Motormile Lost Plot?

[Ignition]

I've just seen an email from Motormile Finance which I suspect goes beyond being dubious as far as regulator guidelines on debt collection go and into downright illegality.

 

Our home visit team has been scheduled to visit you in person to deal with the outstanding balance of £673.00 that is due to MMF.

 

Our team of Recovery Agents will regularly be attending this postcode with a view to visiting you. Visits can be scheduled between 8am and 8pm Monday to Saturday. We would invite you to contact us to arrange a mutually convenient appointment, to avoid causing you any potential embarrassment that may arrive out of an unannounced visit to your home address.

 

If you do not contact us then we will be left with no other option than to visit your address until we do meet with you. Whilst MMF is always committed to helping their customers reach an amicable solution, if we cannot agree a suitable repayment plan then w e will have no option than to report our findings to our Solicitor who may take legal action against you in your local County Court and thereafter take enforcement action against you. This will inevitably increase the size of the debt due from you. Also this will affect your ability to obtain credit in the future.

 

This email is a genuine attempt on MMF's part to help you resolve this problem without the need for legal action. This issue is not going to go away and needs dealing with. Your options are:

 

Complete and return the payment form attached.

 

Contact our office immediately to arrange a repayment plan that is suitable for both parties.

 

Contact our Home Visit Department to agree an appointment, option 1 on our telephone tree.

 

A quick read of the law:

 

http://www.legislation.gov.uk/ukpga/1970/31/section/40

 

40 Punishment for unlawful harassment of debtors.

 

(1)A person commits an offence if, with the object of coercing another person to pay money claimed from the other as a debt due under a contract, he—

(a)harasses the other with demands for payment which, in respect of their frequency or the manner or occasion of making any such demand, or of any threat or publicity by which any demand is accompanied, are calculated to subject him or members of his family or household to alarm, distress or humiliation;

 

Not a lawyer but they would seem on seriously thin ice with this. Specifically mentioning embarrassment alongside saying that they will 'regularly be attending this postcode with a view to visiting you' and 'be left with no other option than to visit your address until we do meet with you' doesn't strike me as being too clever.

 

What are your thoughts, CAGmeisters?

Edited June 26, 2014 by ims21

[BankFodder]

Please read the Conc rules about visits http://www.consumeractiongroup.co.uk/forum/showthread.php?426126-CONC-7.9-Contact-with-customers

 

Read the other conc rules as well

[fkofilee]

Notice how they say "May" in their email. But then again i wouldnt second guess with MMF.

As with the rules, tell them to leave if they attend.

[Ignition]

Actually this is part of their mess up here and part of why I wanted to share this.

 

There is no 'may' there - they are saying that their agent will call and will continue to call until the door is answered, and invite the recipient to avoid potential embarrassment.

 

I thought this was noteworthy as, for all their poor conduct in the past, they seem to have crossed a new line.

[Ignition]

After a bit of thinking I thought MotorMile might like a nice chat with the FCA along with my local MP and copied the correspondence to Stella Creasy as I know what a fan she is of such things.

 

Will keep you informed.

[fluteboy]

Well, the idiots appear to have updated their site. Still looks a bit amateur though.

 

Out of interest, are MMF in any way related to High Street Collections? The reason I ask is because the HSC Collection Process page contains pretty much the same content that the old MMF site did.