Paying off debts

mattp1980

Hi all, first time poster so please be gentle.

I'm looking for some advice on behalf of my partner. She was with her ex for approx 4 years, 3 of which they lived together. during that time, he did not work, so she was working 13 hour days, 5-6 days per week. Including travel time to and from work, she was out of the house for 15 hours a day (7am until 10pm). As she was at work during typical office hours, he would take care of the bills using the money she had earned, or so she thought. As it turned out, the only thing he did actually pay was the rent to ensure they were not evicted.

I believe that they were being chased for this debt for some time and he was always able to evade the collectors (she never saw or knew of them because she was hardly there). When the relationship ended, I think he got in touch with the collectors and gave them her parent's address which is where she went back to live. Week by week, the letters would come pouring in. Some from the council, some from Jacobs Bailiffs and one from Moorcrofts. She offered to pay half as it was a shared debt, but this was refused by all. She offered them the address of where she believed her ex to be staying but again they all refused. She then setup 3 separate payment agreements of £20 per month to each (council, Jacobs and Moorcrofts)

All told, we believed the total amount across the board to be approx £2300.

She has been making regular payments of £20 per month to each of them for the last 7 months. We have both been saving every penny we can in the meantime, along with some help from our parents and we thought we had come up with enough to pay them all off. We called Moorcrofts today and settled, job done. Got in touch with the council and managed to negotiate a reduced amount for settling it all in 1 go (from £1650 down to £1250) and asked for a final bill to be sent to us. Job done and happy days.

Jacobs is where it gets messy. They've been quite aggresive about it all from the start and at one point after setting up the repayment plan, they called up and demanded higher repayments to which they were poiltely told "no".

We called them up today ready to pay what we believed to be £169.61 only to be told that the bill was over £1000. whilst on the phone with, we frantically dug out all of the paperwork we received from them. We found the letter that actually contradicted itself. Now, I cannot remember the actual wording and the exact amounts as I am at work now, but it was along the lines of:-

"the total amount owed = £969. Our client has instructed us to accept the following terms. 15 x payments of £20 per month with a final payment of £9.61 in order to clear the debt"

We both missed this on receipt of the letter so that is why it has only come to light now.

Now, I'm no Carol Vorderman, but I know that 15 x 20 + 9.61 does not equal 969. As she had already made 7 payments of £20, she was only expecting to have to pay another £169 to clear it.

When she queried it with them, she was told that she 2 outstanding debts with them and that they had been writing to her mothers house since June 2009. In June 2009 she was still living with that waste of skin she calls her ex. Her mother had never recieved ANY form of contact from Jacobs until last summer when all of this kicked off. They also told her that the payment she had been making had not been going on to the debt that she thought she was paying, but infact towards the one she knew nothing about.

We are expecting our first child in 3 months and today confirmed that we have had our application for our own place accepted, so naturally, we want these debts gone so we can start afresh.

What I would like to know is where we stand with this debt with Jacobs as the letter clearly states that she owes £969, but they have been instructed to accept the 15 payments of £20 with a final one of £9.61. As we have saved £400 on the bill with the council, we might be able to scrape the rest together before we move in, but I'm not sure where we stand with this letter contradicting itself.

She is currently at home in the process of writing to Jacobs to tell them that she is not prepared to pay the full amount because the letter states that they will accept £309.61 as full payment. She is going to enclose a copy of said letter along with copies of the receipts of the payments she has already made and just for good measure she is going to throw in her ex's address and phone number as he has not paid a penny.

Sorry for the wall of text, but I wanted to be thorough.

Many thanks
Matt

Tixy

What debts are Jacobs collecting? council tax? CCJs? Has she seen a copy of the judgement/order? The amount they can add in charges etc varies depending on what sort of debt is being collected. Have you asked them for a full breakdown of the account for both debts?

There will probably be no point in giving ex's details to the bailiffs - they know where your OH lives, they have a court order of some sort and they can pursue just her for the debt. They always chase the person who is easiest to find and if she is working and he isn't then they'll stick to focusing on her.

By the way I notice you say you settled with moorcroft on the phone - its generally advised never to settle debts with debt collectors on the phone but to keep everything in writing, that way if they start trying to chase the debt in a few months or years time you can prove you paid. As you have already paid I would ensure you keep everything you have, letters from them, letters to them, copy of the bank statement showing the payment etc all together in case you have any issues with them at a later point.

mattp1980

Hi Tixy, Thanks for your response. Jacobs are chasing council tax on both counts. We haven't received any breakdowns from them yet due to the fact that this extra amount was sprung on us this afternoon. You're right about them probably not persuing him about it, I failed to mention before that we went to citizens advice a few weeks ago to see where we stood with trying to get half of the debt passed on to him and they told me exactly what you just said, but I figure it can't hurt to try, worst outcome is we end up exactly where we are now. What really cheeses me off is that I heard today (assuming the information is accurate) that he is now in Liverpool (approx 80 miles away from us) which is where Jacobs is based and he is also working and earning more than both me and my partner combined.

Thanks for the advice of not settling over the phone. I've never had to do any of this before so it is a constant learning curve for me. They have assured me that a letter of confirmation will be posted out to both me and my partner this week and believe me, I will get that letter even if it means calling them 10 times a day, every day until they give in. I always insist on a paper trail. I also have internet banking so I can track back through years worth of statements if needed.

Thanks
Matt

Hannah_10

You always insist on a paper trail but you are going to phone them 10x a day. You can't prove what you said on the phone, even if you could record it you'd have to say you were recording it. on any other call they can make up what you said as they go along. In fact they can make it up on the ones you are recording, who would you prove it to? And calling 10x a day, what do you think that's going to achieve? They have huge call centres staffed by people little better cared-about than trained monkeys who are too jaded to give a shtt what you think. You will tire of this before they do. Read The Golden Rule and safe payments.

And your partner has already had one bloke running her life for her and made a mess of it, perhaps she needs to handle her own affairs this time? I'm sure she's just as capable as any other person. Your aggressive Make 'Em Pay attitude could well cause more trouble than it fixes. This requires a calm Long Game approach and a lot of reading and sending letters signed for. Trying to bully the baliffs into doing something they are plainly not going to is just going to wear you out not them, they will laugh at you.