A big thank you to everyone on this site for giving so generously & freely of their time & knowledge. It is invaluable, and has helped me to go from a position of being helpless & hopeless to one of having a lot of control over my financial position. They say knowledge is power and that is certainly true where debts & creditors are concerned. I hope my request for assistance below is not going stretch your generosity too far:-) I need some help with Blair, Oliver Scott (BOS) (Bank of Scotland DCA). My questions are at the end of my preamble. Here is a brief background to the situation: 2010 lost my job, Owed £20K on five credit cards. Continued with payments on the cards using redundancy money and pension Income thinking I would get another job (I was 63 at the time, now 65). I didn’t and ended up in a financial mess. Took advice from National Debtline, scoured this forum for user experiences and then Set up a DMP with CCCS. Started July 2011, creditors agreed and also agreed not to add interest or charges to the accounts. Everything was fine until Halifax (Bank of Scotland) passed the debt to BOS. At first they agreed the DMP but then began to send the usual ‘ThreatO’grams’ , coupled with 2 or 3 phone calls per day. I ignored them and sent the Standard anti-harassment letter from the forum library. This had some effect but I was concerned about the threats of court action., so I decided to take some action to limit the possibility. NOTE: I am still running the DMP and I intend to continue doing so. No other creditor has caused me hassle, and so I was reasonably confident that BOS would not go to court under the circumstances. The DMP is fully in accordance with the Common Financial Statement used by the courts, and administered by CCCS , who are respected in the Industry. However, just in case, I wanted a solid defence (defences) of some sort. I was sure they would not be able to supply the original agreement with Halifax due to the way it was initially set up in March 2007, so I sent a CCA request with a postal order for £1 (which they used as a payment against the debt !). My thinking was that I might be able to put the debt into dispute and prevent any future judgement, whilst still behaving reasonably myself and thereby showing BOS as being unreasonable if they later went to court. Today I received a reply, posted two days after the prescribed period time limit expired, enclosing a reconstituted agreement which is materially different in a number of ways from the original, they did not include a statement of account as requested and did not include other documentation which I think they should have. Questions:- 1) If the reconstituted agreement is materially different from the original then they have not complied with S78 Correct ?? (I can post all documents on-line if you want me to??) 2) Problem is, how do I use that to my advantage because to do so would mean admitting I have the original. 3) As they have not sent a statement of account does that by itself, put them in a non-compliant S78 position?? 4) Also the OFT guidelines state in relation to the CCA:- ‘Where an agreement has been varied in accordance with section 82(1) of the Act, the OFT considers that, by virtue of Regulation 7 of the Copies of Documents Regulations, the duty is to provide not only a copy of the agreement as originally executed but also either a copy of the latest variation given in accordance with section 82(1) of the Act relating to each discrete term of the agreement which has been varied, or a clear statement of the terms of the agreement as varied in accordance with section 82(1) of the Act. 2.28 Although some creditors have apparently considered it is sufficient to provide a copy of the current terms and conditions (that is, 'a statement of the terms of the agreement as varied'), that does not comply with the requirements of Regulation 7. In Carey v HSBC Bank plc, there was detailed analysis of this issue and it was confirmed that 'include' meant that the documents showing the variations were to be supplied in addition to a copy of the original agreement.’ Halifax only included a copy of their current terms & conditions but there have been several variations of the original agreement. How do I use that omission without falling foul of the problem I raised in question 2 ?? 5) Would you agree that a DPA section 10/12 request is valid in a dispute scenario ? 6) Problem is, I want to make a SAR and the above action would make that hard? 7) If I could legitimately now place the account into dispute, how long do they have to comply with the CCA S78 before they commit offences under other Acts and compound their problems. (e.g. CPUTR ) 8) If at the end of the day I cannot dispute the account, and ‘if’ they ever go to court, can I use the Civil Procedures Rules 4.6, pre-action disclosure ? Is it still the case that BOS would have to produce the Original agreement and not a reconstituted agreement as per CCA S78(1) ? Thanks in anticipation. I have another subject to raise about Blair Oliver Scott but I am not sure where to post it. It is regarding Accounting anomalies & possible trading violations, where would you suggest?

Hi there, This is probably been done to death, but I owed Council Tax from 11-12, have been paying 12-13 as normal direct to my local council, paid the majority of the previous debt off in March with £300 to go, haven't received a letter since then and I only started a new job a month ago, received a letter yesterday (26.06.12) saying I still owed £300 and today I see that they have gone in and taken it, with no warning. I have received no other correspondance other than that. Are they allowed to do this? The 'delightful' girl at Scott & Co said they don't have to tell me. TIA