Help! Capquest letter chasing £6,900 debt

needtowinthelottery

Morning everyone. My husband received a 'final response' letter from Capquest yesterday, which we're rather confused by. The letter is two pages long so I have copied the important parts below and would be very grateful for anyone who takes the time to read it through and comment. We're not sure what to do next so look forward to receiving some guidance.
Thanks in advance.

"We're sorry you're unhappy with our service.

Following the recent connunication received from the Financial Ombudsman Service, I've had an opportunity to investigate your concerns which relate to Capquest pursuing you for a debt... You have also said that we have failed to provide evidence of the debt belonging to you and we have not replied to your further request for this information. To resolve this matter you request written confirmation that the matter is closed and a correction made to your credit file...
Previous letters you have sent to us state you may lodge complaints with the relevant authorities if this is not resolved.

Capquest purchased your account from Marbles (date in 2010).

In relation to your requests for infornation, I note we received your first letter on... and I can find no evidence that we responded to this letter. The next letter... we responded to inform you of the details of the account. It also confirmed the account was on hold and asked you to contact us during the hold period, however this letter failed to acknowledge that you were disputing the account. I apologise for the lack of response and the communication you received did not address all of your concerns.

We received a further letter... confirming that you still did not have any knowledge of the account and asked for the matter to be closed. In response to this, we wrote... informing you we were asking for further information from Marbles, and the account was on hold for a further 28 days while we waited for a response from them. Due to the nature of your correspondence, it was passed to our complaints department, however it was then returned to our admin department in order for a response to be sent. Unfortunately due to an administrative error no response was sent until the letter... and I apologise for this delay and the distress caused.

Our investigations through Experian have revealed that there is a link between an address of (inserted address) and your current address. We have asked you to provide proof of residency but you do not wish to provide this information, therefore I'm unable to investigate further and believe we have contacted the correct person in relation to this account.

I have contacted Marbles to request evidence that you took out this account and they have informed us that they are unable to provide a copy of the Credit Agreement and are looking into a complaint. We acknowledge that until copies of the documents are provided to you the account is unenforceable, however that does not mean the account has ceased to exist; as a result we will continue to report the default on the account to the credit reference agencies where applicable, and you may receive information to the state of your account from time to time.

If the relevant documentation is provided at a future date, copies will be sent to you. At that point the account will again become enforceable and your proposals for repayment of the account will be required, either in a single payment, or if you are unable to make such a payment, by instalments that you are able to maintain that will be agreed with you...

Thank you for taking the time to tell us about your complaint with Capquest pursuing you for a debt which you claim does not belong to you and our failure to respond to your request for information. I've looked into your complaint with regards to Capquest chasing you for a debt which you have stated does not belong to you and I don't believe we've made a mistake as we're acting on the information received at this time. However, I agree mistakes were made regarding our responses as we failed to respond in a timely manner and also one of your letters did not receive a response; for these reasons your complaint has been partially upheld.

This is our final response to your complaint. I hope I've resolved your concerns, however if you remain dissatisfied you can refer your complaint back to the Financial Ombudsman Service within six months of the date of this letter. (FOS leaflet enclosed - again!)

Yours sincerely

Signed in ink and named Complaints Officer."

needtowinthelottery

Anyone able to advise what to do next? We're so confused as its a final response letter and they've admitted to not having any proof / CCA and have apologised for poorly dealing with complaint but aren't willing to remove account from credit file or do any more. Should we send a copy of the letter to the FOS and see what they say? Really hoping to get some advice as we don't want to do the wrong thing at this stage in the process. Thank you in advance.

fatbelly

They seem to have confirmed this is unenforceable as things stand,

needtowinthelottery

Hi fatbelly and thanks for your post. Yes, Capquest has confirmed that the debt is unenforceable at the moment as they nor Marbles have any proof of the debt / CCA.

The entry is still showing on my husband's credit file and the debt amount increases every month. Surely this can't be allowed if the debt is on hold and no one has a copy of the original agreement? It will be having a negative effect on his credit file.

Do you think it's worth sending a copy of the Capquest letter to the person who wrote to us from the FOS along with a covering note to tell her that the debt is ever-increasing? If they can't get it removed altogether then perhaps they may at least be able to get the amount to stop increasing?

I don't know what their powers are in this respect but thought it may be worth a try, but then again we don't want to do anything that may have a negative impact. We're also still waiting for the final response from Marbles.

Bigal_2

Hi, they did a similar thing to me when they tried to collect on a debt that had been set aside by the County Court (CCJ). The contract at CapQuest lied through her teeth and I ended up reporting her to the authorities, after which CapQuest closed the "account".

sourcrates

Hi,
Ok, stage one, they have admitted no agreement exists, as such, debt is unenforceable, problem, you dispute the account ever belonged to your husband in the first place, catch 22,
so what to do now ?

Stage two, at the present time the DCA believes it has contacted the right person, as such, they are entitled to report the correct status of the account to the CRA`s.

Solution ?, continue with the complaint via the FOS, only way to resolve this, is if hubby discloses previous addresses unfortunately, if the account really isn't his, then there should be no problem doing this, give the details via FOS complaint, this will prove one way or another if account was his or not.

Or, if you think there is a remote chance the account may in fact be his, you can claim a partial victory now, accept his credit file will be trashed for a while, and move on knowing they cant enforce it, your choice in the end.

fatbelly

needtowinthelottery wrote: »

The date the debt started is recorded as 5.2.03 and the default date is 9.7.10. The default amount states the debt as over £1.5K lower - £5,319 (is this due to ongoing charges/interest perhaps?).

The entry will drop off in July 2016 - unless he needs good credit between now and then, I think I would leave it as is.

On their basis of their statement (which may be false) of Last payment date: 12 November 2009, it would become statute barred in November this year.

happy_bunny_2

Doubt the agreement will turn up.

Not found my Marbles one for a few years, doubt they ever will.

As said, if it's really not his, escalate. Otherwise, thank Capquest for the reply, state as it's not his debt you won't be paying and wait until it falls off his report/becomes statute barred.

HB

needtowinthelottery

Thank you for all of your comments. My husband has decided to wait for the final judgement from Marbles and then decide what to do depending on its contents. Thanks again for your help - I'm not sure what we would have done without this forum!

needtowinthelottery

Just thought I'd post to explain what happened. My husband did decide to pursue against the DCA via the FOS but he basically ended up hitting a brick wall as the DCA asked for proof of ID and address history but my husband was very wary to give it as we've read on here that such documents can be used to create false documents. After months of backwards and forwards getting nowhere with the FOS, he decided to close his complaint and just wait it out. The entry became statute barred last November in any case and should drop off his credit file in July. Looking forward to an end to this situation!

Thanks again for the helpful advice given by kind posters on this thread