creditors chasing ex-girlfriend won't go away

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When my girlfriend came to live with me, she left a lot of her debts behind at her old address. She handed in the keys to her house last February to the Halifax.

Nothing has been heard from creditors until about 4 months ago, but she ignored the letters.

Now we have split up. Most creditors that have written I have phoned and told that she has gone. But a firm called Westcot Credit keep sending notices and threatening letters "confirming" that she lives here and they wanted their money. I rang them and told them that she had moved out. That didn't stop the letters and I have had a further two from Westcot and one from their solicitors demanding money.

I have written to the solicitors stating that she is not here and I do not appreciate their harrassment and that I would seek legal advice, hoping that this might be the end. But it wasn't!

Two days ago a letter arrived addressed to my ex from a collections agency called "ScotCall". Its for the same debt and they are saying that they will be calling to the house for the money.

Quite frankly I am sick of this. My girlfriend and I split up reasonably amicably and I know that she stayed in the UK for a about a month before leaving to stay in Canada indefinately.

I don't see why I should spend money on a solicitor when I am the innocent party and its money I can ill afford. Is there anything that I can say to these collectors to make them go away?

Any advice would be appreciated.

-- james killen (james_killen@hotmail.com), January 31, 2000

Answers

This is the typical WESTCOT Pattern and standard follow on procedure as they do and will ,as usual not leave you alone GO to your Local Trading Standards at your town hall make a formal complaint and if you want to make sure ask them for subject access under the data protection act -ok they may ignore your request or state that is is not your debt-but make sure always that during all these leters they have not put your name on . Ok they will state why do you want an access report ,just go ahead and do it sit back and see what happens next

Charles

-- charles twford (charles.twford@lineone.com), January 31, 2000.


What has probably happened is that Westcot have given up chasing the debt. The creditor has decided then to use Scotcall as a second placement agency. Scotcall are based in Glasgow and specialise in doorstep collection. They also collect for agencies who are unable to offer their own doorstep facilities (FCA, DL&C, FTC etc). If someone does call just tell him/her that the debtor has moved away and the collector will abort the account.

-- Mark O'Keeffe (markokeeffe@lineone.net), February 10, 2000.

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