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Hello Amethyst
I have been corresponding with a debt collector who is acting in capaciity of a debt purchaser and who has not provided any valid proof of claim for an alleged debt that was sold by the original creditor to the debt purchaser.
It has been requested on no less than 10 occasions for the debt collector to provide valid proof of claim and to show that a valid contract or agreement exists between the debt purchaser and the alleged debtor.
The debt purchaser has been served with a Notice of Conditional Offer of Acceptance upon Validation of Claim, Notice of Default and a Sworn Affidavit along with a Notice of Claim, and they have failed to acknowledge, correspond and deny/rebut any of the information/questions that have been asked of them.
I have asked the following questions:
To date, the Debt Collector failed to answer any of the above questions and only mentioned in their Final Response that the original agreement was not novated and they are advising that they have satisfactorily answered all of my points... .
Below is the Final Response, which I don't think holds any substance:
__________________________________________________ _______________
Account number XXXXXXX
I have now completed an objective investigation into your complaint which was received via the Financial Ombudsman Service and subsequent letters; I outline my findings and the outcome below.
Your complaint
As I understand it, you requested proof regarding the alleged debt on the XX August 2021 and advise that we have not provided this to you. In addition, you believe that we have registered a new default on your credit file.
My findings
For clarification purposes, this debt is in relation to Original Creditor ID "redacted" that was assigned to Debt Purchaser (“Debt Purchaser”) on the XX April 2021 (wrong date) with a total outstanding balance of £X,XXX.XX. Debt Purchaser subsequently appointed Debt Collector as Master Servicer on their behalf.
On reviewing your account, I can see that a Notice of Assignment was emailed to "email redacted" on the XX June 2021, this being the contact email address provided to us by Original Creditor. This email provided you with details of the assignment and asked that you contacted our offices to discuss the account going forward. We tried to contact you by email, telephone, letter and SMS text between the 2 July 2021 and 9 August 2021.
An email was received from "email redacted" on the XX August 2021 which stated “I am writing in response to a letter from you.
If you have reason to believe that a valid debt exists and that the debtor resides at the address, then prove the debt in writing.” A further email was received from the same email address on the XX August 2021, this email contained a copy of the email you had sent on the XX August 2021. I take this opportunity to advise that we are not able to respond to emails straight away, however we do aim to respond within seven working days.
An email was sent to this email address on the XX August 2021, where we requested you to confirm Data Protection; this was due to the email being sent from an unauthorised source. You responded to this email the same day, this stated “Refer to my previous email.”
I can see that between the XX August and XX September 2021 six emails were received from the same unauthorised email address, four emails were sent requesting that data protection was passed in order to provide the information you had requested and to investigate a complaint you had raised, however you stated that you were not “obliged to provide you with details”. Therefore, your complaint was closed, and this information was not provided.
On the XX September 2021 (false, actually October) an email was received from "email redacted", this stated that you had been requesting proof of the alleged debt and we had failed to provide this to you. We responded to this email on the XX September 2021 (false, actually October) to advise that we had requested a copy of the original document from Original Creditor and that we had placed your account on hold to allow time to receive this.
During the hold period, I can see that two Regulatory Notices were sent to you on the XX December 2021 and X January 2022, these being an Annual Statement and a Subsequent Notice of Sums in Arrears. Debt Purchaser is required to send regulatory notices and statements to you periodically as prescribed by the CCA. (Probably true if they were regulated by the Financial Conduct Authority, but they are not!!)
An email was received from you on XX January 2022 in response to receiving the Notice of Sums in Arrears and advised that you were awaiting a copy of the proof of claim. We responded to this email on the XX January 2022 advising that we were still awaiting a copy of the documents and would forward these to you. (False, they sent a similar email stating they would contact the original lender and forward on documents once received, very deceiving of them)
On the XX January 2022 an email was received from the Financial Ombudsman Service raising this complaint.
Original Creditor first registered a default on the 19 November 2021 (false, actually December 2018, as confirmed by Original Creditor in writing). For us to start to report to Credit Bureaus we had to agree to the Principals of Reciprocity and have an obligation to report information correctly. When the debt is purchased the responsibility for recording accurate information on credit files becomes that of the new legal owner. Debt Purchaser are reporting a continuation of this default. (A Default that was actually Satisfied/Settled in April 2021...)
Several letters have also been received from you since raising this complaint. To address these letters please see below:
We would not send a Deed of Novation as your account with Original Creditor was not novated but assigned to Debt Purchaser. Assignment relates to when a party transfers its contractual title, rights and benefits to a third party. This means the third party (Debt Collector) can enforce the agreement just as the original party Original Creditor would have been able to do.
Your Credit Agreement is a reconstituted copy of the Credit Agreement in accordance with the Financial Conduct Authority CONC 13.14, which states that, ‘The copy of the executed agreement should be a 'true copy' of the original. There is no obligation to provide a copy which includes a copy of the signature’. That said, we have attached a copy of the credit agreement which contains a signature. (Original agreement contains a DocuSign signature, not bona fide signature and agreement is undated and terminated)
Debt Purchaser are a Company registered in England & Wales with both Companies House and Information Commissioner’s Office (ICO). Debt Collector are registered with both and are regulated by the Financial Conduct Authority (FCA), Debt Collector have been appointed as master servicer of the account.
Outcome
Based on the above information which has been put together following our objective investigation, we are not upholding your complaint (surprise, surprise). I appreciate that this may not be the response that you were hoping for, however, we hope you can see that we have taken this matter seriously (doubt it very much) and had you confirmed your identification by passing through data protection, this situation could have been avoided. (False, Debt Collector still didn't provide anything until 21st March 2022 despite receiving an email from an authorised email address in October 2021, which was the undated and terminated credit agreement from the Original Creditor, along with a few letters)
As previously advised, to protect your personal data we do ask for data protection to be passed when being information is requested from an unauthorised and unconfirmed email address. Please see our privacy policy, for further details on how we use your data.
We have now received the documents from Original Creditor and have attached these to this email, please note these are password protected using your "redacted" in the format "redacted". The agreement is in your name, using your email address, home address and signature. (Not my home address or signature, I do own the property though but hence why the original court case was dismissed, as Juristiction could not be established)
Original Creditor has also advised that regarding payments, “we have received the following payments from the customer
12/2017 - £XXX.16
01/2018 - £XXX.16
02/2018 - £XXX.16
03/2018 - £XXX.16
04/2018 - £XXX.16
05/2018 - £XXX.16
06/2018 - £XXX.16
07/2018 - £XXX.16
08/2018 - £XXX.16
We have received no further payments on the agreement since.”
Please note, this is our final response. If you are dissatisfied with it, you may refer your complaint to the Financial Ombudsman Service. You need to do this within six months from the date of this letter, we will not accept a Financial Ombudsman Service complaint about this matter if received after this time. I have attached a copy of the Financial Ombudsman Complaint leaflet for your information, further information can be found by visiting https://www.financial-ombudsman.org.uk/.
Debt Collector is also a member of the Credit Services Association (CSA) and we subscribe to their Code of Practice. If you believe we have breached this code at any point, you can contact them to log your concerns. A copy of the code, including details of how you may refer your complaint to the CSA, is available on their website www.csa-uk.com. (No chance of complaing to CSA, the Director of the Debt Purchaser is on the Board of Members for the Credit Services Association - conflict of interest!!)
Next Steps Your account will remain on hold now for a further 7 days from today’s date to allow you time to consider our response. We would encourage that you please get in contact with us so that we can fully understand your situation and come to an amicable arrangement to commencement repayment of this outstanding balance or an understanding of when payment will commence.
Regards
Mrs Scumbag
Customer Experience Officer (laughable!!)
__________________________________________________ _______________
My reply to their Final Response was:
__________________________________________________ _______________
Hello
This email is in response to your Final Response Email, dated 21 March 2022, received same date. The contents of which have been noted.
To date, your company Debt Collector failed to provide requested information and has continued to fail to respond to issues and questions that were highlighted, that you confirmed would be answered upon sending valid proof of claim. Your response is insufficient and does not answer the valid points raised point for point.
Name of Director was served with legal Notices which have been confirmed as received by you and Royal Mail, these are not letters as you claim. and has failed in the duty as a Director to comply with these legal Notices.
In your email below, you have stated "Original Creditor first registered a default on the 19 November 2021.". The opportunity has arisen to remind you that as you are regulated by the Financial Conduct Authority, you are obliged to provide accurate, factual and non-misleading information and that you are required to respond in a timely manner. The information you have provided so far contradicts the actual default date, so please explain clearly why Original Creditor would have registered a default again five months after selling off personal details to Debt Purchaser and almost three years after an original date, and with Credit Reference Agencies that they previously didn't report to?
It is advised that it is your company who is obliged to abide by the relevant Data Protection Act and/or General Data Protection Regulations in relation to requests and that you were requested on several occasions to provide valid proof of claim to be sent in writing using the national postal service. It is not a requirement of any alleged debtor to comply with your requests, as your company has no legal authority or status. The requests to your company were quite clear from the outset.
As it be the case that:
As a further reminder, you MUST comply with:
As Debt Collector is not legal owner, your company has no legal rights to this element either, as your company did not directly contract with Original Creditor, therefore extinguishes any claims made by Debt Collector.
As a further reminder of your obligations, that you are prohibited from continuing the debt collection process whilst your account is on hold and this includes asking a "customer" to contact you to discuss payment options, you are well aware of this fact and this point is noted.
If you fail to respond to this email or fail to respond rebutting or denying any of the information without clear justification and/or an explanation or providing valid proof of claim, then there will be no hesitation in continuing to report your failures to comply to the Financial Ombudsman Service and an immediate report of your company's conduct and manner to the Financial Conduct Authority, to add to the list of other complaints received about your company.
In your email, you have stated "Debt Purchaser is required to send regulatory notices and statements to you periodically as prescribed by the CCA", but as Debt Purchaser is not regulated or authorised by the Financial Conduct Authority, has no permission or authority to send notices under the Consumer Credit Act 1974 and as there is no valid contract or agreement, which has been confirmed, then those emails are defective and cannot be relied upon.
Also in your email dated 21 March 2022, you state "An email was received from you on XX January 2022 in response to receiving the Notice of Sums in Arrears and advised that you were awaiting a copy of the proof of claim. We responded to this email on the XX January 2022 advising that we were still awaiting a copy of the documents and would forward these to you", this appears to be false and what your email did state is "We are currently requesting the original documents from Original Creditor. Once these documents have been received, we can forward them onto yourself and address your previous email.", which as you can see is not the same and is virtually the same response as the email you sent on XX October 2021, not September as you claim, stating "We are currently requesting the original documents from Original Creditor. Once these documents have been received, we can forward them onto yourself and address your previous email.", so, this shows that you did not request the documentation originally as it would not take over seven months to retrieve any electronic documents and highlights your failure to comply within a timely manner for a simple request for valid proof of claim and would constitute as a breach under CONC, which has been noted.
You have been advised of a conditional offer of acceptance upon validation of claim, which was on the condition that the following documentation was received from you to confirm that an alleged debt is owed to Debt Purchaser. ALL documentation would be required to be presented in SUBSTANCE and with FULL DISCLOSURE:
(a) validation of the alleged debt owed with FULL accounting;
(b) a copy of the relevant and lawful Terms and Conditions;
(c) a true and certified copy (NOT photocopy) of the Executed Deed of Assignment (NOT Notice of Assignment);
(d) DEED OF NOVATION: My wet signature on any agreement with your company;
(e) verification of your claim against Alleged Debtor (a sworn affidavit or a signed invoice);
(f) evidence that permission was given to pass the alleged debt to your company;
(g) the signed or agreed contract or agreement between Debt Purchaser and/or Debt Collector and Alleged Debtor.
Please note, that if you attempt to escalate your account to court, bearing in mind that this has been dismissed previously, this will be rigorously defended and all of the above information will be requested to be cross-examined, there will be no company confidentiality, which will highlight how much Debt Purchaser paid Original Creditor for this alleged debt.
You are further reminded that under the regulations the Financial Conduct Authority prohibits Debt Collection Agency's from enforcing, or seeking to enforce a terminated credit agreement. All credit agreements become terminated upon sale. Once again, termination has been confirmed.
No contract or agreement has ever been entered into with Debt Purchaser and/or Debt Collector, and therefore neither of these companies has sustained any financial loss at the failure of obligations of an alleged debtor by way of contract or regulated consumer credit agreement, as neither exist. If you believe that a valid credit agreement exists between Debt Purchaser and/or Debt Collector and Alleged Debtor, please provide a copy of this along with the relevant terms and conditions containing a valid signature and date with a full detailed explanation and confirmation of the service, provision, product, facility or any other detail that was supplied by Debt Purchaser and confirmation that any relevant terms and conditions were agreed. If no evidence is forthcoming and you claim there is a valid credit agreement, then under the Consumer Credit Act 1974, Section 140 would apply, as you have created an unfair relationship, by your unsubstantiated claims in order to gain an unjustified enrichment.
Please also note that any further invalid claims without documentary evidence in substance against Alleged Debtor and/or attempting to contact Alleged Debtor will constitute Harassment under Section 1 of the Protection from Harassment Act 1997 and Section 40 of the Administration of Justice Act 1970, and against Financial Conduct Authority guidelines, which may result in litigation for compensation for the anxiety, stress and any financial loss caused.
As the above information supplied to you is factually correct and that you have failed to rebut or disagree with any of the legal Notices or Sworn Affidavit, then it would be the case that there is no liability, and as your company has acted in a manner which could have induced a person into contract when your company is knowingly, willingly and wilfully by act or omission, attempting to put a person at substantial financial loss, that therefore brings to the forefront a clear case of Negligent Misrepresentation.
You are required under regulated licence, to provide accurate, factual and non-misleading information with regards to valid regulated consumer credit agreements and debt collection, and that if any false or misleading information is received, then the right is reserved to take further action against your company and that there is the belief that your company Debt Collector has failed to act appropriately.
Therefore, as your company has failed to provide any valid proof of claim, taking into account the points above and elements listed throughout this email pointing out the matter of fact, it would no doubt confirm that there is no liability and, there will be no longer any reason to deal with your false and misleading correspondence and it may be the case that the pursuing of litigation against your company, due to the overwhelming evidence, would be the best course of remedy to conclude this matter.
You have also been offered a Civil Procedure Rules Part 36 Offer and it is advised that you can have a further fourteen (14) days from the date of this email to close the account and settle in full and final to the sum of £0,000..00 made out by cheque to Alleged Debtor and sent to the address you have on file and this matter can be brought to equitable agreement, thus avoiding wasting any further time, your time and any potential valuable court time.
Your final closure of account letter and cheque is awaited within fourteen (14) days of the date of this email, along with confirmation that the false reporting of a non-existent default by Debt Purchaser has been or will be removed from the relevant Credit Reference Agencies.
Name of Alleged Debtor
__________________________________________________ ____________
Hopefully, someone might be able to advise further on this whether it is Scotland or England.
This style of approach has been successful with three other debt colllectors, but this particular one appears to think they have some sort of right.
The previous court case was eventually dismissed as the original creditor couldn't determine Juristiction of the Alleged Debtor...oh well!
Thank you.
I have been corresponding with a debt collector who is acting in capaciity of a debt purchaser and who has not provided any valid proof of claim for an alleged debt that was sold by the original creditor to the debt purchaser.
It has been requested on no less than 10 occasions for the debt collector to provide valid proof of claim and to show that a valid contract or agreement exists between the debt purchaser and the alleged debtor.
The debt purchaser has been served with a Notice of Conditional Offer of Acceptance upon Validation of Claim, Notice of Default and a Sworn Affidavit along with a Notice of Claim, and they have failed to acknowledge, correspond and deny/rebut any of the information/questions that have been asked of them.
I have asked the following questions:
- Can you show evidence of a valid claim by production of the full accounting with Debt Purchaser?
- Can you show a copy of the full lawful terms and conditions I agreed to with Debt Purchaser?
- Can you send me a true and certified copy (not a photocopy) of the “Deed of Assignment” (not Notice of Assignment)?
- Do you have the Deed of Novation containing my wet signature on a tri-lateral agreement between Original Creditor - Alleged Debtor - Debt Purchaser?
- Can you produce a true and certified copy (not photocopy) of the original credit agreement and confirm that this is NOT terminated?
- Is there any evidence under full disclosure I gave permission to pass the alleged debt to you or your company?
- Is there a signed contract with equitable consideration between you, or your company and myself?
- Do you have verification of your claim against me in the form of a sworn affidavit or a signed invoice?
- Regarding this alleged account, what is the name and address of the alleged Debt Collector, if different from Original Creditor?
- Did debt collector purchase this alleged account from a previous debt collector?
If applicable, date of purchase of this alleged account from previous debt collector, and purchase amount:
Date:_________________________ Amount: £_________________________ - What and where are the terms of the transfer of rights regarding this alleged account? Did this include my knowledge and agreement?
If applicable, transfer of rights regarding this alleged account was executed by the following method:
(a) Assignment; (b) Negotiation; (c) Novation; (d) Other – explain:______________________________ - Does there exist a verifiable, bona fide, original commercial instrument between Debt Collector
and Alleged Debtor containing Alleged Debtor'’s bona fide signature? - Does any evidence exist of verifiable external Act(s) giving the objective semblance of agreement between Debt Collector and Alleged Debtor?
- Have any judgements been obtained by any creditor or debt collector regarding this alleged account?
- At the time the alleged original contract was executed, were all parties apprised of the meaning of the terms and conditions of said alleged original contract?
- At the time the alleged original contract was executed, were all parties advised of the importance of consulting a licensed legal professional before executing the alleged contract?
- At the time the alleged original contract was executed, were all parties apprised that said alleged contract was a private credit instrument?
- Is it true that Debt Purchaser does NOT hold or ever held a Financial Conduct Authority licence?
- Is it true that Original Creditor has NOT directly contracted with Debt Collector in relation to the purchase of the alleged debt?
- Would it be the case that any alleged debt be deemed as Satisfied/Settled and marked as such on any alleged Debtor Credit Report with Credit Reference Agencies?
- Does any Executed Deed of Assignment contain the actual purchase amount between Debt Purchaser and Original Creditor?
- As Debt Collector is authorised by a Financial Conduct Authority licence, have they complied with all aspects of CONC?
If applicable, if cross-examined, can show in all documentation that relevant legislation has been complied with? - As Debt Collector s NOT legal owner of the alleged debt. Will they be able to demonstrate that under applicable legislation/laws, Debt Purchaser has permission to enforce a non-FCA authorised firms alleged debt and be able to exercise, or have the right to exercise the lender's rights and duties under a regulated credit agreement?
- Is it true that Name of Director has been served three (3) Notices and these have been received at the offices of Debt Purchaser?
(Notice 1 – Validation of Claim, dated xxxxxxx,
Notice 2 – Notice of Conditional Acceptance, upon Validation of Claim and Opportunity to Cure, dated xxxxxxx, and Notice 3 – Notice of Default, dated xxxxxxx) - Is it true that Debt Purchaser has purchased the alleged debt and that Original Creditor has NOT instructed your company to contact any alleged Debtor?
If not the case, then please supply the relevant evidence from Original Creditor, confirming that Debt Purchaser is acting on behalf of and instructed by Original Creditor to enforce the alleged debt. - Would it be the case that if Debt Purchaser has purchased any alleged debt, then paying and signing for this alleged debt therefore transfers liability for any alleged debt onto the Debt Purchaser and not alleged Debtor?
Under the Bills of Exchange Act 1882, this point is made quite clear. - Is it true that under the Contracts (Rights of Third Parties) Act 1999, Debt Purchaser and Debt Collector has not been identified on any alleged original contract and therefore "The third party must be expressly identified in the contract by name”" and as such, no rights and duties are allowed?“
To date, the Debt Collector failed to answer any of the above questions and only mentioned in their Final Response that the original agreement was not novated and they are advising that they have satisfactorily answered all of my points... .
Below is the Final Response, which I don't think holds any substance:
__________________________________________________ _______________
Account number XXXXXXX
I have now completed an objective investigation into your complaint which was received via the Financial Ombudsman Service and subsequent letters; I outline my findings and the outcome below.
Your complaint
As I understand it, you requested proof regarding the alleged debt on the XX August 2021 and advise that we have not provided this to you. In addition, you believe that we have registered a new default on your credit file.
My findings
For clarification purposes, this debt is in relation to Original Creditor ID "redacted" that was assigned to Debt Purchaser (“Debt Purchaser”) on the XX April 2021 (wrong date) with a total outstanding balance of £X,XXX.XX. Debt Purchaser subsequently appointed Debt Collector as Master Servicer on their behalf.
On reviewing your account, I can see that a Notice of Assignment was emailed to "email redacted" on the XX June 2021, this being the contact email address provided to us by Original Creditor. This email provided you with details of the assignment and asked that you contacted our offices to discuss the account going forward. We tried to contact you by email, telephone, letter and SMS text between the 2 July 2021 and 9 August 2021.
An email was received from "email redacted" on the XX August 2021 which stated “I am writing in response to a letter from you.
If you have reason to believe that a valid debt exists and that the debtor resides at the address, then prove the debt in writing.” A further email was received from the same email address on the XX August 2021, this email contained a copy of the email you had sent on the XX August 2021. I take this opportunity to advise that we are not able to respond to emails straight away, however we do aim to respond within seven working days.
An email was sent to this email address on the XX August 2021, where we requested you to confirm Data Protection; this was due to the email being sent from an unauthorised source. You responded to this email the same day, this stated “Refer to my previous email.”
I can see that between the XX August and XX September 2021 six emails were received from the same unauthorised email address, four emails were sent requesting that data protection was passed in order to provide the information you had requested and to investigate a complaint you had raised, however you stated that you were not “obliged to provide you with details”. Therefore, your complaint was closed, and this information was not provided.
On the XX September 2021 (false, actually October) an email was received from "email redacted", this stated that you had been requesting proof of the alleged debt and we had failed to provide this to you. We responded to this email on the XX September 2021 (false, actually October) to advise that we had requested a copy of the original document from Original Creditor and that we had placed your account on hold to allow time to receive this.
During the hold period, I can see that two Regulatory Notices were sent to you on the XX December 2021 and X January 2022, these being an Annual Statement and a Subsequent Notice of Sums in Arrears. Debt Purchaser is required to send regulatory notices and statements to you periodically as prescribed by the CCA. (Probably true if they were regulated by the Financial Conduct Authority, but they are not!!)
An email was received from you on XX January 2022 in response to receiving the Notice of Sums in Arrears and advised that you were awaiting a copy of the proof of claim. We responded to this email on the XX January 2022 advising that we were still awaiting a copy of the documents and would forward these to you. (False, they sent a similar email stating they would contact the original lender and forward on documents once received, very deceiving of them)
On the XX January 2022 an email was received from the Financial Ombudsman Service raising this complaint.
Original Creditor first registered a default on the 19 November 2021 (false, actually December 2018, as confirmed by Original Creditor in writing). For us to start to report to Credit Bureaus we had to agree to the Principals of Reciprocity and have an obligation to report information correctly. When the debt is purchased the responsibility for recording accurate information on credit files becomes that of the new legal owner. Debt Purchaser are reporting a continuation of this default. (A Default that was actually Satisfied/Settled in April 2021...)
Several letters have also been received from you since raising this complaint. To address these letters please see below:
We would not send a Deed of Novation as your account with Original Creditor was not novated but assigned to Debt Purchaser. Assignment relates to when a party transfers its contractual title, rights and benefits to a third party. This means the third party (Debt Collector) can enforce the agreement just as the original party Original Creditor would have been able to do.
Your Credit Agreement is a reconstituted copy of the Credit Agreement in accordance with the Financial Conduct Authority CONC 13.14, which states that, ‘The copy of the executed agreement should be a 'true copy' of the original. There is no obligation to provide a copy which includes a copy of the signature’. That said, we have attached a copy of the credit agreement which contains a signature. (Original agreement contains a DocuSign signature, not bona fide signature and agreement is undated and terminated)
Debt Purchaser are a Company registered in England & Wales with both Companies House and Information Commissioner’s Office (ICO). Debt Collector are registered with both and are regulated by the Financial Conduct Authority (FCA), Debt Collector have been appointed as master servicer of the account.
Outcome
Based on the above information which has been put together following our objective investigation, we are not upholding your complaint (surprise, surprise). I appreciate that this may not be the response that you were hoping for, however, we hope you can see that we have taken this matter seriously (doubt it very much) and had you confirmed your identification by passing through data protection, this situation could have been avoided. (False, Debt Collector still didn't provide anything until 21st March 2022 despite receiving an email from an authorised email address in October 2021, which was the undated and terminated credit agreement from the Original Creditor, along with a few letters)
As previously advised, to protect your personal data we do ask for data protection to be passed when being information is requested from an unauthorised and unconfirmed email address. Please see our privacy policy, for further details on how we use your data.
We have now received the documents from Original Creditor and have attached these to this email, please note these are password protected using your "redacted" in the format "redacted". The agreement is in your name, using your email address, home address and signature. (Not my home address or signature, I do own the property though but hence why the original court case was dismissed, as Juristiction could not be established)
Original Creditor has also advised that regarding payments, “we have received the following payments from the customer
12/2017 - £XXX.16
01/2018 - £XXX.16
02/2018 - £XXX.16
03/2018 - £XXX.16
04/2018 - £XXX.16
05/2018 - £XXX.16
06/2018 - £XXX.16
07/2018 - £XXX.16
08/2018 - £XXX.16
We have received no further payments on the agreement since.”
Please note, this is our final response. If you are dissatisfied with it, you may refer your complaint to the Financial Ombudsman Service. You need to do this within six months from the date of this letter, we will not accept a Financial Ombudsman Service complaint about this matter if received after this time. I have attached a copy of the Financial Ombudsman Complaint leaflet for your information, further information can be found by visiting https://www.financial-ombudsman.org.uk/.
Debt Collector is also a member of the Credit Services Association (CSA) and we subscribe to their Code of Practice. If you believe we have breached this code at any point, you can contact them to log your concerns. A copy of the code, including details of how you may refer your complaint to the CSA, is available on their website www.csa-uk.com. (No chance of complaing to CSA, the Director of the Debt Purchaser is on the Board of Members for the Credit Services Association - conflict of interest!!)
Next Steps Your account will remain on hold now for a further 7 days from today’s date to allow you time to consider our response. We would encourage that you please get in contact with us so that we can fully understand your situation and come to an amicable arrangement to commencement repayment of this outstanding balance or an understanding of when payment will commence.
Regards
Mrs Scumbag
Customer Experience Officer (laughable!!)
__________________________________________________ _______________
My reply to their Final Response was:
__________________________________________________ _______________
Hello
This email is in response to your Final Response Email, dated 21 March 2022, received same date. The contents of which have been noted.
To date, your company Debt Collector failed to provide requested information and has continued to fail to respond to issues and questions that were highlighted, that you confirmed would be answered upon sending valid proof of claim. Your response is insufficient and does not answer the valid points raised point for point.
Name of Director was served with legal Notices which have been confirmed as received by you and Royal Mail, these are not letters as you claim. and has failed in the duty as a Director to comply with these legal Notices.
In your email below, you have stated "Original Creditor first registered a default on the 19 November 2021.". The opportunity has arisen to remind you that as you are regulated by the Financial Conduct Authority, you are obliged to provide accurate, factual and non-misleading information and that you are required to respond in a timely manner. The information you have provided so far contradicts the actual default date, so please explain clearly why Original Creditor would have registered a default again five months after selling off personal details to Debt Purchaser and almost three years after an original date, and with Credit Reference Agencies that they previously didn't report to?
It is advised that it is your company who is obliged to abide by the relevant Data Protection Act and/or General Data Protection Regulations in relation to requests and that you were requested on several occasions to provide valid proof of claim to be sent in writing using the national postal service. It is not a requirement of any alleged debtor to comply with your requests, as your company has no legal authority or status. The requests to your company were quite clear from the outset.
As it be the case that:
- you have failed to provide any valid proof of claim in substance and with full disclosure
- Name of Director has failed in the duty as a Director to comply with legal Notices,
- documentation supplied by you is defective,
- Debt Purchaser does NOT hold or ever held a valid Financial Conduct Authority licence to enforce regulated consumer credit agreements and as Debt Purchaser buys "debt" in bulk, there is no valid credit agreement,
- it is confirmed there is no valid contract or credit agreement between Debt Purchaser and/or Debt Collector and Alleged Debtor,
- a default with Original Creditor has in fact been satisfied with account closed, a zero (£0.00) balance and credit agreement terminated,
- the original credit agreement is undated, improperly signed and court case against Alleged Debtor dismissed in December 2019,
- Debt Purchaser does not have authority or permission to report to Credit Reference Agencies and including reporting false information,
- Debt Collector is NOT legal owner of any alleged debt and is prohibited from enforcing, or seeking to enforce a terminated credit agreement,
- Debt Collector has no rights to exercise lender's rights and duties under a terminated regulated credit agreement,
- Debt Collector is NOT licensed to hold client money and has other limitations on its licence,
- the (apparent) Notice of Assignment has been served incorrectly;
- you have failed to advise, as obliged to do so, under Financial Conduct Authority CONC 13.1.6(8) - whether any alleged debt is legally enforceable or unenforceable,
As a further reminder, you MUST comply with:
- CONC 7.5.3 - Pursuing and recovering repayments
"A firm must not ignore or disregard a customer's claim that a debt has been settled or is disputed and must not continue to make demands for payment without providing clear justification and/or evidence as to why the customer's claim is not valid." - CONC 7.11 - Disclosures relating to “authority” or “status”
7.11.1 - "When contacting customers, a firm must not misrepresent its authority or its legal position with regards to the debt or debt recovery process."
7.11.6 - "A firm must not suggest or state that action can or will be taken when legally it cannot be taken." - CONC 7.14 - Settlements, disputed and deadlocked debt
7.14.3 - "Where a customer disputes a debt on valid grounds or what may be valid grounds, the firm must investigate the dispute and provide details of the debt to the customer in a timely manner." - CONC 13.1.6 - Failure to comply
"(1) Failure to comply with the provisions means that the agreement becomes unenforceable while the failure to comply persists, and the courts have no discretion to allow enforcement."
"(2) In such cases, a firm should in no way, either by act or omission, mislead a customer as to the enforceability of the agreement."
"(3) In particular, a firm should not in such cases either threaten court action or other enforcement of the debt or imply that the debt is enforceable when it is not."
As Debt Collector is not legal owner, your company has no legal rights to this element either, as your company did not directly contract with Original Creditor, therefore extinguishes any claims made by Debt Collector.
As a further reminder of your obligations, that you are prohibited from continuing the debt collection process whilst your account is on hold and this includes asking a "customer" to contact you to discuss payment options, you are well aware of this fact and this point is noted.
If you fail to respond to this email or fail to respond rebutting or denying any of the information without clear justification and/or an explanation or providing valid proof of claim, then there will be no hesitation in continuing to report your failures to comply to the Financial Ombudsman Service and an immediate report of your company's conduct and manner to the Financial Conduct Authority, to add to the list of other complaints received about your company.
In your email, you have stated "Debt Purchaser is required to send regulatory notices and statements to you periodically as prescribed by the CCA", but as Debt Purchaser is not regulated or authorised by the Financial Conduct Authority, has no permission or authority to send notices under the Consumer Credit Act 1974 and as there is no valid contract or agreement, which has been confirmed, then those emails are defective and cannot be relied upon.
Also in your email dated 21 March 2022, you state "An email was received from you on XX January 2022 in response to receiving the Notice of Sums in Arrears and advised that you were awaiting a copy of the proof of claim. We responded to this email on the XX January 2022 advising that we were still awaiting a copy of the documents and would forward these to you", this appears to be false and what your email did state is "We are currently requesting the original documents from Original Creditor. Once these documents have been received, we can forward them onto yourself and address your previous email.", which as you can see is not the same and is virtually the same response as the email you sent on XX October 2021, not September as you claim, stating "We are currently requesting the original documents from Original Creditor. Once these documents have been received, we can forward them onto yourself and address your previous email.", so, this shows that you did not request the documentation originally as it would not take over seven months to retrieve any electronic documents and highlights your failure to comply within a timely manner for a simple request for valid proof of claim and would constitute as a breach under CONC, which has been noted.
You have been advised of a conditional offer of acceptance upon validation of claim, which was on the condition that the following documentation was received from you to confirm that an alleged debt is owed to Debt Purchaser. ALL documentation would be required to be presented in SUBSTANCE and with FULL DISCLOSURE:
(a) validation of the alleged debt owed with FULL accounting;
(b) a copy of the relevant and lawful Terms and Conditions;
(c) a true and certified copy (NOT photocopy) of the Executed Deed of Assignment (NOT Notice of Assignment);
(d) DEED OF NOVATION: My wet signature on any agreement with your company;
(e) verification of your claim against Alleged Debtor (a sworn affidavit or a signed invoice);
(f) evidence that permission was given to pass the alleged debt to your company;
(g) the signed or agreed contract or agreement between Debt Purchaser and/or Debt Collector and Alleged Debtor.
Please note, that if you attempt to escalate your account to court, bearing in mind that this has been dismissed previously, this will be rigorously defended and all of the above information will be requested to be cross-examined, there will be no company confidentiality, which will highlight how much Debt Purchaser paid Original Creditor for this alleged debt.
You are further reminded that under the regulations the Financial Conduct Authority prohibits Debt Collection Agency's from enforcing, or seeking to enforce a terminated credit agreement. All credit agreements become terminated upon sale. Once again, termination has been confirmed.
No contract or agreement has ever been entered into with Debt Purchaser and/or Debt Collector, and therefore neither of these companies has sustained any financial loss at the failure of obligations of an alleged debtor by way of contract or regulated consumer credit agreement, as neither exist. If you believe that a valid credit agreement exists between Debt Purchaser and/or Debt Collector and Alleged Debtor, please provide a copy of this along with the relevant terms and conditions containing a valid signature and date with a full detailed explanation and confirmation of the service, provision, product, facility or any other detail that was supplied by Debt Purchaser and confirmation that any relevant terms and conditions were agreed. If no evidence is forthcoming and you claim there is a valid credit agreement, then under the Consumer Credit Act 1974, Section 140 would apply, as you have created an unfair relationship, by your unsubstantiated claims in order to gain an unjustified enrichment.
Please also note that any further invalid claims without documentary evidence in substance against Alleged Debtor and/or attempting to contact Alleged Debtor will constitute Harassment under Section 1 of the Protection from Harassment Act 1997 and Section 40 of the Administration of Justice Act 1970, and against Financial Conduct Authority guidelines, which may result in litigation for compensation for the anxiety, stress and any financial loss caused.
As the above information supplied to you is factually correct and that you have failed to rebut or disagree with any of the legal Notices or Sworn Affidavit, then it would be the case that there is no liability, and as your company has acted in a manner which could have induced a person into contract when your company is knowingly, willingly and wilfully by act or omission, attempting to put a person at substantial financial loss, that therefore brings to the forefront a clear case of Negligent Misrepresentation.
You are required under regulated licence, to provide accurate, factual and non-misleading information with regards to valid regulated consumer credit agreements and debt collection, and that if any false or misleading information is received, then the right is reserved to take further action against your company and that there is the belief that your company Debt Collector has failed to act appropriately.
Therefore, as your company has failed to provide any valid proof of claim, taking into account the points above and elements listed throughout this email pointing out the matter of fact, it would no doubt confirm that there is no liability and, there will be no longer any reason to deal with your false and misleading correspondence and it may be the case that the pursuing of litigation against your company, due to the overwhelming evidence, would be the best course of remedy to conclude this matter.
You have also been offered a Civil Procedure Rules Part 36 Offer and it is advised that you can have a further fourteen (14) days from the date of this email to close the account and settle in full and final to the sum of £0,000..00 made out by cheque to Alleged Debtor and sent to the address you have on file and this matter can be brought to equitable agreement, thus avoiding wasting any further time, your time and any potential valuable court time.
Your final closure of account letter and cheque is awaited within fourteen (14) days of the date of this email, along with confirmation that the false reporting of a non-existent default by Debt Purchaser has been or will be removed from the relevant Credit Reference Agencies.
Name of Alleged Debtor
__________________________________________________ ____________
Hopefully, someone might be able to advise further on this whether it is Scotland or England.
This style of approach has been successful with three other debt colllectors, but this particular one appears to think they have some sort of right.
The previous court case was eventually dismissed as the original creditor couldn't determine Juristiction of the Alleged Debtor...oh well!
Thank you.
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