Being harassed

[MyOtherCarIsAPorsche]

Letters started arriving out of the blue.

A solicitor firm employed by a mobile phone company are sending letters to my husband saying he owes thousands of pounds (but will 'settle' for much less in actual fact).

The evidence they have is a phone contract dated two years ago which he apparently signed - whilst he was actually at death's door in hospital several hundred miles away from this mobile phone shop.

The account is for a person with the same name at an address in Birmingham.

We have lived in North Yorkshire all our lives - we've been in the same property for more than 32 years.

H rang up the firm and they are adamant that this ludicrous process will continue. Despite all protestations they keep asking him how he wants to pay???

I think they have plucked his name from the electoral register and targeted him rather than spending some time proving it's the right person.

He's never lived in Birmingham and has never had any contract with this company.

Surely it's down to the solicitors to get their information and accusations correct?

I was thinking that it's outrageous that these letters can drop through the letter box randomly - someone could have a heart attack. Some poor soul could be frightened into paying a debt that they don't owe. I know people who would do this in order to make the problem go away.

How is the onus on us to make this go away? We're just plodding on - living life ..... It's absolutely ridiculous how this can happen.

What do we do to make them listen?

First of all, do you know whether this is a legitimate firm of solicitors? If so, I would state the facts above and tell them they are completely wrong and should stop harassing you. If they want to take it to court, let them.

There are a number of Solicitor firms who seem to specialise in this sort of thing working either for phone companies or people who buy debts at a fraction of their value in the hope a handful will settle.

I wouldn't try and deal with them on the phone.

It's for them to prove that your hubby is the person who took out this contract not for you to disprove it. Write to them at the address on their letters setting out the facts about where you live, your husband's health etc and denying any liability.

Make clear that, were court proceedings issued, they would be vigorously defended.

Tell them not to contact you again other than to confirm that they have closed their file. If they do you will treat it as harassment and report them to the Solicitors Regulatory Authority.

Speak to Citizens Advice and Trading Standards. This has useful info on you options:
www.citizensadvice.org.uk/debt-and-money/action-your-creditor-can-take/harassment-by-creditors/#:~:text=If%20the%20creditor%20tries%20to,such%20as%20Twitter%20and%20Facebook

Check that it’s a legitimate law firm: solicitors.lawsociety.org.uk/?Pro=True

If you reply and tell them you’ll vigorously contest the claim, say you’ll also be pursuing them for costs (ie they pay your legal costs).

is this from a solicitors in Sunbury ?

You need to write to them formally (via a solicitor may help) and say you are not the named person and have not ever resided at or near the address given. At the time the of the dated signature on the forms shown as evidence of the debt you have clear irrefutable evidence that you were elsewhere and indeed incapacitated. You then need some form of words indicating that this is harassment - any debt solicitor can provide you with the references you need to put in here. I would also say something like any further harassment or legal expense incurred in defending yourself against this claim will be payable by themselves.

The debt will have been sold on to this firm for pennies in the pound who are now trying to resolve the debt to make their money back.

It is up to them to prove the debt and prove that it is you. So far they have not done this.

This is IF the debt is yours - you still have protection
Harassment by creditors - Citizens Advice

There is some more info here if debt not yours
Disputing Debts With Creditors. My Rights. StepChange

I am sure more could be found on those two sites or you could call helplines and get more info. However a solicitor who deals with this sort of thing day in and day out may be worth it.

When myself and my husband first met many moons ago he was being pursued for a debt in the region of 250K they had only just found him and started writing to him. It was time barred for 1 and 2 they couldn't prove the debt - it was in the early 90's and when some mortgage companies had created bad mortgages, all sorts of legal issues and clumps of mortgages had been bought out by new mortgage companies and passed along. A company bought the debts for literally 1p for each £1 of debt and so they were offering all sorts of deals to "clear off" the debt. The reality when I looked into it was it had been wrongly issued (broker fraud) no clear and legal processes had been followed to repossess the property - no proper documentation and hand overs and also then illegal sales of the property at well below market value even for that time. So we did one response, we didn't confirm names, addresses, debt or anything and just asked for hard evidence of the debt. After all the buy outs and hand overs between what must have been 30 companies (we tracked them) they had none. They went away and it is well beyond time barred. The original debt had been in the region of £20k and the repo resale more than covered it, so alot of the charges and racked up debt were also not legal so in my view they got what they deserved.

Sorry that long story is to give you hope - that debt originally existed and they were not allowed to harass him in that way - you don't even owe this.

@NewspaperChips

Yes - it's registered as solicitors.

I'll put in writing that they'll be liable for any costs incurred.

I really can't be bothered - it's nothing to do with us. Why should we have to defend ourselves - surely the onus is on them?

Any signatures they have don't belong to H. The address on the contract sounds like a huge block of flats in Birmingham - neither of us have ever been there.

It's like if I stood in the street and started accusing passer-byes of owing me huge sums of money - I'd be locked up.

Is there no code of conduct to ensure that they target the actual/real debtor? They seem to be desperately clutching at straws.

This feels awful - never had any debt or been late paying bills.

Surrey

Tell them to take your DH to court and prove it's him. They can't. Your DH can prove where he was on that date this contract was signed. A judge would laugh it out of court.

the reason I ask is that we were pestered by a solicitors office in Surrey,
my OH said it was Walton, apparently they are aaffiliated with debt collectors -
this was for a parking ticket. I was parked 3mins over time, showed my receipt
from M&S, an end to it, but they were like terriers in a rat infested barn, honestly,
you have to hold your nerve.
For us, the situation only resolved itself when we moved.
If it is who I think it is, they are infamous.
good luck anyway, let good sense prevail