Capquest Advice

satchells

Good Afternoon,

I would appreciate some advice if possible:

A few months ago I had a letter come out of the blue from Capquest, demanding £10K from account they purchased from HBOS. I did have financial problems about 15 years ago, while going through a divorce, but genuinely thought I'd sorted everything out

I sent the Prove it letter form the template on this site.

The response was basically:

They purchased a Halifax Credit Card Account in 2008.
I made payments to Capquest totalling £900 around that time
They have my address in 2008 and D.o.B
My request for documentation falls under CCA 1974.
The request is not valid due to payments received (Consumer Credit Sourcebook 13.1.3 (5)).
For the agreement to be enforceable it should include name and address at time I first signed the agreement, but does not need signature or date.
Therefore they will continue to try and recover

However, they did say they would put account on hold for 30 days while they obtain a copy of the agreement, T&C's, and account statements.

2 months have passed and I have received no further letters or documentation. However, I've had several phone calls start again over the last week.

Are their arguments true, is this debt enforceable? I suspect this Statute Barred, or at least close to it. Or should I ignore until correspondence received?

Thanks

sourcrates

Hello,

Well it depends on when you last made a payment on the account, or the last time you wrote to them acknowledging it.

If a period of six years has passed, since you did either, then it's likely to be statute barred yes.

It's rather a confusing response from them actually, wait and see what they send you, and keep the Statute barred defence as a back up for now.

fatbelly

It's a very confusing reply from the numpties at Crapquest.

CONC 13.1.3 (5) refers to a s77-79 CCA request, which a prove-it letter explicitly IS NOT, and your payments would not invalidate the request anyway.

Fermi makes this quite clear in the prove-it thread.

https://forums.moneysavingexpert.com/discussion/2607247

The relevant parts of the CONC guidance are

"A firm must not ignore or disregard a customer's claim that a debt has been settled or is disputed and must not continue to make demands for payment without providing clear justification and/or evidence as to why the customer's claim is not valid." 7.5.3

"A firm must suspend any steps it takes or its agent takes in the recovery of a debt from a customer where the customer disputes the debt on valid grounds or what may be valid grounds." 7.14.1

"Where a customer disputes a debt on valid grounds or what may be valid grounds, the firm must investigate the dispute and provide details of the debt to the customer in a timely manner." 7.14.3

"Where there is a dispute as to the identity of the borrower or hirer or as to the amount of the debt, it is for the firm (and not the customer) to establish, as the case may be, that the customer is the correct person in relation to the debt or that the amount is the correct amount owed under the agreement." 7.14.4

"A firm must provide a customer with information on the outcome of its investigations into a debt which the customer disputed on valid grounds." 7.14.5

"Where a customer disputes a debt and the firm seeking to recover the debt is not the lender or the owner, the firm must:
(1) pass the information provided by the customer to the lender or the owner; or
(2) if the firm has authority from the lender or owner to investigate a dispute, it must notify the lender or owner of the outcome of the investigation." 7.14.6

However, their response that they will 'obtain a copy of the agreement, T&C's, and account statements' does sound like a genuine response to a prove-it.

When you receive them you can see if you made a payment after Dec 2010 and, if not, tell them it's statute barred an d you won't be paying.

CONC 7.15.8 then applies:

A firm must not continue to demand payment from a customer after the
customer has stated that he will not be paying the debt because it is statute
barred.

satchells

Thanks for advice.

Will sit on it until I get something through the post.

satchells

Ok today I received a letter, and all it said is please find enclosed a copy of your statements from our client.

They've been printed out from a computer system. They start from when the account opened in 2001 to when when the account defaulted in 2003.

But no details of payments made to capquest which I think happened 2008/2009, meaning this is probably statute barred and they don't want to shoot themselves in the foot.

That aside, do Capquest have to supply a copy of the CCA for it to be enforceable? Or are the statements sufficient. At the moment their argument is it's not needed as I've made previous payments.

Thanks

sourcrates

Asking for proof of a debt may or may not include a copy credit agreement.
You can ask for proof at any time regardless of payments made, as long as a balance is left outstanding.

You can ask specifically for this by making a CCA request, complete with the £1 statutory fee payable.

But for now, I would stick with the statute barred defence and inform them of your suspicions in writing.

Template letter here :

https://www.nationaldebtline.org/EW/sampleletters/Pages/Time-has-run-out-to-recover-the-debt-%28sole-name%29.aspx

fatbelly

satchells wrote: »

But no details of payments made to capquest which I think happened 2008/2009, meaning this is probably statute barred and they don't want to shoot themselves in the foot.

Exactly

Sourcrates spot-on as usual.

satchells

Sourcrates and fatbelly,

Thank you again for taking the time to answer my questions.

Received a letter today saying the account has been written off.

10k - Epic, as the kids say.

sourcrates

satchells wrote: »

Sourcrates and fatbelly,

Thank you again for taking the time to answer my questions.

Received a letter today saying the account has been written off.

10k - Epic, as the kids say.

Congratulations, keep the letter for future reference, you never know when you may need it !!!

WillyWonga

Well done, Ive spent a bit on the phone to them today - keep your paperwork you have just had. As Ive found out recently.....

Crapquest had my account back in 2008. They being the fourth agency to get the account they finally accepted as no agreement then wouldnt continue.

Fast forward 8 years and late last year started getting phone calls from them which ignored. Then received a letter today which claimed they had just taken over the account. I would never recommend phoning but I knew my stuff and wanted it sorted head on.

They claim that a new computer system started to re-generate old accounts. They admitted it was statute barred however as they always say the debt wont be written off as there is a balance still due they just cant enforce it and wont send out anymore letters.

So keep the letter filed..... you may just need it