Advice required - Debt Collection on old debt I don't believe I owe.

debtfree83

Hi All,

I joined this forum for advise.

I recently received an out of the blue letter from Resolvecall with threats that they would be visiting my property over an alleged debt of over £1,100 allegedly owed to Lloyds Bank. Attached in the separate envelope was a letter from Intrum advising they had tried to contact me over the said debt stating they had previously tried to contact me, which they hadn't.

I immediately called Resolvecall to find out what was going on, and they advised that the debt related to an overdraft that I apparantly defaulted on in 2013. I have no recollection of this debt although I did have alot of debts back then when I was suffering from a gambling addiction. I held a Lloyds account that my wages went into until September 2020 when they closed it after I had a dispute with them on the phone over an unrelated matter when they locked my account on a bank holiday weekend due to a security risk asking me to go into a branch to sort it even though all branches were closed for 3 days. I was quite vocal on the phone and then they sent me a letter a week later advising they were closing my account. At no point while I held the Lloyds account did they ever contact me regarding any alleged outstanding overdraft.

Now back to the matter in hand. I do not believe I owe this debt and certainly haven't been contacted by the company. 

Even if I did owe the debt, it is now 10 years old which surely means it is statue barred. What are my rights around this.

Secondly, is there a potential case of a GDPR breach. If I either never owed the debt in the first place, or it is statue barred, have Intrum broken GDPR rules by passing on my personal details including name, address, date of birth amongst other details. If so , what are my rights around this.

This has caused me a huge amount of stress and spoilt my Christmas.

What are my rights around this?

fatbelly

On the basis of information they have supplied, this would be statute (not statue) barred.

There is a suitable letter you can send in the sticky threads over on the debt free wannabe section.

Nasqueron

Debts are statute barred 6 years after the debt was last acknowledged, not when they occurred e.g. Bob has a debt from 2005 but has paid for it monthly since then - this is not barred; Sam has a debt from 2016 which was ignored and no payments/contact has been made - this would most likely be barred.

Even if you defaulted in 2013, if there was some acknowledgment of the debt in the last 6 years, even if you don't remember it, then it's possible it's not barred.

They have not broken any GDPR rules, companies can buy and sell debts as they please which obviously includes the details of the debtor and indeed, use tracing services to find you.

As fatbelly says - send them the statute barred letter denying the debt and see what they come back with

Also check your 3 credit files at Credit Karma, Clear Score and MSE Credit Club, these will show you if there is a debt reported - it should have disappeared after 6 years from default, assuming it did exist and was defaulted but some unethical companies do try and add this stuff back on to try and catch you out.

My guess here is that you did have a debt, defaulted, it's now barred (i.e. you can't be chased for it any more) and Lloyds sold it to a firm who then sold it on again and they are chancing their arm that you'll pay up

debtfree83

Hi, Really sorry to ask but could someone direct me in the direct of the Statute letter please as I cannot find it. I am still trying to navigate my way around the forums

silvercar

debtfree83 said:

Hi, Really sorry to ask but could someone direct me in the direct of the Statute letter please as I cannot find it. I am still trying to navigate my way around the forums

Hello and welcome.

the debt free wannabe board is here: https://forums.moneysavingexpert.com/categories/debt-free-wannabe

the thread with sample letters can be found here: https://forums.moneysavingexpert.com/discussion/6027800/debt-free-wannabe-sticky-provit-statute-barred-letters-defaults-help-and-guidance-all-here#latest

in particular, details on statute barred debts here: https://forums.moneysavingexpert.com/discussion/6027755/statute-barred-debts-and-the-limitation-act#latest