Joint account nightmare! Help!

Martini101

I'll begin from the beginning!!!

My ex partner and i split up March 2007. At the time, we had a joint account, with the RBS which they froze, and established a separate account for me. I opened an account with a completely separate bank (had a bad history with RBS anyway!) and moved all my wages etc across to the new bank, but maintained the single name account with RBS for the payment of a joint loan we had.

At the same time, i agreed (and signed a mandate) to state that i was happy for my ex to take solo ownership of the joint account, since he was self employed and coulnt at that time get his own account. At that time, i stopped receiving any statements or correspondance about the account, and naturally assumed that the account had been transferred. The joint loan was paid off in full in October 2007, and i had heard nothing about this until June this year when i received a notification from the Collections Centre of RBS to tell me that there was an outstanding balance of £181 remaining on the old joint account.

After warngling with them about the fact that my name shouldnt have even been on the account, i paid the balance in August anyway as i didnt want to get bad credit for my ex's lack of fiscal ability!

I sent a letter to the branch to state that i expected that my name would now be taken off the account, in accordance with the mandate i signed back
in April 07, and again (although obviously an error on my part) assumed that all was well as i had heard nothing.

I have now received a notification of intention to file a default on the account, and after speaking to the thoroughly unhelpful Collections Centre, was told to make the payment, and then advised that it was in relation to a separate account my ex partner has, which is linked to the joint account.

I have checked as much guidance as i can, and the only thing i can find is on the CAB website, which states 'Credit must not be linked to one without the agreement of all the other account holders' and 'statements must be sent to all of the account holders unless otherwise notified'.

I guess my questions are: if i have never agreed that the accounts should be linked, and that the separate account my ex has was obviously opened after our split, can they link the accounts together like this? And can i also get them on failure to send statements to me?

I realise i have been completely stupid failing to keep copies of everything, but since i had heard nothing about the account in over 12 months, i think it was reasonable to assume it was no longer my concern!

gravitytolls

I think you need to post this in one of the banking/debt forums, as there arelots of very knowledgable folk on there. I think you also need to get yourself down to the CAB too, taking with you any paperwork you have regarding this matter.