Red debt collections/lowell finance

ourfamily

O.K people! follow up!! I sent the Statute Barred letter by recorded delivery and got this letter back today in response:

Dear Mrs ........
Ref no ******
Original Creditor: Capital One
Balance Outstanding:£***
24/09/2009

We are disappointed that the monies you have previously had the benefit of are still outstanding and you have not taken responsibility to clear the outstanding debt.
Your account is now to be passed to our specialist recoveries unit who wil ultimately decide the best form of action that is to be taken in order to recover the outstanding amount.
To avoid this going any further you MUST call us and arrange payment. We WILL have a repayment plan that is affordable to you and that will fit within your current financial budget.
When you spent the monies originally you did it knowing that it had to be repaid.You can repay YOUR debt by full or in a monthly repayment plan please call 0844 844 3744
BLAH BLAH BLAH!!!!

SO...... what do i do now as they have blatently ignored the Statute Barred letter.
Please please help!!

fermi

Already have a letter for that.

Read through both pages of this thread: lowells trying to collect an over 6 year debt

I do not acknowledge any debt to you or any other company or organisation that you claim to be representing.

Acc/Ref No: *******************

FORMAL COMPLAINT under the complaint procedures set out by the Financial Ombudsman.

Thank you for your letter dated xx/xx/2008, the contents of which are noted.

On xx/xx/2008 I wrote to <Name of debt collector> regarding a debt that was alleged to be owed by myself. That letter was received and signed for on xx/xx/2008 as confirmed by Royal Mail tracking.

In this letter I pointed out the following items:

1) Under the Limitation Act 1980 Section 5 "an action founded on simple contract shall not be brought after the expiration of six years from the date on which the cause of action accrued".

2) The OFT say under their Debt Collection Guidance on statute barred debt that "it is unfair to pursue the debt if the debtor has heard nothing from the creditor during the relevant limitation period".

3) The last correspondence/payment/acknowledgement or payment of this debt was made over six years ago and no further acknowledgement or payment has been made since that time. Unless you can provide evidence of payment or written contact from me in the relevant period under Section 5 of the Limitation Act, I suggest that you are no longer able to take any court action against me to recover the alleged amount claimed.

4) The OFT Debt Collection Guidance states further that "continuing to press for payment after a debtor has stated that they will not be paying a debt because it is statute barred could amount to harassment contrary to section 40 (1) of the Administration of Justice Act 1970".

Therefore it is clear that your original contact regarding this debt may well have been in breach of the Office of Fair Trading Guideline referred to in item (2).

Furthermore, your second letter is in breach of Office of Fair Trading Guideline referred to in item (4) and directly constitutes harassment.

As you are no doubt aware, breaches of the OFT's Guidance on Debt Collection are treated seriously by the OFT when considering your fitness to hold a Consumer Credit License.

In particular the OFT has recently stated that:

The Consumer Credit Act 1974 (the Act) requires debt collectors, businesses that offer goods or services on credit and/or are involved in activities relating to credit or hire to be licensed by the OFT. Following implementation of the OFT's new powers under the Consumer Credit Act 2006 on 6 April 2008, the companies could also have specific 'requirements' imposed on them by the OFT. If such a requirement was not complied with, the business concerned could be subject to a financial penalty of up to £50,000. The OFT can also refuse or revoke a licence if it decides that a trader is not fit to hold one. The OFT can take into account any circumstances which appear to be relevant when considering the fitness of an applicant or licensee, including evidence that the company has contravened the Data Protection Act 1988.

Furthermore, that the OFT has recently enforced their guidelines by placing a legal requirement on Mackenzie Hall Ltd to cease pursuing statute barred or disputed debts.

Therefore I wish to formally notify you that unless I received confirmation that this matter is now closed, then I will not hesitate to make a formal complaint to the 'Office of Fair Trading' and also to 'Trading Standards'.

Furthermore, any attempted contact (other than to confirm that this matter is now closed) by any:

• "trading style" of the <Name of debt collector> group
• constituent member of the <Name of debt collector> group
• a third party acting on your behalf
• a third party that claims to have been legally assigned this debt

will result in an immediate complaint to the aforementioned regulatory bodies.

Also please note that any legal action you may consider will be FULLY and VIGOROUSLY defended, and you will be put to a strict proof of the alleged debt and any payment or acknowledgement that you claim within the relevant limitation period.

Furthermore, you may consider this letter a FORMAL COMPLAINT under the complaint procedures set out by the Financial Ombudsman. If you wish to correspond with myself with any other purpose than to confirm that this matter is now closed, then I require you to supply me with a written copy of your complaints procedure and a "final response" that I may forward to the Financial Ombudsman with my complaint.

This COMPLAINT is not going to go away and ignoring this problem could potentially make your situation worse. I therefore strongly recommend that you send written confirmation that no further contact will be made concerning the above account and confirmation that this matter is now closed.

I would appreciate your due diligence in this matter.

ourfamily

Hi people!! Thanks for all your help with the red/lowell letters!! Just thought i would let you know I received a letter from them yesterday datd the 25th Sept:

Dear *** ********
Ref:*******
Original creditor:Capital One
Balance Outstanding:£0.00
I am writing to inform you that after further examination of your account it has become apparent that it is now ubject to section (5) of the limitation act 1980 and as such we have now closed the account and can confirm no further correspondence will be sent to you.
Please accept my apologies for any inconvenience caused by this matter.
Yours sincerely
Kevin Allmark collections manager

YIPPEE!! Feel so relieved!! Now they have confirmed this can i get them to remove the searches they did on me and hubby(even though debt wasnt his)
on our credit files? the credit searches came through as Lowells and not reds

gargrave50

Hi,

I realise you are claiming this is under the statute barred time limit - however this would not apply if they have registered a CCJ against you as far as I am aware. Have you checked whether this is the case?

fermi

gargrave50 wrote: »

Hi,

I realise you are claiming this is under the statute barred time limit - however this would not apply if they have registered a CCJ against you as far as I am aware. Have you checked whether this is the case?

If Lowells are accepting that the debt is "statue barred", then presumably there isn't one. Lowells have closed the file anyway.

ourfamily

no there is no ccj, just did 2 credit searches on each of us in the past few months. It is alot more than 6 years and no payment nor have i heard anything until this last few weeks when they started sending me letters.

paulitto

ourfamily wrote: »

Hi people!! Thanks for all your help with the red/lowell letters!! Just thought i would let you know I received a letter from them yesterday datd the 25th Sept:

Dear *** ********
Ref:*******
Original creditor:Capital One
Balance Outstanding:£0.00
I am writing to inform you that after further examination of your account it has become apparent that it is now ubject to section (5) of the limitation act 1980 and as such we have now closed the account and can confirm no further correspondence will be sent to you.
Please accept my apologies for any inconvenience caused by this matter.
Yours sincerely
Kevin Allmark collections manager

YIPPEE!! Feel so relieved!! Now they have confirmed this can i get them to remove the searches they did on me and hubby(even though debt wasnt his)
on our credit files? the credit searches came through as Lowells and not reds

I have received the same letter back :j from them after sending the 1st letter template. Thanks a million :T . Without this i could easily have been paying back over £2k. Sent the 2nd letter and got this back before they could have recieved it.

Thanks again