Debt litigation question

kissmeimposh

A nice lady neighbour down the road is facing turmoil from an odd situation and asked for help but I didn't know exactly what to suggest. Can any fellow money-savers help with this?

A few years ago she did business with a certain service company, which toward the end of their relationship became confused in their billing and adminsitration (ie, sending bills to the wrong address, confusing invoice names, etc). Eventually she stopped using this company altogether and didn't hear from them in a long time. After a long time passed, suddenly she started getting letters from a solicitor claiming a particular amount is still owed to this service company; but there was no indication of how they came up with this amount, or the perioid which it is presumed to relate to, or any other details at all. Sometimes the letters state that unless payment is made within x number of days, court action will be taken but always that latest 'x' day is either just a day or two after the letter arrives, or even in some cases has lapsed altogether by the time the letter arrives. My friend doesn't remember owing the amount, and in fact at first suspected possible fraud as the letters seem so unprofessional and hostile in the payment demands and always are worded with very poor grammar and spelling. Another neighbour has confirmed that apparently it is a genuine solicitor (despite their lacking proper English language skills). The amount claimed is a few hundred pounds but my friend no longer has documents or invoices related to this company and is afraid of being harassed by the solicitor if she contacts them to query the fees or clarify any details of their allegation. Questions:

a) Is the solicitor likely to actually take her to court?

b) Does the solicitor need to give a minimum time for response, with each such payment demand letter?

c) Can the solicitor rely in any court claim on havign made such vague demands as only indicating an alleged total amount due, without any detail regarding itemization of time or invoices related to the alleged amount?

d) What should she do?

RAS

Hiya

We need to know how old this debt is?

The tactics seem typical of the sort of DCA that buys debts that are statute barred and then tries to panic the debtor into paying even though they do not have to.

To explain, if someone owes money but the creditor does not pursue them for it, the law states that after 6 years when no payments have been made nor has the debtor acknowleged the debt in writing, the creditor and anyone else buying the debt loses the right to take the debtor to court or record any default on their credit record.

The debt still exists and the creditor can ask for it to be paid, but if the debtor refuses to pay, then the creditor must stop pursuing the debt. Of course, some of the less scruplous creditors are a bit lax when it comes to this bit, but it it the law.

brightonman123

the letter shoulld show who the creditor is- look that up, and contact them direct- asking for proof of debt etc. may also be worth pointing out their sol is no good..

then again, maybe not- they could get a proper one instead!

RAS

if she decides to write to them, she needs to get advice from here as to the content, so that she does not inadvertantly make herself liable for a debt that is about to become statute barred.

kissmeimposh

Many thanks to all of you for your replies and efforts to help a genuinely confused and nice lady. Regarding how old the debt is, clearly she cannot know precisely becuse the solicitor has not stated any information but she had a relationship with the named company approximately 2-4 years ago, but certainly did not even deal with them six years ago so it wouldn't be statue barred. By the time she stopped dealing with the company their accounts admminstration and efficiency were so skewed and frustrating that she couldn't bear to continue dealing with them and so she has no confidence that if she speaks to them now they will give any reliable information or be able to not complicate and muck things up even further.

She really wants to know if it is likely that for a few hundred poudns they would take her to court for an amount that they have not bothered to explain or justify in any way, in the solicitors' correspondence.

RAS

The answer to that is that sometime "solicitors" take people to court for very small amounts and other times they seem to ignore £thousands.

Is this debt showing up on her credit record?

If they do take her to court, then they have to prove that she actually owes the money, and her defence would be that she has no confidence in any of their accounting for the debt.

At that point she should demand full disclosure and get advice from CLA or CAB as to whether there is any real debt or it is just an accounting error.

She could do a full SAR now, which might get some one at that end to sort out the account. Is this service one that has an Ombudsman?

kissmeimposh

Thanks RAS! You're clearly one of the good guys.
It is a commerical company and not one that is covered by any ombudsman.

I don't think it could possibly show up on the credit record as the solicitors letters say that in the abscence of a response (which, remember, they don't give much opportunity to respond in time, if at all) they will instruct court to issue a claim form, and then if no response is recieved they will proceed to enter a Judgement which will affect credit status. So apparently until a Judgement the credit record cannot be affected.

But can they insturct a court to issue a claim form with only an alleged total, and no disclosure (either on insturction the court or in previous correspondence to the alleged debtor) of any details of the alleged debt other than a total amount that they state without explaining how they came up with that figure or the exact period/s of time when that amount is presumed to have become due?

In the schoolyard this would be very similar to bullying.

Runnybabbit

Hi kissmeimposh - What a great user ID.
Can we be naughty and ask who the DCA's/Solicitors are as it sounds like a certain company we might all know. Unfortunately, there are certain 'companies' and I use the term lightly, out there who are ready to prey and resort to any underhand and illegal practices that they see fit to use.

10past6

kissmeimposh wrote: »

suddenly she started getting letters from a solicitor claiming a particular amount is still owed, in fact at first suspected possible fraud as the letters seem so unprofessional and hostile in the payment demands and always are worded with very poor grammar and spelling.

If you believe the letters are bogus, click here, contact them on Monday, they will confirm if the soilcitor is registered.

kissmeimposh

Runnybabbit wrote: »

Hi kissmeimposh - What a great user ID.
Can we be naughty and ask who the DCA's/Solicitors are as it sounds like a certain company we might all know. Unfortunately, there are certain 'companies' and I use the term lightly, out there who are ready to prey and resort to any underhand and illegal practices that they see fit to use.

Hi Rabbit,
I'm just trying to be helpful to a nice and quite helpless person, so am not at liberty to disclose the name of anyone in her dispute. The letter-writer does seem to be regulated by the Solicitors Regulation Authority but at this point although they seem to be making things very difficult, I don't see what can be grounds for a complaint against them. Do you?

kissmeimposh

10past6 wrote: »

If you believe the letters are bogus, click here, contact them on Monday, they will confirm if the soilcitor is registered.

Thanks for that link, but the site says "We can't deal with your complaint if it is about the service provided by someone else's solicitor". Obviously the letter-writer is representing someone else.

The lady on the recieving end of the letters feels too intimidated to phone them and is certain that the resulting distress in a discussion with them will be too overwhelming, as it is unlikely they will have any further clear or accurate information about her account as presumably they would have already elaborated instead of merely saying basically 'you still owe us xxx , so talk to us by (tomorrow's or a past) date or we're going to court'.

Can they really go through with a claim based on just a stated amount due, without any further explanation? And if they do at court provide further details of the alleged debt would it be possible to then tell the court that the claim form is the first time they ever specified the background and thus time is required to check on the details they only then specified?