Lantern chasing settled debt

Newdaddy83

Hi,
I've not posted much before and had thought id put all my debt worries behind me last month having paid off my last amount of debt.

Anyway i received an email from lantern debt collection saying i owe just over £400 for a lending stream loan from 2013. The last payment to the loan was 2015 so it isnt statute barred. So the annoying thing is that this debt was settled in 2016, at that time i reclaimed money from all my old payday lenders. Since i had two outstanding loans with lending stream at that time they deducted these from my my settlement amount.

Fast forward 3 years and i receive this letter saying the loan is still due. I advised lantern of what had happened and they told me i have to prove the loan was settled. The problem is i no longer have any of the emails between myself and lending stream, this was all 3 years ago and id put it behind me.

Ive requested all communication between myself and lending stream regarding this but im really worried that they may have 'lost' it. Clearly they failed to mark the loan as settled at the time but something is clearly amiss here.

I dont know if im ranting in this thread or if anyone else has any experience of anything like this or has any ideas of what i can do? Im at a loss and dont want to end up paying for something that's already been settled!

Cheers
Tim

Willing2Learn

Hi Tim and welcome to the forum

I am assuming from your post that you do not have written evidence showing the account was settled and closed.

From the FCA handbook:

CONC 7.14.3 - 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.

CONC 7.14.4 - 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.

Basically the onus is on Lantern to prove that you owe the money. It is not down to you to prove anything.

Newdaddy83

Hi Willing2Learn,

Thank you for that information.

No unfortunately i do not have anything in writing, everything was communicated by email which i no longer have due to the time passed.

Thank you for the information regarding the FCA, i will go back to them quoting it. In my last email to them i did say that since they had bought this alleged debt then they must have information associated with it which would include the settlement arrangements. They simply said it was down to me to prove the debt is not valid so ive requested the communications from lending stream.

Again thank you for the welcome and your help.

sourcrates

Newdaddy83 wrote: »

In my last email to them i did say that since they had bought this alleged debt then they must have information associated with it which would include the settlement arrangements. .

Ha, think again, debts are sold in bulk, many hundreds or thousands of accounts at one go, the buyer has no paperwork, or former knowledge of the accounts conduct previously, so every account is a gamble for them.
You say you have no written proof of settlement, these things should always be settled in writing only, and should be kept ideally for 6 years, however as discussed above, the onus is on them to prove you owe the money, not on you to prove you dont.

Mis-information and outright lies abound with these companies, thats why you should never phone them, always do everything in writing, and avoid the call handler or emailer, as they will say anything to get you to pay.

One more thing, you do not have to respond to email/calls or texts, only respond if they actually write to you, if they do, then respond with the provit letter firstly, and come back if you need help with a further response.

Newdaddy83

Thank you Sourcrates,

Funnily they emailed this evening advising they will be asking for further information from the lender. Hopefully details of the settlement will be given to one of us.

I cant remember if my settlement ended up going through the financial ombudsman for lending stream so they might have info on it potentially if all else fails. I think my big concern is that the failure lies with lending stream not updating their records correctly and so makes me doubt that they would have kept the email chain. Hopefully though there is enough on record to be obtained and resolve this.

Thank you again for your help, I'll stick to the advice here goinh forward and ensure they have to prove legitimacy of this debt.

punto01

Strangely I’ve just had a letter from Lantern on an old debt that was discharged in a Dro over 2 years ago? I’ve just posted asking for the best way to respond to this!