Not sure of the law

rosy_jedi

Hi All

Can anyone tell me about the law when it comes to letters of assignments when debt collectors take on debts i.e. should they send a letter saying they have been assigned the debt or does this only apply to companies that buy debts. I would appreciate any help.

file_wizzard

The original creditor is lawfully required to inform you of the assignment, the purchaser is not, however they will normal write to your shortly after to inform you that they have purchased the debt, or any benefit owed under the original contract

amosworks

You can make a request under the Consumer Credit Act 1974 for a copy of the deed of assignment. This also extends to a statement of account and a true copy of the original signed credit agreement. Whoever owns your debt now must legally obide with your request (for a statutory £1), whether they are the original creditor or not.
HTH

rosy_jedi

thanks for all your help

file_wizzard

amosworks wrote:

You can make a request under the Consumer Credit Act 1974 for a copy of the deed of assignment. This also extends to a statement of account and a true copy of the original signed credit agreement. Whoever owns your debt now must legally obide with your request (for a statutory £1), whether they are the original creditor or not.
HTH

Just to clarify the above there is no requirement under the CCA to provided a deed of assignment.

S.77 / S.78 of the CCA will allow for a request for a statement of account and current balance, however the requirement to provide a deed of assignment is governed by the law of property act.

amosworks

file_wizzard wrote:

Just to clarify the above there is no requirement under the CCA to provided a deed of assignment.

S.77 / S.78 of the CCA will allow for a request for a statement of account and current balance, however the requirement to provide a deed of assignment is governed by the law of property act.

Are you sure about this? Several different sources state that you can request a deed of assignment from a creditor when a debt has been purchased. I'm not sure what consumer credit would have to do with property?

file_wizzard

Hi "amosworks"

Just to clarify, I am aware of the standard letter you are referring to where the author has added the statement about the deed of assignment to the S.77 / S.78 request, however the only true requirement under S.77 / 78 of the CCA is to provide a statement of account, and the amount outstanding (if any) under the original agreement.

In terms of the law of property act you are quite correct this is mainly associated to property as in “bricks and mortar” and mortgagees, however it is also used within various case law for deeds of assignment in relation to contracts and debts.

Tootsie_Roll

file_wizzard wrote:

The original creditor is lawfully required to inform you of the assignment, the purchaser is not,

Agree with everything else you state on this thread except this bit.

I have posted this many times - There is often a lot of confusion about whether the debt has actually been bought or the dca are just acting on instructions from the lender. If they are just acting then there is no requirement for the debtor to be notified although the reality is that they will always receive a letter stating something like ''We have been instructed by xyz lender to recover......''. If the debt has been purchased then EITHER the lender or the purchaser has to write stating that the debt has been sold/bought. In my experience of debt purchase contracts (and i've seen quite a few!) the lender always passes on the responsibility for notifying the debtor as they generally can't be bothered to and it saves them money.

I completely agree with your comments about the deed of assignment though - Just another myth that keeps on going on this site and others for some reason.

THE_LONE_RANGER_4

a dca will in general let you know that they have been instructed to collect the debt , also if your debt has been sold when i was in debt one company imformed me they had bought the debt 2 others did not, i wanted to know becouse i wanted to know who i was dealing with etc and what there interest in the debt was some dca instead of being open and honest played silly little games wouldnt tell you either way and delayed the repayment of the debt as payments in my case were sent to the wrong person i had to put this down to the fact most of the call centre operators were in the main clueless.
I paid all what was due to the creditors direct unless a dca proved they had bought the debt this was the advise given to me by my solicitor , the awkward bit was some creditors didnt want to accept offer so bought dca in to put preasure on it didnt work however

file_wizzard

Tootsie_Roll wrote:

Agree with everything else you state on this thread except this bit.

I have posted this many times - There is often a lot of confusion about whether the debt has actually been bought or the dca are just acting on instructions from the lender. If they are just acting then there is no requirement for the debtor to be notified although the reality is that they will always receive a letter stating something like ''We have been instructed by xyz lender to recover......''. If the debt has been purchased then EITHER the lender or the purchaser has to write stating that the debt has been sold/bought. In my experience of debt purchase contracts (and i've seen quite a few!) the lender always passes on the responsibility for notifying the debtor as they generally can't be bothered to and it saves them money.

I completely agree with your comments about the deed of assignment though - Just another myth that keeps on going on this site and others for some reason.

Cant directly argue with your statement, however as I am sure you are aware under most CCA executed credit agreements the creditor normally includes a clause which lawfully obliges themselves under the original contract T&C’s to notify the debtor of any changes of ownership or transfer of data.

However as you rightly state this obligation can be also be transferred, however the legal duty remains with the original creditor to undertake his reasonable endeavours to inform the other party of the action occurring.

THE_LONE_RANGER_4

Also If The Creditors Told People What They Were Going To Do And The Dca Spoke To You Properly And Told You What There Position Was Im Sure It Could Be All Sorted Out All The More Quicker