I have received a letter, out of the blue, from Lloyds, demanding money back from a payment made in March 2013, which was due to a mistake between them and the account holder. I dispute their demand. For my sins, I am a student landlord. I rent rooms to students for a set period. The students pay me, either via Standing Order, cheque, direct bank transfer, etc., whatever is easiest for them. In March 2013, a monthly payment came through from a student, £303.00, as expected and as due. Around the same time, that same student asked me how much rent was left to pay off the rest of the tenancy. I gave him the figure, which was based on the fact he had just paid the March payment, and he stated he would pay off the full amount in April, which he duly did. (the tenancy ran until June). As far as I am concerned, he had paid me in full, the correct amount for the year. He owed me no more, everyone was happy.... or so I thought. Today, whilst in another student house, a letter came through the door addressed to me. It was from Lloyds Bank (I do not have an account with them). It is stating that a payment made to me in March 2013 which "credited your account" was made "in error". The reference was for a student staying at a different address at the time. It is stating that I have not "re-imbursed" them and that I am not "legally entitled to retain this money and have not offered any explanation as to why you have not returned the money..." If I don't send them a cheque they are refering the case to their "legal department", according to this. I am bl**dy furious!! Why?.. Because: 1. This is the first I have heard about this. 2. Their letter is sent to an address that, although I "own" (mortgaged to the hilt, mind!), I do not live at. It's not my home address. It's only luck I was here dealing with a roof problem when it arrived! So I phoned them up to find out what was going on. They claim they have sent numerous letters - well, none are currently at this house, the students that were here have all left months ago, and none have ever been recieved at my home address, so I am mystified by this claim, but anyway.... They also claimed they had contacted my Bank (Barclays) and that they had been told my "Relationship Manager" had been in contact with me to talk about this - well, actually, no he hasn't. I don't even know who my "Relationship Manager" is, let alone had any sort of conversation with him. When I asked for dates/times, they said they were only repeating what Barclays had told them!! Well, I repeat - I have not been contacted by Barclay's in any way shape or form about ANYTHING for about 5 years!!! - Lloyds and/or Barclays are just making this up!! Lloyds told me I have to pay the money back because it should not have been paid. I stated that the money was due, I have a Tenancy Agreement showing it was due, and when it arrived it was checked off on my spreadsheet. Why would I think anything was wrong? If there had been some sort of cock-up beween them and their client (my tenant) then as far as I am concerned that is for them to sort out. I did not recieve any money that was not due to me, I have not been paid more than I should have been paid - the amount on the Tenancy Agreement is the exact amount I have recieved - no more, no less. From what I can gleam (or guess) - I think what happened is that my tenant wanted to cancel the sheduled payment due in March, told his bank, they messed it up by paying me - so they refunded him and are now demanding the money back from me. The problem is - I have done nothing wrong. It was not my instruction. It was not my mistake. I was entitled to that money at that time. The bank seem to think that because I had money they don't think I should have had due to their cock-up (even though it was due to me), that I should pay them back the £303 and then try to locate this "ex-tenant" - wherever in the world he might be now - and then try to pursuade him to give me a extra months rent!!! What planet do these people live on??? Why should I lose out and be threatened with legal action for having a payment made which was due anyway and that I am perfectly and legally entitled to? I am a single person business, struggling to survive actually, and it is hard enough getting students to pay up sometimes, but why does a bank think it can, out of the blue, demand back a rent payment from 6 months ago!! As it happened, they did not have my name (umtil I told them) only my "trading as" name - and they certainly didn't have my home address(even though using my trading name on Google shows it on the 1st page - I don't hide!!) - as no letters or phone calls have been recieved at my home address. Basically, I told them on the phone to "sling their hooks" - it's between them and their customer/client if they have lost money through their own mistakes and stupidity - nothing to do with me - I have only got what I was fully entitled to. But, can anyone tell me where I stand with all this? Thanks.

Update: As Andyorch advised above, the court vacated the hearing after the SD was withdrawn by 1st Credit. I have had written confirmation from the court to state this. So as far as the Statutory Demand goes (and I suppose this particular post) - that is all over now and this thread can be closed or whatever. Many, many thanks for everyones help and advice. Just a niggling final thought though....... as far as the Debt they think they have a claim on - what will 1st Credit or Halifax try next? I'm not convinced they will simply give up that easily. Anyone any idea's?

Hi Dotty, Just to say hello and lend my support. It's difficult at times, but don't let them get you down. My case is not quite over yet, but will be very soon (I hope). For information - all letters I sent to 1st Credit/Connaults were marked "I do not acknowledge any debt to your company" regardless, but the Halifax ones were not, as that was where the dispute was and I thought would have been a bit silly as they had statements, etc. But I never acknowledged I owed 1st Credit anything - just demanded they provided proof of their claims - which they couldn't. Anyway - good luck. If you want any info from me, just ask.

Many thanks to CitizenB, Andyorch & 42Man for your very quick replies this afternoon. I do appreciate it greatly. Now off to the post office.......... Will keep you all up to date.

Update: I decided to make a "Formal Complaint" to Halifax about their behaviour in all this and mentioned anything and everything I could. More in hope, I didn't really expect anything back except a load of waffle, but I did try to emphasise I was serious about taking them on if I had to and making plenty of noise about it....... it made me feel better anyway! But, out of the blue I have recieved a letter from Connaught stating that they have been advised by Halifax that they can't find a copy of the default notice and "confirm that we formally withdraw our ... (date) Statutory Demand". They have enclosed a "Consent Order" for me to sign and send back. First thought - a result........ second thought...... what are they up to? The Consent Order basically states: ------------------------------ "Upon the Respondant withdrawing and not relying upon or pursuing its (date) Statutory Demand" "And Upon the applicant withdrawing his (date) application." "And Upon reading the written terms of the parties." By Consent, it is ordered that: 1. the (date) hearing be vacated. 2. there be no order as to costs. --------------------------- OK, so I have to send this back to Connaught, signed, asap, as time is short. (they have signed but not dated) But what next? What are they up to? County Court? Another SD written differently? I'm not daft enought to think they are just going to melt away. Due to me being away from home a couple of days, I only just got this and really need to get it in the post tomorrow morning(Sat) in order for them to get it in time to deliver to the court. Should I smell a rat? Should I attend court anyway - just in case they "forget" to forward the Consent Order in time? (not that I'm suggesting that those upstanding gentlemen at Connaught/1st Credit would ever do anything underhand, nooooo, not on your nelly!) Can anyone advise please? Comments/suggestions. Thanks.

I suppose I am banking on 1st Credit withdrawing if I bring all this to their attention now, rather than wait unitl the court date. Should I just keep quiet until then? Or should I "blast" Halifax about acting in breach of contract and threaten to sue them? And then tell 1st Credit? I don't know what to do.

Beginning of 2009 - once the account was transfered I stopped paying. At the time I did not realise (or even know it was important) that a Default Notice had not been issued.

No account numbers are on the application form. As yet, I have seen nothing to actually link the form with anything else, other than reports stating that Halifax bought the Bank One business around the same time.

I now have the SAR's back from both the original creditor Halifax, and also from 1st Credit. So far I've only been through the Halifax one thoroughly, but..... First thing to note is that Halifax never issued a Default Notice - and their screen shots from their systems (included with the SAR info) confirms they can't find it on the database, although there is a default date according to Blair, Oliver & Scott's screenshot (Halifax's DC's) from 2005. Someone is asking the question because they can not find it - which is not suprising if it was never produced or sent. The account was assigned to 1st Credit at the end of 2008 and I had letters from both about the assignment at the time - but no default notice. Also just looked back at my credit report I printed off last June from Equifax to see the default date on there, as my brain told me that if the default date was 2005, then it should be gone by now - but then noticed 1st Credit had a default date in there for late 2008 - 3 years later than Halifax say on their systems and a few weeks before the "assignment" to them. This looks dodgy to say the least. Do you think this is a made up date? Is that not illegal? I have at least 2 statements on the Halifax systems stating the dafault date in 2005 - but of course, no Default Notice anyway. No-one can produce the Default Notice, but there are 2 different dates applied - What is going on? The Halifax screenshots also clearly show that they have not got copies of the Terms and Conditions for when the original card was issued in 2000 (The Bank One card). In fact, I've not any T&C's, current or previous either. The lack of T&C's was the basis of my defence in the SD - which went off to court weeks ago - but with the new knowledge about the lack of a Default Notice, what should I do now? (ps. I've been waiting over a week for a "no-win no-fee" person to get back to me - they have all the previous details but are very slow to respond, so I am assuming I will have to go it alone eventually anyway - to be honest I trust people on here more!!) Any advice what to do now?

Ganymede - I appreciate your honest input but I have had my identity stolen twice in the past. The first time it resulted in me being arrested in a dawn swoop, held in a cell for a day, and having all my computer equipment seized. Besides the sheer horror of this happening (my wife and kids were beside-themselves with anguish and fear), being self-employed at the time and my computers and data being the tools of my job (they took my back-ups as well!) losing my computers and data caused me to lose my business. They decided to let me have it all back 3 months later, but too late. I had not done anything wrong, but my livlihood was taken from me by someone who stole my identity, and then did things using my credit card details that were illegal. To this day I have no idea how it was done or who by. So I feel VERY strongly about it. Sorry, but I need help to nail these toe-rags who think sending personal data like this is acceptable. IT IS NOT. They should not even have the information in the first place as Halifax were in default when passing it over! (which is another story).

Well, 42Man was quite right about the CPR31.14 request - with Connault stating... "that these are Insolvency proceedings and are therefore exempt from the Civil Procedure Rules"........... but they did send yet another bad photocopy of a Bank One Application Form and a Notice of Assignment (from them, not Halifax) and also a statement saying how much I owed them, blah, blah., but of course, no new evidence of any sort. The terms on the application form they keep sending through (forgetting for a moment that it is a different company) clarly states that "These terms and conditions are taken from Clauses 6 and 7 of the Bank One Terms and Conditions - please refer to them for applicable definitions". Surely, as part of my original CCA requests from years ago, these full Bank One terms and conditions should have been provided in total - or are they not in default because they have just sent the extract of 2 clauses from them on the application form that I signed?

But......Do they not have a duty of care to ensure my data is kept safe until I recieve it? And what about the data belonging to someone else? A similar request to Halifax arrived in a "tamper-evident double sealed" plastic envelope - this thin paper manilla envelope from 1st Credit had not even been sealed! So what is the point of the Data Protection Act then, if not to protect data - especially in transit? I'm sorry, but "blame the post office" is not good enough for me and should not be an excuse for their lack of care with my data (or the other person I now know all about!).

I have recieved a Satutory Demand from 1st Credit via Connault Collections - which is detailed on another thread - however, as part of my attempt to gain information about exactly what details they hold I decided to send them a formal SAR. I have recieved back today (within the time limit) a large envelope full of data which has yet to be gone through properly - however, what is alarming is the way the data was sent and the state of it when it arrived. 1. The data was in a large unsealed manilla envelope. 2. The side of the envelope was torn. 3. The lip (where the glue is) is ripped. 4. The sheets of data inside the envelope are not secured or held together in any way - meaning they are free to move about in the unsealed enveloped. 5. On a quick look, included are also some statements from a complete strangers account (!!??) Obvious questions would be regarding security. It looks very much as if some of the sheets of paper have fallen out at some point and been put back in. How can I be sure that all the information is there? How can I know that someone (unauthorised) has not seen this information? Why is there information from someone else in with my stuff? Do they not have a duty of care to ensure my data is kept safe until I recieve it? They had a Statutory Fee paid to them (£10) to supply me with this information, but this smacks of a cheap, nasty and couldn't care less attitude - and I can not be sure all the information is there. I have been a victim of identity theft in the past and this casued no end of problems - in fact one investigation is still going on from 3 years ago! These people have issued a Statutory Demand for which I have to go to court soon - yet this kind of behaviour potentially denies my right to see very relevant information in full. What can or should I do? (bearing in mind I have this SD hanging over me)

This Statutory Demand is about trying to make me Bankrupt, of course. If I can go to the court and show the judge my current account balance, and it is more than I owe Connault/1st Credit, and then state "it is not because I can't pay them - I could write a cheque right now - it is because I won't pay them because I believe I do not owe the money stated, as the account is still in dispute due to thier inability to provide relevant paperwork to back up their claim". Would that work in my favour or just make me look a prat? (I can get this money into my current account if neccessary). ps. My daughter is still poorly, but at least she is at home now and recovering slowly - and I'm a little less stressed.

The court sent back a letter giving me a date for a hearing, so at least it was not thrown out and I have a few weeks to get stuff ready. However, my daughter is still in hospital, not too well, and I need to be there for a few days, as she takes priority over those ****'s at Connault every time. I'll be back in a few days. Maybe Norm1aj (being one of the "good guys") can help in the meantime with some useful suggestions?