Rockwell DCA

HannaB

Hello,

Once again, I'm turning to you guys for advice. Any thoughts on this would be greatly appreciated.

In early 2006, my partner was contacted by Rockwell DCA regarding an old debt of around £4,200. He agreed to start to make payments of £25 per month. Since then, with my help as he only has sporadic temporary work, we have made payments every month by their requested date. These repayments have increased by £5 each year and we currently pay £35 per month in cash with a payment book at our local bank.

In September sometime, Rockwell wrote to my OH saying something along the lines of "We understand that with the credit crunch, some people are finding it hard to make payments, so we are offering you a chance to make us an offer." The debt is currently at around £3,400. Unfortunately, we weren't in the position to make any kind of an offer, so we just continued to make the monthly payments as usual.

Rockwell phoned my OH last week to chase up this letter. They said they would accept £1,600 as an offer. Although this is really good, we aren't the kind of people to have this amount lying around. When my OH tried to explain this to him, they told him to take out a consolidation loan, borrow from friends, blah, blah, blah. I think the call ended with my OH hanging up on him.

Rockwell phoned again today and once again insisted that my OH take out a loan to repay this debt. My OH tried to explain that there would be no way in heck he would be able to get one. He has a basic cashcard bank account, temporary work and this default against his name. He asked Rockwell why they were being so rude about it and they told him that their client needed substantially greater payments then what we were paying now.

Has anyone else been contacted by Rockwell in this way recently? I don't know what has happened here, we were happily making payments and increasing them whenever we were asked to. These past 2 years, we haven't missed a payment and haven't paid late once. Is this normally what DCA's do in these tougher economic times? Is there anything we can do?

My OH says the next time they phone and are rude again, he'll tell them he'll go the CAB and they can have a £1 a month. Is this the right approach?

Thanks for reading this post.

HB x

HannaB

Any ideas?

(Sorry, I'm at a complete loss)

Peekay32

HannaB wrote: »

Rockwell phoned again today and once again insisted that my OH take out a loan to repay this debt.

Scumbags!

OFT_debt_collection_guidelines wrote:

2.6 Examples of unfair practices are as follows:
b. pressurising debtors to sell property, to raise funds by further
borrowing or to extend their borrowing

Another thing I've just noticed is that googling "rockwell debt collection" comes up with nothing. It may be a pseudonym or trading name.


Anyway, someone else will probably be able to put my information to good use. Good luck dealing with those scumsuckers.

stapeley

I would send a CCA and notice of assignment request . As they are prepared to accept a settlement . It is likely that they can not supply one , therefore it may be unenforceable .

HannaB

stapeley wrote: »

I would send a CCA and notice of assignment request . As they are prepared to accept a settlement . It is likely that they can not supply one , therefore it may be unenforceable .

Thanks for the replies. Regarding the above though, I thought it was only unenforcable if we hadn't made any payments in the past six years? We have been making payments since 2006 and have so far paid them around £700-odd of the original £4,200 debt.

It would be great if it was unenforcable...

HannaB

Based on Stapley's post, I have drafted the below letter to send to Rockwell (using the templates on this site). Does this sound right? Sorry for the uncertainty, but we haven't ever done this before. My debts were easy compared to his...

Dear Rockwell,

On [Date] 2006, I was contacted by you regarding an outstanding debt of [amount]. Promptly, I began making payments of £25 per month as this was all I could afford. I am currently paying £35 per month. Since first contact, I have paid £ towards the debt in question.

Recently, I was contacted by one of your agents regarding the possibility of making an early settlement offer. When I told him that I am not in a position to do this, he became rude, threatening and suggested I either take out a loan or borrow this amount from friends. I would like to direct you to the Office of Fair Trading Debt Collection Guidelines which states:

2.6 Examples of unfair practices are as follows:
b. pressurising debtors to sell property, to raise funds by further
borrowing or to extend their borrowing

Therefore, your agent acted unlawfully in pressuring me to take out further credit. The behaviour of your employee has prompted me to investigate this matter further. I require you to supply the following documentation before I will correspond further on this matter.

1. You must supply me with a true copy of the alleged agreement you refer to. This is my right under your obligation to supply a copy of the agreement under the legislation contained within s.78 (1) Consumer Credit Act 1974 (s.77 (1) for fixed sum credit) - your obligation also extends to providing a statement of account. I enclose a £1 postal order in payment of the statutory fee, PO Serial Number xxxxx.

2. A signed true copy of the deed of assignment of the above referenced agreement that you allege exists.

3. You are notified that you are obliged to supply these documents, whether you are the original creditor or not under S189 of the CCA 1974.

Non-compliance with my request is a criminal offence under the above Act and will result in a report being submitted to the relevant statutory authorities.

As you are aware, a credit agreement that is not properly documented and signed by the customer is totally unenforceable under the CCA and therefore is a complete defence to any court claim that is issued.

Take note at this stage, that any legal action you may contemplate will be both vigorously defended and contested.

From now on, I will only correspond with you by post.

stapeley

It is no longer a criminal offence . They only need to supply a notice of assignment , not the deed . I would not make any mention of what you have been paying . The we say that mby making payment you acknowledge the debt , but this makes no differance . They must supply a copy of a enforceable CCA if they wish to continue collection on the debt .

Peekay32

HannaB wrote: »

Based on Stapley's post, I have drafted the below letter to send to Rockwell (using the templates on this site). Does this sound right? Sorry for the uncertainty, but we haven't ever done this before. My debts were easy compared to his...

Dear Rockwell,

On [Date] 2006, I was contacted by you regarding an outstanding debt of [amount]. Promptly, I began making payments of £25 per month as this was all I could afford. I am currently paying £35 per month. Since first contact, I have paid £ towards the debt in question.

Recently, I was contacted by one of your agents regarding the possibility of making an early settlement offer. When I told him that I am not in a position to do this, he became rude, threatening and suggested I either take out a loan or borrow this amount from friends. I would like to direct you to the Office of Fair Trading Debt Collection Guidelines which states:

2.6 Examples of unfair practices are as follows:
b. pressurising debtors to sell property, to raise funds by further
borrowing or to extend their borrowing

Therefore, your agent acted unlawfully in pressuring me to take out further credit. The behaviour of your employee has prompted me to investigate this matter further. I require you to supply the following documentation before I will correspond further on this matter.

1. You must supply me with a true copy of the alleged agreement you refer to. This is my right under your obligation to supply a copy of the agreement under the legislation contained within s.78 (1) Consumer Credit Act 1974 (s.77 (1) for fixed sum credit) - your obligation also extends to providing a statement of account. I enclose a £1 postal order in payment of the statutory fee, PO Serial Number xxxxx.

2. A signed true copy of the deed of assignment of the above referenced agreement that you allege exists.

3. You are notified that you are obliged to supply these documents, whether you are the original creditor or not under S189 of the CCA 1974.

Non-compliance with my request is a criminal offence under the above Act and will result in a report being submitted to the relevant statutory authorities.

As you are aware, a credit agreement that is not properly documented and signed by the customer is totally unenforceable under the CCA and therefore is a complete defence to any court claim that is issued.

Take note at this stage, that any legal action you may contemplate will be both vigorously defended and contested.

From now on, I will only correspond with you by post.

Did you get the name of the person who you spoke to on the phone?

Also, I'm sure there's a paragraph you can find that cites the Administration of Justice Act regarding telephone contact.

Apologies for being so ambiguous!

RAS

Hi


This is an old debt you have been paying since early 2006. How many years prior to that did he not pay anything to the debt?

Also, I suggest that you keep the CCA request, which should start "I do not acknowledge any debt to your company" separate from any complaint.

Then complain to their CEO re

Recently, I was contacted by one of your agents regarding the possibility of making an early settlement offer. When I told him that I am not in a position to do this, he became rude, threatening and suggested I either take out a loan or borrow this amount from friends. I would like to direct you to the Office of Fair Trading Debt Collection Guidelines which states:

2.6 Examples of unfair practices are as follows:
b. pressurising debtors to sell property, to raise funds by further
borrowing or to extend their borrowing

Therefore, your agent acted unlawfully in pressuring me to take out further credit. The behaviour of your employee has prompted me to investigate this matter further. I require you to supply the following documentation before I will correspond further on this matter.


With details of who called, or at least gender, date and time of the call.

And an insistance that in future all contact be in writing. Advise them that any further calls will be recorded and try and set up something (any old bit of kit) that you can switch on audibly if they call again.

HannaB

RAS wrote: »

Hi


This is an old debt you have been paying since early 2006. How many years prior to that did he not pay anything to the debt?

Also, I suggest that you keep the CCA request, which should start "I do not acknowledge any debt to your company" separate from any complaint.

This debt is from a previous relationship he had. He believes it's from around 2002. If they had contacted us now, it would have been barred. But it was in date at the time. Serves us right for trying to do the right thing.

One question though, will they accept that he doesn't "acknowledge the debt" after he has been making payments for two and a half years?

methusala_2

making payments does not mean you acknowledge the debt. Your defence is that under extreme pressure and threats of court actions and further costs caused you to make payments but have since taken advice, and now realise that the debt has not yet been proven to be yours.