Advice re debt relating to ex partner

Fantaseasider

Hi all,

I hope this is in the correct place, apologies if I have gone astray. I’m really worried and hoping someone here may have some advice.

My husband has been contacted by a debt collection agency about a debt relating to a contract in his name from around 2013 when he was with his partner at the time. It was her phone bill, but in his name, and the money came out of their joint bank account.

When they split up, his ex partner took over the phone bill and paid the phone bill our of her own bank account in her name. She apparently did not ring to put the phone contract in her name, and when the contract ran out she did not tell them she wanted to cancel, she just stopped paying.

We had no idea of this until a letter arrived claiming we owed over £400. Husband has advised them that it was ex partners phone bill and asked them to contact her as she had been paying this our of her account. Unfortunately they threatened him with court action so he agreed to start paying £10 a month until we could send in any bank statements to prove it was initially out of a joint account and this changed around the time it became a solo account.

Where do we stand with this? I know that as the debt is in his name we are probably doomed, and I’m worried that agreeing to make payment is acknowledgment of the debt and may have made things worse, but he was scared of court action and agreed to this as a temporary measure.

But do we have any hope? As his ex partner was paying the phone bill out of her account does this not imply she admits this is her debt?

If we had known she hadn’t cancelled the contract we’d have gotten straight on the phone and done this, but unfortunately we didn’t know until 2 years down the line when they sent us a letter (because they had written to his ex partner first and she decided to say not her debt).

Hoping you can offer any advice? If we are doomed, is there any way we can ask them to consider reducing the amount owed due to length of time to contact us? We haven’t actually got a breakdown of the amount owed, but we know the phone wasn’t used for this time at all.

Thanks in advance everyone.

Craig1981

sounds like an end of contract termination charge, then with all fees for debt collections etc

if it is in your partners, name, he will be responsible. You ask ask his ex partner to pay it, and relay her payments on to the collection agency. if not, stick to the £10 a month to get it cleared

you have not mentioned his credit file - a default like this would have set alarm bells off on date of first default.

ask them for a full breakdown of charges, and commit to a payment plan. certainly the word "doomed" is a bit over the top - its a life lesson, move on once complete and rebuild credit history

fatbelly

I agree with Craig. Your husband is 'liable' - 'doomed' is a bit over the top for a £400 debt with a 40-month repayment plan.

What you can do is ask for a full history of the account - use a Subject Access Request if necessary - see if there's anything that does not add up or can be argued - and offer a sum in full & final settlement. It would be worth asking the ex to contribute to this in order to bring the whole thing to an early close.

Fantaseasider

Thank you both for the advice. I know what you mean regarding the word doomed but his ex left us with a lot of debt that we have had to pay off as it was in his name - loans etc., and I thought we were finally free. £450 is a lot when you are struggling to pay the bills as it is, and it’s not nothing to us.

We have no chance of asking the ex to pay as I believe she has left this to run up debt in his name deliberately.

Do we have much chance of asking them to settle for a lower value? And is there anything in particular we should ask for with regards to a breakdown as we have asked for this twice off them so far and received nothing.

tlc678910

Hi OP,
I don’t think the other posters are suggesting that you should be able to find £450 with no problem, but that if you are stuck with the debt you could continue to pay it at the agreed £10 a month until it is paid off - so causing you minimal hardship - despite being annoying.
Tlc

fatbelly

Fantaseasider wrote: »

Do we have much chance of asking them to settle for a lower value? And is there anything in particular we should ask for with regards to a breakdown as we have asked for this twice off them so far and received nothing.

There's more chance if it's no longer with the original creditor but, yes, they will probably do a deal. But get the paperwork first.

Make sure they know you are making a formal request under GDPR:

https://ico.org.uk/your-data-matters/your-right-of-access/

They can be heavily fined if they do not comply.