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I need advice/opinions on Mis-Sold Debt between 2 companies, as a result of a company admin error, that affects a third party (my client - I'm a Volunteer Community Support Worker, but it's out of my Organisation's scope - however I've been helping this family for a few years now, and am their only access to support).
DETAILS:
My Client had a BT account in 2021, which I ended in 2022, when I moved to Sky. Sky paid out the Contract (BT emailed me to tell them that the other company was dealing with BT), they returned all the equipment, and got email confirmation that she owed no fees for ending the contract, and there was no money owed. She still has that email.
In late May 2024 (date is important!) they got a Solicitor Letter, mentioning Debt owed to a company that they'd never heard of. They thought it was a scam, and put it aside, where it stayed.
Then in late June 2024, they recieved a Court Order from CNBC, about this Debt, and immediately contacted a myself who asked if they had got anything about it before. They pulled out the letter, and they looked into it, and said the companies are both legit. So we phoned the Solicitor, as the letter requested.
We discovered it was a debt sold by BT for the contract in 2021, to a Debt Collections Agency, and then they sat on it until the BT Account had been archived, making it near on impossible to find out anything about it, or correct any issues.
Thankfully, I kept pushing, and we discovered it was all an admin error. The debt isn't real. BUT - due to BT archiving the account it was really hard to get things corrected their end, so we lodged a complaint (we have 2 running at BT now, in relations to this matter), and in the interim, the chap adjusted the amount on their systems, of the now sold on debt, by all he could, and added a note to the system, we believe mentioning the error. As the account is now archived though, another Operator at a later date, said he can't open the notes.
We informed the other Solicitor, as they requested, and they said they'd speak to their Client. We made it clear we dispute the Debt.
Next, in very late June, my Client received a CBNC Court Order, and a Directions Questionnaire from the Court. We filled it out and sent it back. It was signed - but we got a message saying the form was unsigned which we thought was weird. We contacted the Court, and was told to re-send it to an email address, which we did. Making clear that we still dispute the Debt.
It went quiet for a bit and in July we got an email back saying the Defence Document was unsigned, and couldn't be used - so we rang again.... This time we were told that the Defence was to have been submitted before the Court Order and the Directions Questionnaire was sent out. Which confused us both. Because we didn't get any chance to submit a Defence. We searched everything we had about this case, and we found nothing about any Defence - so again, phoned the Court back.
This is a side line issue - but strange none the less! - We discovered on that call, that on 11th April, a Defence, unsigned, was submitted "from [my Client]"! . We didn't - as we didn't know about the Case then! .. We have no idea what it says. We asked, but we were told that we are not allowed a copy without paying £22 for it - weirdly - and not only that, but it will take 10 working weeks to get!.... except..... a) my Client doesn't have that money to spare - and b) we have been given a Mediation Hearing in early Sept 2024, so we have no way of knowing what's been said in this Defence!
Regarding the Mediation - My Client asked if a Representative could be present and speak with them, and they were told no. We also sent over evidence, for the Mediator to review, as instructed on an Email from the Court. The documents sent, shows there is no debt with BT (they have since ammended their accounts to zero balance - but because the account has been archived, they can only do it, by forcing a fake payment, so it reads "this bill has been paid"), and we sent all the original emails, and so forth too - but they sent it back saying that the Mediator will NOT consider, or review any Evidence, as that is for the Judge to do.....Errrrr..... But without the Evidence - what is there to mediate? It would be based on Hearsay, not proof? The fact is, that the Debt never existed - it was an admin error - and the case SHOULD be between the Debt Collector and BT only.
The Defence was submitted over a month before I was even aware of anything, it is a mystery, and an entirely seperate issue. Without seeing it - We've no idea what it's claiming, but I nor my Client, have any record of it. The Court phone guy said of it "they did you a favour by doing it - because it granted you more time", and told us that it was sent by post, but they definitely bought us time... that we were unaware of needing!... and according to the Archive timing,.... it seems that it was just enough time, to get to the date, that BT had archived the Account. But anyway - that's a separate issue.
So now we have to go to Mediation, and likely Court - and I don't know what to do for the best for my Client as this is Litigation Law, and not an area I'm too familiar with.
Because of that, we have phoned the Law Society and got numbers of Solicitors and Legal Aid people - and they've all said that they aren't able to help, as its too low an amount of money - that doesn't exist.
We phoned Debt Charities, who've refused us, as they say that there is no debt - which is correct.
We phoned Law Centres. It's either not their area of Law, or my Client is out of their Catchment Area.
We have phoned the Citizen's Advice - again, not helpful. They said to call Support Through Court - who couldn't help, only told us to go to Mediation, which obviously we are doing, but wanted advice so I don't mess up for my Client.
I don't know who to call to help me. My Client doesn't owe the money - and doesn't have a debt to BT.... I am not sure of the legalities when it goes to a third party. This is all just one big mess up by BT, and I'm worried my Client is going to be charged, if a Judge were to rule against them, for any reason, even though they have the proof of the no money owed to BT... but the Debt company will claim, that the Debt is to them now, not BT.
Can anyone advise me about this? Or has anyone been through this, and can share their experience?
Thanks in advance.
