Statute barred debts and the Limitation Acts

bluepanda

Hi

I would appreciate any advice anyone could offer regarding my situation.

A fortnight ago I received a letter from Lo we ll P o r tfolio Lt d concerning an old credit card debt that I owe from 2002. I have recently moved to a new address and the letter was basically saying we bought the debt, and since the old company didn't know your address and we found it from credit referencing agencies you may not have known about your debt. So please reply to confirm your new address and talk about your debt. I ignored it.

Last week I received a letter from R ed Debt Collection services saying they have been asked by Lo we ll to recover the debt.

The last payment or written acknowledgement I made of that debt was at least 7 year ago. I am in Scotland btw.

I was going to send them the statute barred template letter from here but see many people advising the prove-it letter first. Which is best?

Who do I send it to, R ed since they sent the latest letter? Lowe ll? Or both? Also, both letters don't have correspondence addresses other than a PO Box. Since I will be sending with R Mail to get signed where can I find office addresses for the relevant companies.

PS Sorry for the annoying to read way I wrote the companies names. It probably makes no difference but I presume they scour these forums gathering data so I want to make it harder for them,.

Thanks in advance for any advice.

fatbelly

Lowell and Red are one and the same. The other letterhead they use is Hampton Legal.

They are based at Enterprise House, 1 Apex View, Leeds LS11 9BH.

If this is clearly your old credit card I'd go straight for the SB letter (Scottish version) then ignore everything short of a court claim.

Megonnie

Hi could someone please help and advise me with this. Back in 2004 I had a Debt Management agreement via Harrington Brooks to repay 450 odd each month for a loan I had with Natwest. (This was taken out to help my now ex-husband, stupidly I put it in my name and then he leaves and left me with the debt). Anyway in 2006 I changed this to an IVA as I couldnt manage this amount as a single mum every month, this was passed over the their other company dealing with IVAs - One Advice and the amount reduced to 250 per month. My circumstance changed dramatically later that year and so I decided enough was enough and I couldn't pay it any more. I advised One Advice about this and they said ultimately it was my choice, they were very nice about it and in a nutshell mentioned the worst that would happen is the debt will go back to natwest and they may end up making me bankrupt over it - which I acccepted, I got a confirmation letter from One Advice about my decision to cease with the IVA - but typicaly cannot, at the moment, find a copy. Now I think the last payment was late 2006 or early 2007 (at the latest), at the weekend I got a letter from a company called Trinity (I think - sorry the letter is at home and I now at work) saying the debt has been passed to them and they require payment of the full amount within the next 7 days. If I go back to One Advice to ascertain when the last payment was made will this be an acknowledgement by me in any way and re-start the 6 years rule. I need to talk to someone about it and don't want to ignore the letter from this debt company, but I think this loan is now statute barred.
many thanks

National_Debtline

Hello there,

Contacting One Advice would not be classed as an acknowledgement. What would count is if you, or anyone acting as your 'agent' actually contacted Trinity in writing acknowledging liability. You're perfectly OK to contact One Advice should you wish to.

For the record, if you do decide to contact Trinity informing them in writing that you believe the debt to be statute barred, the onus would be on them to prove that it isn't.

Best wishes,

David @ NDL .

Megonnie

National_Debtline wrote: »

Hello there,

Contacting One Advice would not be classed as an acknowledgement. What would count is if you, or anyone acting as your 'agent' actually contacted Trinity in writing acknowledging liability. You're perfectly OK to contact One Advice should you wish to.

For the record, if you do decide to contact Trinity informing them in writing that you believe the debt to be statute barred, the onus would be on them to prove that it isn't.

Best wishes,

David @ NDL .

Hi there,

Just called One Advice and they have confirmt hat they sent my creditors a letter of non-compliance on 28th Feb 07 regarding my wishes to stop the IVA, so I asked them if the debt is now statute barred, they said that this will be difficult for me to prove especially if the creditors have then sent me any correspondence following their letter regarding the debt? The only thing I have received is bank statement showing the outstanding debt - does this mean its not statute barred?
many thanks

fermi

A creditor writing to you does not stop a debt being statute barred. Only written acknowledgement by YOU or your representative does that.

waiting2lose

Hi all,

I felt compelled to register and let you all know that I have managed to win my case against Lowells and they finally accepted defeat to a Statute Barred debt. I couldn't have done this with out the help of all your posts and especially the helpful letters so this a MASSIVE THANK YOU for all your help. As proof here is a copy of the email I received today!

I have removed the Lowells Customer Service rep name for obvious reasons.

Good luck to everyone else in their cases.

Wayne :-))

>>>>>>

10 February 2014

Re: Lowell Portfolio I Ltd (“Lowell”)
Our Reference Number: XXXXXXXX


Dear Mr X,

I acknowledge receipt of your correspondence dated 6 February 2014 and note all your comments. I have now investigated the matter and this email sets out the result of those investigations.

Summary of your complaint

You are unhappy that we are contacting you with regards to the above account as you believe it to be subject to Section (5) of the Limitation Act 1980. You also state that the searches performed on your credit file are unauthorised.

My findings

Firstly, it concerns me to hear that you feel harassed by our activities in pursuit of the outstanding debt. Please accept my assurances that this is not intentional and all of our procedures comply with the regulations laid down for the industry within which we operate.

I must advise that an account is determined to be statute barred based on the date of the last payment received or the last written acknowledgement of the debt. If either of these is more than six years old, then an account is considered statute barred. In this case, the last payment made against the account was 28 March 2008 and as such, the account is not statute barred.

At the point of purchase of the rights and benefits associated with this account from HFC Bank Ltd, Lowell Portfolio I Ltd became the data controller in respect of this matter, as defined by the Data Protection Act, replacing HFC Bank Ltd.

At the point of application of this account with HFC Bank Ltd a Fair Processing Notice was agreed to by you to share/pass personal data. Consequently, when Lowell Portfolio I Ltd purchased the rights and benefits of the account, this included the Fair Processing Notice and the requisite permission.

I can confirm that by conducting searches on your credit file we are exercising a right under the fair processing notice, stipulated in the terms and conditions that were agreed with HFC Bank Ltd. For your peace of mind, our searches are classed as ‘soft searches’ and these would automatically disappear after 12 months from the date they were applied. In addition, they would not be visible to any potential credit lenders.

Our view is that Lowell Portfolio I Ltd purchased the account in good faith from HFC Bank Ltd and that the debt is properly due and owing. In view of the circumstances and the impasse we have reached, I have taken a commercial decision to close your account without any admission of liability by Lowell rather than seek to prolong this matter any further.

I hope that this response concludes the matter to your satisfaction. If you need to discuss things further please do not hesitate to contact me on 0800 542 0058 or write to me at: Lowell Customer Relations, Enterprise House, 1 Apex View, Leeds, LS11 9BH.

The Financial Ombudsman Service (FOS) provides a dispute resolution service to assist customers who feel their complaint remains unresolved. You have a right to use this service for up to six months from the date of this email. For more information please visit the Financial Ombudsman’s website using the following (hyperlink removed). Naturally we hope that you will not feel the need to do so.

Should you require a paper copy of this leaflet, please let us know and we will arrange to send one to you.

Yours sincerely,

X
Customer Relations Officer
0800 542 0058

fatbelly

waiting2lose wrote: »

Hi all,

I felt compelled to register and let you all know that I have managed to win my case against Lowells and they finally accepted defeat to a Statute Barred debt. I couldn't have done this with out the help of all your posts and especially the helpful letters so this a MASSIVE THANK YOU for all your help. As proof here is a copy of the email I received today!

I must advise that an account is determined to be statute barred based on the date of the last payment received or the last written acknowledgement of the debt. If either of these is more than six years old, then an account is considered statute barred. In this case, the last payment made against the account was 28 March 2008 and as such, the account is not statute barred.

It looks to me that they have agreed to write it off as they accept that you aren't going to pay, and it is not worth them taking court action against you.

If they are right with their dates, you have been lucky with this one.

Now you'll have to wait to see if they sell the debt to someone else.

waiting2lose

fatbelly wrote: »

It looks to me that they have agreed to write it off as they accept that you aren't going to pay, and it is not worth them taking court action against you.

If they are right with their dates, you have been lucky with this one.

Now you'll have to wait to see if they sell the debt to someone else.

Rules are rules my friend. I can guarantee you that the last time I made any payment was in 2006 via a CAB agreement so the March 2008 statement is nonsense!

Onwards and upwards :-)

fermi

Lowlifes have a habit of making up conveniently dated phantom payments on statute barred debts. I would guess that you caught them out, and they are writing it off rather than be forced to come clean.