Mackenzie Hall chasing my partner

divadeb_3

Hiya everyone, I have just read the replies to Scrabblers thread. My hubby was contacted by MH 3 weeks ago regarding a debt from 1995. They told him the last payment on the debt was 2001 and they wanted payment of £3,650 now!!!! He put the lovely lady on loud speaker and to be honest I was flabbergasted at her telephone manner. We had 1 problem, my mum was guarantor for the car loan, but as she is quite poorly we did'nt want her to find out and we told them this. Well that was it they had us over a barrell, they got us to complete..(over the phone) an income and expenditure form and she worked out we could pay her £300 per month or she would contact my mum. I was at my wits end to be honest.....that was until I got loads of advice from reading threads on this forum...... I sent them the a recorded letter" not acknowledging the debt " I did agree to pay my first payment at the end of July, but after reading on hear I never payed. Then the phone calls started, the same as Scrabblers.....bloody loads of them lol They only had my home number, but they rang it 8 times in 5 mins and I just kept telling them" I have been told not to talk to you, please respond to my letter. They tried to tell me they had no letter, "but you have signed for it, I have the proof. Well that was nearly 3 weeks ago and I aint heard nothing yet......Have they given up I wonder ???? Or have I spoken to soon.....either way they can go to hell and rot........ Every body on this forum give good advice, or good hugs lol I hope you and your partner see this through and stand firm, good luck, Debbie

rog2

divadeb wrote: »

Hiya everyone, I have just read the replies to Scrabblers thread. My hubby was contacted by MH 3 weeks ago regarding a debt from 1995. They told him the last payment on the debt was 2001 and they wanted payment of £3,650 now!!!! He put the lovely lady on loud speaker and to be honest I was flabbergasted at her telephone manner. We had 1 problem, my mum was guarantor for the car loan, but as she is quite poorly we did'nt want her to find out and we told them this. Well that was it they had us over a barrell, they got us to complete..(over the phone) an income and expenditure form and she worked out we could pay her £300 per month or she would contact my mum. I was at my wits end to be honest.....that was until I got loads of advice from reading threads on this forum...... I sent them the a recorded letter" not acknowledging the debt " I did agree to pay my first payment at the end of July, but after reading on hear I never payed. Then the phone calls started, the same as Scrabblers.....bloody loads of them lol They only had my home number, but they rang it 8 times in 5 mins and I just kept telling them" I have been told not to talk to you, please respond to my letter. They tried to tell me they had no letter, "but you have signed for it, I have the proof. Well that was nearly 3 weeks ago and I aint heard nothing yet......Have they given up I wonder ???? Or have I spoken to soon.....either way they can go to hell and rot........ Every body on this forum give good advice, or good hugs lol I hope you and your partner see this through and stand firm, good luck, Debbie

In your case, dd, the 'debt' would be Statute Barred anyway - and 'unenforceable through the Courts:

Providing that a debtor has made no payment towards, nor acknowledged in writing, a debt for a 'Limitation Period' of six years (5 in Scotland) then, under the terms of the Limitation Act, once the debtor has informed the creditor, or dca, that he/she will no longer be making any payments towards the debt as it is Statute Barred, then the creditor/dca can no longer enforce the agreement and must cease 'collection activity':

http://www.nationaldebtline.co.uk/england_wales/factsheet.php?page=25_liability_for_debts_and_the_limitation_act

Don't worry about any 'agreement' that you may have made over the phone - this will not affect the status of the 'debt'.

If they call again, simply send them the template letter that you will find on the above link.
As an added measure, you might like to print off the OFT 'requirements' recently imposed on this bunch of scavenging thugs, and staple it to the letter:

http://www.oft.gov.uk/shared_oft/business_leaflets/consumer_credit/requirements.pdf

Scrabbler_2

Thanks Debbie,

The help and the support off everybody has been the best. If I hadn't have come on here, I would have been skint trying to pay back what they were after and scared of the phone ringing! Now I know the reputation of MH and now that of Wescot, it doesn't bother me. Still trying to convince the OH half though as she is worried it's all in her name and all this is prolonging them coming for her! I can only assure her....

We sent the prove-it letter again with a copy of the guidelines attached to it and they got it yesterday, no contact off them as yet..!

What would be best to send to Wescot - a CCA request or prove-it letter?

That's a relief about the credit rating, none of the debts are in joint names and we don't have any joint financial products.

rog2

Scrabbler wrote: »

What would be best to send to Wescot - a CCA request or prove-it letter?

Given the circumstances, I would suggest that you send a 'cca request' letter.

Scrabbler_2

Hi everyone,

Latest update with MH. We have got a letter back off them, but their dates don't tally up! Even though that prob doesn't really matter. Below is what it said:

Dear X

In reference to your correspondence of 05/08/09, I would like to state that we are working and operating within our guidelines you have made reference to.

Please refer to a conversation held on the 17/07/09, where you requested a call back due to make a full and final payment on your Debt, of which you accepted full responsibility of and spoke to us in length about payment methods.

I also refer you to the arranged call back on the 29/07/09, which we arranged with yourself to confirm details of the payment which was due the next day. In this conversation your partner, who you gave full authority to act on your behalf, confirmed he was making the payment the next day and requested a call to his number.

An agreement was reached by you and your partner to pay this full and final settlement by the 31/07/09 and must point out that this date has now passed without payment by yourself. You have previously admitted and accepted liability of said debt and as the settlement offer has now laspsed. PAYMENT IN FULL is now due on your account.

I must stress that the payment in fill of this account is by the 17th August 2009, you can make this payment by debit/credit card payment over thehone or BACS transfer directly into our account.

Failure to pay this accoun in full by the 17th August 2009, may result further action being take against you.

Regards,

Steve Jones
Collections Manager

So, they still haven't told us what the debt is for, and have just repeated themselves from the last letter. Not once did we request call backs, why would we? I said I'd ring them back at the end of the month, then came across this forum.

I have a sneaky suspicion they tried ringing me today, as I had x2 withheld calls, obviously I can't be certain it was them.

They said in reference to the letter dated 05/08/09 - but they got it on the 11th?!

I will be calling the OFT tomorrow morning, any suggestions on the next move would be hugely appreciated.

Marthasdad

Ooooooo, I bet you're dead worried!!?

It's statute barred, so just keep on going down that road.......

rog2

Scrabbler wrote: »

Please refer to a conversation held on the 17/07/09, where you requested a call back due to make a full and final payment on your Debt, of which you accepted full responsibility of and spoke to us in length about payment methods.

I also refer you to the arranged call back on the 29/07/09, which we arranged with yourself to confirm details of the payment which was due the next day. In this conversation your partner, who you gave full authority to act on your behalf, confirmed he was making the payment the next day and requested a call to his number.

An agreement was reached by you and your partner to pay this full and final settlement by the 31/07/09 and must point out that this date has now passed without payment by yourself. You have previously admitted and accepted liability of said debt and as the settlement offer has now laspsed. PAYMENT IN FULL is now due on your account.

I must stress that the payment in fill of this account is by the 17th August 2009, you can make this payment by debit/credit card payment over thehone or BACS transfer directly into our account.

Failure to pay this accoun in full by the 17th August 2009, may result further action being take against you.

Any 'agreement' that is made during a telephone conversation does NOT alter the status of the 'debt', NOR does it affect MH's legal obligation to give you full details of the 'debt'.

Even 'Written' acknowledgement of, or payment towards, the 'debt' once the 'Limitation Period' has elapsed, would NOT affect the status of a 'Statute Barred' debt in any way.

ONCE A DEBT BECOMES 'STATUTE BARRED' IT REMAINS 'STATUTE BARRED' FOR EVER

MacKenzie Hall are continuing to defy the OFT requirement that has been placed on them specifically to deal with the way they 'pursue' such 'unenforceable' debts.

Jesthar

Oooh, more fibs! :rolleyes:

Scrabbler wrote: »

In reference to your correspondence of 05/08/09, I would like to state that we are working and operating within our guidelines you have made reference to.

Translation: OUR guidelines, yes. OFT guidelines? Usually not...

Scrabbler wrote: »

Please refer to a conversation held on the 17/07/09, where you requested a call back due to make a full and final payment on your Debt, of which you accepted full responsibility of and spoke to us in length about payment methods.

Translation: Although verbal admission isn't actually legally binding as an acknowledgement of debt, the admission has to be in writing or any judge will crucify us, and even a written admission can't reactivate Statute Barred debts, but we're hoping you don't know that...

Scrabbler wrote: »

I also refer you to the arranged call back on the 29/07/09, which we arranged with yourself to confirm details of the payment which was due the next day. In this conversation your partner, who you gave full authority to act on your behalf, confirmed he was making the payment the next day and requested a call to his number.

Translation: We're sure there must have been something said in the first conversation we can twist your memory of to make it seem like you requested further calls when we were just going to keep calling anyway, and hopefully you'll be too flustered to realise you never actually did...

Scrabbler wrote: »

An agreement was reached by you and your partner to pay this full and final settlement by the 31/07/09 and must point out that this date has now passed without payment by yourself. You have previously admitted and accepted liability of said debt and as the settlement offer has now laspsed. PAYMENT IN FULL is now due on your account.

Translation: We don't like the fact you've gone away and read up on your legal rights rather than caving in to our demand like good little terrified debtors should, so we're going to up the stakes by asking for the full amount (wot we made up) in SCARY CAPITAL LETTERS!!! Oooh, aren't we hard, mum!

Scrabbler wrote: »

I must stress that the payment in fill of this account is by the 17th August 2009, you can make this payment by debit/credit card payment over the phone or BACS transfer directly into our account.

Translation: Actually, the only thing we can stress is YOU - into paying up - as we don't have a legal leg to stand on...

Scrabbler wrote: »

Failure to pay this accoun in full by the 17th August 2009, may result further action being take against you.

Translation: May, yes. Will? Probably not, it would cost waaay too much and if it ever did get to court we'd get chucked out anyway, as we're not so much skating on thin legal ice as trying to walk on water. But we DO like how scary that threat sounds - can we have some money, now?


~Jes

Scrabbler_2

Hi All,

Sorry I've not been on to keep you updated, but after sending the Guidelines to MH, they suddenly stopped contact and letters, we've never heard anything off them......... until this morning. Both myself and my partner have recieved a text telling us to contact them. Obviously we are just ignoring them, but wondering if they are trying their luck again?

Many thanks,

Scrabbler