Legal Action!

Trebort

Hi,

I got a letter from Geoffrey Parker Bourne Solicitors today. It's the second one saying they are going to take legal action against me on behalf of iQor Limited who have taken over my debt to Halifax.

I have a debt management company handing this for me, as well as another debt to Welcome Finance. They are Harrington Brooks.

In this letter they say I have 7 days to pay or they are going to take me to court and a County Court Claim will be issued without furthur warning. It will also lead to bailffs coming and seizing my things.

How can they do this if I am actually paying the debt? I'm really scared now.

Does anyone have any advice?

Thanks

pepe2008

Have you spoken to Harrington Brooks....they are getting enough money )17.625% of monthly Payment on top of your original £295 fee?) to deal with this.

IF the Solicitors are aware of the existence of HB, then they should be dealing with them. Make HB work for their money.

Nobody should be with a FEE-CHARGING DMP provider.

Trebort

Hi.

Harrington Brooks always tell me the same thing. Don't worry about them and just ignore the letters I get and send them all to them at Harrington Brooks.

When I described the letters I was getting, the woman on the phone at Harrington Brooks knew I was talking about iQor before I mentioned them. She says they try and squeeze money out of you by sending threatening letters, but I've not got one from a solicitor reprisenting iQor before.

Harrington Brooks are not open right now, so I can't contact them.

What should I do? (apart from contact Harrington and see what they say?) I don't like the idea of just ignoring these letters I get, I don't want bailiffs turning up at my door to take my things.

GeorgeUK

Do the letters say they WILL be taking court action or that they MAY?

How long have you been with HB?

I would write back to the solicitors stating that you are in a Debt Management Plan with HB and understood that they had come to payment agreements with all your creditors. Request that the solicitors provide you with details of any agreement to enable you to confirm that your information is correct.

There are free debt charities (CCCS, Payplan) that can set up a DMP for you without charging a fee. It may be wothwhile talking to one of these.

(Taken from Fermi's signature)

Professional, free and impartial advice on debt problems can be obtained from several charitable and 'not for profit' organisations. They never make a penny from the advice they give, which means it will be given with only your best interests at heart. You can contact:

Your local CAB Office and ask to speak to a 'money advisor'
The Consumer Credit Counselling Service (CCCS) - Tel: 0800 138 1111
National Debtline - Tel: 0808 808 4000
Payplan - Tel: 0800 917 7823

Bunnie1982

My husband has had similar letters and we are on a DMP with CCCS. When we spoke to CCCS to get the monies transferred from being paid from Iqor to Geoffrey Parker Bourne Solicitors, they said they are part of the same company.

I'm not saying it is an empty threat, but despite their letter giving us 7 days (this was about a month ago) we've had no further correspondence.

mrs:optimist_2

Trebort wrote: »

Hi,

I got a letter from Geoffrey Parker Bourne Solicitors today. It's the second one saying they are going to take legal action against me on behalf of iQor Limited who have taken over my debt to Halifax.

I have a debt management company handing this for me, as well as another debt to Welcome Finance. They are Harrington Brooks.

In this letter they say I have 7 days to pay or they are going to take me to court and a County Court Claim will be issued without furthur warning. It will also lead to bailffs coming and seizing my things.

How can they do this if I am actually paying the debt? I'm really scared now.

Does anyone have any advice?

Thanks

Hi there, it's really scary when people start mentioning bailiffs, that was my biggest fear! However the lady I spoke to at the CCCS told me that bailiffs can only be ordered by the court if you default on a CCJ.

Companies aren't able to come in to your home and they can't order bailiffs to come round.

She said to read any letter that mentions bailiffs very carefully as it will say things like 'bailiffs may/might/could/maybe come round'. They are empty threats.

I am only at the beginning of my journey, I start my DMP on 1st March with CCCS (it's a bad idea to pay a debt management company as it will take much longer to pay your debt off, many of them promise to get your interest frozen but this is never guaranteed and from what I've heard most lenders prefer to deal with CCCS or Payplan because they know they will get 100% of the payment. Why not see if you can change over to a free one!). However I specifically asked the councellor about bailiffs and she really reassured me so I thought I would pass on what she said

Take care and good luck

Deep_In_Debt

If a creditor threatens bailiffs, it's unlikely it will be bailiffs as for bailiffs to come round you normally have to default on a court order so I would say they are spouting hot air.

However, creditors can send doorstep collectors (I had one). They have no legal rights - about as many as the paper boy - and you don't even have to answer the door to them.

Trebort

You guys are being really helpful, thanks alot.

I don't have the letter on me right now, but it says something along the lines of...

If you don't pay us the full amount or contact us within 7 days, a County Court Judgement may be issued without furthur notification. It also says this may result in bailiffs and two other things I can't remember right now.

I'm going to ring the solicitor tomorrow, and harrington brooks and find out whats going on. Also, I'll try calling some debt charaties and see what they can do for me.

I'm actually looking forward to having a doorstep debt collector, I know exactly what legal power they have :rotfl:. I'm tempted to stick a fiver on the end of a chopstick and poke it through the letter box to torment them.

I'll post again when I find out more.

Again, thanks for the advice guys :j

mrs:optimist_2

Trebort wrote: »

You guys are being really helpful, thanks alot.

I don't have the letter on me right now, but it says something along the lines of...

If you don't pay us the full amount or contact us within 7 days, a County Court Judgement may be issued without furthur notification. It also says this may result in bailiffs and two other things I can't remember right now.

I'm going to ring the solicitor tomorrow, and harrington brooks and find out whats going on. Also, I'll try calling some debt charaties and see what they can do for me.

I'm actually looking forward to having a doorstep debt collector, I know exactly what legal power they have :rotfl:. I'm tempted to stick a fiver on the end of a chopstick and poke it through the letter box to torment them.

I'll post again when I find out more.

Again, thanks for the advice guys :j

Glad you are feeling better about it, the way they word it makes you think that if you get a CCJ that will mean that bailiffs will come round, when in reality they would only be ordered if you defaulted on your CCJ payments. They are very naughty trying to scare people like that!

Glad to see you have the right attitude about doorstep callers, I read on a thread here (can't remember which one, sorry) that they can't even come to your house unless they have an appointment, and you dont have to grant them an appointment!

Trebort

mrs:optimist wrote: »

Glad you are feeling better about it, the way they word it makes you think that if you get a CCJ that will mean that bailiffs will come round, when in reality they would only be ordered if you defaulted on your CCJ payments. They are very naughty trying to scare people like that!

Glad to see you have the right attitude about doorstep callers, I read on a thread here (can't remember which one, sorry) that they can't even come to your house unless they have an appointment, and you dont have to grant them an appointment!

hehehe :beer:

Trebort

Update:

Harrington Brooks told me not to worry again after I read them the letter and took my refernece number and the contact details for the solicitors reprisenting iQor. They said they will contact them and make it clear they are handling the debt.

I'm still concerned that they will get a CCJ against me anyway, what do I do then? Can they really do that if Harrington Brooks are paying the debt off?

Rob