Can I consolidate debts of husband if he is unable by using power of attorney?

purplefiona

I've got him to agree to sign a pile of letters. All I need to do is add the address and account numbers. OK so how does this look? I've tried to combine the "can I pay you a little bit" letter with a "do not call me" letter.
I'm looking at making a budgeting sheet next

10 September 2008

Dear Sir or Madam,

Re: Account No.
Account Name.
With total arrears of:

Since making that above agreement with you, my circumstances have changed.

I cannot now afford agreed monthly payments because I am suffering from clinical depression. Due to this, for the past two years I have been working one day a week, which is not as much as I had anticipated. I am happy to provide copies of doctors letters for the avoidance of doubt, if required.

I enclose a Personal Budget sheet which shows my total income from all sources, and the total outgoings of my household. As you can see I have little money left to make offers of payment to my creditors.

In view of my circumstances, would you please accept a payment of

£

per month at present to be reviewed in six months?

If interest or other charges are being added to the account, I would be grateful if you would freeze these so my debt does not increase.

Should my circumstances improve I will contact you again.

I am also writing to you to inform that I request all communications to me in writing only. I do not want any further telephone calls made to me or my household. I am not well enough to receive telephone calls of this nature, nor to make calls.

Please note that to continue to contact me by telephone after I have requested you not to constitutes harassment. This type of debt collection method is contrary to the ‘Administration of Justice Act 1970’. In that it is intended to cause alarm and distress to the recipient.

Take further notice that continued telephone calls after receipt of a request not to call may constitute a criminal offence under Section 127 of the Communications Act 2003. Continued phone calls to myself or any member of my household may also constitute an offence under the Data Protection Act.

Please communicate in writing and ONLY in writing. Your telephone calls will not be answered. any further calls, if made, will trigger complaints to the relevant bodies.

Please remove any telephone numbers you hold for me from your systems.

I trust I have made myself understood on these matters.

I look forward to hearing from you, in writing, with details of how to pay, as soon as possible. I would like to re-iterate that I cannot use the telephone at present and therefore would prefer any direct debit forms or standing order mandate forms to be sent to me in the post.

Thank you for your time and kind assistance.

Yours faithfully

RAS

PF
Sorry for the rushed message but had to run for the train. my lose the wifi any mo.

I previously mentioned that once you had sorted out the business of letters, it might be possible to move on to reduce BF's liabilities. Your letter could reduce those options.


Basically there are two types of debt that are unenforceable, those that are statute barred and those for which there is not signed CCA, assuming he acquired the debt before April 2007. At the moment none of us know if either of these apply so it is essential not to close the options down. It is essential for instance to include a statement about not acknowledging debt, even if you have been paying it


The other things are that DCAS are not the brightest of bunnies. Things tend to operate to scripts and formulae. They know what written communication letter looks like, they know what a CCA letter looks like or a token offer of payment. You are mixing things up in one letter. it may be that some things are not even done by the same department so half the contents will be actioned and the other ignored.


Once you have sent the telephone letter (as I refer to it) you can expect the response to be a letter asking for a payment arrangement. Deal with that as it comes. some may not come.


The letters we post here are generally nicked and edited slightly from other sites where they were devised to meet legal requirements. They have been tried, tested against numerous DCAs and creditors, often in court and work. So it is important to limit the amount of alteration as we do not know whether that reduces the efficacy.

Must go. Willm post again tomorrow.

RAS

Dear Sir / Madam,

Re accounts ref

I do not acknowledge any debt to your company.

I am writing to you to inform that I request all communications to me in writing. I do not want any further telephone calls made to me.

To continue to contact me by telephone after I have requested you not to constitutes harassment. I require all future communications in writing for future Court use. Do not telephone me again – remove any telephone numbers you hold for me from your systems.

Your telephone calls are in breach of the Office of Fair Trading guidelines. If you continue with them after the receipt of this letter, an official complaint, together with a log recording the times and frequency will be passed both to that office and to Trading Standards, For your information, all telephone calls are taped.

Furthermore, i have been advised to let you know that I am suffering from clinical depression which severely limits my ability to work. i refer you to section of the OFT Guidelines. Your phone calls cause me additional distress and this letter is being written on my behalf by a friend who is concerned about their adverse affect on my mental state.

This type of debt collection method is contrary to the ‘Administration of Justice Act 1970’. In that it is intended to cause alarm and distress to the recipient. Your methods will not be tolerated. A formal complaint to the relevant authorities will be made.

Take further notice that continued telephone calls after receipt of a request not to call may constitute a criminal offence under Section 127 of the Communications Act 2003. Continued phone calls to me may also constitute an offence under the Data Protection Act.

Furthermore, i have been advised to let you know that I am suffering from clinical depression which severely limits my ability to work. i refer you the OFT Guidelines. Your phone calls cause me additional distress and this letter is being written on my behalf by a friend who is concerned about their adverse affect on my mental state.

Communicate in writing and ONLY in writing. Your telephone calls will not be answered.

HOWEVER, CALLS WILL TRIGGER COMPLAINTS TO THE REGULATORY BODIES.

I trust I have made myself understood on this matter.

Yours,

RAS

Hi

having trouble with the connection. Just lost a whole post - will try again later as I have to go now


Furthermore, i have been advised to let you know that I am suffering from clinical depression which severely limits my ability to work. i refer you the OFT Guidelines. Your phone calls cause me additional distress and this letter is being written on my behalf by a friend who is concerned about their adverse affect on my mental state.

purplefiona

Aha! brilliant.
Thanks. I haven't sent anything yet as I had a creeping feeing that mixing the letters would not work!
I actually managed to have quite a long conversation with my darling last night and it would appear that although he doesn't know where the folder is, the debts are circa £6000 (phew) and circa 3 years old. He has insurance on two of them to my knowledge which covers being unable to work due to illness, which is exactly whats happening of course. At the time of taking the cards he was employed and earning plenty.
I feel like a huge weight has lifted off my shoulders being able to speak about it to him: now I can look at the folder without trepidation and tot up the charges I can hopefully get back and perhaps a bit of insurance money.
All I now have to do is find the folder.
aaargh!!!

purplefiona

PS.
I have run out of money as of today so its emptying the coppers jar for me for a week until I get paid. D'oh!! theres just been SO much to cover this time.
I'm going to print off a dozen of those letters and fill in the account numbers and addresses by hand, and post them off when I have some cash.
Another question: he is due a new mobile phone, ought he to apply for that before I start blackening his credit score further?

RAS

Hi

i have inserted the sentence I hoped to put in the other night, when I was turfed out of MSE because I was not allowed to edit my own post. If you have not run off the letters, then please use the revised version. You may be wisest to send letters to people who have been in touch and ignore anytone who has not tried to get him to pay, in the short-term.

Will explain what need to happen, with the additonal information from yourself.

Firstly has he claimed the PPI? If so, they should be paying the debts, or did they only pay for a while.

If they are not paying then he needs to reclaim the premiums, particularly if the premiums were front loaded. The OFT has indicated that PPI with front loaded premiums are rarely appropriate.

Whenthe companies respond to your letters, you need to send a CCA request to those that are for loans, credit cards and catalogues. This is his right and we have at least one instance recently when someone did not remember a debt and there proved to be no CCA. They may well have been paying a debt that was not even theirs.

If the CCA is not forthcoming, then the creditors ability to take legal action against him is nil. If the debt is already defaulted, he may not want to pay them anything more.

if the debts are less than 6 years old, then they will not be statute barred.

RAS

purplefiona wrote: »

Another question: he is due a new mobile phone, ought he to apply for that before I start blackening his credit score further?

to be brutally honest, we would not recommend that anyone in debt tries for a phone contract, stick to PAYG.

mummytofour

I have not read of of this thread so what I say may of been coverd.

PLEASE PLEASE BE VERY CAREFUL. If your OH has a bad credit rating it WILL effect you if you so much as have a joint bank account or mortgage. I learn the hard way sigh....

purplefiona

I am being very careful. And I am planning ahead.
Just printing off letters now.
I have finally got Nat-Pest to cough up the CORRECT two 3rd party mandate forms. Honestly, all I ask is for bank staff to have a little training.
All signed. Now I need to go in and give them my inside leg measurement to get them to do me the special favour of taking 7 to 10 days to process it while they credit check me AGAIN.
Stressed? me?