Advice needed Lloyds TSB loan

daniel237

I will summarise the main points:
I was (and still am) very unwell and had to go on health related benefits 2005.
Unfortunately the financial difficulty meant charges on my account, which were unfair and stressful (I sometimes had no money for weeks).
My debt with Lloyds TSB meant an 'overdraft' of over £1000 even though I contested the charges (2007).
LLoyds TSB turned my overdraft into a loan. Arguably, I do not owe Lloyds the whole amount of £1000+, also I did not sign a consumer credit agreement for this, they just did it.
After seeking advice from the CAB I was told to ask a local Law Centre for advice.
I set up a basic bank account elsewhere to get my benefit payments. As Wescot were chasing me for this debt I made some payments but argued I had not signed for the loan and, although I wanted to repay the debt, I wanted to contest the actual amount of debt with Lloyds.
Wescot asked LLoyds for the consumer credit agreement and when LLoyds could not produce this they returned the debt to Lloyds.
This then happened again with Moorcroft.
I stopped making my monthly payments as I wanted matters straightened out (and I was still on benefits).
I have repeatedly tried to contact Lloyds with this matter since 2008/2009 and I have had no response.
I approached the Law Centre in July 2010. The Law Centre wanted to take on the case - but, as they gave me no satisfactory communication I involved the Legal Ombudsman. This has instigated the Law Centre to contact me 18 months later.
I have just received this response I would like to know what people think:

Dear Mr G,

Re: Lloyds TSB

When you came to see us you informed us that LLoyds TSB, without your permission converted your current account into a loan and you say you did not sign a consumer credit agreement.

We wrote to the debt collection agency and Lloyds TSB asking them to produce a signed copy and to this date this has not been provided to us.

Unless the creditor can do this then the debt is unenforceable in the county courts. This means the creditor cannot force you to repay the debt through the county courts.

Should this debt not be unenforcable in the county courts because of their inability to produce a reconstituted agreement this would not prevent them from seeking to recover the debt outside of the courts by means of a Debt Collection Agency, and we cannot prevent them from doing this if they choose to.

To take a court action against you in the county court all they would need to do is produce a reconstituted agreement which might be from sources other than the signed version. This means that the copy does not actually have to show your signature on it. All they would need to show is that that particular version of the agreement would have been what they would have sent you to sign. This is based on established case law.

Even if they do not produce an agreement you could still be asked to repay the debt.

We could try to argue that there is potentially an unfair relationship if you are saying that you did not see sight of the loan agreement and its terms and conditions. We could argue that you were unaware of the terms and conditions because you did not see them. In our view this would mean the creditor had the upper hand in the transaction. Please note however, that we have not tested this issue in the county court and this argument maybe unsuccessful.

As you know we wrote to Wescot about the matter and they said in their letter dated 16/03/11, they would be returning the account to Lloyds in view of the fact that they had not been able to produce a signed agreement.



-The letter goes on to add that the debt could be requested to be written off due to ill health and the amount of time that it would take to repay it but that would only be a request, and if I am not contacted in 6 years the debt can no longer be collected.

I was a Lloyds customer for 40 years and, even with all this input I have not reduced my debt or even know where I stand. I am still unwell and stressed. Any advice?