Lowell bought a debt that I didn't think existed. Would appreciate some advice.

jasonwatkins

About a year ago, I was, luckily, in a position to really tackle the last of my major outstanding debts.   While I couldn't completely clear a lot of them 100%, I agreed early settlement figures with the respective companies and paid.   

I spoke to Three regarding the debt I had with them and I was told that it had been written off.   It had initially been sold to Moorcroft who subsequently sold it back to Three.   The person I spoke to on the phone said that it had since been written off and that I didn't need to worry about it.

About a month ago, I received a letter from Lowells informing me they'd bought this debt from Three and, as you'd imagine, I was quite shocked.    Before I rang them, I went on Three live chat and gave them the various details about the debt and the person I spoke to also confirmed that no debt was outstanding so I rang Lowells.   

They brought up details of the debt and told me they'd only recently bought it and I told them I wouldn't be paying it because Three couldn't just change their mind 9 months after telling me the debt had been written off.

I rang Three back and, to cut a long story short, they told me that there WAS an outstanding debt.    I was fuming and I immediately asked to raise a formal complaint because, as I said, I felt they couldn't suddenly just change their mind after almost a year.    I got the letter back this morning informing me that they had been "unable" to resolve the complaint and that I could forward it to the ombudsman if I wanted to.

I'm just wondering where I stand with this ?.    I'm aware of statute barring debts under certain circumstances but I'd have to read up on that to clarify the situation.   The debt is almost £500 which isn't something I can deal with at the moment and the kind of figure for an early settlement would be too much as well.

If there's a recording of the call where I was told that there was no debt outstanding, could I use this to argue for the debt to be written off, or, at least, reduced ?

A lot of questions I appreciate, but I'd be grateful for some thoughts.   Thanks.

[Deleted User]

Without any evidence that the debt has been written off, it will still be valid, subject to any other enforceability issues.

You could do a SAR to see what it reveals, but call recordings are unlikely to be available.

jasonwatkins

Deleted_User said:

Without any evidence that the debt has been written off, it will still be valid, subject to any other enforceability issues.

You could do a SAR to see what it reveals, but call recordings are unlikely to be available.

The only evidence would be the call recording and,  I suppose, the live chat transcript.    Lowells told me that they'd purchased the debt from Three and that it was still active when they purchased it.

fatbelly

It would have been written off on the Three system because it had been sold to Lowell, but they should have explained that to you

Moorcroft are just a collector so while it was with them the debt was still owned by Three.

Statute barring is quite simple. What was the date the account was terminated? Your credit file may record this as a default date. A SAR might also produce it, so SAR to three could be useful to you

If you did not subsequently acknowledge the debt by payment or in writing then the creditor has six years from that date to start a court claim.

jasonwatkins

fatbelly said:

It would have been written off on the Three system because it had been sold to Lowell, but they should have explained that to you

Moorcroft are just a collector so while it was with them the debt was still owned by Three.

Statute barring is quite simple. What was the date the account was terminated? Your credit file may record this as a default date. A SAR might also produce it, so SAR to three could be useful to you

If you did not subsequently acknowledge the debt by payment or in writing then the creditor has six years from that date to start a court claim.

It was only sold to Lowell in December 2020.    I contacted Three back in February 2020 to discuss the debt and that was the point they told me that it had been written off and that I didn't owe anything so I took them at their word which was clearly a stupid thing to do as I should have asked for written confirmation.

I will likely have to do another credit search to find the exact date the account defaulted, but a SAR is certainly an option I suppose.

fatbelly

You should definitely do a SAR to find out what stage it was at at the time of your phone call, and get that termination date from Three themselves.

You will probably find now that it has dropped off your credit file to be replaced by one from Lowell. They should have kept the same dates.

sourcrates

Never accept what you are told over the phone by a call handler.
They have no more idea of the status of your debt, than you do.
Settlement offers should only be made in writing, and only paid once confirmed as acceptable by the owners.
You then keep the paperwork for at least 6 years, the willingness to get rid of the debt is understandable, but you must use the correct procedure, otherwise things like this tend to happen.

jasonwatkins

I'm tempted to just leave it because experience tells me that I'll eventually get a settlement offer that I might actually be able to afford.   At the moment they obviously want as much of the debt as possible which is why they only offered me a token discount when I spoke to them.

If I leave it long enough, that discount will almost certainly increase.

It's not really going to have any effect on my life going forward and especially my credit rating so it's certainly tempting.

fatbelly

I wouldn't suggest contacting Lowell at this point but finding out what happened at Three could be useful.

Lowell may eventually start a court claim but would leave it until near the six-year mark.

My experience with Lowell is that they often have very little information about what they have bought, so claims are often defendable.