CCA incorrect response

MayfieldMonkey

Hi, I have a very old CC debt originally from MBNA and which is serviced through a debt recovery company. I have been paying this off since 2014 with a nominal monthly amount. In July 2021 I decided to send in a CCA and received what looked like a genuine, albeit very poor, copy of the original signed agreement. As the original debt was only £3000 I decided to carry on paying it off. 

In August this year I had another look at the agreement that was sent in 2021 and decided to just reconfirm that this was actually related to the original debt, and so contacted the debt recovery company again. They have now confirmed that this agreement was nothing at all to do with the original debt from MBNA, and was not even from the same bank! They cannot provide any of the original paperwork.

Although the debt is now unenforceable, this should also have been the case 3 years ago when I sent then the CCA and received an agreement that they now admit had been made up. I want to pay the debt off, but this seems an appalling way to treat people - bordering on misrepresentation, possibly fraud. What are your thoughts?

Thanks. 

fatbelly

The moral of the story is to look closely at what they send you in response to a cca request.

You should obviously stop paying now.

Unfortunately there is nothing to stop them asking for payment on an unenforceable debt and nothing to stop you doing so.

There is also nothing to stop them reconstructing an agreement which is maybe what they were trying to do.

A complaint to FOS would be interesting in the light of their latest admission.

sourcrates

No more, or less, than I would expect from a DCA, never, ever trust what they tell you.

ManyWays

MayfieldMonkey said:

Although the debt is now unenforceable, this should also have been the case 3 years ago when I sent then the CCA and received an agreement that they now admit had been made up. I want to pay the debt off, but this seems an appalling way to treat people - bordering on misrepresentation, possibly fraud. What are your thoughts?

Why did you ask for the CCA if you want to pay the debt off? If you want to stop paying, you now can.
And as @fatbelly says it would be interesting to see what the Financial Ombudsman would say, my thought would be to make a written complaint to the debt collector and ask for a refund of the payments you have made since they sent you the wrong paperwork, saying that if they had told you then the debt was unenforceable you would have stopped paying. But there is no point in doing this if you intend to carry on paying.