Legal firm acting on behalf of DCA unable to obtain CCA

[Badders256]

Hi there,
I'm not really sure where this post goes, could go here, under payday loans, or under court action, please do move as appropriate.

Background:
I undertook two payday loans with a lender -
18.10.15 £100, repaid in full on time.
28.12.15 £200, £100.41 paid on 27.1.16, but the following two payments I could not make, due to repaying other payday lenders (I had 11 different payday lenders around the time).

On 4th June 2018 I received an email to state the payday lender had assigned the legal and beneficial rights, title and interest to a debt collection agency.
On 26th Sept 2018 I received an email to state the debt collection agency have instructed a legal firm to act on their behalf to recover the sums owed.
On 10th October 2018 I received a letter dated 27.9.18 stating 'Letter of Claim' from the legal firm, advising me they have been instructed by their client to consider the issuing of county court proceedings to recover the balance.
Attached was a reply form, for which i ticked Box C 'I don't know if I owe the debt', Box G 'I am getting or intend to get debt advice' and box I 'I need more documents or information'. The information I requested was a copy of the written contract for the debt, a full statement of account including details of all interest and charges included on the outstanding balance of the debt, explaining how they have been calculated, and any payments towards the debt. I also wrote that I was in the process of complaining to the FOS regarding the original lender.
On 16th October 2018 I was emailed by the legal firm to advise my account with them is on hold for 30 days from that date.
On 26th October 2018 I was emailed to confirm that the legal firm had received notification of my complaint and have placed my account on hold whilst the original lender carry out their investigation, and asking me to provide the legal firm an update once I have received the final response to the complaint.

NOW, I have received a forwarded email from the original lender on 30th October 2018.
The forwarded email was from the legal firm, asking the original lender a) the nature of the complaint, and what stage they are at with their investigations, and b) for a copy of the CCA.
The original lender forwarded this email stating 'We have received the email attached from the legal firm, however we have not received consent from yourself to correspond with this company. Please can you advise.'

I would like to know please, how should I respond to the original lender? My thinking is that if I do not give my consent, then the legal firm do not have an enforceable CCA to forward onto me as requested, but I just wanted to run it past the experienced folk on this forum first. Is there any benefit to delaying such consent?

Also in case you need to know - my complaint is with the FOS. I received final response from the original lender on 8th October and submitted to FOS the same day. The last correspondence I had from the FOS was on 22nd October saying they have asked the business for the information they have about the complaint, and asking for me to send in any of my further information.

Very many thanks for considering my post.

[Amethyst]

In the email from the legal firm to the lender did the legal firm omit to say they were acting on behalf of the DCA who had been assigned the debt from the lender ?

Also have you sent a formal CCA request to the DCA at all or just the reply form ?

FOS complaint is an affordability high cost short term credit complaint ?

Does the law firm have any relevance to Sherlock ? ( just in case you're not mentioning names - it's just helpful to know )

[Badders256]

Hi Amethyst, thanks for your reply.

First point - yes, no mention of DCA in either email.
Second point - have not corresponded with the DCA at all. So just sent reply form to legal firm.
Third - yes exactly, with irresponsible lending thrown in, was taking payday loans to repay in a downward spiral!
Lastly no relevance to sherlock, just withholding for now in case they are reading this... Although both the DCA and legal firm have the same initial postcode !

Email from Legal firm is as follows:

Dear Sir / Madam
We write in connection to a dispute received from our mutual customer, who states that he has an on-going FOS complaint with you, could you please advise on the nature of the complaint and at what stage you are up to with the investigations?
Could you please investigate and send the original credit agreement(s) with your findings. We have placed the account on hold and ask you to keep us informed on your progress.
Kind regards
Complaints Manager
On behalf of Legal firm.

Email from original creditor states:

Dear Mr

We have received the e-mail attached from Legal firm, however we have not received consent from yourself to correspond with this company. Please can you advise.

Regards
Customer Relations Department
Original creditor.