Best Action against Equifax not removing my Incorrect bankruptcy for over 3 years of Requesting???

Chreesy87

Hi Guys,

Hope you are all well and had a nice new year despite the current climate.
Just looking at seeking legal advice against Equifax due to them being extremely difficult to get through to them and removing my incorrect bankruptcy through Carrington dean despite it never getting approved or to the courts as my creditor Hitachi blocked it and had CCJ in place instead.

I have gained all the information from Carrington dean and passed across to Equifax who kept requesting a 'certificate' each and every time, at one point around November last year they said they would look into removing and low and behold months later the portal through Equifax was completely changed and had to restart it all again new log in details etc but still have all or most the old correspondence. I have also called them and still no joy, I had to take out a new car through oddle finance and arnold clark would come back with inflated costs of around 40-75 based on poor finance so I adjusted a car to suit the budge but I now have in place that oodle do in fact use clearscore and equifax for their information provider which has incurred a £47 per month (60 month finance contract) increase from the original quote due to my bankruptcy etc
Its getting beyond a joke now due to the amount of evidence / information I have provided them from Carrington Dean emails etc specifically responding to Carrington dean to note 'Certificate' explicitly to prove a point and explain due to the status of the application at the time its not got as far as being able to get a certificate Equifax so desperately desire. 

I have included letters stating this back in 2018 and chased on and off from there awaiting replies etc and its cost me due to them not removing it, all other credit background providers have either never had it on or removed to suit but equifax seem to be digging their heels in at my expense. 
Im not sure who to turn to in terms of seeking potential legal advice to recover loses and also to ideally get the ball rolling and gain some leverage to get it removed from my account.

Any advice would be excellent as I cant really see a similar thread other than they seem to have had a data breach in which customers were seeking advice on legal action against them. 

thanks for any advice in advance 
C

MovingForwards

Contact the ICO as they are the ones who oversee how companies hold data about us.

Thrugelmir

Where are Equifax picking the data up from?  Doesn't mysteriously appear, there's a source. 

K_S

@chreesy87 Sorry to hear about all the trouble you've been through. Given the length of time elapsed, I assume you made a formal complaint to Equifax at some point? And did you then escalate it to the FOS, did they rule on it? If not, that's the primary course of action I can think of which would get this incorrect information off your credit report.

Fighter1986

Hitachi (and any other lender) can't block a bankruptcy, they certainly can't block a bankruptcy with a CCJ.

Whether or not a bankruptcy is granted to you is decided entirely by the court. Not cannington dean, not Hitachi, not by anyone besides the judge who asesses your bankruptcy petition.

Equifax will only reflect public data like bankruptcy that exists on the public register, and it will have been put there by the court.

Have you checked with the court the status of the bankruptcy?

Was it discharged, or annulled?

If it was annulled, it should be expunged from your credit file.

It it was discharged, it should show a discharge date, but shouldn't be expunged from your credit file.

You need to contact the court initially (the equifax data will show which court and the case number you need to contact / quote) to find the status of the judgement. 

Chreesy87

Thanks for quick replies guys, well they all had the IVA/Bankruptcy attached as it looks to have processed and wasnt updated with rejections so I had to manually request the removal and attach the creditfix/Carrington confirmation that it was never put in place but Equifax just kept generating the same reply they require a certificate.

I made formal complaints and then had to re-apply and set up a new complaint and compiled all the older portal info I still managed to retrieve from emails and printouts I collated to them but still coming back with a certificate despite fully detailed letters and emails from credit fix explaining my application. 
I will try the FOS as its just rolled on within equifax complaints and its beyond a joke now. I will update once I contact the FOS see if I can get somewhere.

K_S

@Chreesy87 Just in case you aren't aware, you don't need to wait endlessly for Equifax to come back with a final response to your complaint. After 8 weeks have elapsed, you can take your complaint to the FOS.

If they did send you a final response at some point in the past, the time limit to take it to the FOS is 6 months. But from what you say it doesn't look like they ever did that so you should still be able to take it to the FOS.

The FOS will likely take 6-12 months for the first stage investigator to give their opinion on whether or not Equifax did anything wrong and if so what they need to rectify it, but at least you should get the ball rolling. 

Fighter1986

Chreesy87 said:

Thanks for quick replies guys, well they all had the IVA/Bankruptcy attached as it looks to have processed and wasnt updated with rejections so I had to manually request the removal and attach the creditfix/Carrington confirmation that it was never put in place but Equifax just kept generating the same reply they require a certificate.

I made formal complaints and then had to re-apply and set up a new complaint and compiled all the older portal info I still managed to retrieve from emails and printouts I collated to them but still coming back with a certificate despite fully detailed letters and emails from credit fix explaining my application. 
I will try the FOS as its just rolled on within equifax complaints and its beyond a joke now. I will update once I contact the FOS see if I can get somewhere.

Have you spoken directly with the court regarding the case, to ask whether they approved / cancelled / discharged / annulled the bankruptcy petition?

You need to be absolutely clear on the information the court give you in order to know what should be done next, and what can be done next. 

Do not concern yourself with any intermediaries like credit fix, cannington, equifax, or the like. Your point of contact now must be the court to find out what happened to your bankruptcy petition. 

Chreesy87

Fighter1986 said:

Hitachi (and any other lender) can't block a bankruptcy, they certainly can't block a bankruptcy with a CCJ.

Whether or not a bankruptcy is granted to you is decided entirely by the court. Not cannington dean, not Hitachi, not by anyone besides the judge who asesses your bankruptcy petition.

Equifax will only reflect public data like bankruptcy that exists on the public register, and it will have been put there by the court.

Have you checked with the court the status of the bankruptcy?

Was it discharged, or annulled?

If it was annulled, it should be expunged from your credit file.

It it was discharged, it should show a discharge date, but shouldn't be expunged from your credit file.

You need to contact the court initially (the equifax data will show which court and the case number you need to contact / quote) to find the status of the judgement. 

Hi thanks for that reply as well was mid reply before I picked this up yes was annulled apparently due to Hitachi owning over 90% of my debt they blocked a debt management repayment plan through stepchange more than once and this was who they advised me to go through in the early days of unemployment with this outstanding debt. 
They blocked it and that was the reasoning on stepchanges behalf and before I could get any answers they had processed/lodged a CCJ against me now in wage arrestment per month until paid.

The IVA or Bankruptcy came about through a family friend back then and creditfix under carrington dean who processed an application and said similar that they were unsuccessful due to the amount of debt essentially in Hitachi the other was only a small overdraft which had to be closed and taken into my debt through stepchange at the time.

Carrington dean told me it never got as far due to this and was discharged before anything commenced therefore they cannot give me a certificate as per what Equifax repeatedly reply with, personally I feel like its just getting picked up by someone different each time and they just auto generate the certificate reply every time without taking into account the information I have provided and chase them up with the last 3+ years albeit I slowed down last year with work and Uni commitments until November where I realised they have redone the whole portal access and I was unable to continue or check my current progress anymore and was advised on the phone to reapply and set up the portal which has all this documented back in under complaints

The CCJ is all there and correct Nov 2015 through my local sheriff court but Ive included all this to them that its live and is effectively the same debt therefore cant be under 2 a ccj and a IVA or bankruptcy 

Thrugelmir

So you've a CCJ against you. That will impact lenders credit decisions. Wage arrestment is a further negative. This will detected when the Trust Registry is searched as part of the underwriting process. 

Fighter1986

Chreesy87 said:

Fighter1986 said:

Hitachi (and any other lender) can't block a bankruptcy, they certainly can't block a bankruptcy with a CCJ.

Whether or not a bankruptcy is granted to you is decided entirely by the court. Not cannington dean, not Hitachi, not by anyone besides the judge who asesses your bankruptcy petition.

Equifax will only reflect public data like bankruptcy that exists on the public register, and it will have been put there by the court.

Have you checked with the court the status of the bankruptcy?

Was it discharged, or annulled?

If it was annulled, it should be expunged from your credit file.

It it was discharged, it should show a discharge date, but shouldn't be expunged from your credit file.

You need to contact the court initially (the equifax data will show which court and the case number you need to contact / quote) to find the status of the judgement. 

Hi thanks for that reply as well was mid reply before I picked this up yes was annulled apparently due to Hitachi owning over 90% of my debt they blocked a debt management repayment plan through stepchange more than once and this was who they advised me to go through in the early days of unemployment with this outstanding debt. 
They blocked it and that was the reasoning on stepchanges behalf and before I could get any answers they had processed/lodged a CCJ against me now in wage arrestment per month until paid.

The IVA or Bankruptcy came about through a family friend back then and creditfix under carrington dean who processed an application and said similar that they were unsuccessful due to the amount of debt essentially in Hitachi the other was only a small overdraft which had to be closed and taken into my debt through stepchange at the time.

Carrington dean told me it never got as far due to this and was discharged before anything commenced therefore they cannot give me a certificate as per what Equifax repeatedly reply with, personally I feel like its just getting picked up by someone different each time and they just auto generate the certificate reply every time without taking into account the information I have provided and chase them up with the last 3+ years albeit I slowed down last year with work and Uni commitments until November where I realised they have redone the whole portal access and I was unable to continue or check my current progress anymore and was advised on the phone to reapply and set up the portal which has all this documented back in under complaints

The CCJ is all there and correct Nov 2015 through my local sheriff court but Ive included all this to them that its live and is effectively the same debt therefore cant be under 2 a ccj and a IVA or bankruptcy 

OK, thank you for the explanation.

Now we need to nail down some really precise details here, because it sound like cannington / creditix might not have been entirely honest with you.

Does your credit file show a bankruptcy order?
Does your credit file show a CCJ?
Does the date of the CCJ fall before, or after the Bankruptcy?

You've used the word "Anulled" and also used the word "Discharged" in your response. These are two very different things.

Annulled means the bankruptcy either never proceeded, or was undon
Discharged, means your bankruptcy was approved, and subsequently completed successfully

It's possible for a debt that has fallen under a CCJ to subsequently fall under a bankruptcy
It is also possible for a lender to take you to court for a debt that was included in your bankruptcy and obtain a CCJ, but they have no legal right to, and you have legal recourse to have the CCJ set aside free of charge.

It's still unclear from what you've said so far, as the devil is in the detail - and you might not have the full truthful detail from cannington... BUT... It sounds like you were made bankrupt, and subsequently discharged, and a CCJ was also obtained against you by Hitachi.

I'll make this absolutely clear again:

A lender cannot block a bankruptcy. The decision is that of the judge and only of the judge. The lenders have a legal obligation to comply with the bankruptcy order.

My previous advice stands - you need to contact the court that is named on your credit file, and ask them the status of the case number displayed against the bankruptcy order on your Equifax file.

Was it: Approved and subsequently discharged? Annulled? Cancelled?

Come back with what the court tell you and I'll help further.