CDER Group

mikew88

So I am not sure if this is the right place for advice on this. But i am getting hassled by CDER group, a debt collecting company. A previous occupant of my address I believe owes money and I have now been visited twice by bailiffs asking for ID as proof of address. I have emailed their customer care team providing them with this information, but continue to get hassled by them. I am not sure where else or who else to go to as they ask for information, which I provide them, but they do not seem
to be taking me off their system. I have made a formal complaint and resent the email, but I fear that in a few weeks another bailiff will harass me asking for proof of address. Any advice on where to go from here would be appreciated. 

Graham1982

Hello mikew88:

I believe you are mistaken, if they work for a company - CEDR group, they are not bailiffs, bailiffs work for the courts and the courts only. They are debt collectors as they work for private companies and they have no powers of enforcement and cannot enter your home etc.

I would be tempted to write to them recorded delivery, emails can more easily be ignored, repeating what you have said already and add that their actions amount to harassment etc.

Cheers

Graham

mikew88

Thanks Graham, 

emails do seem to be very slow with a reply. I have stated on a complaint that I now consider this harassment so hoping that will get me somewhere. 

Cheers. 

sourcrates

Most definitely in the right place my friend, we love debt collectors on here
Yes they are Debt collectors, not bailiffs.

Stir things up a bit, send this to them, in a good old fashioned letter, mark the envelope "COMPLAINT".

Edit this template to your own individual circumstances -


Dear Sirs

Complaint

On [date] I wrote to you regarding the account with the above reference number, for which you claim I owe £. I pointed out that I have no knowledge of any such debt being owed to [The Loan Company]. I asked that no further contact be made concerning the above account unless/until you could provide evidence as to my liability for the debt in question

Despite this, you have continued to write [and phone] and make demands for payment.

I wish to complain that you have breached the following sections of the FCA's Debt Collection Rules (2021):

[copy and paste the sections from below that apply]

This has caused me considerable distress and I consider it appropriate that you compensate me for this.

In case you are unaware of the rules of that you are required to follow, I have been told that they are as follows:

On receipt of this complaint, which will be deemed to have occurred two working days after it was posted, you must promptly acknowledge it, in writing, and provide me with a written copy of your Complaints Procedure.

You must keep me updated with the progress of your investigation of my complaint.

Once the complaint has been investigated you must issue me with your final response, explaining your findings and including any proposal you may wish to make in order to put things right. Your final response must tell me if I may take my complaint to the Financial Ombudsman Service and how long I have to do so.

If you are unable to provide me with a response within eight weeks, you must write to me to explain why, confirm that I can then ask the Financial Ombudsman Service to consider my complaint and provide me with a copy of its leaflet.

I look forward to hearing your proposals.

Yours faithfully


From the FCAs rules 2018 they are engaged in the following unfair practices:

• A firm must not pursue an individual whom the firm knows or believes might not be the borrower or hirer under a credit agreement or a consumer hire agreement.
• A firm must not ignore or disregard a customer's claim that a debt has been settled or is disputed and must not continue to make demands for payment without providing clear justification and/or evidence as to why the customer's claim is not valid.
• A firm must not.... visit or threaten to visit a customer without the customer's prior agreement when a debt is deadlocked or reasonably queried or disputed
• A firm must suspend any steps it takes or its agent takes in the recovery of a debt from a customer where the customer disputes the debt on valid grounds or what may be valid grounds.
• 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.
• 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.
• A firm must provide a customer with information on the outcome of its investigations into a debt which the customer disputed on valid grounds.
• Where a customer disputes a debt and the firm seeking to recover the debt is not the lender or the owner, the firm must (1) pass the information provided by the customer to the lender or the owner; or (2) if the firm has authority from the lender or owner to investigate a dispute, it must notify the lender or owner of the outcome of the investigation.