HSBC proceedures before selling Debt.

[raz.thomas]

Hi All,

 

My partner of 3 years received a letter on Friday (sent directly to our house) containing papers from both HSBC and Lowells PLC stating that a debt of £7905 has been bought by the debt collectors from HSBC and must be paid.

 

He has no idea where this debt has come from (he has had previous debts with HSBC which have been paid off) and hasn't banked with HSBC for around 4 years. They haven't made any contact with us in the interim, to our knowledge, via our address or his parents address, where he was living when the first debt was paid off. (My point here is; if they have been sending things to another address, how they have magically got the correct address now?)

 

I was wondering the following things:

 

- Are HSBC in breach of any laws if they haven't contacted us before selling the debt onto Lowells?

- Can anyone tell me what the proceedure should be and whether we are eligible to ask for proof of 'contact'?

- Could the debt be removed as a default from his credit report providing we begin to pay monthly installments (if the debt is proven) as we aren't able to get a mortgage with this on it?

 

I've never dealt with this kind of situation before, so i might be asking very obvious questions; i'm just looking for some advice on what kind of route we should take.

 

Thanks

 

Rachel

[maroondevo52]

Hello and Welcome,

 

Think you'll have to get them to prove the debt is your partners, there's a link to the 'prove it' letter here................

 

http://www.consumeractiongroup.co.uk/forum/content.php?428-General-debt-letter-if-you-know-nothing-of-the-debt

 

Do you know for sure the Default for this debt is showing on his Credit File ?

 

Regards.

 

Scott.

[raz.thomas]

Hi Scott,

 

Thank you for the link. We sent the link as you suggested and they sent us a letter back (outside of the 12 days) saying that they weren't able to send back the information we required.

 

What would our next step be? It seems that we should send them a follow up letter stating that since we had given them 12 days, that the debt was now unenforcable and no requests for payments should be sent to us as the account is now in dispute. However, will this lead to court action against us?

 

We are due to go to the bank in the next few days to re-check his credit rating. I checked it in October on Experians free trial and there was nothing on there at that stage, just a small £84.00 for O2, which has now been paid. I was under the assumption that once the debts are sold from the bank to the collection agency, it went straight on the report, however from your above advice, i will recheck that one!

 

Sorry to sound quite to uneducated, but i had no idea about this kind of thing until i found this website!

 

Thanks

 

Rachel

[firstship]

Raz....Hi as I read this debt has been sold by Hsbc to Lowell,which you have in writing which means the Letter of Assignment has been covered by both parties...............as Scott states in his link if you are sure the debt is not yours it is up to Lowells to prove it is............you say they cannot provide the information, well tough,tell Lowells you do not wish to hear from them again as the simple information requested by you only confirms they are chasing a debt that is not yours and repeat this type of action you understand is very much against OFT debt collection guidelines.................do not make any offers of payment or acknowledge the debt is yours at any time,you say it is 4+ years since any contact with HSBC keep it that way even with Lowells................you are heading toward Statute Barred (5 years in Scotland 6 years in England..............................FS