Lowell Group....

[Bradley15]

Hi guys, very impressed with this forum and wonder if I can get some help and advice.

I’ve just come back from my HSBC where I was trying to open a new bank account for my business – got all the way to the end only to get turned down as I had ‘something against my name’. Got home and jumped on to Experian to find that a company called Lowell Group have issued a default against me; I think they are debt collection company and do work for lots of different companies and also HMRC.

I had a demand from HMRC a year or so ago saying that I owed them £1200; I called them and asked them what it was for and could I have a statement of account as I wasn’t prepared to pay anything unless they could substantiate the debt. They just sent a letter saying that I owed £1200 – I replied saying that, if another company sent such a letter, I’d tell them where to get off as you can’t ‘just’ demand money without substantiating what the demand is for.

Some months later I received a letter from Lowells and they started getting heavy about this £1200 to HMRC – as far as I was concerned I had no contract or agreement with them; they rang me up several times and asked me to confirm my personal details, to which I said – you’ve rung me, I’m going you no information!!

Things have since gone quiet – only for me to find out today that I have this default notice.

My questions are:
1. How can it be legal for Lowells to issue a default notice on me when I’ve never, ever bought anything from them and I don’t have any agreement or dealings with them.
2. I don’t have any credit agreement yet they seem to have issued a default notice for none payment of an agreement
3. More importantly how do I get this default removed

Any help would be really appreciated

Thanks

[Bradley15]

Re: Lowell Group....

Wow!! Quick update: just spoken to Lowell’s and they say that this is regarding a debt I had in 2008; I owed money to Barclays (£5000) – lost my job and Barclays issued the original default. Lowells then bought the debt off of Barclays – by then I was getting on my feet but didn’t have the full amount of cash but scrapped together £3600 which I then paid to Lowells who agreed to write off the balance, that was done in 2010.

Speaking to the agent on the phone she says the debt is showing as ‘Satisfied’ but they won’t remove the default notice.

In the past 5 years I have got back on my feet, started my own business and built it up; avoided bankruptcy (close on two occasions) and now run a successful business – but this is issue that seems to be holding/dragging me back. Lowells say neither they nor Barclays are not chasing me for any money

Can they still do that – is there any recourse I have to get this removed from my record…??

Thanks

[nemesis45]

Re: Lowell Group....

Hi welcome to LB.#

I'll go through your points one by one.
1. The Lowell Group of companies is a Debt Purchaser and will have bought the delinquent account with the rights and obligations of the original agreement,. The Default will have been placed by the original creditor Not Lowell.
2.This alleged "agreement" mentioned makes me think this is not an HMRC debt. What does the credit file entry actually say?
3.You need to be sure exactly what this alleged debt is, as far as I'm aware HMRC does not report debts to CRA files.

If you do owe money to HMRC one thing you can be sure of is that it will not go away.
So do you have any correspondence from Lowell that you can scan and post here this will help us to advise more fully.

nem

Just seen your update:

Simple fact is defaults stay on credit files for 6 years from the default date paid or not Lowell has no valid reason to remove it, the Information Commissioners Office Guidance on Defaults says that credit files must reflect the true conduct of an account.
You have no recourse in law on this.

The only way it may be possible is to seek a " gesture of good will" from Lowell as the payment was accepted it seems in full and final settlement but you will achieve nothing by talking to Lowell's customer (dis) service crew who have only the company script e.g. " computer says NO!!

Address a letter to Andrew Bartle COO of the Lowell group, but there is no obligation to remove the default.

nem

[ExperianExperts]

Re: Lowell Group....

Hi Bradley15,

I think Nemesis45 has covered all of your original points, as he has mentioned a default will stay on a report for six years from the default date.

You might want to check that you are happy with the default date that is recorded and that this matches the date the account originally defaulted with Barclays, as it sounds like this should be close to six years by now.

What you can also do is add a notice of correction to your report ro explain why the default happened. Any lenders searching your report can then take the extra information into account. This does mean that your application will refer out of automated decsion making processes, so you wouldn't be able to get instant credit over the phone or online.

You can find out more about adding a notice of correction here

Hope this helps!
Kind Regards
Neil