No signed credit agreement

serapis

Can anyone advise me on what legal position I have over an old loan I know there is no credit agreement signed for. It has been paid off but the company has wrongly labelled the account as default and instead of fighting them over this, I think my quickest method will be to have it removed.

Does the company HAVE to have a signed credit agreement or is the fact I have been paying it off mean I am legally liable for the loan and its balance?

izools

You won't have a leg to stand on using this argument, and correctly, too.

Even if by some miracle you were to get the agreement declared unenforceable in a court of law due to the non existence of a true copy of a signed agreement (which isn't a requirement, anyway), all this would mean is that they can't obtain a CCJ against you for the amount claimed.

They would still be legally entitled to chase you for the debt out of court and report whatever data is accurate about the running of the account to the credit reference agencies - they would be under no obligation whatsoever to remove any adverse data from your credit file.

If the default shouldn't have been placed there because you did pay on time every time then you need to provide evidence of this through bank statements or stamped payment slips and sent it to the lender's data controller's address as listed on the ICO's website.

You need to provide them 28 days to rectify the error and if the fail to do so you can raise a formal complaint with the ICO.

If however, you did indeed miss three or more consecutive payments - whether or not a dispute was open with them at the time - you have in fact defaulted and the data stands.

Good luck!

simax

The OP states the loan is paid off. Might be worth checking with them by getting a statement?

Unless of course, by "Paid Off", the OP means it was in arrears but the amount has been cleared.

OP?

serapis

izools wrote: »

You won't have a leg to stand on using this argument, and correctly, too.

Even if by some miracle you were to get the agreement declared unenforceable in a court of law due to the non existence of a true copy of a signed agreement (which isn't a requirement, anyway), all this would mean is that they can't obtain a CCJ against you for the amount claimed.

They would still be legally entitled to chase you for the debt out of court and report whatever data is accurate about the running of the account to the credit reference agencies - they would be under no obligation whatsoever to remove any adverse data from your credit file.

If the default shouldn't have been placed there because you did pay on time every time then you need to provide evidence of this through bank statements or stamped payment slips and sent it to the lender's data controller's address as listed on the ICO's website.

You need to provide them 28 days to rectify the error and if the fail to do so you can raise a formal complaint with the ICO.

If however, you did indeed miss three or more consecutive payments - whether or not a dispute was open with them at the time - you have in fact defaulted and the data stands.

Good luck!

So are you saying this advice:

Did you sign an agreement

To be responsible for paying back a debt, you should have signed a credit agreement. This is a legal document which sets out what both sides are agreeing to.

Before agreeing to repay money, take a look at the original credit agreement to make sure you signed it, check what you agreed to and to see if anyone else also took out the credit with you.

If you didn’t sign an agreement, you shouldn’t be legally responsible for paying back the debt.

from here: http://www.adviceguide.org.uk/england/debt_e/debt_help_with_debt_e/debt_how_to_dispute_a_credit_debt_e/how_to_dispute_a_debt.htm

Is incorrect?

serapis

simax wrote: »

The OP states the loan is paid off. Might be worth checking with them by getting a statement?

Unless of course, by "Paid Off", the OP means it was in arrears but the amount has been cleared.

OP?

The loan has been paid off as per the offer by the debt recovery company. It would have been in arrears due to it disappearing from both HSBC's and the recovery companies books. When it popped back up 2 years later, I went back to paying the same as was previously paid, £50pm.

Apples2

serapis wrote: »

So are you saying this advice:
from here: http://www.adviceguide.org.uk/england/debt_e/debt_help_with_debt_e/debt_how_to_dispute_a_credit_debt_e/how_to_dispute_a_debt.htm

Is incorrect?

Signed copies were required for loans taken out between 1974 and 2007. The CCA was changed in 2007 to remove the requirement for signed copies.
This means it is not un-enforceable, you would have the drag everyone to Court to battle it out.

serapis

Apples2 wrote: »

Signed copies were required for loans taken out between 1974 and 2007. The CCA was changed in 2007 to remove the requirement for signed copies.
This means it is not un-enforceable, you would have the drag everyone to Court to battle it out.

This loan was taken out before 2007, but can you please provide some backup to your claim about loans taken out after this date. Its a bit odd that the link I provided from the citizens advice bureau would not make any mention of this fact.

antrobus

serapis wrote: »

So are you saying this advice:

from here: http://www.adviceguide.org.uk/england/debt_e/debt_help_with_debt_e/debt_how_to_dispute_a_credit_debt_e/how_to_dispute_a_debt.htm

Is incorrect?

I'd say it that any advice on 'How to dispute a debt' was largely irrelevant in your circumstances. You don't have a debt, the "loan has been paid off".

gb12345

antrobus wrote: »

I'd say it that any advice on 'How to dispute a debt' was largely irrelevant in your circumstances. You don't have a debt, the "loan has been paid off".

But there might be a loophole that the OP can exploit to get their money back and benefit from a free loan.

@OP You borrowed the money and paid what you owed o live with it.

:cool:

Gordon_Hose

serapis wrote: »

This loan was taken out before 2007, but can you please provide some backup to your claim about loans taken out after this date. Its a bit odd that the link I provided from the citizens advice bureau would not make any mention of this fact.

Debts post 2007 can be enforced in court using a reconstituted CCA. However, they must prove that what they reconstitute were the Ts&Cs in force at the time.

Pre-2007 then a reconstituted CCA is enough to satisfy a CCA request, but a signed copy would need to be presented in court to enforce.

Plenty of "evidence" on Google, if you search.

serapis

gb12345 wrote: »

@OP You borrowed the money and paid what you owed o live with it.

:cool:

but the debt recovery company has the item listed as "default" and settled on my credit file. I did not default nor have I settled, so I dont see why my credit rating should suffer because of this. This is why I was thinking the signed agreement route. I do not want the money back, all I want is my credit file sorted one way or another.