Lowell bought a debt from OVO in my sons name!

torturerforfun

We have received a letter from a company by the name of Lowell, they have bought an alleged debt from OVO in my sons name, my son has never had any dealings with OVO or infant ever had to have electric etc in his name as he lived with us. The debt relates to a property we rented up until march 2019. It would appear that after we left having cancelled electric gas etc it kept running and the landlord didn't pay anything up until the house was sold! My boggle is why have they put my sons name against this debt and why they are now chasing him for it, and whats the best way to deal with it?, He is 22 by the way.

sourcrates

Lowell are a well known debt purchasing company, who buy defaulted, and sometimes non defaulted debts in bulk.

They will not be aware of any issues with this account, prior to them buying it.

You should write to Lowell, tell them what you have told us, explain the situation, but stick to the facts, and keep it simple, then mark your letter as a "complaint" that way it will be dealt with by the correct department.

They have 8 weeks to investigate your concerns, and issue a final response to you.

torturerforfun

sourcrates said:

Lowell are a well known debt purchasing company, who buy defaulted, and sometimes non defaulted debts in bulk.

They will not be aware of any issues with this account, prior to them buying it.

You should write to Lowell, tell them what you have told us, explain the situation, but stick to the facts, and keep it simple, then mark your letter as a "complaint" that way it will be dealt with by the correct department.

They have 8 weeks to investigate your concerns, and issue a final response to you.

Thanks for the advice, much appreciated 

EssexHebridean

A thought on this - in part for @sourcrates - is there a chance that this is a fishing trip I wonder? In fact it's the subsequent tenant with the debt but they can't be tracked down, and Lowell have simply plucked the son's name from a list of former occupants and are now writing to him in the hope that he is simply scared into paying up? Not the first time that sort of thing has happened, let's face it. 

sourcrates

EssexHebridean said:

A thought on this - in part for @sourcrates - is there a chance that this is a fishing trip I wonder? In fact it's the subsequent tenant with the debt but they can't be tracked down, and Lowell have simply plucked the son's name from a list of former occupants and are now writing to him in the hope that he is simply scared into paying up? Not the first time that sort of thing has happened, let's face it. 

Quite likely yes, as long as they have a name to start the ball rolling. They are not bothered if they are the actual debtor or not, lots of folk just pay up without even questioning it, which is why its so important to question these companies.