Debt Enforcement without a contract

[HHEPPY]

Hi, just wondered if it is possible for a debt to be enforced where there is no copy of the contract available? This relates to a subscription TV channel started in excess of 10 years ago. The payment was taken from a credit card each month. I do recall at some stage contacting the channel to stop this, I was told at the time that because the payment was taken from a credit card I could not stop it. Long story short, the credit card has expired and therefore a payment not taken in Feb 2020, I was contacted via text message to say that i owed them £11.99, I contacted them via the *emai address on the text message to say that I no longer required the service, they stated that I had to pay the £11.99 to reinstate the account first. I then replied to state that my email to them was my request to terminate the service and that they should calculate the necessary balance, they would not do this, I then asked them to provide a copy of the contract so that I could check that they were acting as per the contract. In their reply they confirmed that they did not hold a copy of the contract that was entered into at the time. My question is therefore, that in the absence of any contract, how can they pursue me for monies owed, when there are no terms of reference for payment or indeed terms of reference for me to get out of said contract. Many thanks*

[pt2537]

Hi, just wondered if it is possible for a debt to be enforced where there is no copy of the contract available? This relates to a subscription TV channel started in excess of 10 years ago. The payment was taken from a credit card each month. I do recall at some stage contacting the channel to stop this, I was told at the time that because the payment was taken from a credit card I could not stop it. Long story short, the credit card has expired and therefore a payment not taken in Feb 2020, I was contacted via text message to say that i owed them £11.99, I contacted them via the emai address on the text message to say that I no longer required the service, they stated that I had to pay the £11.99 to reinstate the account first. I then replied to state that my email to them was my request to terminate the service and that they should calculate the necessary balance, they would not do this, I then asked them to provide a copy of the contract so that I could check that they were acting as per the contract. In their reply they confirmed that they did not hold a copy of the contract that was entered into at the time. My question is therefore, that in the absence of any contract, how can they pursue me for monies owed, when there are no terms of reference for payment or indeed terms of reference for me to get out of said contract. Many thanks

Right well this is the problem faced by many people on here.

This suggestion that the claimant cannot produce the contract means that you dont have to pay is very simplistic and misses the point entirely.

If there was a contract then there will be obligations, if the creditor loses the contract it doesn't automatically release you from your obligations, to suggest otherwise is absurd. Lets suppose for a moment, you place your house title deeds into storage and the storage yard burns down. Does that mean because you have no deeds you cannot prove you own your house? if the lack of contract argument transferred over to the house ownership issue you would be screwed wouldn't you.

So it is important to bear in mind the lack of the contract doesnt always help.

The question is, did you have the subscription, did you pay for it, and did you owe them the money

If the answer to the above is yes you did have the service then you will have to pay for it in my view

[HHEPPY]

Many thanks for you reply, I thought that might well be the case, however, I thought it would be worth asking. I am hoping that my email confirmation to cancel the arrangement should have been noted, so I can only assume that as they are only requesting 1 month payment that it has been.

[pt2537]

Many thanks for you reply, I thought that might well be the case, however, I thought it would be worth asking. I am hoping that my email confirmation to cancel the arrangement should have been noted, so I can only assume that as they are only requesting 1 month payment that it has been.

now i think you have a valid point here, they should have cancelled the agreement, if they didnt they will have some problems to overcome

[HHEPPY]

Thanks again for your reply, I've just looked back through the email correspondence i had with them back in March, I stated quite categorically in one email that they should accept the email as my request to cancel / terminate. They stated that as the account wasn't unto date they could not do that, I further asked them to calculate the outstanding amount due upto my cancellation request, so I was clearly not refusing to pay and was in fact asking for their cooperation in bringing the matter to a conclusion. Their only response to that was to ask that I bring the account up to date then I would have to ring them to deal with the cancellation request. They don't like to make these things easy.