Lowell, 25 year debt being chased.

[seanamarts]

I received a letter from Lowell today for a 4 grand debt I had no knowledge of in my ex married name. 

I havnt used that name for over 20 years. 

Trying to get any information out of them was like pulling teeth, but they stated information from when the debt accrued, which seemed accurate.

However all debts were paid off when the sale of the house went through, so I thought. 

To cut a long story short, it was an amount of about 2 grand that was outstanding, from a loan, which should have been covered via insurance due to ill health, but wasn't. In 1997. 

After the divorce and sale of the house in about 2002, I had, so I thought, no debt. 

However unbeknown to me, and my ex holds his hands up to this, he was in court for this debt and made an offer to pay, my name was not on the papers for this. 

He has paid a nominal amount, without fail, every month for the last 15 plus years. 

Lowell took over the account last month, and a month was missed due to a mix up on Lowells behalf by not informing clients of the takeover, so a payment was missed. However, despite the payment being paid and sorted on the phone with lowell by my ex husband, lowell still decideds to chase me for the full amount owed, despite the fact the debt wasn't in my name and its being paid monthly. 

Now, can they chase me for this debt after all this time, despite the fact that this debt isn't even in my name and its being paid. Its not even on my credit score and now worried it will be added because lowell has added me to this debt. 

I've asked for an investigation.

Im wondering if they are now chasing me because they're only getting a nominal amount from my ex husband,  and think they will get more from me. Can they do that after all this time, especially as I was told all debts were paid for via the sale of the marital home. 

 

[Ethel Street]

16 minutes ago, seanamarts said:

.....despite the fact that this debt isn't even in my name....

Just on that point, changing your name for any reason  - whether because of marriage, divorce, deed poll, or just choosing to use a new name - makes no difference to whether you are liable to repay a debt.  The debt is incurred by you the person and changing your name doesn't change that.  If it were that easy people would be queuing up all over the country to change their name  by deed poll to wipe out their debts!

There may be many reasons here why the debt cannot be recovered from you, but your change of name isn't one of them.

[dx100uk]

was the debt joint?

and were you both taken to court? ie named on the claimforms(s) / judgement?

you cant be responsible for a debt if no judgement was gained against YOU, regardless to if a judgement was gained against your ex.

and anyway. id tell him to stop paying

lowells have boughtout Hoist UK, so i suspect it was them that got the CCJ in the 1st place.

there not really a lot they can do after all this time if he just stops paying

they'd have to return to court to enforce via bailiffs from the court

of that he'd be told, then he can question the enforceability of the debt cause a bet they dont have any paperwork

its a consumer credit debt, no bailiff has any right of forced entry on CCA debt. 

they eventually go away

stop paying.

dx

 

 

[seanamarts]

17 minutes ago, Ethel Street said:

 

There may be many reasons here why the debt cannot be recovered from you, but your change of name isn't one of them.

And I stated that where? 

 

Did you read my post? 

 

[seanamarts]

10 minutes ago, dx100uk said:

was the debt joint?

and were you both taken to court? ie named on the claimforms(s) / judgement?

you cant be responsible for a debt if no judgement was gained against YOU, regardless to if a judgement was gained against your ex.

 

 

 

The loan would have been joint, the court papers were solely in his name. 

I had no judgement against me. In my married name or my maiden name, which I use now. 

[dx100uk]

38 minutes ago, seanamarts said:

my name was not on the papers for this. 

if this is true you owe nowt.

tell him to stop paying too deargirl

nice to see you around..

 

dx

 

[Ethel Street]

44 minutes ago, seanamarts said:

I received a letter from Lowell today for a 4 grand debt I had no knowledge of in my ex married name. 

I havnt used that name for over 20 years. 

Of course I read your post! You said it here, that the debt was in your previous married name (according to Lowell anyway)

[seanamarts]

1 minute ago, dx100uk said:

if this is true you owe nowt.

tell him to stop paying too deargirl

nice to see you around..

 

dx

 

Haha, I couldn't tell him what to do when we were married, no chance of telling him what to do now lol. 

Good to see you're still here DX, hope all is well with you. 

Ex has assured me my name was not on any claim forms from the court. 

[seanamarts]

3 minutes ago, Ethel Street said:

Of course I read your post! You said it here, that the debt was in your previous married name.

And? 

That wasn't my point!

 

[Andyorch]

9 minutes ago, seanamarts said:

The loan would have been joint, the court papers were solely in his name. 

I had no judgement against me. In my married name or my maiden name, which I use now. 

Then legally you are still liable hence the chase...joint and several.....irrelevant that only your ex was named on the court claim/judgment.... 

Safe to ignore though given that a court claim was issued so long ago very unlikely proceeding would be issued in your name or that it could affect your credit files.

 

 

[Ethel Street]

52 minutes ago, seanamarts said:

And? 

That wasn't my point!

It was one of your points and I quoted it and responded to it in Post #2.  That's the purpose of the forum. You post, other people respond. I will not respond further.

[seanamarts]

The loan was in joint names as the bank account was in joint names. As was the mortgage. After we were married I was added.

My point here is, can they chase me for a debt that is almost 30 years old. 

The debt was a little over 2 grand, it went to court because the loan was disputed because they wouldn't honour the insurance claim made against the loan due to illness. That was being disputed well after the divorce, which I was led to believe that all debts etc had been paid off.

I had no knowledge the debt had even gone to court. 

The bank was TSB. 

I don't even know who took on the debt and took it to court. But I know I wasn't on any judgement.

Court costs were added, so would I be liable for those that have been added to this debt as well?

The original loan was £3000

The debt was a little over £2000,

With the court costs added, it ended up over £5000.

Just over £4200 is now owed, despite my ex paying every month for the past almost 20 years. 

It just seems wrong that if the debt is being paid regularly for all that time, lowell takes over and decides to now chase me for it as well.  

It's just shocking to see this after 20 years of thinking that all the debts with regards to the marriage were paid off. 

 

[seanamarts]

31 minutes ago, Ethel Street said:

It was one of your points and I quoted it and responded to it in Post #2.  That's the purpose of the forum. You post, other people respond. There's no need to be so ungrateful when people offer help.

You came across incredibly patronising, and not helpful at all. 

My name change was not the issues here and certainly wasn't trying to not pay a debt that i would have been liable for, but as stated, i was on the understanding that ALL debts were paid from the sale of the house. 

 

My point was, could they still chase me for the debt if it was being paid. 

[Andyorch]

It is shocking but that's the nature of a DCA and why they have a bad reputation. Your ex is paying so is fulfilling the judgment they are just trying their luck chasing you as joint debtor...ignore.

 

 

.

[FTMDave]

There are two separate matters here.  The loan and the court case.  You need to separate them in your mind.

1.  Regarding the loan, it was joint, so yes, you are liable.

2.  The court case.  The fleecers could have sued you, or your ex, or both of you, but chose to sue your ex.  So you have no connection to the court judgement in any way, either the core amount or costs.  You are completely in the clear.  Nothing to do with you.

Going back to (1), you may in theory be liable but as dx and Andy wrote, in reality Lowell are trying it on and are unlikely to actually do anything.

[seanamarts]

Thanks guys. 

I've requested all documentation on the matter, I've a feeling it won't be sent. 

I shall keep you updated. 

Just seen confirmation from the ex hubby, that a settlement agreement with lowell, was made on the the 3rd of last month, solely in his name.

If they've already made an agreement with him, can they still actively chase me for it. 

 

[unclebulgaria67]

Andys post no #10 regarding joint debt applies.  

If your ex has made continual payments since the original CCJ and has a new agreement to continue, then if the ex stopped paying, they can chase you.  But issuing any Court claim against you does seem doubtful. 

Did you ever enter into any legal agreements as part of the divorce process through Courts in regards to debts shared with your ex ? Any insolvency process either yourself or your ex ?

[seanamarts]

35 minutes ago, unclebulgaria67 said:

 

Did you ever enter into any legal agreements as part of the divorce process through Courts in regards to debts shared with your ex ? Any insolvency process either yourself or your ex ?

No, it was a straightforward divorce, very amicable, I vaguely remember signing something about an agreement that all debts must be paid before I had a payment from the sale of the house. This debt should have been included. 

Trouble is it should never have been a debt as it was covered by insurance if one of us became ill and couldn't work.  I had 3 strokes which prevented me going back to work, but they never honoured it, it was disputed, but I really can't remember what happened to it. 

It was such a long time ago and I don't have any paperwork from that time anymore, didn't think I would need it. 

I've definitely not had any ccjs in my name so I know I was never chased for this debt. 

From what I can understand it was taken over twice before it went to lowell, the ex has paid every month without fail, when lowell took it over a payment wasn't paid as no one informed the ex that lowell had taken over. But all this was sorted on the 3rd of last month and a new agreement was done and all payments were caught up.

They started chasing me a week ago. I got the letter today. So 5 weeks after an agreement was made with the ex, they decided to chase me as well.  I had no idea that there was a debt still as stated, all money owing was meant to have been paid from the sale of the house. I was too unwell to deal with it, plus I wasn't the mortgage holder, I was just named on there due to being married. 

Just seems ridiculous to be honest. 

I just think because only a nominal amount is being paid  they're coming after me to get it paid off quicker. 

If they do pursue it via the courts, it would be less than my ex is paying so they wouldn't gain much. 

But surely I wouldn't be responsible for the court fees ect if I wasn't on the judgement. 

[dx100uk]

6 hours ago, seanamarts said:

My point here is, can they chase me for a debt that is almost 30 years old.

they can chase you and ask for payment

you can equally ignore them.

they have no hold on you.. no.

however, and im not quite sure on your 'logic' that 

6 hours ago, seanamarts said:

After we were married I was added.

to be added to a mortgage and the loan, each would have to have been done separately and YOU would have had to have signed at least one form for the mortgage and one for the loan. they cant just add your name!!. click.

but if they did..them wheres the signed agreement with YOUR sig on it lowells....go try another mug..you met @seanamarts from CAG.

6 hours ago, seanamarts said:

Just seen confirmation from the ex hubby, that a settlement agreement with lowell, was made on the the 3rd of last month, solely in his name.

If they've already made an agreement with him, can they still actively chase me for it. 

so they are being very cheeky here too...how strange for a dca.

dx

[seanamarts]

My apologies for not being clearer, apparently I wasn't added to the mortgage after we were married. As for the loan, this was taken out after we were married. 

To be honest I don't remember much about it, I suffered a massive stroke about a year or so after, and my memory was affected, amongst other things, there was no issue paying it at that time as we were both working. I couldn't work after the stroke, that's when the insurance should have kicked in but the insurance company refused to honour it. 

The ex had to cut his hours to help look after me and the children. 

It was just incredibly unfortunate. 

We were both quite young. You just don't expect to suffer a stroke in your early 30s. 

It wasn't long after this that we sold the house and went our separate ways. I'm still not really sure why this debt wasn't paid out of the sale of the house. Could be because it was being disputed still. I wasn't involved with any of the paperwork with regards to the mortgage and what was to be paid to who etc. 

I did ask for a copy of the signed agreement, for the loan, lowell said they didn't have it. 

However I do know the ccj was solely in my ex husbands name. 

I also stated that the debt was statued barred and it has been over the six years. At this point I had no idea about this debt. Thats when she stated that my husband had made a payment last month, so I asked if that was the case why are you contacting me over it. She couldn't answer. 

Not once did they state that an agreement had already been made by the ex and that he had been paying it for all these years. Only that one payment was made, so they basically lied. 

I've requested all paperwork with my name on it, they've refused, but said they will investigate and put the case on hold. 

I've put in a formal complaint.

[Andyorch]

Quote

I also stated that the debt was statued barred and it has been over the six years.

Unfortunately its not as the court claim stopped the limitation period ticking. It is subject to an existing Judgment and therefore a further claim would be impossible but they could try to involve you in further executing methods should your ex fail to complete the payments. But you are not named on the judgment or claim so again ignore.

Its a pity you have requested documents etc and submitting a complaint as you are only feeding them and renewing your connection to the debt.

I did advise ignore.

 

 

.

[seanamarts]

25 minutes ago, Andyorch said:

Unfortunately its not as the court claim stopped the limitation period ticking. It is subject to an existing Judgment and therefore a further claim would be impossible but they could try to involve you in further executing methods should your ex fail to complete the payments. But you are not named on the judgment or claim so again ignore.

Its a pity you have requested documents etc and submitting a complaint as you are only feeding them and renewing your connection to the debt.

I did advise ignore.

 

 

.

The court claim was in the early 2000s.

I stated to them after they had told me that it was a debt from 1997 that it was statued barred, because at this time of the call, I had no idea that the ex had, 1. Not paid it from the sale of the house, 2. Been to court and 3. Had been paying it all this time. 

To be honest I had no idea what this debt was. I did think that it may have been from the time someone had a phone out in my name back in 2005 but I know I had dealt with that. 

 

I requested the documents and placed a complaint before I spoke to the ex and before I had posted in here, or I would have ignored. 

I was just concerned someone had run up a debt in my name again. 

I have a really good credit score and didn't want this to go against me.