Mucky Hall, Old YB

[xboxer]

Afternoon everyone.

 

Today my wife received a call on her mobile from Mucky Hall wanting to speak to me! Due to the DPA they could not tell her anything but gave her a Ref and Contact number.

 

I phoned Mucky Hall (recorded the call) to see what it was about. It transpires that they are working on behalf of the Lewis Group with the original debt belonging to Yorkshire Bank. The amount they claim is owed is just over £700.

 

I DID NOT ADMIT OR ACHKNOWLEDGE THE DEBT BELONGING TO ME!

 

A bit of background to the alleged debt. I banked with YB for 14 years but haven’t been a customer now for almost six years. I had two accounts with YB, my main account that my wages were paid into and a second account that I paid my bills from by DD. I then had a weekly Standing Order that paid a fixed amount from my main account to my second account. This was something my local branch advised me to do.

 

For the most part it worked, occasionally I would not have enough in my second account to cover the bills and YB would then take the required amount of my main account THEN inform me.

 

In January 2005 for some reason they stopped paying my bills. By April 2005 it looks like they had stopped paying all my bills including my mortgage. At the time I was doing a lot of overtime and staying at my fiancés house so I wasn’t checking my mail. In May 2005 I even had a substantial redundancy payment in my main account.

 

I took three months off work and got married. In October 2005 I have a new job and went to get my wages out and my card didn’t work. I phoned the bank and was told my account had been closed. Two weeks later my house was repossessed and found out my loan had been defaulted as well as other outstanding debts.

 

Fast forward to today and this is the first I have heard anything about this debt.

 

I believe this debt is solely made up of charges and interest.

 

I informed mucky hall to remove the telephone number as it does not belong to me and everything in writing to me.Mucky Hall claim that they started working on the account in March 2011 and that they last payment was in January 2007! It wasn’t made by me!!!

 

What's my best next step?

 

Thanks in advance.

Edited May 4, 2011 by xboxer
spacing

[Bazooka Boo]

Did you not consider taking the bank to court? Did you inform the FOS of their actions, or lack of them?

[xboxer]

To be honest I always thought I would probably be the one to blame for not checking my mail.

 

I've currently started SARing my old loan company, next was going to my old mortgage then the bank.

[xboxer]

I ment to say in my original post I have never gave any financial institutions my wifes mobile number, in fact it is still in her maiden name!

 

Also with regards to YB messing up my DD's the first I knew of it was when my house was repossessed!

[NailPost]

You have to write to MHall and tell them you require everything in writing. That letter has to go by recorded delivery or they will deny ever having received it.

 

In the same letter demand Mhall proove their claims that a payment was made in January 2007. This will have to include how much was paid, by whom and how and where. To fob you off with a vague claim is not good enough. Tell them that without documentary proof that you owe this debt and they have the right to even contact you let alone chase you for money you will not give them the time of day. In the next paragraph demand their complaints procedure. They are supposed to have one but I'm not aware of anyone having ever seen one. It will however show Mhall's drones that perhaps you know more about your rights than they do.

 

This should put Mhall to flight and you can then start demanding what happened in this matter from Yorkshire Bank. The fault appears to lie with them and youshould be prepared to start a major offensive against them.

[Bazooka Boo]

I agree to a certain extent, but corresponding with Muckhall with a letter sent recorded delivery wouldn't be any use IMO.

 

If you wish to correspond with them, then send them the prove it letter and send it 2nd class, and obtain "Proof of delivery"| from the PO counter, that is all you will ever legally require to show a judge, but as this is in the hands of Muckhall, it will never get to that stage, they only deal in statute barred and unenforceable/unrecoverable debts (they like to call them delinquent)

 

http://www.consumeractiongroup.co.uk/forum/content.php?428-General-debt-letter-if-you-know-nothing-of-the-debt

 

As for their mobile phone contact, it is your wife's phone, she has a choice of who she speaks to and who she doesn't, if it continues after being told to STOP, then keep a diary of events regarding the calls and report them to the Police for the criminal offence of harassment.

 

I still do not understand why you would let the bank get away with having your house repossessed? If there was any case for taking them to court and suing them, then this would have been right up there with money laundering!

[xboxer]

Morning,First off thanks for the replies.When I spoke to Mucky Hall yesterday when I asked for more details (amount and by whom) about the supposed last payment their excuse was that they only limited information and couldn’t see those details.I know for a fact that I haven't made this payment as I had no bank account and that checking my credit file this morning YB have a linked address record with my address wrong. lol Let's see what they come back with when I ask for proof of the payment. :-DI should add that Mucky Hall are only working on behalf of the Lewis Group and don't own the debt.At the time when the repossesion happened I had a lot going on and didn't really know my rights. Since discovering this site I have started SARing various companies with intentions of reclaiming PPI and charges. But if there is a case for YB to answer to then I will chasing that up as well.

[Bazooka Boo]

Stay off the phone, you have no evidence of this call taking place least of all what was discussed.

[xboxer]

Hey bazooka, I've only had the initial call with them and I recorded it!

[sillygirl1]

Contact Alan Stewart at East Ayrshire Trading Standards and let him know what the clowns are up to. He is the person who can get them off your back.

[Bazooka Boo]

OK thats good! Make a transcript of that call, and keep it by the phone, that way if they ring again you will be able to refer to it, highlight the salient points and note the time they were made during the call, then you will be able to reply, "At 13.44 your phone operative stated XY & Z, why has this not happened?"

 

Put them right on the back webbed foot that will!

[xboxer]

Thanks sillygirl, I will do.

 

I am slowly learning bazooka!

 

My only worry is as I had two accounts will it be the termination of the last account that will be the cause of action?

[Bazooka Boo]

I have no idea, it is for them to make that clear to you, so possibly sending them the "No debt acknowledged" letter would be a good start, then hopefully they will come back with some thing meaningful, like an account number? Alternatively, wait until they send their next lame letter and go from there.

[xboxer]

Update time.

 

I decided to wait and see if Mucky would make contact. I finally received a letter from Mucky that was ignored. It was a standard you owe us X amount.

 

I have now received a Meritforce possible doorstep collection visit letter.

 

Now as luck would have it we are having a new front door fitted in a couple of weeks, so if they are willing to wait they will actually be able to collect a doorstep for once!

 

But in all seriousness I will send the No Visits letter.

 

I have been thinking about this alleged debt and think that either the lewis group or YB have combined the two bank accounts to make one debt, if that is the case where to I stand with that?

 

My second account, which in most likelihood makes up most of this debt, stopped having money deposited and withdrawn from it sometime in February/March 2005. So that would at least make some off the alleged debt SB.

 

Any thoughts?

[unclebulgaria67]

Suggest that you make enquiries with YB about last payment dates on the account. If you phone them, they should be able to give you information on the phone or in writing within a few days. I would not rely on any information from Mucky Hall.

 

Once you have the information, you will better informed of what you need to do. It could even by statute barred. Mucky Hall sent around a Meritforce collector to a relative on a statute barred debt, even though they were told it was disputed and unenforceable. Until you get the information and can tell them to foxtrot off, they will continue to be a pain, but they do eventually give up.

 

Offsetting of one account with another is allowed and should in the t&c's.

[xboxer]

Hi unclebulgaria,

 

I pretty confident on the dates, YB had closed my main account by the end of Oct 05, so in theory I only have 4 months ish to go. At the beginning of November they will get the SB letter!

 

It's more a case of the legal ability/stance of combining 2 bank account (both had different accounts numbers) into one debt.

[unclebulgaria67]

Hi unclebulgaria,

 

I pretty confident on the dates, YB had closed my main account by the end of Oct 05, so in theory I only have 4 months ish to go. At the beginning of November they will get the SB letter!

 

It's more a case of the legal ability/stance of combining 2 bank account (both had different accounts numbers) into one debt.

 

It is not the date of them closing the account that is relevant. It is the date of default in regard to payment that was due on the account. This may be many months before the October closure.

 

Don't feel any nervousness about contacting YB for information. I doubt that they are in contact with MH about the account and you are entitled to request the information.

 

YB are entitled to roll up two accounts into one debt. It will be the t&c's for the accounts. Ask them about this and they will confirm the t&c's that apply.

[xboxer]

It is not the date of them closing the account that is relevant. It is the date of default in regard to payment that was due on the account. This may be many months before the October closure.

 

Don't feel any nervousness about contacting YB for information. I doubt that they are in contact with MH about the account and you are entitled to request the information.

 

YB are entitled to roll up two accounts into one debt. It will be the t&c's for the accounts. Ask them about this and they will confirm the t&c's that apply.

 

 

In that case my main account would of been empty about mid September time.

 

If as you say they can roll the two accounts into one debt, I would be asking some serious questions about why they didn't take any monies owing on the second account whilst my main account was still in credit.

 

The second account from what I see stopped paying direct debts around march time but in may of that year I had my redundancy payment of over £20,000, so they should of used some of that to pay account 2.

 

To have the view they are separate accounts until they want to sell the debt on stinks of double standards and in my opinion is a highly dubious practice.

 

But it is the banks we are talking about!

[unclebulgaria67]

Suggest that you take up a complaint with YB, rather than just continue a gripe on CAG. If you had two accounts and they were able to offset, I would question why they did not act in your interest. Remember that complaints have to be recorded for FOS/FSA purposes and while a complaint is ongoing, collection activity has to be put on hold. So if you get a complaint registered with YB and send confirmation to MH, they should stop hassling you. If your complaint is later rejected and you decide not to continue with it, then you will be nearer to the debt being statute barred. So complaining is a bit of a no brainer.

[xboxer]

Hi uncleb,

 

Thanks for your help so far, I wasn't posting just to have a gripe, I honestly didn't know what could and couldn't be done.

 

Looks like the best bet will be to contact the bank and see what happens from there.

 

I have also sent the prove it letter to mucky today, so let's see what that brings.