Lowell

bluecoxy

Hello Again,

I have lowell chasing me for a debt which for sure is NOT over 6 years old.

So i sent a request for the original CCA from them with the template letter which i got from this site,then posted it on the 15/06/08 with the £1 postal order.
I recived a reply a week later saying that they were going to get in contact with Capital one for it.They said that it may not be possible to get it in the time frame of 12days.

I have recived a letter today(13/36/08)saying that they have not got it yet and need more time.

Then at the bottom of it it says they are willing to accept a reduced payment to clear the debt.

What should my next move be.

Any help would be greatly recived.

GeorgeUK

Not too sure about your dates - is that supposed to be 15/05/08?
They have a LEGAL duty to provide the CCA within the time frame. There are other letters you can send, but the debt is now unenforcable without court intervention and you are not required to make any payments towards the debt.

Keep following the process and inform them that the 12 day time limit has expired. If they are still pursuing the debt in 30 days they will have committed a criminal offence. There are 2 possible letters to send in this thread.
http://forums.moneysavingexpert.com/showthread.html?p=11570525#post11570525
(The 12+2 day letters)

for info:
http://forums.moneysavingexpert.com/showthread.html?t=578486

Nightranger

GeorgeUK wrote: »

Not too sure about your dates - is that supposed to be 15/05/08?
They have a LEGAL duty to provide the CCA within the time frame. There are other letters you can send, but the debt is now unenforcable without court intervention and you are not required to make any payments towards the debt.

I am having a bit of a quibble with the FOS over the CCA so can anyone tell me what the 31 days actually means? The FOS are trying to dodge the issue by saying it was not the fault of Lowell for not producing the CCA in the time frame because their request to Capital One (in this case) resulted in the latter not responding in time.

The other thing that I am unclear about is what is the determining factor that sets the clock for the debt being statute barred? The FOS have passed on statements that indicate when communication broke down between myself and Capital One* and that date has now passed beyond six years. However, CO have provided statements that show charges for a further five months that take the situation (just) within six years.

Note 1: if anyone has entered into a repayment agreement with Lowell before reading the advice on these forums, it is worth noting that there is a chance that some of the charges may relate to a PPI. As far as I can gather, this can be reclaimed and may help when negotiating a compromise with Lowell.

Note 2: the statements passed on by the FOS do not tally with the figure claimed by Lowell although this does not surprise me because Lowell seem to issue demands based on erroneous claims about court hearings that have not actually taken place. Nevertheless, it is important that all figures you get to see agree with each other, as has been related elsewhere do not enter into a repayment agreement with Lowell unless you are absolutely sure you are at fault and the debt is genuine.

* It was over the failure of CO to acknowledge a change of address. I emailed initially and this was acknowledged but I was told to put this in writing. I am not sure what happened next but CO claim they never received a letter. I am not sure what a consumer can do when the company fail to sort out a communication issue by the recommended route.

GeorgeUK

You request the CCA
12(+2) working days later the debt cannot be enforced without a court order
30 days after this, they have committed a criminal offence.

Lowell have a legal obligation that has nothing to do with Capital One. It's like saying you didn't turn up to court because your neighbour wouldn't give you a lift.

The debt becomes statute barred 6 years after the date the last payment was made unless YOU have WRITTEN acknowledging the debt.

There are templates available for sending a statute barred letter, but you may be better starting a new thread if you have any further queries.

rog2

I agree totally with George. In plain terms, if Lowell can not supply you with a true copy of the original cca, then they can not legally enforce the debt.
Their reference to going back to Capital 1 is totally irrelevant - it does not matter if they were the original lender or not, as soon as they started chasing you for payment they placed themselves subject to the terms of the Consumer Credit Act, 1974.

No cca equals no 'enforceable debt'.

Nightranger

rog2 wrote: »

I agree totally with George. In plain terms, if Lowell can not supply you with a true copy of the original cca, then they can not legally enforce the debt.
Their reference to going back to Capital 1 is totally irrelevant - it does not matter if they were the original lender or not, as soon as they started chasing you for payment they placed themselves subject to the terms of the Consumer Credit Act, 1974.

No cca equals no 'enforceable debt'.

Thanks to rog2 and George. The CCA did turn up eventually but something like seven months after I requested it. The FOS seemed unconcerned that a criminal offence had been committed which, is slightly baffling for a government appointed agency. In fact, I discovered later that it is probably better to go to the FSA for this kind of thing.

As per some great advice on this site, I never acknowledged the debt and in fact Lowell have never been able to justify the various figures they came up with. This was another thing that the FOS failed to acknowledge and their statement was 'they had no reason to believe the figure to not be true'. This of course, works both ways because they did not have reason to believe the figure to be true either. Anyway, it is probably worth a bit of caution if you go to the FOS with this kind of complaint, as they may not support your rights the way you expect.

Cleosmum

bluecoxy wrote: »

Hello Again,

I have lowell chasing me for a debt which for sure is NOT over 6 years old.

So i sent a request for the original CCA from them with the template letter which i got from this site,then posted it on the 15/06/08 with the £1 postal order.
I recived a reply a week later saying that they were going to get in contact with Capital one for it.They said that it may not be possible to get it in the time frame of 12days.

I have recived a letter today(13/36/08)saying that they have not got it yet and need more time.

Then at the bottom of it it says they are willing to accept a reduced payment to clear the debt.

What should my next move be.

Any help would be greatly recived.

Hi
I have just been through this on my brothers behalf. He had a letter from Lowell saying that he owed capital one over £500 yet he has never had a credit card with anyone. We sent the CCA request off and a few days later we recieved the same letter as you, explaining that they had requested it from cap one, but that it may not be available. At the bottom it said that we could make a reduced payment to clear the debt. We ignored this letter and about a week later we recieved a letter from Lowell to say that cap one did not have an original CCA and that they would be closing the file :T

So, my advice is to wait it out, I bet you soon recieve the same news. Its possible someone else could chase it in the future, and you just need to go over the whole process again, after Lowell admitting there is no CCA it will just be a sit and wait for the same outcome.

Be prepared for other letters from Lowell, my brother had another letter 2 days later chasing another "debt" in his name, I really do wonder who sits and makes these things up :rolleyes: