Unenforceable agreement

kkb33

New on here but over the years I have used the information on these boards so thanks for the contributions.

Here is the story so far.

Defaulted on about 65K credit card debt over 7 accounts in 2009/10. After much research I decided on a self managed debt plan which quite surprisingly was a relatively stress free action by remaining in charge of the situation and paying small amounts regularly. All debts fell off CRA files early last year, and managed to clear 6 accounts with F & F deals of about 50%.

Also had a bit of a bonus with one of the creditors who managed to introduce a typo into the F&F letter which reduced the settlement by 3000.00! Of course I sent them the requested amount immediately. They did huff and puff a little but I persuaded them that it was probably best to keep the money and write off the balance instead of returning what I had paid.

So, I still have one account running. The OC was that so called ethical bank who are so good with money! They sold the debt to Link a couple of years ago just 2 days after agreeing a new annual payment figure - very ethical indeed. Have tried 2 F & F offers with Link offering roughly 50% in line with other creditors, they have countered these offers to approx 80% - a figure I was not prepared to pay.

Decided in October that they were being greedy so sent off a CCA 78 request. Stopped payment in December whilst waiting for them to locate the agreement. This week I received notice from link that the original creditor are unable to fulfil the section 78 request so the account is unenforceable but remains collectable.


Since they have been offered two bites at a reasonable settlement in line with other creditors I have no real moral issues with not paying them I am just trying to prepare a plan of action to deal with them. Any suggestions are most welcome.

My initial thoughts are to not to pay anything on a monthly basis, but maybe to offer a small F&F that they can take or leave. Outstanding balance is about 5400.00 thinking of offering 200.00.

Alternatively just to ignore them and wait for it to become SB.

So, any thoughts on how best to handle this. Has anyone been in this situation with link or any other creditor? if so how did it pan out. Is there anything I should consider that I may have missed?

sourcrates

Hi,

Welcome to the forum.

Basic cold hard facts.

No credit agreement effectively means no debt, you can, as you say, just walk away.

The only problem with that, is they may attempt to sell the debt on, so then you would have to go through all the letter tennis with the new owner, its possible this could happen a few times (although i had an unenforceable agreement a few years ago, sold on once, one letter, and it was returned to the OC, not heard from them since).

You could offer a small sum to make it dissapear, follow the correct procedure, ie, get everything in writing, no one will chase the outstanding balance, released from all liability, etc etc

See how that goes.

WillyWonga

SB is a long time to wait, 6 years from date of last recorded payment so over 5 1/2 years to go. Debts will be farmed back out again to different companies and you will have to repeat the process again and again.

You have done well getting 50% of your debt written off. Do the moral thing and offer 50% on this to clear once and for all after they have sent their final reminder letter.

sourcrates

The consumer credit act 1974 specifically states :

"where a creditor cannot provide a copy of the requested credit agreement, the account will be unenforceable until they can do so"

We can't pick and choose which parts of the act we observe and which we don't.

sourcrates

And whilst we are at it, may i remind all forum users that this is a friendly advice based forum.

It is not a platform for you to preach your own prejudices.

I must ask you to treat all users (especially newbies) with respect at ALL TIMES !!

Its a simple rule, please obey it.

Thank you.

fatbelly

kkb33 wrote: »

Decided in October that they were being greedy so sent off a CCA 78 request. Stopped payment in December whilst waiting for them to locate the agreement. This week I received notice from link that the original creditor are unable to fulfil the section 78 request so the account is unenforceable but remains collectable.

My initial thoughts are to not to pay anything on a monthly basis, but maybe to offer a small F&F that they can take or leave. Outstanding balance is about 5400.00 thinking of offering 200.00.

Alternatively just to ignore them and wait for it to become SB.

That sounds OK as a strategy. If they refuse the offer they can continue to 'collect' but must state explicitly that the debt is unenforceable in their communications (CONC 13).

Alternatively, they could comply by reconstituting the agreement but it sounds like they are not going to do that.

The most likely course is that they will sell the debt to someone else, with no explanation, either to you or the new owner.