Lakes, please just understand if this is what was happening it was highly illegal, you did not have any court orders, if you where just buying papers and filling them in and waiting for someone to fax you something back let you assure you what you received was not from a court, I'm sure there will be others here to verify this shortly.
I know when I was having problems one of the DCA's sent me unstamped court papers to try and scare me into paying but when i phoned the court to query it they said they weren't genuine and to ignore it and report the DCA which I did.
That's closest i've got to "court orders" that were not official and not a CCJ
I know when I was having problems one of the DCA's sent me unstamped court papers to try and scare me into paying but when i phoned the court to query it they said they weren't genuine and to ignore it and report the DCA which I did.
That's closest i've got to "court orders" that were not official and not a CCJ
Yeah exactly, this tactic is not isolated, it sounds like lakes worked for an organization that used similar tactics.
Lakes, please just understand if this is what was happening it was highly illegal, you did not have any court orders, if you where just buying papers and filling them in and waiting for someone to fax you something back let you assure you what you received was not from a court, I'm sure there will be others here to verify this shortly.
Not paying when you go to there house has nothing to do with putting up no defence (seriously where did you get your training from?), if they put no defence up they simply don't respond when the court paper arrives in the post, YOU CANNOT GET A COURT ORDER OVER A TELEPHONE. The defendant has a right to a trial.
I think you where being tricked into thinking you where acting within the law when you where working for a very corrupt/illegal organization.
well the company is still running today and still getting bigger. yes i am sure some of the short cuts were not right but they did happen, but the amount of newspaper reportes and tv reporters that looked into the company still never found them to be doing anything wrong, yes they found them not to be doing nice things but it was still within the law.
when we would turn up with the first court paper and they would not take it, that was taken as no defence, it stated in big letters that if they wished to go to court then they muist say so on the paper.
i am very happy that i dont work for them any more but you would only have to walk down your own road to see many customers.
Lakes, please just understand if this is what was happening it was highly illegal, you did not have any court orders, if you where just buying papers and filling them in and waiting for someone to fax you something back let you assure you what you received was not from a court, I'm sure there will be others here to verify this shortly.
again, as County Court said. This was/is massively illegal.
You can draft up claim forms and I have posted them to debtors but telling them at the same time its a copy of one that has gone to the Court to be issued, but they are by no means legal documents without the court seal and a unique court claim number on them. This bit of law hasn't changed for donkey's years.
Having done debt collection in a firm of Solicitors for the better part of 13 years, I don't know of any legal method in the UK system to get a court order over the phone, a mass issue of proceedings done outside the Court office, or a document faxed to you from the Court to serve on someone as you need to serve originals with the court seal on.
There are some unscrupulous DCAs out there, although things have cleaned up recently, that will try anything but they are outside the law.
I've lived in our house now for almost 3 years. The previous owners obviously had a debt with AOL (as I keep receiving letters addressed to them) and this debt collection firm has sent a few letters now asking for the payment immediately.
Now I wouldn't even know this if I wasn't opening their mail...
Anyway it now says they may instruct local external field reps to call at the premises to collect the full outstanding balance.
I take it if/when they come I can tell them to get lost as it has nothing to do with me? The debt is against the previous owners...rather than the 'house'?
Why are you opening letters that are not for you?
All you need to do is return the letters addressed to the previous occupant with. "No longer at this address"
I once had an unscrupulous DCA send me an N1 directly, unstamped, with a specific instruction to deal direct with them and not a court. You can download blank N1s off the internet for no cost.
Needless to say it was fake, as I'm certain the ones in "lakes"'s examples are. Rogue tactics intended to frighten the gullible, and wholly illegal.
"County Court" is absolutely correct, the claim must be issued by the court itself or MCOL (for bulks). If you ever receive such a claim you should check directly with the County Court it purports to be from.
Sorry "lakes", I think your employers lied to you.
All you need to do is return the letters addressed to the previous occupant with. "No longer at this address"
That's the end of your involvement.
I can't be bothered to go to a post box and post somebody else's mail. Why should I if they didn't bother changing their address?
Therefore when any mail arrives for the previous owner I do have a quick check ( no idea if thats legal or not ) to see what it says out of curiosity and also if it's important. (one important document arrived a month after we moved in so I gave it to the estate agents to pass on)
The debt is only 60 odd quid so hopefully they won't even persue it. I'm not phoning them coz again why should I - it's not my problem.
I will post the next letter back if they send one though - just to stop all this damned mail coming through
[quote=Bio Max;42657413]I can't be bothered to go to a post box and post somebody else's mail. Why should I if they didn't bother changing their address?
Therefore when any mail arrives for the previous owner I do have a quick check ( no idea if thats legal or not ) to see what it says out of curiosity and also if it's important. (one important document arrived a month after we moved in so I gave it to the estate agents to pass on)
The debt is only 60 odd quid so hopefully they won't even persue it. I'm not phoning them coz again why should I - it's not my problem.
I will post the next letter back if they send one though - just to stop all this damned mail coming through
Thanks for all the replies[/quote]
I don't believe it is legal to open someone elses mail.
You asked for advice and I gave it. That's what you should have done.
DCA's make me laugh out loud, basically, when they buy your debt (for 10% of it's original value) they are effectively writing off your debt. They then try to claim that you now owe them the money for paying off your debt +900% admin cost. Now as grateful as I am to them for kindly settling my debts, they did not contact me and ask if I would like them to take this course of action or even if i was convinced that i was responsible for the debt and therefore I am not obliged to pay them for their troubles. If it ever happens again I will write them a thank you letter but I will not be paying them a penny.
Btw, I am not advocating running up bills and deliberately not paying them.
Don't worry, its ok to say, no one knows who you are in real life.
Exactly the question I was going to ask! I live in the same area as Lakes and provi are like a disease round here - almost everyone I know who is on benefits has a provi loan; and my s-i-l's provi lady is being done for fraud - applying for more loans in clients' names, using their "friendship" to get them to sign things without reading, and then taking the money for herself :eek::rolleyes:
OP, stop opening the letters (it is illegal to open someone else's post), mark "not known at this address" and repost.
As far as saying you can't be bothered to post someone else's mail if they couldn't be bothered to change their address: they obviously had a good reason for NOT giving a forwarding address to AOL (they didn't want to pay their bill), and you DO have a good reason for reposting the mail - you wouldn't be on here pissing and moaning if you didn't.
Lakes is a typical DCA bullshitter. He is talking a load of absolute bollocks. He obviously is totally unaware of the Consumer Credit Act 1974 or 2006. He obviously hasnt heard of the Consumer Protection from Unfair Trading Regulations 2008 either not to mention the Protection from Harrassment Act 2007.
Court Orders are NOT granted in bulk over the telephone.
99% of court orders for money are done in an office on a computer and then sent via email to the company that asks for them.
Rubbish! There are companies out there who make their own official looking documents and try to CONvince people they are real, but I wasn't taken in by a firm of solicitors who claimed I owed a credit card debt and sent me what looked to be a CCJ - until I checked with the court and found it was no more than a forgery. That company are still sending them out to alleged debtors, and occasionally apologise to a court for a 'human error'.
If someone is taken to court for a debt, they MUST be served with documents and be given the opportunity to defend their case.
Only cowboy companies would try and do any different, so you must be Roy Rogers.
When will people learn not to go spouting rubbish, most posters here are able to check the most simple of details and discredit a nutter.
I got a lot of help from the Consumer Action Group in dealing with issues caused by an ex partner, where he had been using my name long after we had parted! Some amazing reading on that website.
what you should know is that the company that i worked for would visit the home a few times asking for payment before any paperwork was given out.
and the company was also looked into for the way it acted but was found not to be doing anything wrong.
What the company was doing is illegal. As others have said, that is not how the law works. Your firm were typical of what most DCA's are like.
I've lived in our house now for almost 3 years. The previous owners obviously had a debt with AOL (as I keep receiving letters addressed to them) and this debt collection firm has sent a few letters now asking for the payment immediately.
Now I wouldn't even know this if I wasn't opening their mail...
Anyway it now says they may instruct local external field reps to call at the premises to collect the full outstanding balance.
I take it if/when they come I can tell them to get lost as it has nothing to do with me? The debt is against the previous owners...rather than the 'house'?
Hi - my parents have had a similar problem recently. They started receiving Barclarcard statements for a person who had never lived at their house. They rang Barclaycard, wrote several letters etc but kept getting more & more threatening letters addressed to this fictional person.
What they did ( and I suggest you do the same) is write back to the company, whoever they are, stating that you are not this person, that you request that they do not contact you again ( once you have told them that the person no longer lives there they are not allowed to harrass you) and that if you receive further correspondence you will take out a small claims court summons for your expense in terms of calls, letters and wasted time. In my parents case, they then phoned my father who laid it on VERY thick about how much stress this had caused my mum, and Barclaycard sent a large bunch of flowers and a cheque for £250!!!
Comments
I know when I was having problems one of the DCA's sent me unstamped court papers to try and scare me into paying but when i phoned the court to query it they said they weren't genuine and to ignore it and report the DCA which I did.
That's closest i've got to "court orders" that were not official and not a CCJ
Yeah exactly, this tactic is not isolated, it sounds like lakes worked for an organization that used similar tactics.
well the company is still running today and still getting bigger. yes i am sure some of the short cuts were not right but they did happen, but the amount of newspaper reportes and tv reporters that looked into the company still never found them to be doing anything wrong, yes they found them not to be doing nice things but it was still within the law.
when we would turn up with the first court paper and they would not take it, that was taken as no defence, it stated in big letters that if they wished to go to court then they muist say so on the paper.
i am very happy that i dont work for them any more but you would only have to walk down your own road to see many customers.
nope, another one!
again, as County Court said. This was/is massively illegal.
You can draft up claim forms and I have posted them to debtors but telling them at the same time its a copy of one that has gone to the Court to be issued, but they are by no means legal documents without the court seal and a unique court claim number on them. This bit of law hasn't changed for donkey's years.
Having done debt collection in a firm of Solicitors for the better part of 13 years, I don't know of any legal method in the UK system to get a court order over the phone, a mass issue of proceedings done outside the Court office, or a document faxed to you from the Court to serve on someone as you need to serve originals with the court seal on.
There are some unscrupulous DCAs out there, although things have cleaned up recently, that will try anything but they are outside the law.
Why are you opening letters that are not for you?
All you need to do is return the letters addressed to the previous occupant with. "No longer at this address"
That's the end of your involvement.
Needless to say it was fake, as I'm certain the ones in "lakes"'s examples are. Rogue tactics intended to frighten the gullible, and wholly illegal.
"County Court" is absolutely correct, the claim must be issued by the court itself or MCOL (for bulks). If you ever receive such a claim you should check directly with the County Court it purports to be from.
Sorry "lakes", I think your employers lied to you.
Don't worry, its ok to say, no one knows who you are in real life.
Therefore when any mail arrives for the previous owner I do have a quick check ( no idea if thats legal or not ) to see what it says out of curiosity and also if it's important. (one important document arrived a month after we moved in so I gave it to the estate agents to pass on)
The debt is only 60 odd quid so hopefully they won't even persue it. I'm not phoning them coz again why should I - it's not my problem.
I will post the next letter back if they send one though - just to stop all this damned mail coming through
Thanks for all the replies
Therefore when any mail arrives for the previous owner I do have a quick check ( no idea if thats legal or not ) to see what it says out of curiosity and also if it's important. (one important document arrived a month after we moved in so I gave it to the estate agents to pass on)
The debt is only 60 odd quid so hopefully they won't even persue it. I'm not phoning them coz again why should I - it's not my problem.
I will post the next letter back if they send one though - just to stop all this damned mail coming through
Thanks for all the replies[/quote]
I don't believe it is legal to open someone elses mail.
You asked for advice and I gave it. That's what you should have done.
You can please yourself of course.
Btw, I am not advocating running up bills and deliberately not paying them.
Exactly the question I was going to ask! I live in the same area as Lakes and provi are like a disease round here - almost everyone I know who is on benefits has a provi loan; and my s-i-l's provi lady is being done for fraud - applying for more loans in clients' names, using their "friendship" to get them to sign things without reading, and then taking the money for herself :eek::rolleyes:
OP, stop opening the letters (it is illegal to open someone else's post), mark "not known at this address" and repost.
As far as saying you can't be bothered to post someone else's mail if they couldn't be bothered to change their address: they obviously had a good reason for NOT giving a forwarding address to AOL (they didn't want to pay their bill), and you DO have a good reason for reposting the mail - you wouldn't be on here pissing and moaning if you didn't.
No it isn't. There's no law against opening mail addressed to previous occupants of your address.
Hysterical!
Court Orders are NOT granted in bulk over the telephone.
If someone is taken to court for a debt, they MUST be served with documents and be given the opportunity to defend their case.
Only cowboy companies would try and do any different, so you must be Roy Rogers.
When will people learn not to go spouting rubbish, most posters here are able to check the most simple of details and discredit a nutter.
I got a lot of help from the Consumer Action Group in dealing with issues caused by an ex partner, where he had been using my name long after we had parted! Some amazing reading on that website.
What the company was doing is illegal. As others have said, that is not how the law works. Your firm were typical of what most DCA's are like.
Hi - my parents have had a similar problem recently. They started receiving Barclarcard statements for a person who had never lived at their house. They rang Barclaycard, wrote several letters etc but kept getting more & more threatening letters addressed to this fictional person.
What they did ( and I suggest you do the same) is write back to the company, whoever they are, stating that you are not this person, that you request that they do not contact you again ( once you have told them that the person no longer lives there they are not allowed to harrass you) and that if you receive further correspondence you will take out a small claims court summons for your expense in terms of calls, letters and wasted time. In my parents case, they then phoned my father who laid it on VERY thick about how much stress this had caused my mum, and Barclaycard sent a large bunch of flowers and a cheque for £250!!!
Good luck!