StepChange £150PCM DMP - Been Paying for 15yrs - all Old debts/scared and out of my depth

[London1971]

Please ignore panic merchants. I assure you as DX says BOI / Post office will NEVER take you to court. As for the rest,, perhaps you will receive a PAP, but then you can defend. That's why we always say, make sure that your creditors have your current address. 

 

Your chance of receiving a PAP from any of the remaining one's is pretty small, just make sure you open all your mail and run anything that arrives past us.

[Bon-ee-bon]

Thank you dx and London! I feel so reassured by your words that clearly come from extensive knowledge gained from dealing with similar cases.
This is such a huge step for us and if it means that even just one of these debts is unenforceable will have been worth the uneasiness. I feel ready to put up a fight and not let these relic debts looming over us nearly two decades on. B:)x

[comebackjimmy]

Bon-ee-bon

 

Some months ago I found out that a friend of mine was on a debt management plan.  I wrote to every one of his (10) creditors and not one could provide the original paperwork in support of the sums they were asking for and collecting on, and one even stated (and I was gobsmacked they would admit it) that the debt was unenforceable but would he mind paying it anyway ha ha!

 

He stopped paying and up to this point nothing has happened.

 

You should be clear about what is needed for them to be successful:

 

1. They have to deliver a Letter before Action which is required by the Court system.  It basically says pay the bill or they will take you to Court and usually comes from a Solicitor.   Any other document is just part of their Threatomatic system and can be ignored even though some of the letters can at first glance look serious.  (Any doubts come back on here).

 

2. Having delivered the LBA they can then go on to apply for a County Court Judgement.    The cheapest way to do this is by filling out a form on line and they will not upload or be able to provide any paperwork to support their claim at that point.

 

3.  You can easily defend against the claim by asking both the Solicitor and the Debt buyer to provide the paperwork to support the claim.   (95% of the time or more they can't do it because when they bought the debt it arrived as a line on a spreadsheet mixed in with a thousand other debts by email.  (10 out of 10 in my friends case 100%)).  They are running a numbers game and paid 10p in the £ for the entire value of the debts.  They only have to get around 10-15% of the money across the whole portfolio to be in profit.  Thanks to CAG and others the value of these debts is I suspect going down as they are getting less and less out of them due to people successfully defending them.

 

4. they might try one or two little tricks such as sending you blank documents and trying to persuade you that they have provided the evidence but in the main their case founders at that point.   (The one court case I have been involved with played out this way but I was steered through it by the guys hear at CAG).

 

5. If they do send a valid document it will likely be re-constituted and you will be able to a) challenge it's enforce ability for technical reasons and b) ask for an original at the Hearing which they will very likely not be able to provide.

 

So relax, because if you stick up for yourself they will likely back off and go after easier accounts on their system that are not fighting back.

 

The feeling of being in control and not being a victim or a cash cow is great.  Start to enjoy it!!

 

  

[Bon-ee-bon]

Wow. That’s an incredible result. Well done!

Your friend is lucky to have you fighting their corner.

Pointless to say that I wish I had this knowledge years ago.

For a decade and a half we have accepted that these debts -which stopped us to try to become home owners or even dare to apply for a credit card- will be looming large over us until cleared.

I am so pleased to have found this oasis of hope generated by you remarkable people with such insight knowledge on this site

I am scared but also excited at the prospect of this leading to such a positive outcome as your friend’s.

 

I am bracing myself for the arsenal of tricks these people will throw at me.

 

Let’s see what happens. B:)x

[dx100uk]

there are numerous like stories already here in the same forum that your thread is in

might help you to scroll through a read a few.

 

https://www.consumeractiongroup.co.uk/forum/124-debt-management-and-debt-self-help/

[Bon-ee-bon]

Oh, I have been, dx. Ever since discovering this place, I’ve been reading voraciously through pages and pages of people’s accounts . You could say I’m a bit obsessed with it. It’s been fuelling me for days.. lol

[dx100uk]

[London1971]

On 06/10/2020 at 12:08, Bon-ee-bon said:

I am bracing myself for the arsenal of tricks these people will throw at me.

 

Let’s see what happens. B:)x

There won’t be an arsenal of tricks, likely very little will happen aside from a few angry letters.

 

They can get crafty and try ringing from a

legitimate looking number, so that you pick up. I have to answer my phone because it’s possible that it could be a customer. If it’s a DCA I’m always polite and tell them I can’t give out information over the phone, and if it’s important to send it in writing .

[Bon-ee-bon]

You mean these people are not only greedy opportunists but also unimaginative ? Heh.

[Bon-ee-bon]

Quick update:

following my letter to Link Financial advising them I will not pay any further due to lack of CCA, I received a response which says that they have placed the case on dispute and will be investigating and come back to me in the next 4 weeks.

 

No acknowledgment of my request to them to stop writing to me as they have no proof of the debt. 

I shall take this as a success nevertheless. 
I’m anxiously awaiting more replies from the rest of DCAs. 

[AndyOrch]

Quote

No acknowledgment of my request to them to stop writing to me as they have no proof of the debt. 

 

Seriously ? ....you expected them to agree and confirm 

[Bon-ee-bon]

Heh, perhaps not.

[dx100uk]

1 hour ago, Bon-ee-bon said:

following my letter to Link Financial advising them I will not pay any further due to lack of CCA

 

or sure where we ever said to send a pointless letter stating they have no cca ....buzz off?

 

[Bon-ee-bon]

I had sent that letter prior to getting enlightened by you guys here. I’m learning ..