Agreements.

[havinastella]

Well they can't bankrupt you for less than £600, so I guess it's a load of crap as usual

[Big Shoooz]

I am going to send them a SAR this week.

 

Do you think I should reply to their letter first to say they can not threaten me in such a way (re bankruptcy, debt collection visit)?

[247orbital]

ahahaha I had one similar and this is what I sent the, today.

 

April 2011

Dear Sirs,

Thank you for your letter dated 00/00/11 the details of which have been noted.

I am very happy you have confirmed that you will not be writing to me again. I therefore accept that this matter is now closed and you will no longer be processing my data. Please therefore remove all information from my credit files and any trace, table one or table two searches.

I would also be very happy to hear from Hamptons Legal your in house legal team. As I would like nothing more than for this to go to the County Court so that I can defend myself and claim costs and compensation from the Lowell Group.

Yours faithfully,

[Big Shoooz]

Hi 247orbital, I'm not sure I want to invite them to court...trying to avoid that.

[Big Shoooz]

I am going to send them a SAR this week.

 

Do you think I should reply to their letter first to say they can not threaten me in such a way (re bankruptcy, debt collection visit)?

 

Can anyone advise please?

[Tingy]

You can reply extremely strongly if you want. Who was the original debt with? Do they still own it? (often given away by the words acting on behalf of our client.....)

 

There is a lot of legislation you can use out there to combat this sort of letter. It is clearly a threat - you can always tell when they say "may" not "will."

 

I don't know how familiar you are with legislation, but I would be reading up on CPUTR 2008, OFT Guidelines for Debt Collection, CCA 1974 + updates, EU Consumer Credit Directive, OFT Harassment of Debtors Advice Factsheet, Administration of Justice Act Section 40 (off the top of my head). That should give you enough reading to keep you quiet for a little while. The first one and second one will give you plenty to put them back in their place!

[Big Shoooz]

The original debt was Shop Direct. I think it was passed on to Red.

 

Do you think I should send the SAR first?

[Tingy]

Much more likely with Shop Direct they would not have your CCA, so I'd be inclined to CCA them first (as long as you're convinced their threat of the statutory demand is just a threat and not real. If in doubt make preparations!)

 

I know a lot of cases are failing on CCA's now under S77-79, but it still doesn't harm to see if they've got the original or not. I'd send this straight to Shop Direct - Red are in the dark then as to what you have or have not found out. Always best to let the DCA know as little as possible, gather your evidence, then hit them with a whacking great sledgehammer.

[Bazooka Boo]

Ignore the immature children, the ONLY course of action you MUST pursue is a FORMAL complaint to the OFT&TS via http://www.consumerdirect.gov.uk/contact to threaten you with BR for a petty debt below £750 is indicative of why this clown outfit is the laughing stock of CAG and the DBSG, unbelievable children.

[Big Shoooz]

Why would Shop Direct not have my CCA? This was an old Littlewoods account and goes back many years. I'm sure in the early days I may even have paid PPI which if refunded could wipe the debt out anyway. If I CCA Shop Direct and ignore Red for now, I'm worried that Red may carry out their threat....although it shouldn't be so for less than £750.

 

Do you think I should SAR Shop Direct and write a letter of complaint to Red to say they can not threaten me with threats that are illegal and I am reporting them to the OFT and that my account is currently in dispute anyway (awaiting SAR result)?

[unclebulgaria67]

Just send Red/Lowell a CCA request with the £1 postal order. In the letter add a sentence just saying that the SD threat will be reported to the OFT, unless they apologise for this, being that their alleged debt amount is below £750. Send the letter by recorded delivery.

 

I would not go flapping around sending off SAR requests.

 

I think you will probably realise that Lowell just have a series of letters they send out from a database. Your debt amount is pronbably one of hundreds (if not thousands), that are contained on the same database. They have made a mistake in sending the wrong letter. When you receive these letters it can be very personal to you, when in fact, I suspect that Lowell have spent no more than a few seconds looking at your information. So just make the CCA request, make the point about the letter being wrong and leave at that at the moment. If they don't supply the CCA within 14 days, send the follow up letter if necessary putting the account into dispute.

[UnitedFront]

Sorry I'm not entirely knowledgeable in this area, but I don't see why they wouldn't be allowed to issue one statutory demand for both accounts, so long as they own the debts under an absolute assignment (Law of Property Act 1925).

 

They are not allowed to combine debts into a court claim, but if they say the money is owed and combined the total is above the £750 limit (no idea where the 600 posted above came from?!?) then I don't see why they wouldn't be able to issue a statutory demand on that basis.

 

This might be wrong, but I think this point has been far too quickly ruled out above.

 

Cheers

UF

[unclebulgaria67]

UF

 

If it was case of Lowell combining debts bringing the amount above £750, they would have to explain this is their letters. I don't think that DCA's combine debts in this way, even if they originated from the same creditor. This may be due to reasons you have stated, that it could complicate matters, particularly if they were to issue any court proceedings. I am not sure it is a simple as the DCA having bought the debts, is then able to roll them up into one and then issue proceedings. There must be some law that stops this happening, otherwise you would have DCA's buying all debts owned by an individual and then pursuing them as one.

[Tingy]

UF, You have made a perfectly valid point so there is no need whatsoever to apologise. Teh OP admits to have debts with the same company of well over the £750 threshold. That's why I said in post #12 if in any doubt make preparations. SD's should always be taken seriously, even if you think iti is a threat (as I do with this one).

 

That said, they need no written agreement to combine debts to make up a total sum for bankruptcy. What I suspect they would need, though I don't know, is proof that they've exhausted efforts to collect the second debt as well as the first. Most bankruptcies are made up of several debts, usually from different companies (if we go bankrupt ours will be, even though one company has four different accounts with us).

 

I agree it should not be dismissed lightly and should be researched more by someone who specialises in this area. Alongside that, I feel the OP should fight back.

[UnitedFront]

Totally agree, Tingy.

 

UncleB, sorry if I wasn't clear... there are rules that stop different debts being combined into one court claim. But I am not aware of any equivelant rule that stops two or more debts owed to one person (natural or legal) being combined into one statutory demand. It is imperative at this point to differentiate the issuing of a court claim to obtain judgment from issuing a statutory demand which is simply a precursor to the petition for bankruptcy.

 

Hope this clears up my earlier post.

 

Cheers.

UF

[Big Shoooz]

Just send Red/Lowell a CCA request with the £1 postal order. In the letter add a sentence just saying that the SD threat will be reported to the OFT, unless they apologise for this, being that their alleged debt amount is below £750. Send the letter by recorded delivery.

 

I would not go flapping around sending off SAR requests.

 

I think you will probably realise that Lowell just have a series of letters they send out from a database. Your debt amount is pronbably one of hundreds (if not thousands), that are contained on the same database. They have made a mistake in sending the wrong letter. When you receive these letters it can be very personal to you, when in fact, I suspect that Lowell have spent no more than a few seconds looking at your information. So just make the CCA request, make the point about the letter being wrong and leave at that at the moment. If they don't supply the CCA within 14

 

 

days, send the follow up letter if necessary putting the account into dispute.

 

Thanks Unclebulgaria, I think I will go with your option and it may be an idea for me to send a CCA for the larger Shop Direct debt too don't you think?

 

However, a CCA will not tell me if I can reclaim any charges back which is why I was going to send a SAR son that I can kill 2 birds with one stone and save time.

[unclebulgaria67]

Thanks Unclebulgaria, I think I will go with your option and it may be an idea for me to send a CCA for the larger Shop Direct debt too don't you think?

 

However, a CCA will not tell me if I can reclaim any charges back which is why I was going to send a SAR son that I can kill 2 birds with one stone and save time.

 

Just deal with one at a time. I would not give Lowell the opportunity of linking debts together, by writing to them at the same time about 2 debt amounts. Just send the CCA request in response to the letter you have received. From whatI have seen with Lowell with a relatives debt correspondence, is that they do not have a clue what other debts they may be chasing at the same time. They work in batches of debts and there is no one file on their systems in the debtors name, which shows all the debt information they may be currently chasing.

 

Yes of course if you want to investigate getting PPI charges refunded, send an SAR request to Shop Direct.

[unclebulgaria67]

Totally agree, Tingy.

 

UncleB, sorry if I wasn't clear... there are rules that stop different debts being combined into one court claim. But I am not aware of any equivelant rule that stops two or more debts owed to one person (natural or legal) being combined into one statutory demand. It is imperative at this point to differentiate the issuing of a court claim to obtain judgment from issuing a statutory demand which is simply a precursor to the petition for bankruptcy.

 

Hope this clears up my earlier post.

 

Cheers.

UF

 

Yes understand what you are saying. Logic suggests that the SD/bankruptcy process can only be justified on the basis of combining the debts in the OP's situation. If this was the case, I would expect a letter setting out this, if there was any intention to pursue this further. The SD would have to set out the full grounds for looking to proceed to obtaining a bankruptcy petition, if arrangements for repayment were not made. In this case, I think Red/Lowell have just made a mistake, as previously explained. I can't believe that Lowell have become so clever, that they are now linking debts together and are issuing letters looking to pursue individuals in this way.

[Big Shoooz]

The 2 Shop Direct debts have 2 different account numbers and only one of these account numbers has been shown on the Red letter so I'm hoping the SD threat is only about the smaller debt.

 

A few days ago, I received a letter from Shop Direct to say that they had assigned the larger debt to Lowells in August 2010 (I don't know why they are only just telling me that now!).

 

Right, I think I will CCA Red about the smaller debt and complain about the threatening letter and make an offer of token monthly payments, THEN I will CCA Lowells for the larger debt (I know it's the same company as Red but their communication states Lowells), make an offer of token monthly payments and SAR Shop Direct for each of the debts.

 

Does this sound like a good plan?

[unclebulgaria67]

Plan ok apart from making token payments. I would not do that at this stage. Just make the CCA request to Red and point out that the SD is not relevant as amount less than £750. If you make offer of payment, they will just harass you in every way possible, as you have admitted to owing the money, without any sight of the CCA. When Lowell write to you about the other larger amount under a different account, reply by making a CCA request. Always keep the matters separate and never respond quoting both Shop Direct accounts to lowell.

 

Then separately send Shop Direct a SAR covering both accounts. You only have to send them £10 to cover the cost of them providing all info for both accounts.

[Big Shoooz]

In March I received letter from Shop Direct to say my debt has now been assigned to Lowell Portfolio which I already knew and this had been assigned way back in August 2010 (took their time telling me!).

 

Anyway, I have now received a letter from Mackenzie Hall saying that Lowells have instructed them to recover the debt.

 

I assume that MH are a division of Lowells, correct?

 

Who should I send my CCA request to, MH or Lowells?