Hi there,
I am looking for some advice on how to proceed with a company requesting me to make a payment of a debt to them.
It started about 3 weeks ago when I received a letter dated 6th October 2009 from a company called Telogram, on very dubious quality paper, requesting me to contact them to provide an up to date address for one of their client’s (unnamed client) database. The last address listed on here one where I was living at approximately 15 – 20 years ago. As I thought this was very suspicious I kept the letter but never responded to it either verbally or in writing. Another letter has just been delivered yesterday dated 13th October 2009 from a company called H L Legal Solicitors claiming that Telogram is one of their client’s and requesting to contact them to provide up to date information or possible action including a visit to my current address for verification purposes. Again as this was on dubious paper I am not going to respond, so I done some internet checking and realized they are one and the same company. Now today I came home from work and opened a letter from Abbey National saying they had sold a debt to Capquest Debt Recovery Ltd dated 26th October 2009. A Second Letter from Capquest debt recovery was received dated 25th October 2009 saying they had purchased this debt by way of assignment and to pay it at 50% to get in the clear. The last time I believe I had an account with Abbey national was approximately 17 years ago. We were in dispute over some banking charges which I refused to pay and if I remember correctly I ended up moving my account to Barclays. To be honest I cannot remember the outcome of this, if I paid it off or not. I have heard nothing regarding this since the mid 90’s and to be honest about it completely forgot I had ever had an Abbey National Account.
So what I want to know is basically is this a debt I can claim as being time barred under the statute of limitations (or whatever it is correctly called) and if so under what law do I claim this as I would have lived in England when this debt came about but now live in Scotland. I also understand that this can only be done if no CCJ has been taken out which I assume is the case as I had no problem seeking a mortgage approximately in 2001, have done a credit search showing now CCJ’s in last 6 years.
Any advice is greatly appreciated.

Hi - English law would apply to this alleged old debt if it was acquired in England it is irrelevant where you now currently reside. You need to post a copy of the below letter (edited to suit) to these companies, in particular Capquest and HL legal Solicitors.. by Recorded delivery to whom have contacted you, the letter states the debt is now statute barred and under the applicable, "limitations act 1980".

............................................... ..................................................

Your Name:
Your Address:
Date

To:

WITHOUT PREJUDICE

Dear Sir/Madam

Account No:

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

I/we would 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/we 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 correspondence/payment/acknowledgement or payment of this 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 me/us in the relevant period under Section 5 of the Limitation Act, I/we suggest that you are no longer able to take any court action against me/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 statue barred could amount to harassment contrary to section 40 (1) of the Administration of Justice Act 1970".

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

I/we look forward to your reply.

Yours faithfully

(Your signature)

Thank you for your prompt reply, and this is very much appreciated. Indeed I have now already edited and printed this letter and will send it recorded delivery tomorrrow.

Again I appreciate your advice and help :)

This is my first time on the consumer forum after reading previous thread dating back to 2006 it looks like Capquest/HL LEGAL/ Telogram have been operating like this for some time.

My boyfriend received a similiar letter from Telogram 06/10/09 checking on an address that he left in 1997 & one from HL Legal around about the same time saying we would be getting a visit at home to verify my boyfriend whereabouts........ , then another from CapQuest 20/10/09 saying they have bought an alledged debt owed to Abbey for £1500 & if he paid in 7 days they would halve the amount to pay............ yet he doesn't even have an account with them & his mortgage was cleared when he sold his house back in 1997 so all accounts were closed then.

Yet another letter with a Abbey header came on 22/10/09 stating an alleged outstanding debt had been sold to Capquest.....yet all four letters have very similar signature & the Abbey one doe not look genuine & 3 of them have exactly the same contact details...........very dodgy.

So far we have ignored the letters & the threats from Telogram, H L Legal & CapQuest ( who appear to be one 7 the same) & my boyfriend is considering sending this letter ( which i found on an older thread from a very helpful person on another consumer group thread)

it may be useful to you if they keep harrasing you - you can tailor it to suit your situation

To:
Capquest Debt Recovery Ltd.
PO Box 396
Fleet
Hampshire
GU51 2WZ

do not put your own address on the letter

Dear Sir/Madam

Ref: ###### – regarding an alleged debt purchased from Abbey

You have contacted me via letter, dated ##/##/## regarding an alleged debt which you claim is owed to Abbey.
You also state that I apparently have received a letter dated 19/10/09 from Abbey themselves?

I can confirm that I have never received any such letter from Abbey dated 19/10/09 or any other letters referring to any alleged outstanding debt. I would also like to point out that I have no knowledge of any such debt being owed to Abbey National, nor do I have an account with Abbey either.

I am familiar with the Office of Fair Trading Debt Collection Guidance which states that it unfair to send demands for payment to an individual when it is uncertain that they are the debtor in question.

I would also point out that the OFT say under the Guidance that it is unfair to pursue third parties for payment when they are not liable. In not ceasing collection activity whilst investigating a reasonably queried or disputed debt you are using deceptive and unfair methods

Furthermore ignoring and disregarding claims that debts have been settled or are disputed and continuing to make unjustified demands for payment amounts to physical/psychological harassment

I would ask that no further contact be made concerning the above account unless you can provide evidence as to my liability for the debt in question

I note it is your intention to arrange a “doorstep call”, please be advised that under OFT rules, you can only visit me at my home if you make an appointment and I have no wish to make an appointment with you.

There is only an implied license under Common Law for people to be able to visit me on my property without express permission; the postman and people asking for directions etc (Armstrong v. Sheppard and Short Ltd [1959] 2 Q.B. per Lord Evershed M.R.).

Therefore take note that I revoke license under Common Law, for you or your representatives to visit me at my property and if you do so, then you will be liable to damages for a tort of trespass and civil action will be taken

I await your written confirmation that this matter is now closed. Otherwise I will have no option but to make a complaint to the trading standards department and consider informing the OFT of your actions.

I look forward to your reply.

Yours faithfully

do not sign letter ( just print name)

Got the same four letters for an alledged debt going back 17 years not responded to any.

Was going to send the statue barred letter but have now decided on the do nothing approach and let them waste their time and monet sending out letters just to see how long they will keep this up for.

I will say though tich1969 as made a valid point in saying just print your name and don,t sign it.

Sticking together on this and posting updates will hopefully help ohers that are in the same position.

I am glad I overslept on Friday and never got to post the letter. From what others are saying I am now very unsure in what to do. The Abbey letter does look very cheap, was actually thinking of going down to Abbey and asking to see a letterhead, just to see how nicely it is done.

Guess I will keep an eye on this thread and let people know whats happening and what I am doing about it, which at the moment is not much.

No doubt another letter will pop through the post, and after reviewing some other websites it seems asking people to phone a premium rate number is also a no no in Debt Collection. 0870 is premium in my view anyways.

Any one go more advice?

Belgy

The experience of friends and relatives is that if you send the statute barred letter you should be left alone. They will either send a letter to you advising that they have closed their file or you will hear no more about it.

In regard to signing the letter, this is just in case someone scans it and uses it on some document. The advice is to add rows of xxx or oooo and sign over the top of these. Then if they try to scan your signature, they will also pick up the x's or o's underneath.

If you do nothing, you may continue to be hassled.

Another thing you may want to do, is check your credit record, just in case any errors are contained. Anthing statute barred should not be on it. Both Experian and Equifax offer free trials for 30 days. You can apply online, just don't forget to cancel, as otherwise you will end up paying a month subscription.

Huckster

Just looked at Equifax, this company, CapQuest, done a search on me on the 5th October. So I think it is time i sent the letter unless I get advice to the contrary. Other than that there is nothing recorded against me by anyone and I have a good record.

Belgy

Belgy - The letter sent by recorded delivery serves a useful purpose; in that it legally benchmarks the reason and the date on which you have claimed statute barred status...hence, exercised your right to the protection of the law. Any further contact or pursual from these companies after they have received this notice from yourself, could and probably would be construed as harassment, if you ever needed to report their failure to comply with the law to the appropriate authorities.

The letter cannot prejudice your legal rights in any other way...if this debt qualifies (which it certainly appears to) then it is now irrecoverable under the limitations act 1980. By law as such, it has to be written off by the creditor, because it qualifies as a statute barred debt and they have been notified of this fact.

Neither could signing this particular notice act against you.....the time when you need to be cautious, is when you sign requesting a copy of CCA's. Some unscrupulous debt agencies have been acccused, or may be tempted to reconstruct your signature onto another credit agreement.

looking at this thread it sounds like the Abbey have been flushing their toilets and some newbie to the collections game jumped in, and is now sinking in poo.

They will be sadly missed, I'm sure

S

Stubie-One:

looking at this thread it sounds like the Abbey have been flushing their toilets and some newbie to the collections game jumped in, and is now sinking in poo.

They will be sadly missed, I'm sure

S

If only, I imagine there'll be enough people caught in this who were spooked sufficiently to pay up. Taking into consideration the debts were more than likely bought on the super-cheap - it'd probably only take a hand-ful of payers to make it quite profitable for them.

Regrettably, you are right.

Sadly, the law is a closed book to many and an official looking piece of paper is all that they need.

Typically debt collection agencies pay circa 5% of the original debt so it could be quite lucrative.

We must try to educate people, these forums are great for that.

Unfortunately, older debts means (usually) older people, who are not internet savvy and miss out. When I was at school, computers were things scientist used to calculate pi to a million decimal placed (which took months!). IT education in schools was 40 years away.

How do you bring these people into the public discussion, they feel isolated and fear the legal profession.

S

Sadly there is no easy/affordable way.

I highly doubt anyone here would be able to bankroll a tv programme, or out and about clinics to help with this sort of thing.

Googled (capquest abbey)and the forums are full of people in the same boat.

Found this link about capquest .www.freewebs.com/tangohain/index.html

Hi All,

Sent off today by registered post the Statute Barred Letter. Will update any responses I receive

Belgy