Debt Recovery Law & so on...

Paul76

Hi folks - I've got my fingers, legs, everything crossed in the hope someone can offer some good advice on this. I'll try to cut the long(ish) story short.

Yesterday my my partner got herself a letter from a debt collector saying she owed apx. £70. THey also stated that she has to pay a £15 'search fee' for finding an address she can be contacted at. All fair enough, BUT...

...2 years ago we set about clearing my girlriends debts. And we did all but one - the aforementioned £70. Now, we got an Experian report that reflacted the debt we knew was there. So we sent a letter to them asking us to pay the debt along with a copy of the Experian report. We never heard back from them. Unfortunately we don't have copies of the letters but we DO have the leter asking us for a copy of the Experian report. A letter which was sent to an address that we are STILL contactable at (it's my parental home & all mail is forwarded to us).

I suppose my query is this. While we're happy to pay off the £70. It seems that we're now being asked to find an additional £15 for the privilege of them running a search to find us. And - if payments don't start by TOMORROW (so giving us under 48 hours from receiving the initial letter) - that court action will be taken.

We'll be popping into the CAB on Thursday morning, but i thought i'd also post here & hopefully pick the brains of the wise. Thanks for reading & if you need to ask me for more information please feel free.

Just so you know, here's a checklist of the paperwork we have:
- Letter from the collection agency notifying of debt & also stating we owe an extra £15 for the search
- Letter from original company (sent about 2 years ago) asking us for a copy of the Experian report. This at least should offer proof that they had an address already & the search by the recovery people was unnecessary.
- An Experian report with the £70 debt mentioned upon and....
- Further to making a valid attempt at paying the £70 around 2 years ago, ANOTHER Experian report WITHOUT the £70 debt mentioned at all.

rog2

Looks like a Debt Collection Agency 'trying it on'. How surprising. :rolleyes:

I would ignore them - after all they seem to have been quite happy to have 'ignored' the fact that you had given your address to the original creditor.
Do NOTHING until you have spoken to CAB.

Paul76

rog2 wrote: »

Looks like a Debt Collection Agency 'trying it on'. How surprising. :rolleyes:

I would ignore them - after all they seem to have been quite happy to have 'ignored' the fact that you had given your address to the original creditor.
Do NOTHING until you have spoken to CAB.

We'll be popping into the CAB on Thursday morning - however that go past the 'deadline' of tomorrow (Wednesday) that they so kindly offered before 'taking court action'.

Here's a draft letter we're sending to the agency (sorry about the blanks) - in light of what you say about doing nothing do you think we're best not to?

"
I received a letter from you dated 12 July 2007, regarding Trace Confirmation. The letter states that your client *blank* have attempted to contact me on numerous occasions to arrange payment terms on an outstanding debt of £70.57. I have never received any correspondence from *blank*.

I contacted your company as soon as I received this letter on 16 July, as I was unaware of an outstanding debt on my part. I spoke with an employee, *blank*, who advised me this debt was from *blank* and dated back to 2003 when I resided at *blank*.

In 2005 I received an Experian Credit report which listed *blank* (which I later found out to be Shop Direct), as a defaulted account of £70. I contacted *blank* enquiring as to what this debt was and gave my new address details *blank*. *blank* then contacted me requesting information so the debt could be investigated. I enclose a copy of the letter as proof that *blank* did in fact have my contact details at this time.

In 2006 I received an updated Experian Credit report that listed no outstanding debt / loans. This listed my current address *blank*.

Due to these records I find it rather difficult to understand that Shop Direct and Fredrickson International have had trouble locating me."

RAS

Hi

You would be better to wait.

For a start, the fact that the debt dropped of the Experien record suggests that it may not be collectable. If you write now, you could screw this up.

bear in mind, they cannot take any action again GF unless there is a debt on her record against which to take action, and her credit record is clear. Wait until Thursday.

Also if they did take action, you have ample documentary evidence that you sought to settle the matter years ago, so they would ahve to spend a fortune proving to the court that smeone at the DCa muffed it. Not likely.

rog2

Absolutely correct RAS.

PAUL - Do NOT send that letter - there may well be a need to contact Fredrickson by letter, but it will be a completely different letter to the one that you have suggested. CAB will advise you on the content. A couple of days will make NO difference whatsoever.

Do NOTHING until you have spoken with CAB.

Paul76

Ok - so it seems the general consensus is to wait until we speak with the CAB. What of the 'threat' to start legal proceedings from the recovery agency though? Should we contact them to tell them we're not paying within the deadline? I've been pretty certain from the outset that these companies have got their line of bullying down to a fine art & try to knock the wind out of people with their initial communications by insisting that if we don't pay then we have to pay the court fees (which they did say) However 48 hours doesn't seem like a reasonable time to pay up. Is there any legislation against them saying things like that.

I suppose we're just weary of actually getting some kind of court fees to add to the original debt.

RAS

Paul

It is extremely unlikely that they will start legal proceeding as it is unlikely that they could enforce this debt in law.

And they are not going to act in 24 hours. How many years has it taken for them to get this far?