Lowell advice after prove it letter reply

dpickett

Hi
I am after some advice, many years ago I had a loan from Hsbc around 1999.
I got in a lot of debt and had trouble making payments and this defaulted in November 2001.I believe a ccj was put on it around this time.the loan was around £8k
Metropolitan collection agency was collecting £5 a month, over the years this was sold on/ changed hands to robinsons then hoist.
I never noticed but in sep 2019 the direct debit payments had stopped being taken.
now last month out of the blue I recieved a letter from Lowell saying they had taken over hoist and asked how I was going to pay.
After reading this board And the original debt being so old I decided to send the prove it letter to see what they had on it.
They have just replied with this

Agreement start date 15/7:92 ( wrong it was 1999)
last payment date 03/09/2019
last payment amount £5
hoist portfolio-hoist delta
Product brand- hsbc banking mixed
last contact 20/7/2019
default 20/11/2001
determination date 3/4/2023
Original loan £8125

If you dispute the information provided we ask you for full details of your dispute and supporting documents as evidence so we can investigate for you.

Due to the retention period we are unable to provide original documents. As your account has been legally assigned to us we do not need all the documents that you have asked for , this should have previously been requested from hoist.
we have put your account on hold for 30 days to allow time for you to get back to us. if we don’t hear from you in that time contact will resume.

What what you advice I do next I am worried sick as no means to pay this , what route should I take now and what can they do with this being so old.
I am not disputing the debt so would I send a cca to see if it is unenforceable?

would be great full for any advice please

thankyou

sourcrates

You say legal action was taken around November 2001, what that means is a court has decided you owe the money, so your debt is no longer in any dispute, you cannot do a CCA request, nor send a provit letter, as the creditor is no longer obliged to respond to such things, and the debt will never be statute barred either.

Legal action removes all other options off the table unfortunately.

However, as the judgement is so old, it won`t show up now in any records, it`s quite likely Lowell don`t know about it, (if they did they would have mentioned it).

Absolutely no need whatsoever to be worried about this, if you can`t afford to pay anything, simply tell them so, include a copy of your budget to back it up, affordability is paramount these days.

Or if you can afford to make some kind of payment, again, make the offer, Lowell will take whatever you can afford.

What documents did they send you by the way ?

dpickett

Hi
thankyou so much for the reply @sourcrates

They haven’t sent me any documents just this letter and the original one a few weeks ago,which was just stating they have taken over from hoist and asking me to contact them.

So can  this debt still be enforced now or is it unenforceable as they have no cca documents , just to add I’m actually unsure now if it defaulted and then went to metropolitan collection agency rather than a ccj- sorry
thanks again

dpickett

Hi again

just to add thinking back ,  I’m pretty sure I’d didn’t go to court as at the time I had a few debts and went to see citizens advice and they wrote to them and offered £5 a month to metropolitan collections , then robinsons way took over , it was when hoist must of took over that the d/debit just stopped being taken.

What would you recommend I should reply to Lowell , was hoping they wouldn’t be able to enforce this now

thanks again 

sourcrates

If that is the case, then by all means send a CCA request, you have the statutory right to do so.

Taking legal action removes all your rights to challenge the debt on enforceability grounds, so if, as you now say, no legal action was taken, as it`s a very old account, it would be unusual if they could provide anything now.

dpickett

Thanks again for your advice @sourcrates

can I just ask what do Lowell mean by this comment

” As your account has been legally assigned to us we do not need all the documents that you have asked for , this should have previously been requested from hoist.”

thankyou

sourcrates

"Legally assigned" basically means they have bought the debt, and by doing so inherit all rights and privileges of the original owner.

It would depend on what you asked them for, the provit letter does mention disputes quite a bit, I think what Lowell are attempting to say is if a dispute was known about, it should have been resolved with the previous owner blah blah blah.

You can ignore all that, and send the CCA request as that is a statutory right under the terms of the consumer credit act, wear as responding in the same way to the provit letter is not.

dpickett

Great advice Thankyou , I will send a cca

If they can’t produce one does this mean they will not be able to enforce the debt?

sourcrates

dpickett said:

Great advice Thankyou , I will send a cca

If they can’t produce one does this mean they will not be able to enforce the debt?

That is correct, failure to comply with a request under sec 77/79 CCA removes the right to take legal action to recover what is owed.

They can still ask you to pay, they can still chase the debt, they can still report to your credit file, what they cannot do is obtain a judgement against you.

fatbelly

I agree with the above. If there is a ccj on this then lowell must reply to a cca with that info.

I suspect that either there isn't, or lowell just don't know about it.

The other thing i noticed is that this is described as a mixed debt. A loan would be covered by cca rules, an overdraft not. Hopefully this is such a mess that lowell will just give up on it