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Harassment from debt collector


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My mother has been renting a house for just over a month now.

 

Yesterday evening she arrived home from work to find a letter that had been personally delivered (envelope contained no stamp or address) that had written on the front 'the tennant - important legal'.

 

The letter was from a company called Ascent Contact, whom are a debt collection agency I believe specialising in the area of mortgages. Basically the letter stated that they had been instructed by Birmingham Midshire to possibly start the proceedings of Law of Property Recievership.

 

The letter continue to states that a man called Ian Guthrie has been round to the house numerous time but has been unable to make contact with my mum (the tennant). The letter demands that my mum must give information to them on

 

1) Her name

2) Her letting agency

3) How long her lease is

4) How much she pays and how long she has been paying

5) Provide evidence of written tennancy agreement ????

 

It states that she will possibly have to start paying her rent directly to them.

 

At the very end of the letter it states (the part that worries/angers me the most) that if my mum chooses to ignore this letter, then they reccomend she contacts a solicitor.

 

I'm extremely confused as to why on earth they are writing to my mum regarding this issue and why are they visiting the home? Are they allowed to do know this when they know that the debt is not hers and is her landlords?

 

Why would they need this information from her? They are fully aware she is only renting the home. Also why would they be suggesting she seeks legal advice if she ignores the letter?

 

 

Any help on this matter would be much obliged because I cant help but feel that considering the debt isnt my mothers and they know it isnt, then surely they are not allowed to act this way (visiting the house). Should she contact this Ian Guthrie as his mobile number has been provided on her letter or would this encourage him to show up at the house?

 

Basically what I'm asking is - why would a debt collection agency harass and threaten legal action towards a tennant over a landlords debt on the mortgage?

 

Is a debt collector allowed to visit the home when they fully acknowledge it is the landlords debt and not the tennants.

 

Thanks in advance.

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It sounds as if the landlord is in trouble with his mortgage and the lender is seeking possession, the 'agent; will be seeking detail of the tenancy and its validity assured short hold etc,

My guess is the LL is not being honest with the lender.

 

Their enquiries are as much to protect the tenants position.

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This seems a little strange. The lender has a way of protecting their assets by appointing a Law of Property Act or Fixed Charge Receiver but you would have been written to by the lender if this was the case I'm sure. If the lender does not use a properly appointed LPA receiver they run the danger of becoming the landlord in law and taking on responsibility and risk they do not want! I can see nothing on the Ascent web-site that points to them doing that type of work (but bear in mind you do not need to be qualified to be an LPA receiver).

 

For your own protection just dig out your tenancy agreement and see whether it mentions anything about a mortgage charge on it and what would happen in the case of repossession etc. Many don't include such terms but some do.

 

As your mother has only lived there a month I'm assuming that any mortgage was in place prior to her moving in.

 

At the end of the day with nothing official from the lender I wouldn't cough up a single penny to anyone else! After all, you don't want your landlord coming after you because you paid someone else who was not authorised to collect it.

 

Forgot to mention, that as far as I am aware, your mother should be protected from being asked to leave during the initial six months of the assured shorthold tenancy (I am assuming it is an AST?) That is normally 6 months but can be longer Please check the agreement.

 

But that is only if she pays the rent on time and is deemed to be a 'lawful tenant', by that I basically mean that the mortgage company was aware that the house was or was likely to be tenanted.

 

This'll teach me to get my ducks in a row before bursting into print!!

 

One other thing, as a tenant you should ALWAYS open any letter that is addressed to the 'the occupier' or somesuch as lenders do not know who is in a rented property and that is how they write to you before going to court for repossession against your landlord. It may be that these had already been sent before your mother moved in.

 

I bet something else occurs to me just as I press the 'reply' button.

Beaten:

RBS: £4,500

AMEX: £4,200

Barclaycard Visa: £12,100

Barclaycard M/Card: £12,600

(Including the numerous DCAs they have set on me.)

PPI reclaims (into my bank account): £25,000

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  • 2 weeks later...

Just a quick update on this matter. My mum contacted the estate agent that she rents with, and sent over a copy of the letter she recieved to the manager.

 

The manager has got back to her and has told her not to worry and that everything is sorted now. Apparently the landlord missed a payment on his mortgage but has been intouch with the bank, and it is all sorted.

 

Now, this sounds all well and good to me. However, would this situation really occur if the landlord had just missed one payment on his mortgage? Would it be sent to a debt collection agency?

 

What are peoples thoughts? This doesnt really sound right to me, but I am not clued up on these issues, so I could be wrong.

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Although I have no experience in this area, I find it hard to believe they would go to such effort over one missed payment. If the landlord is having money issues then he is bound to say "everything is sorted, keep paying!"

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It doesn't ring true to me either.

 

There may be a lot more to the story in the background over other debts/mortgages that the landlord has.

 

But now that you have that letter your mother can argue that she is a lawful tenant and that the lender must stick to the tenancy agreement because, if their agent (the debt collector) was aware that the property was let out, then they are too.

 

One thing to check, was the deposit put into a properly regulated tenant's deposit scheme?

Beaten:

RBS: £4,500

AMEX: £4,200

Barclaycard Visa: £12,100

Barclaycard M/Card: £12,600

(Including the numerous DCAs they have set on me.)

PPI reclaims (into my bank account): £25,000

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