Moorcroft Debt Recovery - help & advice needed

Lyndell

I will try to keep this as brief as possible. My son has been having serious financial problems since his business failed but he has managed to sell his house at a give-away price to pay off most of his debts. He has one credit card left and owes Sainsbury around £8k. He has no way of paying this as he is unemployed and to be fair Sainsbury have allowed him to pay £5 a month until his circumstances change. He had a letter from them dated 17th September 2010 saying they will review his position again in 6 months. Now out of the blue he has received a letter from Moorcroft Debt Recovery – Pre Court Division. The letter states:- We have been instructed by Sainsbury Bank to collect your overdue debt of £8451.10. It is a legal requirement to send a notice of intended litigation before legal proceedings in the County Court are issued. We believe that this letter fulfils this requirement even if it is not actually read by you.

To prevent our recommending to our client that solicitors commence legal proceedings, it is essential that you settle this debt without delay. Payment should be submitted in full within 7 days or contact made with this office immediately by telephone or letter, with your payment offer. Both our client and we do not wish to take this action but if agreement cannot be reached by 09/11/10, a claim may be issued by our client’s solicitors without further notice.

We would draw to your attention that if Judgement and an order for repayment in full is obtained and remains unpaid, a range of court enforcement options are available and may be considered. We would emphasise that should Judgement be entered against you this may affect any future credit application you make elsewhere. We would also draw to your attention that all legal costs incurred are usually payable by the debtor.

Please contact us today as we will be happy to discuss a repayment programme that you can afford and maintain. All payments must be payable to Moorcroft Debt Recovery Ltd and forwarded with this letter to the above address.

My son is really struggling to cope and to be honest I was not aware of just how bad things were until a few months ago. He immediately rang Moorcroft as he was so worried but they didn’t seem interested in agreeing a payment plan they seem to be pushing him for full settlement. This is totally impossible, we are not a rich family but I can raise about 50% of it – is it worth writing to them stating that we will pay this as full settlement. I have told him not to ring them at all as I realise everything has to be put in writing. He knows he has to pay the debt but at present would only be able to offer a minimal amount a month i.e. £20. There are so many questions going round in his head:- will they add interest to the amount he already owes, will they take him to court even if he offers to pay so much a month, if they do will he be liable for the costs etc? I think he has had his card for about 2 years – is it worth asking them for the CCA to give him a bit of time to try and sort things out?

One last point, would it be worth writing to Sainsbury again bearing in mind that they only wrote to him in September giving him 6 months at a payment plan of £5 per month. He cannot understand why, a few weeks later, they have passed it on to Moorcroft.

Sorry this is so long but I would appreciate any help as to what he should put in his letter. Thank you in advance.

FTW

Lyndell wrote: »

I will try to keep this as brief as possible. My son has been having serious financial problems since his business failed but he has managed to sell his house at a give-away price to pay off most of his debts. He has one credit card left and owes Sainsbury around £8k. He has no way of paying this as he is unemployed and to be fair Sainsbury have allowed him to pay £5 a month until his circumstances change. He had a letter from them dated 17th September 2010 saying they will review his position again in 6 months. Now out of the blue he has received a letter from Moorcroft Debt Recovery – Pre Court Division. The letter states:- We have been instructed by Sainsbury Bank to collect your overdue debt of £8451.10. It is a legal requirement to send a notice of intended litigation before legal proceedings in the County Court are issued. We believe that this letter fulfils this requirement even if it is not actually read by you.

To prevent our recommending to our client that solicitors commence legal proceedings, it is essential that you settle this debt without delay. Payment should be submitted in full within 7 days or contact made with this office immediately by telephone or letter, with your payment offer. Both our client and we do not wish to take this action but if agreement cannot be reached by 09/11/10, a claim may be issued by our client’s solicitors without further notice.

We would draw to your attention that if Judgement and an order for repayment in full is obtained and remains unpaid, a range of court enforcement options are available and may be considered. We would emphasise that should Judgement be entered against you this may affect any future credit application you make elsewhere. We would also draw to your attention that all legal costs incurred are usually payable by the debtor.

Please contact us today as we will be happy to discuss a repayment programme that you can afford and maintain. All payments must be payable to Moorcroft Debt Recovery Ltd and forwarded with this letter to the above address.

My son is really struggling to cope and to be honest I was not aware of just how bad things were until a few months ago. He immediately rang Moorcroft as he was so worried but they didn’t seem interested in agreeing a payment plan they seem to be pushing him for full settlement. This is totally impossible, we are not a rich family but I can raise about 50% of it – is it worth writing to them stating that we will pay this as full settlement. I have told him not to ring them at all as I realise everything has to be put in writing. He knows he has to pay the debt but at present would only be able to offer a minimal amount a month i.e. £20. There are so many questions going round in his head:- will they add interest to the amount he already owes, will they take him to court even if he offers to pay so much a month, if they do will he be liable for the costs etc? I think he has had his card for about 2 years – is it worth asking them for the CCA to give him a bit of time to try and sort things out?

One last point, would it be worth writing to Sainsbury again bearing in mind that they only wrote to him in September giving him 6 months at a payment plan of £5 per month. He cannot understand why, a few weeks later, they have passed it on to Moorcroft.

Sorry this is so long but I would appreciate any help as to what he should put in his letter. Thank you in advance.

Moorcroft's pre-school division is quite notorious round here. Yes, the CCA is a good option - but you'll need to enclose a £1 postal order and provide no signatures of any kind at any point.

Lyndell

I presume he will have to write to Moorcroft for it - not Sainsbury. I wont get him to sign the letter then but for what reason hasn't he to sign anything?

FTW

Lyndell wrote: »

I presume he will have to write to Moorcroft for it - not Sainsbury. I wont get him to sign the letter then but for what reason hasn't he to sign anything?

You send the request to whoever's pursuing him for money (so, Moorcroft). The letter should be sent at the least by recorded delivery (so that you have a record of them signing for it!).

The reason for the signature is that some DCAs have been known to 'lift' signatures to paste onto new agreements.

Lyndell

Thank you all for your help last time. Unfortunately I still haven’t got the hang of this Forum and can’t seem to locate ‘Help’. I am sure I failed to thank people last time so if anyone can direct me to the Help section I would be very grateful.

I believe I am right in carrying on this thread so am giving an update of the latest situation and also once again asking for advice.

My son sent the letter to ask for a copy of the CCA and has just received the following reply from Moorcroft.

We refer to your recently received letter requesting data as per Section 77 – 79 Consumer Credit Act 1974.

We duly confirm that we have requested the relevant documentation from our client and once received we will duly forward the same to you. Meanwhile, we duly confirm that all collection activity on the account has been put on hold and we will not seek to enforce payment of this debt until such time as the documentation has been supplied or we have advised you to the contrary.

In the meantime, however, we believe that it may be of assistance to all parties if we also take this opportunity to ensure that any potential areas of dispute are addressed prior to any possible court action or further investigation. To this end can you provide an indication of the information you will be relying upon, when giving evidence to the court or information to the relevant statutory authorities in relation to the alleged subject matter of this account.

Please could you provide this information by return as this will ensure that all possible areas of dispute are identified as quickly as possibly thereby minimizing potential costs and delays.

Should you have any questions or require any additional information please do not hesitate to contact us direct on the telephone number as shown above


Firstly just to confirm that my son will never again ring Moorcroft as we have taken the advice given on the forum and will ensure everything will be in writing.

Can you please advise him how to respond to the above letter. His circumstances have not changed at all and as a point of interest he is still paying Sainsbury £5 per month by standing order. The last payment went out on 12th November 2010. Should he just wait until he receives the CCA or should he write and acknowledge this letter.

Many thanks.

fermi

Wait for the CCA.

No need to respond to that letter. It's a standard one from Moorcroft, and is simply designed to muddy the waters any worry you.

Lyndell

Many thanks - will tell my son to sit tight until we receive it.

Mulrey1994

Hi, I worked in a Debt Collection Agency for a good while. Often and I'm not saying it's definate in your case, clients do sometimes pass over accounts that shouldn't be placed. These are usually ones where a payment plan has already been agreed with the original Creditor. It seems that there is a short gap between the agreement of the payment plan with Sainsbury's and the Letter from Moorcorft. From placement with a DCA to the first letter going out to the debtor - can take between 7 - 21 days. It's possible the account was already prepped for batch placement with Moorcroft when the payment plan was agreed. Hence the situation.

It would be worthwhile sending a letter of dispute to Moorcroft along with a copy of the original letter from Sainsburys which agreed the payment plan and also copies of receipts for payments made in relation to that plan... in my experience the client will often request the account be returned to them and you will again be dealing with Sainsbury's on the orignal payment plan. Especially if the date on the letter pre-dates the placement date of the file with Moorcroft.

If this happens and Moorcroft send you a closure letter which usualy states something along the lines of "we advise that your account has been returned to our client and we will take no further action... blah blah..." ask them for a copy of the actual response from Sainsbury's, you will then always have this on record.

Hope this helps.

Lyndell

Thanks Mulrey. The letter from Sainsbury extending the offer of the payment plan to March 2001 was dated 17th September and the original letter from Moorcroft was the beginning of November. My son is waiting for the CCA to arrive and then we will follow your advice especially the part about asking for a copy of the letter Moorcroft received from Sainsbury. One thing this has taught me is that I have to get everything in writing! Many thanks once more.

FTW

Mulrey1994 wrote: »

Hi, I worked in a Debt Collection Agency for a good while. Often and I'm not saying it's definate in your case, clients do sometimes pass over accounts that shouldn't be placed. These are usually ones where a payment plan has already been agreed with the original Creditor. It seems that there is a short gap between the agreement of the payment plan with Sainsbury's and the Letter from Moorcorft. From placement with a DCA to the first letter going out to the debtor - can take between 7 - 21 days. It's possible the account was already prepped for batch placement with Moorcroft when the payment plan was agreed. Hence the situation.

It would be worthwhile sending a letter of dispute to Moorcroft along with a copy of the original letter from Sainsburys which agreed the payment plan and also copies of receipts for payments made in relation to that plan... in my experience the client will often request the account be returned to them and you will again be dealing with Sainsbury's on the orignal payment plan. Especially if the date on the letter pre-dates the placement date of the file with Moorcroft.

If this happens and Moorcroft send you a closure letter which usualy states something along the lines of "we advise that your account has been returned to our client and we will take no further action... blah blah..." ask them for a copy of the actual response from Sainsbury's, you will then always have this on record.

Hope this helps.

Why bother with all that? The OP doesn't need to send off any of that to Moorcroft, and for now, none of it is Moorcroft's business.

All that's important to Moorcroft is that they've have received the CCA. Now, they shouldn't do anything else until they obtain a copy of that CCA.

To the OP - if Moorcroft resume collection activity of any kind without providing you with the CCA, or if the CCA turns out to be unenforceable, then you can start issuing complaints to the Office of Fair Trading (Consumer Credit Licence Fitness Section), the Financial Ombudsman Service (loved by Moorcroft, since the FOS charges them £500 for every case they investigate), and Consumer Direct.

Lyndell

Thanks FTW. Will wait a couple of weeks to see if the CCA arrives then will seek some more advice on the next step - especially on whether it is enforceable or not.