Please help :-(

pcd87

melsee wrote: »

Update on my current Debt situation ..
I went to Shelter ( Charity but expert legal help ) and appointed them as a Third party, as I suffer with a brain injury and can't cope dealing with these people.
They sent Regal a letter asking for breakdown of the debt etc, heard nothing.
3 weeks later I receive another letter from Regal stating that they have not heard from me ( basically ignored the third party ) and if I do not pay in full immediately they will send out a field collector to my home to organise re payment !!
Firstly once I appoint a third party I didnt think they could contact me directly ?
Secondly, Can they really send a field collector out if I have no idea what it is for and they have not complied and given me a breakdown ?

I am not functioning with my life at the moment, because the last thing I need with my medical condition, is to have someone knocking on my door !
What do I do now ?
I have spoken to Shelter who are looking into it, but any advise is welcome right now :-(

Hi there,

I dont know if this is able to help or not. But basically albany are credit hire and credit repairs I am from an insurance background (never worked for diamond so cant be 100% sure) and I know some non fault claims were passed on to these companies so that they dealt with the claims forcing the other insurance companies to pay back quicker so that they didnt need to pay higher charges. So basically if the claim cost £100 they would give the thir party insurers 30 days to pay and then they would start accruing interest. So sometimes it saved insurance companies money to pay the £100 than fight it....

Are you able to PM me the circumstances of the acccident, did they send you any documentation at the beginning? what kind of car did you have compared to the one they gave you as a courtesy car?. I know we won a lot of cases in court due to the charges being completely out of order. as they put people in vehicles they were not entitled to!

Diamond should definately be helping you with this. When I worked in insurance we were constantly at war with credit hire companies.

Hope thats been a bit of help!

melsee

My Representative got hold of Regal this morning, to find out what is going on. Firstly they do not have any information, only that apparantely my insurance refused to pay out as I mislead them ???
I asked how, but they couldnt say, other than this debt is for hire charges that were under a non fault claim and we were found at fault !!
Firstly, we had no idea Albany was a hire company, Secondly we had Courtesy car as standard on our fully comp insurance with Diamond, so why are we paying for the car ?
We were not at fault, this was 5 years ago, Albany dragged it out, kept asking for statements over and over again, we said no after the 4th time as we had sent 3 already over the 4 year period, to be told, they can see that it is fine it's all sorted. Well heard nothing for a good 6 months to a year, thought it was dealt with and moved house ( not insured with diamond anymore so no need to inform them of change of address, and under the impression claim was sorted ) until now nearly 6 years later, a whacking debt from them.
Shouldnt Diamond be sorting this as we paid fully comp outright 6 years ago ??
What did we pay insurance for, if we now have to pay for something we were told was free with our insurance ?

melsee

We were never made aware that we were "hiring " a car and may be liable for charges. My husband remembers saying on the phone , we do not need a car as can use our other one, for them to say well you may aswell it's free !
If we thought we were getting something that wasn't our free policy courtesy car, we wouldn't have touched it !
We do not have any documentation as like I said it was nearly 6 years ago and in our eyes the claim was sorted !

rizla_king

I think you basically have to tell the debt collector that you completely deny that this is owed. Unless they provide full proof of exactly what is owed and how it originated, then you are perfectly prepared to defend in full any claim that might decide to make. You will also be reporting them to the OFT for failing to provide proof of a reasonably disputed debt.

Also stress that you require a final response from them as you wish to make a complaint to the Financial Ombudsman.

melsee

rizla_king wrote: »

I think you basically have to tell the debt collector that you completely deny that this is owed. Unless they provide full proof of exactly what is owed and how it originated, then you are perfectly prepared to defend in full any claim that might decide to make. You will also be reporting them to the OFT for failing to provide proof of a reasonably disputed debt.

Also stress that you require a final response from them as you wish to make a complaint to the Financial Ombudsman.

They have told my Rep to get hold of Albany for all details , who are refusing to answer the phone , I do not believe I do owe it as all I am aware of is that I had fully comp with free courtesy car , so this I am sure is down to my insurance company, but I doubt they have any of my details now 6 years later !

rizla_king

melsee wrote: »

They have told my Rep to get hold of Albany for all details , who are refusing to answer the phone , I do not believe I do owe it as all I am aware of is that I had fully comp with free courtesy car , so this I am sure is down to my insurance company, but I doubt they have any of my details now 6 years later !

If the debt collector want to collect the debt then it is THEM who must provide proof.

Typical debt collector tactics is to give you the run around like this.

Either they provide proof themselves or you will defend any court claim, report them to the OFT and complain to the FOS.

You have to draw a line in the sand or these idiots will have you running around in circles for ever, when it is THEM who should be doing something.

The DCA will deny, redirect, try to divert you. Don't let them.

pcd87

melsee wrote: »

We were never made aware that we were "hiring " a car and may be liable for charges. My husband remembers saying on the phone , we do not need a car as can use our other one, for them to say well you may aswell it's free !
If we thought we were getting something that wasn't our free policy courtesy car, we wouldn't have touched it !
We do not have any documentation as like I said it was nearly 6 years ago and in our eyes the claim was sorted !

Sounds about right! they are very sneaky! They could have actually went to the third party insurers and they may have denied the charges and now they are coming to you which they will try!

Do you remember what kind of courtesy car you were given?

melsee

pcd87 wrote: »

Sounds about right! they are very sneaky! They could have actually went to the third party insurers and they may have denied the charges and now they are coming to you which they will try!

Do you remember what kind of courtesy car you were given?

It was a new VW Golf I think, the thing is my husband phoned Diamond to make the claim ( as he was driving ) and they automatically referred us to Albany and didn't tell us, so we assumed Albany and this car were part of Diamond and our policy !
No idea where to go from here or where we stand, but I am finding it very hard to dispute etc when I wasn't even involved it was just my policy, and clearly now my debt :-(

mellonicoley

melsee wrote: »

It was a new VW Golf I think, the thing is my husband phoned Diamond to make the claim ( as he was driving ) and they automatically referred us to Albany and didn't tell us, so we assumed Albany and this car were part of Diamond and our policy !
No idea where to go from here or where we stand, but I am finding it very hard to dispute etc when I wasn't even involved it was just my policy, and clearly now my debt :-(

As rizla king said, it's up to the DCA to prove that you owe this debt. Send them the 'prove it' letter. https://forums.moneysavingexpert.com/discussion/2607247

Albiebabes

Morning,

If I were you, obtain a copy of your Insurance schedule and policy wording. Whilst they appointed an accident management company, you will no doubt be asked for the t and cs of your original insurance contract with Diamond. Plus it gives you an excuse to talk to Diamond about your problem, after all they did appoint Albany in the first place. Then approach Citizens advice or if you have a legal helpline on your house insurance, to get advice on where to go next.

In addition if you have signed something, there maybe a case under the Unfair contract terms act....