Suddenly being chased for forgotten debt

[Amy]

Re: Suddenly being chased for forgotten debt

I've never paid anything to them or HSBC or had any contact whatsoever until 2009.

How did you manage to get some of it written off without acknowledging the debt? If you did acknowledge it, was it in 2003/4 as it says in your first post?

Also from your very first post on this thread:

As everything was arranged by the advice people I took it for granted all was sorted as they even managed to have some debt written off.

[soop]

Re: Suddenly being chased for forgotten debt

How did you manage to get some of it written off without acknowledging the debt? If you did acknowledge it, was it in 2003/4 as it says in your first post?

Also from your very first post on this thread:

I meant the advice people had some small debts completely written off so this can not be one of them. As for the dates in the letter it is all very confusing. I know I didn't have an outstanding debt in 2001 as the letter states because I never got into difficulties until 2003 when I split from my partner. I have never acknowledged this debt at all,I sent a letter a couple of weeks ago asking them to prove I'm the debtor. The different amounts of money owing confuse me also.

The first letter I had received from them (direct legal & collections)was on 8 June 2009 it stated:-
Client Hillesden Securities
Balance outstanding £3,454.22

We have been unsuccessful in our attempts to contact you at a previous adress and you've failed to notify either our client or us that you have moved home. We have been forced to make enquiries to establish your whereabouts. Our sources have confirmed that you are now residing at this address. Please contact us without further delay to confirm how you propose to pay the outstanding balance.

2nd letter 13 January 2010:-

Following a review of your account we would like to offer you a discount of £314.97 off your balance if you convert to paying by direct debit before your January payment. This is an offer valid during January only and to qualify for the discount you must continue to pay your account by direct debit for the duration of your payment term.

I then wrote "prove I'm the debtor letter" and received the letter I posted previously.

I have paid nothing or had any contact with these people until my letter.

[Gorang]

Re: Suddenly being chased for forgotten debt

Hi Snoop

Firstly if the account is statuet barred then the there is NOTHING that will start the clock ticking again, even if you paid something to them that will NOT start the clock ticking again

If you do nothing them I will garentee that you will keep getting letters bombarded at you, and if they find a phone number for you they WILL start to hassle you on the phone

the way to find out when you paid last to them is send them a DPA SAR (amended one saying that since you are chasing me for money I acknowledge NO debt to you or your client so there for requier more info about this alledged debt)

they HAVE to provided this information to you as it is your right under the Data Protection Act 1998, and it will provide all data that they hold on you

If they have threatened legal action at al then send them a CPR (civil proceedures rules) letter, BUT you can ONLY send this if they have threatened legal action

with this they again HAVE to provided you with all the info that they will use against you in any court action

From reading your thread it looks like they have not threatened legal action YET

Please confirm this snoop

I will have a look to see if Amethyest has the SAR letter on the site and will post up the link, if not I will post up the SAR request letter in here for you

hope this helps for now

[soop]

Re: Suddenly being chased for forgotten debt

Hi Gorang
Many thanks for your kind assistance :-) I can confirm that as yet I have had no letters threatning legal action. I agree doing nothing will not make this go away so I think I should take your advice and request a DPA SAR. If you have a copy that would be great,once again thank you.

[Gorang]

Re: Suddenly being chased for forgotten debt

Couldn't find one so have got this for you

[Your Name/Address]


[company Name/Address]


[Date]

Data Protection Act 1998 Subject Access Request


Dear Sir/Madam

I acknowledge NO debt to you so there for requier more info about this alledged debt

ACCOUNT NUMBER: **************
Please supply me with a complete list of transactions and charges together with a detailed list of any communications (verbal and written) between inter branch or any external parties, relating to this account since account opened to the present day. As well as, a complete set of statements for the period. Furthermore please provide me with a copy of my/our contract with you, and a copy of my original terms and conditions also any and all updated terms and conditions for this account. I make this request Under the Data Protection Act 1998, and including the right of subject access under these acts.
Additionally where there has been any event in this account history over this period which has required manual intervention by any member of your staff or any other person, I require disclosure of any indication or notes which have either caused or resulted in that manual intervention or other evidence of that manual intervention in relation to my business with you.
If you are unable to supply data relating to manual intervention because there has been no such manual intervention then please be kind as to confirm this in your response to this request.
I enclose the statutory maximum fee of £10.00 to access ALL data held by ( company name) about myself. You should be fully aware of your statutory obligations under the data protection act and that any failure to comply to this request could result in an investigation from the Information Commissioners Office. You have 40 days in which to comply.
Furthermore, if I discover that you have levied disproportionate penalties against me then I shall be reclaiming them.
Such submissions from yourselves, that the relevant data is now only held on Microfiche in date order and can only be provided at extra cost etc is unacceptable as it implies that such data is nonetheless retrievable.

Yours faithfully,



[Your Name]

Right thats it edited and ready to go for you, just add in your names and addresses

O and one last thing

when you sign this, sign with your usual sig and then put 2 single lines (in biro pen) through the middle for your sig, this stops them from coping and pasting you sig (without hours and hours of work with paint LOL) to forge any docs as companies like this are doing that more and more in the last 6 months

Remeber to put in a £10 Postal Order with this to cover the DPA Fee and make it payable to the company that you are sending it to, ALSO write on the the back of the Postal Order

FOR DPA SAR purposes ONLY

Also remember to post it minimum signed for so you have proof of delivery

I going to read your thread again as I thinking that this should be sent to the bank as I remeber you saying that the debt has been defaulted but not assigned (sold)

will post back very soon

[Gorang]

Re: Suddenly being chased for forgotten debt

Right

you say here

Yesterday I received a letter from Direct Legal & Collections who said they were acting on behalf of Hillesden Securities Ltd for an outstanding debt of £3,454.22.

I believe the debt is what I owed HSBC bank for an overdraft but I'm sure it was for approx £1900/£2000.

and here

Well after what seems forever (and a couple of letters offering me a discount if I paid now) I have a response from Hillesden Securities,(I sent a letter asking them to prove I was the debtor)I haven't a scanner so I will type what they have written:-

Thank you for your recent letter regarding the above account.

I can confirm that the above account relates to a loan taken out on 30 March 1989 (that must be a typo) with our client HSBC Bank.

This account defaulted in 12 February 2001.

On 13 January 2009 the account was acquired by Hillesden Securities T/A direct legal & collections. Upon acquisition of the account all rights and permission under the original agreement were transferred to Hillesden Securities.

There remains an outstanding balance on this account of £2997.39 (original letter quoted me £3,454.22.).

Right

DLC is working for Hillesden
and Hillesden say they have AQUIRED this debt from HSBC

well let us find out to see if this is true, and there is an easy way to find out

Have a look at your credit history with the CRA's, experian, equifax and call credit and lets see what it says about this account on there, as this will tell you who actually owns the account NOW, if the account is still there

you can do this online to save time and not sure if they charge for this, if they do it will be around £2.50 by each of them

the SAR will defo need to go to Hillesden as they say (whether true or not) they own the account

Don't worry about DLC for the mo as they are just making idle noises at the mo and can't do jack except make a noise, BUT if they threaten legal action in any shape or form then send them the CPR letter (pm me within 24hrs of posting here if I not posted one up for you by that time) and watch them dissapear into the wood work, as the ONLY one that can take you to court is the actual legal owner of the account

so to recap

Send the SAR with £10 PO to hillesdens NOW
have a look on your credit history to see if this account is there and how acutally owns it now
and for now just ignore DLC

after you get the SAR back from hillesden then we will know when the last payment was made and this will tell us your next move as there is a lot of different directions that you can go in, but it will depending on what comes back from hillesden and your credit history


hope this helps

PS have noticed a couple of bits on the SAR letter that I posted up needs changed for you needs here so will go and edit it now for you


------------------------------- merged -------------------------------
All done and ready to go


I not on this site very much but am trying to be here more to help out Amethyst so if you need more info or advice and I not been around for 24hrs then please just pm me to give me a nudge

hope this helps for now

[soop]

Re: Suddenly being chased for forgotten debt

I have checked credit report at 3 sites and this debt is not listed! The only thing that shows up is Hillesden Securities did a search on 9 February 2009,reason for search debt collection.

[Gorang]

Re: Suddenly being chased for forgotten debt

Thats what I thought would come up

Mmmmm

In fact don't send them the SAR yet, save your £10 for now

Send hillesden ADN DLC this instead and see what omes back from them

Your name and address

company full name and address

Dear Sir/Madam

Acc/Ref No

You have contacted myself regarding the account with the above reference number, which you claim is owed by ourselves.

I would like to point out that under the Limitation Act 1980 Section 5 “an action founded on simple contract shall not be brought after the expiration of six years from the date on which the cause of action accrued.”

I would also point out that the OFT say under their Debt Collection Guidance on statute barred debt that “it is unfair to pursue the debt if the debtor has heard nothing from the creditor during the relevant limitation period”.

The last payment of this alleged debt was made over six years ago and no further acknowledgement or payment has been made since that time.

Unless you can provide evidence of payment or written contact from us in the relevant period under Section 5 of the Limitation Act, we suggest that you are no longer able to take any court action against us to recover the alleged amount claimed.

The OFT Debt Collection Guidance states further that “continuing to press for payment after a debtor has stated that they will not be paying a debt because it is statute barred could amount to harassment contrary to section 40 (1) of the Administration of Justice Act 1970”.

I await your written confirmation that this matter is now closed and that no further contact will be made concerning the above account after that last letter.

We look forward to your reply.

Yours faithfully

[Your name]

see what comes back from this first then we can decide wether to send the SAR or not (I suspect that you will not need to send the SAR in the end)

Hillesden should reply sense (well kind of sense LOL) but DCL will either reply with rubbish or tell you that they are now contacting hillesden

send this tomorrow, again by registered post so you get proof of delivery

hope this helps

[soop]

Re: Suddenly being chased for forgotten debt

Gorang thank you so very much,I will indeed send the letter tomorrow,does this need to be accompanied with a payment?
If I did owe the debt would it have shown up on my credit file even from years ago?

[Gorang]

Re: Suddenly being chased for forgotten debt

Hi

does this need to be accompanied with a payment?

No payment needed as basically it just a letter so there are no fees to pay for this

It is only the DPA SAR request and the CCA request that there are fees for, because they are requests requiring the company to actually work and give you copies of stuff

The CPR letter, there is no fee for that either as you are only asking to see the info that the company intends to use against you in any court action, which is your right, so you can defend yourself

I personally love the CPR letter as 99% of DCA's dissapear with this, as they have no right at ALL to threaten legal action as they DON'T own the account

If I did owe the debt would it have shown up on my credit file even from years ago?

Once there has been no movement on the account for 6 years then it should be wiped off your credit history, altho I can't remenmber if the CRA's do this (I think they do) or the company has to do this

Keep us posted to the outcome of the letters

[Kafka]

Re: Suddenly being chased for forgotten debt

DLC is the collection arm of Hillesden Securities - they are the same firm.

[soop]

Re: Suddenly being chased for forgotten debt

Hello again and once again thank you all for your kind advice. Well I received today 29/4/10 a reply to my last letter. Please forgive me I don't have a scanner so I will type the reply.

From Hillesden Securities:-

Thank you for your letter regarding the above account formely HSBC Bank.

We believe that the statute referred to is more than satisfied by any acknowledgement of the debt,for example payments or contact between the parties in connection with the debt.

Since our acquisition of the account we have received payments directly from the original lender. Accordingly,we believe the debt to be enforceable.

Please find enclosed a statement of account from our system.

Then on a seperate sheet is a list of payments. I wont type all out but they are all for the same amount monthly and same details.

From 16/01/2009 to 16/04/2010

Transaction type Description amount balance

DR1800 Portfolio payment file £50.76 £2,895,86



What does this mean? I haven't paid anything and certainly I have received any correspondance from HSBC Bank!!!!
What on earth do I do now?

[soop]

Re: Suddenly being chased for forgotten debt

What's the next step now? Do I wait or contact them I wonder.

[Kafka]

Re: Suddenly being chased for forgotten debt

Its not clear what they are saying about receipt of payments and you need to scan the documentation.

They appear to be saying that HSBC have sent them payments as if you paid HSBC recently. Is this correct?

As DLC do not own the account they are probably just chancing it with a statute-barred debt.

Its imperative to identify the precise date that the debt was actually acknowledged, either formally in writing or by paying towards the debt. The documentation is critical here and you need to scan up the paperwork.

[soop]

Re: Suddenly being chased for forgotten debt

Its not clear what they are saying about receipt of payments and you need to scan the documentation.

They appear to be saying that HSBC have sent them payments as if you paid HSBC recently. Is this correct?

As DLC do not own the account they are probably just chancing it with a statute-barred debt.

Its imperative to identify the precise date that the debt was actually acknowledged, either formally in writing or by paying towards the debt. The documentation is critical here and you need to scan up the paperwork.

Thank you Kafka,I will try and find someone to scan the documents for me as I do not possess one myself. I can say though that I have made no payments at all to HSBC since 2004 (I will pull out the paerwork to get an exact date)