Link Financial chasing deceased parent MBNA debt at my address

[ericsbrother]

 

Ok is there an estate as such? ie property, stocks and shares, money in the bank and important collections or works of art?

Dont forget, people pay for their own funerals and if there is no cash after this then all the other stuff that you get in a normal house is not part of the estate, just effects or chattels and is discounted.

That applies to cars as well (unless he had a collection of Ferraris) you can dispose of these as you see fit, rules of intestacy will leave anything under £325k to you and your sibling equally.

 

Now if there is money and other estate such as a house you need to consider settling any provable debt before you divide the rest of that up. these bandits so far havent proved ant debt and wont try to because they know their claims are duff.

 

they have had an opportunity to do what they need to do but have just harassed you instead and that is all they can do and hope that you are nice enough to go along with it.

 

Now the other thing is who notified the death to the registrar?

that person is then responsible for the funeral costs of the estate cant meet the bill.

 

Any creditor has no comeback against the executor ( or you acting in that capacity) but can go after the beneficiaries but of course without a will there is no record of who those people

[lolo1]

19 hours ago, Mr.P said:

They will probably sell the debt on to Phillips & Cohen who specialise in "deceased account management". P&C have a pretty grubby reputation when it comes to collecting on these types of debts.

well that will be interesting as P&C have already closed one HUGE debt after his death. They were the nicer ones tbh. 

[lolo1]

it was an MBNA credit card from 2006 'apparently'.

They bought it in 2014 and seemingly wrote one letter saying 'sorry we haven't been in touch.

..we have been clarifying your address.'

 

Ridic letter as they had never been in touch.

Seen no evidence he has paid a thing, no threat of court, nothing.

 

His fiancé/ girlfriend notified the registrar and she is not a beneficiary.

 

There is now some cash (not a lot) after his death from his deceased parent.

 

This wasn't there when he died.

 

This money paid for his funeral.

 

There was one proven debt, that has now been paid.

 

These cowboys, LF,  haven't proven a thing yet.

 

The law says the executor will be responsible for debt IF you send the beneficiaries monies and debt is not paid.

 

This is my concern.

 

IF they had proven he owed it, I could offer but am refusing to offer a thing when they haven't even proven he owes it.

 

I don't even know if he paid it off- who knows.

 

I have no statement from them and the amount appears to be the same as when they bought it in 2014. 

[dx100uk]

as I've said numerous times , the debt is statute barred

the card was taken out whilst he was a resident in Scotland ,

there IS no change in the amount owed since Link acquired it, so there is no doubt there that anything has been paid.

so it is extinguished under Scottish law. does not exist.

send our Scottish SB letter and be done with them.

[lolo1]

Thank you.

My only concern there is that he took it out in 2006 - mbna/link told me that.

I have no mbna documents.

Link supposedly purchased it in 2014.

This is clearly 8 years.

However 2014-18 is only 4 years.

SO if he didn't pay anything before that, then of course it's way over 5 years.

IF he paid something pre 2014 then it would have to be before 2013 for it to be 5 years.

I am assuming that he would have defaulted long before it was purchased in 2014 and mbna would have taken him to court if they could.

Link would also have taken him to court by 2018.

I know I have commented a lot but for someone who is completely alien to all of this, it's scary and complicated.

I REALLY appreciate your comments. and Thank you.

Please could you tell me where to find the Scottish statute barred letter?

I have already sent them a letter saying in Scotland it's 5 years and he hasn't paid.

They ignored it for months (I sent it registered) and instead sent 'him' another letter telling him what he owed and not to ignore it. Well he will be ignoring it as he died

[dx100uk]

just type no need to keep hitting quote, it just makes the thread twice as long to scroll through to find you reply.

its not for you to prove its not statute barred by for link to do it.

if you wanted to be really funny with them , use the address of the grave yard or the cremation parlour that was used!!

hope you don't mind the humour but link are thick as 2 short planks, they don't care who pays it, there must be a mug out there somewhere we can fleece.

[lolo1]

 

haha wouldn't that be funny. " If you would like to speak to my father, this is his address- however I doubt he has access to his email. "  

This is why I have reported them to the Ombudsman.

I have a call scheduled tomorrow with them (FO) (I started the complaint in August) because I have asked them (LF) to send proof it is not statute barred and they ignore it.

I complained that they have not answered key questions, that they are evasive.

Instead they ask their own questions, they write to someone they know is deceased at a relatives home and they wrote to a solicitor with a 'he owes us money' when they were informed that the solicitor was not his solicitor but his mum's. They should be struck off.

[ploddertom]

I'm not trying to be flippant or cause offence but would be very tempted to advise them of his last known address - if buried Plot No xxxx or if cremated then the address of the Crematorium.

[ericsbrother]

you seem to want to make more out of this than actually exists. the person who notified the death isnt a beneficiary so they are not liable for any debt and you are not the executor regardless of what you have been doing to sort things out..

You also fail to understand that the SB clock didnt start when link bought it, it started when your father failed to apy the money owed and that was some considerable time before then. Stop giving these people any credence. STOP CORRESPONDING WITH THEM (other than a SB letter if you are minded to send one), eventually they will go away and they will ahe wasted their time and money for nothing. they have no rights to claim a bean from anyone

[lolo1]

I have spoken to the ombudsman today.

They have been sent the letter sent to my father by link notifying him of the fact they have taken it on (2014).

I said yes I have that too

. What I do not have is proof that they didn't buy an SB debt.

They repeated 'he seems to have come to some agreement with Link.'

I responded with 'what agreement?' What has he paid? ' no evidence of that, was the response and what agreement? 'Can I see what agreement- please send me it.'

I then said regardless of that, if they purchased a SB loan- then they can't take me to court.

I am now executor (as of Feb) and in charge of any monies (not much) that belonged to him.

'Well said the Adjudicator, I will need to investigate whether it was SB before they purchased it.' grrrr feel like I am going around in circles.

He said I need to tell them I am now the executor though, which I'm worried about.

Do I wait for them to ask or should I now write to them to say that?

I would like advice on 'if' writing now, what do I say re: believing that he paid nothing in the 5 years proceeding the 2014 assignment? Is that what I now say (again)? 

I said they need to provide me with the original credit agreement to take me to court and he said this is not true and they can do a reconstituted one and take that to court.

So once again I said 'so why didn't mbna take him to court before 2014 then?

Why haven't link taken him to court since 2014? It's all rather fishy.

They are getting back to me.

He did say 'you might have to take this to court'..(  The adjudicator did say 'they have not been good in their treatment and communications.' So I requested that they get warned about that. Who knows now what will be. I expect I will need to ask for the paperwork and seek further advice?

[AndyOrch]

Take what to Court ?  You need to forget link and stop talking to the ombudsman...you are slowly being drawn in here because you wont follow the advice and IGNOR LINK.

[dx100uk]

https://www.consumeractiongroup.co.uk/topic/332500-statute-barred-letter-scotland-update-21st-april-2014/

[lolo1]

Thank you.

I will wait and see if I hear from them again and send the SB letter above.

Thank you for the link to it.

This is the letter addressed to my father, received at my address last week.

I'm assuming this is a generated letter as they are talking to a dead person

Maybe of the three death certificates they received/requested, they still don't believe he's passed away.

Wonder what COMBO-STATE means at the bottom?

 

This was part of the letter sent to me last summer after I complained. I'm interested in the first sentence. Does this mean a positive thing re: my position?

[dx100uk]

its sb'd

[lolo1]

Thank you- can you tell that from those two letters above? In one letter they stated it was 5200 upon assignment and then 5003. This implies he paid some off. I can't believe he would have done. Regardless.....I am aware the SB will have kicked in before it was assigned so even if he did pay some off after assignment, it is still statute barred? 

 

Edited March 7, 2019 by lolo1

[dx100uk]

if it was sb'd before the assignment you cant unbar a debt ..not even a judge can do that.

 

[brassnecked]

Do as ericsbrother suggestsd, stop talking to them, and leave the Ombudsman alone going forward, you might find you are setting yourself up to admitting liability or implied liability for the debt give them the cemetery address and leave Ling to stew.

Edited March 8, 2019 by brassnecked

[lolo1]

Thank you everyone. Unfortunately/fortunately I got the ombudsman involved last year when they lost 2 death certificates and kept sending reminders of debt etc OR not responding to questions. They didn't answer key questions and now as 'executor' I have a duty to make sure all 'proven' debt is settled or I am liable if not done properly. If it was my debt, I would be ignoring them. I have had this reply today from FO.

Is this correct? It doesn't seem right to me or 'nobody' would get sb status under this definition:

"…….as I stated previously, a debt generally only becomes statute-barred if the creditor has not pursued the debt within 6 years (5 years in Scotland) and the debtor has not acknowledged the debt in the same timeframe - if there is evidence of any contact about the debt during this time, then the debt is not likely to be statute-barred – if the business does not have evidence of this from MBNA, I can put it to the business that the debt may be statute-barred and ask if it will agree to write the debt off.

 

Before I make any formal recommendations, however, I would still need to be reasonably satisfied that there was no contact between MBNA and your late father for the 5 years before the debt was passed to the business and/or that no payments were made by your late father and he was not pursued for any payments during this time.

 

If the business does not have evidence of payments from MBNA, I may need you to obtain bank statements from your late father’s bank account – any payments to MBNA should be shown on these statements - this would be the only way in which to confirm that payments were or were not made to MBNA – if you can provide me with details of your late father’s bank account, I can obtain the statements on your behalf.

 

Pursued the debt through letters? What creditor wouldn't have done that? Or is this correct above?

[lolo1]

Should I ask the ombudsman to drop it and leave it all alone and see what happens?

[lolo1]

It looks like (the FO sent me a copy of the letter) my father signed a letter from Compass Debt counsellors in 2014 after he obviously was petrified by this letter from Link. It said he would pay x amount. He never did. FO said well this means he has acknowledged the debt. I said 'maybe he was just frightened?. I said that regardless of this 2014 letter- the debt they bought before that, they must prove it's enforceable. Am I spouting rubbish? I don't really know the legalities hence why I need you guys on here. 

[lolo1]

Could some one please advise? I've been asked to obtain statements from my father's bank from 2006-2014 (when the debt was sold on) to establish if it was statute barred. My suggestion was that that was 8 years of statements to be sent and is ridiculous. It would be more sensible for them to tell me what months they believe he paid and I will apply for those particular statements to back up or dispute their assertions. The FO says not statute barred 'if they wrote to him in the 5 years preceeding the assignment. Is this true? Writing to him/a customer could even be just a letter? Surely all companies would write a letter. I researched and it says they have to have started proceedings from the last payment default. Not a letter.....proceedings .

 

Also- IF they end up 'winning' not statute barred somehow- how do I go about trying to reduce what they will accept to stop chasing. This will wipe out every single penny and will mean I cannot be compensated for legal fees I have already paid out to manage the estate etc.

Edited March 9, 2019 by lolo1

[FTMDave]

I'm sorry to hear what you are going through.  I was in a similar position when my brother died some years ago, leaving a mountain of debts.

In my case I sent the various companies concerned a death certificate, told them he had no assets, and that was that.

I noticed that they also always sent me proof of the debt.  It clicked with me that otherwise any old conman could read obituaries and send letters to relatives referring to a made-up debt.  It is up to the companies to prove a debt exists, not up to you to prove it doesn't.   

There will be forum members on later who are experts (unlike me) but I would be very, very tempted to stop all correspondence with everyone.  Your father's dead.  He left next to no money.  That should be that.  All this correspondence is stressing you and encouraging fleecers like Link to think they can get you to pay.

Unless you actually get a formal threat of court action (I think called Letter Before Action) I'd forget about the whole thing.

Others may disagree though.

   

 

Edited March 9, 2019 by FTMDave
Typo

[lolo1]

1 hour ago, FTMDave said:

 

Thank you FTM Dave. It's truly terrible and stressful when it's not even your own debt and you are also mourning the loss of your relative. I obviously do not wish to line the pockets of these leaches instead of putting any monies however small into my son's pot. I will need to await evidence of communications from them. I hope someone here can answer my queries about 'what type of communications' are acceptable for them to prove they have been in touch? The FO believes it 'unlikely' that they didn't send a default notice before 2014 and thus saying if they did, it won't be statute barred. It's so confusing as to the position. 

[AndyOrch]

4 hours ago, lolo1 said:

Could some one please advise? I've been asked to obtain statements from my father's bank from 2006-2014 (when the debt was sold on) to establish if it was statute barred. My suggestion was that that was 8 years of statements to be sent and is ridiculous. It would be more sensible for them to tell me what months they believe he paid and I will apply for those particular statements to back up or dispute their assertions. The FO says not statute barred 'if they wrote to him in the 5 years preceeding the assignment. Is this true? Writing to him/a customer could even be just a letter? Surely all companies would write a letter. I researched and it says they have to have started proceedings from the last payment default. Not a letter.....proceedings .

 

Also- IF they end up 'winning' not statute barred somehow- how do I go about trying to reduce what they will accept to stop chasing. This will wipe out every single penny and will mean I cannot be compensated for legal fees I have already paid out to manage the estate etc.

Last Time I am posting to this thread.....withdraw your complaint from the Ombudsman (which was crazy to start with) IGNOR LINK The debt is STATUTE BARRED they cant issue a COURT CLAIM TO A DECEASED PERSON....they wont issue a claim to the EXECUTOR assuming you have told them no monies.

 

Andy

[lolo1]

Thanks Andyorch- I appreciate your help.

 

Please don't be so cross ( this stuff is really stressful and confusing to a person with absolutely no experience of this kind of stuff.

 

There is money to pay them now in the estate because I have managed to get 'some debt written off' when there was no executor and the debt exceeded the monies he was due. It was a DCA that wrote off a huge chunk under these circumstances (just listed) and I do hope that means the original creditor won't use another DCA to then chase it. 

 

Back to my original issue with stink

- I have assumed it was statute barred (2006 mbna card) and no assignment until 2014 but I do not know for sure if there was any payment and contact 5 years before that- 2009-14. Hence the panic.

 

IF I get this wrong and distribute the monies to the beneficiaries

- my brother and myself and then Link prove that it wasn't statute barred when they purchased it

- I have to find that 5k for them....that would be a disaster and impossible for me as a single mum.

 

So please be patient and kind, it's a very crucial and scary time of which I need help.

 

Some of this is not clear-cut as it might be if it were my own debt and my own knowledge of what I had received in communications etc.