Debt collection letter about brother who’s abroad

whatwasithinking

Hi All,

I would really appreciate some help please.

Mum has received some calls/debt collections letters addressed to my brother who lives abroad. We explained no one of that name lives with us. The latest letter was addressed to ‘the executor of the estate of the late Mr X ( my brothers name) . Mums very elderly and obviously got a shock when she saw the envelope. The good news is on calling him he’s alive and well. Letter is from Philips and Cohen associates for Cabot financial Europe LTD 

As he has a similar name to my late father whom mum was executor for eg both have same surname and my brothers middle name and dads first name are the same. Ie dad is Peter blogs and bother is john Peter blogs. ( not the real names of course)

Do I need to reply to this letter as it’s not addressed to my dad but my brother who is alive and well..Will they try and add this to his dads estate??

Don’t want problems later on with dads estate.we did the probate ourselves.

 

Also I understand to cover ourselves we need to put the advert in with regards to my late fathers estate for any money owed by estate. Dad never had any credit debts only the mortgage.

where do we put the ad and what do we need to include?

Also as my brother has been abroad for quite some time and I don’t think he has made any Payments to any debts for years although he was quite vague on detail. so how does he check if they are statute barred ?

 

whatwasithinking

We can’t be sure this is my brothers debt as don’t think he had a Cabot card but I know they collect for various banks etc 

sourcrates

Sounds like it may be your late father Cabot are after, it appears they know he’s deceased, they cannot add anything to anything, if there was no money left in his estate, then the debt dies with him, no one else is responsible for paying it, you should write and tell them that.

whatwasithinking

I’ve cross referenced the account number on the letter and this is my brothers old debt from before he moved abroad. So there is no executor of the estate as my brother is alive and well so not sure what to do about the letter 

[Deleted User]

It's not your debt, it wasn't your late father's debt so you don't need to do anything with the letter.  If you feel you must do something then either return to sender or forward it on to your brother to deal with.

Galloglass

How old is the debt? Cabot tends to buy delinquent debt coming close to the Statute Barred period.
Also is you brother likely to return?

whatwasithinking

Galloglass said:

How old is the debt? Cabot tends to buy delinquent debt coming close to the Statute Barred period.
Also is you brother likely to return?

Hi galloglass it must be at least 10 years old as that’s when my brother left uk. I think he may have done some token payments when he first left not 💯 sure I found some old letters. 

sourcrates

Then it’s likely to be statute barred.
your choices are either to ignore the matter, as it’s not your problem, or do your brother a favour, and send them the statute barred letter.
if he’s not coming back to the UK it doesn’t matter what you do.

whatwasithinking

Thanks Sourcrates I’ll take a look at the statute barred letter . He has a property in uk so may be back at some point 

whatwasithinking

Just want to make sure the debt collection company stops sending letters and phoning mum 

sourcrates

whatwasithinking said:

Just want to make sure the debt collection company stops sending letters and phoning mum 

Under GDPR rules you can now specify how a company contacts you, only takes a letter to get them to contact you in writing only.