PRA Group and 'Cancelled' Payday loans

sourcrates

Karonher said:

The debtor (you) do not have to prove anything, the debt collector/purchaser chasing the debt, is the one who has to prove to you that the debt is live, and collectable, the onus is always on them, not you.

This is more for my information than anything. If the new owners of the debt, or alleged debt have paperwork to say it is owed but nothing to say it has been written off or paid would the OP not have to prove that they no longer owed it. All the courts would see would be proof it belonged to the OP.

Debts written off by payday loan companies, obviously should not be sold on, however, its not unusual for the company to say its been written off, but instead sell the debt onwards, shouldn`t happen, but occasionally does.
Debts are usually sold in bulk, and believe it or not, never with any original paperwork, so they have nothing to say the debt is legally collectable, any paperwork, if it still exists, always remains with the original creditor, and is only made available to you, if you ask for it.

The OP insists they have no paperwork to prove the company wrote off the account, it would have been helpful if they had, and yes they could have provided this to back up their claim, if they were so inclined.

Under most circumstances, the company claiming the debt has to provide evidence the debtor is liable for it, this would normally be in the form of a copy credit agreement, as mentioned above.

The situation here is slightly more complex, as they don`t deny the debt is theirs, but they do deny its collectable, as the debt was written off due to a mis-selling complaint being upheld.
The dispute should be put to the claimant in writing, and it is then still up to them to go back to the payday loan company to verify what the debtor says is true.

If this complaint was within the last 6 years, then there should still be records of it on file.

Anyone can write to you claiming you owe them money, lots of folk tend to pay up, even if they don`t recognise the debt in question, something you should never do, always ask for proof, or evidence of liability, they must provide it when asked, because if they don`t they cannot legally collect the debt from you.