Stalemate - Voluntary Termination - Collection Agency won't proceed to court

[Deakus]

All,

I am posting this as a new thread although it stems from an old one regarding excess mileage with Ford Finance who then passed the alleged debt to Link Finance.

http://legalbeagles.info/forums/foru...ollector/page2

I now find myself in a strange position. I have disputed the debt, been round the houses with Ford, it has been passed to Link Financial to collect the debt and they periodically send me a text asking me to call them (every 2 or 3 months).

I ring Link and they ask me to set up a payment plan. I decline and ask them to look at the file and state that I do not believe the debt exists and I am waiting for them to move the process onwards.

Every time I call they tell me a manager will call me, claim they have called me (they haven't they have my correct phone number, email address and home address) and then nothing happens for a couple of months. It feels like it is being put to the bottom of the pile and then periodically coming round for review at their end.

I would happily leave this for 6yrs and let it lapse however I am now emigrating to Australia in November and am worried that proceedings will be started once I have moved, despite it being over 2yrs since the car was returned. I have repeatedly asked them to escalate this within their management and get back to me, they don't.

What can I do. I do not believe the money is owed, I don't want to settle (unless they want to write the debt off) and would happy to go to court and fight my corner but I am now up against a time limit of my own.

Can I write to them giving them notice to start proceedings or in someway prepare the groundwork if they do proceed once I have moved?
Are credit files international?
Do I have grounds for a complaint?
Who should I be contacting Ford or Link Financial?

Any guidance would be much appreciated.

[R0b]

Hi Deakus,

Sorry I will try to respond today or tomorrow I am just a little busy at the moment.

[NedUk]

HI Deakus

Has the dept with them affected your credit rating?

Thanks

[R0b]

Morning Deakus,

The first thing you need to identify is whether Link Financial are acting on behalf of Ford or if Ford have in fact sold the alleged debt to Link Financial. If I recall form past Ford issues posted on here, Ford tend to sell the debt on to Link Financial rather than instruct them on their behalf to collect the supposed debt.

However, you should never make the assumption that this is the case unless you have evidence to show that is what has happened. So in the first instance I would suggest you ask Link Financial in what capacity are they acting i.e. have they purchased the debt or are they acting as debt collector.

Once you have established that, I think at this stage it might not be wise to inform them that are emigrating to Australia until you have actually moved i.e. a day or two later and in the meantime, you should explain to Link Financial that all correspondence should be strictly made via email and give them your email address. You should also point out that if Link Financial attempts to contact by any other means then you will consider that to be harassment and you reserve the right to bring an action against Link Financial in respect of that as well as a letter to the Financial Conduct Authority regarding their actions.

Unfortunately I think you will have to appreciate Link Financial are not going to simply write off a debt if they have purchased it so you are better off just ignoring them or refusing to enter into any further correspondence unless it is in connection with any legal proceedings.

You should put this all in the form of a complaint to Link Financial which means if they have purchased the alleged debt then they have an obligation under the FCA rules that they should cease the pursuit of the debt until the complaints procedure has been exhausted. That way you can make sure they acknowledge your request to put all correspondence in writing and if they don't you will have a valid complaint to the Financial Ombudsman and seek a small amount of compensation.

If Link Financial are simply the debt collector then it will all need to be addressed to Ford instead and you would need to let Ford know you are no longer residing in the UK so all future correspondence should be by email.

Once Link / Ford are on notice that you are no longer resident in the UK, they have to apply to the Court for permission to serve any claim form outside England and Wales. If they attempted to try and get through the back door by issuing a claim to your old address then you would more than likely have no obstruction in getting any CCJ set aside along with any costs incurred as a result.

Of course you are free to go about this in an entirely different way but always remember, any correspondence you do send may end up in front of a Judge.

[Deakus]

HI Deakus

Has the dept with them affected your credit rating?

Thanks

Thanks Rob, I was away for a couple of days. No not as far as I can tell, they have not marked my credit file with any kind of default. I have looked on my credit file on clearscore and it is showing me as having no defaults, missed payments, CCJs or outstanding loans (apart from credit cards and bank accounts).