CCA Request - stopping payment

johnnybrando1981

Hello everybody. Back again looking for some assistance. I've have had responses from my 4 accounts saying the CCA cannot be supplied and the accounts are unenforceable. I am on a very old DMP (Started 2010) with StepChange. Stepchange have advised;

If a debt is unenforceable and the creditor has confirmed this you can stop making payment to the debt. You can ask the creditor to write the debt off on the basis that it is not enforceable and we can remove the debt from your Debt Management Plan (DMP). Please let us know if you’d like us to remove the accounts from your plan. 

I have made nominal settlement offers for all account; 2 have simply said there is no settlement available currently, and waiting on replies from the other 2. I am nervous about simply stopping payment. All these accounts pre date 2010, and dont show on my credit file anymore, so no chance of defaulting but is a CCJ still possible? If no CCA then I believe this isn't possible, but should they turn up (unlikely due to age, and accounts being sold minimum twice each) are they likely to play hardball with me? I'm just worried this will blow up in my face and people will be knocking at my door or taking me to court even though the sites/ forums I have read say they can't do anything. 

poppasmurf_bewdley

There's no need to make even small settlement offers on these debts.  They are dead. Gone, splattered to the ends of the earth.

It means basically, there is no paper trace of them, and nobody is going to look for them.  

I had one for £4.5k with Nat West that dated back to the early 1990's that I had been paying off at £10 per month for 15 years.  Since the CCA admission, I've never heard a word.  

Sit back and relax.  They are forgotten,  The world will move on.  

johnnybrando1981

Thanks Poppasmurf! Its the fear of it all I guess, but then that is probably something these firms are aware of and prey on. I will be informing StepChange to close my plan - I just needed someone to tell me ha

sourcrates

johnnybrando1981 said:

 but is a CCJ still possible? If no CCA then I believe this isn't possible, but should they turn up (unlikely due to age, and accounts being sold minimum twice each) are they likely to play hardball with me? I'm just worried this will blow up in my face and people will be knocking at my door or taking me to court even though the sites/ forums I have read say they can't do anything. 

Its good to see stepchange take a more "enlightened" view of this nowadays, nice to see progress there.

Let me just go through the legal process for you, under the civil procedure rules, in order to obtain judgement against you, a creditor would need to start a claim against you, this would first involve an LBA being sent (letter before action) this is a questionaire type documant that you have 30 days to return, in order to reach agreement without the need to proceed to court.

Part of this LBA asks if you require proof of the debt to be sent to you, so you would tick yes.

But they don`t have any proof, so they fall at the first hurdle, see where i`m going with this, the claim is dead in the water, without evidence, a CCJ is impossible.

There are only one or two collection companies still in the UK that actually knock on doors, its not a very productive way of obtaining payment, (if you name them I can tell you) which is why the majority of collectors work from call centres, are usually late teens, early 20`s, work mainly on commision, and are located on an old airfield somewhere in deepest lincolnshire, or the like.

The creditor can still ask you to pay, but cannot enforce that right through the courts, once you`ve told them in writing your not paying, they usually growl for a while, then you never hear from them again.

johnnybrando1981

Thanks both! Just needed a bit of reassurance ha

Suseka97

Just to add to the reassurance... I've had 3 accounts marked as UE (all with the same DCA).  Once I received that paperwork, around 2 1/2 years ago, I like you made them a settlement offer which they declined.  I then just said I would focus on priority debts and filed the paperwork away.  I get statements from them, from time to time - and as the years have rolled on they have started offering me discounts (currently on two of them they are offering 65% discount and they've sent nothing over the years on the 3rd, so that one is dead in the water).

I settled one very recently, simply because the payment was under £500 and only because I want them gone - and I will, maybe, settle on the other but only if they offer more than 65%.  I'm quite happy to file their letters and sometimes I get the odd email. Each time their statement clearly states it is not a demand for payment, but a polite request to help assist me with setting up an affordable repayment plan, something I have no intention of doing. I've had no-one knock on my door and even if that happened I would, politely, tell them to go away  

My debts were not at the age of yours, so in your case I think you should remove them from your DMP and let them go.

johnnybrando1981

Suseka97 said:

Just to add to the reassurance... I've had 3 accounts marked as UE (all with the same DCA).  Once I received that paperwork, around 2 1/2 years ago, I like you made them a settlement offer which they declined.  I then just said I would focus on priority debts and filed the paperwork away.  I get statements from them, from time to time - and as the years have rolled on they have started offering me discounts (currently on two of them they are offering 65% discount and they've sent nothing over the years on the 3rd, so that one is dead in the water).

I settled one very recently, simply because the payment was under £500 and only because I want them gone - and I will, maybe, settle on the other but only if they offer more than 65%.  I'm quite happy to file their letters and sometimes I get the odd email. Each time their statement clearly states it is not a demand for payment, but a polite request to help assist me with setting up an affordable repayment plan, something I have no intention of doing. I've had no-one knock on my door and even if that happened I would, politely, tell them to go away  

My debts were not at the age of yours, so in your case I think you should remove them from your DMP and let them go.

Thank you Suseka97!

Hugh2

I can only second what's been said previously. I had three UE debts so I stopped paying them straight away. I din't hear from them apart from when I sent them F&F offers. ( I just want rid and make sure the debts are dead and buried) . A month ago i settled an old 9.5K debt @10%.