Global Debt Recovery/GM Law

Vagabond_UK

Hi,

I'm in the middle of a protracted battle with Global Debt Recovery and their solicitors, GM Law.

Long story short I had a credit card debt with TSB (pre-Lloyds) which has subsequently been taken over by FV-1 Inc and pursued by the above. I had been paying small sums towards this debt while it was credited under the 'TSB' monicker. However, I received no deed of assignment that the debt had been sold to FV-1 and subsequently CCA'd the DCA on 1st March 2008.

However, as of today, they have not complied with the request and have continued to demand payment. All they have provided are a few screendumps of the alleged account, which they claim constitutes a full statement and my admittance of liability. I have written the letter below to send back and I'd be grateful for any advice on the letter, and whether i should add or remove anything from it.

I apologise for the length ...

I refer to your letter dated 8th April 2008, which was delivered to me on 11th April 2008, the contents of which are noted.

However, I must point out that as of the date of this letter, you have thus far failed to respond to my legal request to supply me a true copy of the original Consumer Credit Agreement for the above account, and by continuing to demand payment, you are in breach of the Office of Fair Trading guidelines on debt collection.

My request for a true copy of the original Consumer Credit Agreement for the above account was issued to you on 1st March 2008 and was received and signed for by a member of your staff on 4th March 2008. Furthermore, I have obtained an electronic proof of delivery showing the name and signature of the recipient. In this request, I made a formal request for a copy of the signed, executed credit agreement for the above numbered xxx account under section 78(1) of the Consumer Credit Act. In addition a statement of my account was to be sent along with any other document mentioned in the credit agreement. This request was accompanied by Postal Order, serial number xxxxxxx.

Again, you are reminded that you are obliged to supply these documents, whether you are the original creditor or not under S189 of the CCA 1974.

The time limits, which are laid down in the Consumer Credit (Prescribed Periods for Giving Information) Regulations 1983 are clear. You must supply an executed credit agreement within 12 working days of a proper CCA request. If you fail to comply with a legitimate request the account enters a default situation and if you fail to comply after a further 30 days you commit a summary criminal offence. For your reference, the original 12 day deadline expired on 19th March 2008, with the extended deadline due to expire on 18th April 2008.

I still require you to send me a true copy of the original credit agreement that you allege exists. As you will know, under Section 127(3) of the Consumer Credit Act 1974, a judge is not permitted to make any enforcement order unless the creditor can provide a true signed copy of the original credit agreement. This situation is backed by case law from the Lords of Appeal in Ordinary (House of Lords) the highest court in the land. Your attention is drawn to the authority of the House of Lords in Wilson-v- FCT [2003] All ER (D) 187 (Jul) which confirms that where a document does not contain the required terms under the Consumer Credit Act 1974 the agreement cannot be enforced.

The limits for supplying a true, signed copy of the Consumer Credit Agreement relating to the alleged debt will expire on 18th April 2008, after which your client commits an offence and unless your client can produce a true, signed copy of the agreement, the alleged debt becomes unenforceable at law.

As you are no doubt aware section 77(6) of the Consumer Credit Act states:

If the creditor fails to comply with Subsection (1)

(a) He is not entitled , while the default continues, to enforce the agreement.

And

(b) If the default continues for one month he commits an offence.

Whilst the account is in dispute, you are not permitted to ask for any payment, nor am I obliged to offer any payment to you. Furthermore, whilst the dispute remains, you are not entitled to charge any interest on the account, nor make any further charges to the account. Additionally, you are not entitled to register any information on this account with any credit reference agencies (or any third party).

To register information with a credit reference agency, you must have written consent from the data subject to collate and share such information. This consent is given in the form of a signed credit agreement, so until you produce such an agreement, you may not do this. Furthermore, this letter provides statutory notice under section 10 of the Data Protection Act to cease processing any data in relation to this account with immediate effect.

This means you must remove all information regarding this account from your own internal records and from my records with any credit reference agencies.

Should you refuse to comply, you must within 21 days provide me with a detailed breakdown of your reasoning behind continuing to process my data.

It is not sufficient to simply state that you have a ‘legal right’; You must outline your reasoning in this matter and state upon which legislation this reasoning depends.

The requirement for consent to share data is a clear requirement of the Data Protection Act 1998. Any such attempts to share my data without my consent will be met with a complaint to the Information Commissioners Office.

Should your client now persist with threats of legal action as stated in your letter, I will welcome the opportunity for a judge to look at several offences committed by XXX DCA XX under The Consumer Credit Act, 1974, as well as your client’s non-compliance with and total disregard for the law on this occasion.

You now have 14 days from receiving this letter to contact me with your intentions to resolve this matter which should now be considered as a formal complaint, otherwise your conduct and that of your client will be reported to the Office of Fair Trading, the Financial Ombudsman and Trading Standards, alongside any other regulatory bodies as deemed appropriate. Any investigation undertaken by them may affect your ability to hold a consumer credit license in the future.

To sum up, I will not be making any further payments to you until you provide me with the complete documentation I have requested. Should you not have any signed credit agreement in relation to this alleged debt, you must confirm this in writing to me.

No further correspondence will be entered into until the required documentation has been produced to my satisfaction and is legally acceptable.

I would appreciate your due diligence in this matter and look forward to your reply.


Yours faithfully

Cheers everyone!

10past6

I'm dealing with this company (Global) re a CCJ issued in 1997 (FV -1 TSB / Lloyds)

They traced me after 12 years, however, following the advice from National Debtline, I sent a letter to them last week stating I had no knoweledge of this debt, and that it was "Statue Barred"

They replied stating it's not "Statue Barred" as a CCJ was issued at the time (1997), they even included a sort code and a/c number for me to pay into, stating they will accept weekly / monthly payments.

I wrote to them again today, informing them I will not deal with them any further without them taking leave of the court.

BAILIFFCHASER

If they are chasing a ccj which is over 6 years old they must ask a court permission. Which in turn will cost them more.

Vagabond_UK

In my case, they're not chasing a CCJ. Nor is the debt statute-barred as I foolishly reset the clock when I was less clued-up by giving them a few quid.

However, they stopped taking payments for a couple of months and when they tried to resume, the 'creditor' had changed from TSB to FV-1. I had received no notification of any such change and have received no Deed Of Assignment detailing the change, hence why I have challenged it.

10past6

Vagabond_UK wrote: »

I had received no notification of any such change and have received no Deed Of Assignment detailing the change, hence why I have challenged it.

OK, I would follow through with your complaint.

From the correspondence I've received from them, the wording on their letters seems all they are interested in is getting money out of us.

Vagabond_UK

I intend to, hence the letter I have drawn up.

I'm hoping someone with some experience of tackling DCAs (I have some, but I'm no lawyer) can cast an eye over it to make sure what I've written makes sense and will reinforce my complaint, while not leaving me open to counter-claims.

fermi

Looks OK to me.

I recognise large portions of the letter from here and elsewhere.

10past6

BAILIFFCHASER wrote: »

If they are chasing a ccj which is over 6 years old they must ask a court permission. Which in turn will cost them more.

Thank you baliff, they are having difficulty understanding that.

Vagabond_UK

fermi wrote: »

Looks OK to me.

I recognise large portions of the letter from here and elsewhere.

Thanks.

I've cobbled it together from snippets found here and on other forums, and added in little bits myself here and there

Letter is on its way today, so I'll let you all know what they say.

stapeley

This process is a long one , the companies seem to do as they like , but stay firm . There is a very good thread on CAG SITE that guides you through the court process . Doubt it would go that far but be prepared . Good luck .

BAILIFFCHASER

stapeley wrote: »

This process is a long one , the companies seem to do as they like , but stay firm . There is a very good thread on CAG SITE that guides you through the court process . Doubt it would go that far but be prepared . Good luck .

It isnt that bad once you get the hang of it !! lol!!