How do lender's see repossessees they are chasing for more cash? This internal log was obtained from the Bradford & Bingley Building Society under the Data Protection Act Subject Access Provisions. We have imitated the layout of the log as closely as possible, but added a column on the right for our explanations. It makes more sense if you read it from the bottom up because the top stuff is the lender's latest "action".
We served a second DPA subject access rights notice on the Bradford & Bingley over this case 18 months after the first. But - bizarrely - Bradford & Bingley blanked out parts of the second log - even though we had seen some of the entries first time around. As a result, we have:
| Entered Date | Diary Date | Diary Text | "Entered Date" is the date the note was made.
"Diary Date" is the date by which they expect a response or other action. "Diary text" is the lender's view of what's happening. |
| 09 March 1999 | 01 December 1999 | FILE RETURNED | We obtained this diary log by serving Subject Access Rights noticed in 1997 and November 1999 and stitching together Bradford & Bingley's responses. The absence of entries after March 1999 suggests Bradford & Bingley stopped keeping electronic records on this case in order to stop any more of it from being published.
The 01 December 1999 diary date here suggests that it planned to take no further action until then. The Bradford & Bingley will have realised by this time that the material was not creating a good impression on new customers. If you doubt that Bradford & Bingley is sensitive about the impression this log gives, ask yourself why its staff blanked out these lines lower down the second time they responded to our Subject Access Rights notice |
| 05 March 1999 | 01 December 1999 | FILE WITH P JORDAN RE PAGE ON WEBSITE | Pretty much self-explanatory. We assume P Jordan is Paul Jordan - the Bradford & Bingley lawyer whose "interesting" treatment of another Bradford & Bingley customer is laid out in the sequence of letters that begins here. |
| 22 April 1998 | 01 December 1998 | LTR RECD FROM HIM ADVISING WILL NOT HELP DEBT COLLECTORS UNTIL REQD INFO RECD - ALREADY ADDRESSED |
Bradford & Bingley now blanks out parts of their returns to DPA Subject Access Rights notices. We think this is because they know we are likely to publish them. You can see it doing this in another Bradford & Bingley customer log we have published. |
| 08 April 1998 | 01 December 1998 | DEBT COLLECTION LTR ISSUED AS PER CH NOTED - STATUS ETC LEFT AS BEFORE - GAF | No change in their plans other than to issue the "we'll send in the debt collectors" threat. GAF = Gary Flynn, a Bradford & Bingley debt collector |
| 03 April 1998 | 01 December 1998 | CH REVIEWED FILE. NATURE OF WORK SUCH THAT LEGAL ACTION TOO RISKY NOT APPROPRIATE FOR BANKRUPTCY BUT VERY GOOD DEBT COLLECTION CASE BECAUSE OF LEVEL OF INCOME. GF TO ISSUE DEBT COLLECTION LETTER | GF is Gary Flynn |
| 02 April 1998 | 26 April 1998 | REIVEWED (sic) & PASSED TO CH FOR POTENTIAL LITIGATION OWING TO EARNINGS | CH will be a member of staff, possibly Gary Flynn's boss |
| 23 February 1998 | 30 March 1998 | ADDITIONAL INFO RECEIVED FROM DATA RE JOB & NOTED - HE IS A FREELANCE JORNALIST (sic) & WORKING ON A S/EMPL BASIS - APPROX 20/35K PA - BILL PAID BUT NO ACTION TAKEN THIS D/D | S/EMPL = self-employed. Data Research's job title information is accurate but four month's out of date and the earnings are too high (it was 15k profit on a £24k turnover). This is the only detective agency that has been able to get his job details. We think this was because he had signed on unemployed seven months earlier. The Inland Revenue had known he was self-employed since 1994, yet previous agents' attempts to get his earnings failed. Either Data Research can get into IR records or, more likely, the customer signing on as unemployed opened up a new source of information to private detectives. Data Research's bill has been paid. "NO ACTION TAKEN THIS D/D" means no action has been taken on this date - 02 April 1998 |
| 09 February 1998 | 28 February 1998 | DATA REPORT RECD BUT NO SALARY OR JOB TITLE ETC - RETAIN REPORT BUT SENT BACK WANTING MORE INFO IE JOB TITLE & SALARY/DRAWINGS | Pointer Data Research |
| 02 January 1998 | 28 February 1998 | DATA REPORT O/S +1 | Data Research's report is now a month outstanding |
| 27 November 1997 | 27 December 1997 | LTR RECEIVED FROM HIM ADVISING AS WE HAVE NOT GIVEN HIM REQUIRED INFO HE IS DOING NOTHING - ALL AGENT INFO SENT TO HIM INCLUDING NAMES- WAIT FOR DATA REPORT THEN INSTRUCT & REPLY BRIEFLY TO LTR | This entry contains no evidence of the Bradford & Bingley letter to which this customer was replying. AGENTS could mean estate agents or the detective agents that had been identified by the customer's earlier Data Protection Act Subject Access Rights notice. We have evidence that Bradford & Bingley has become sensitive about releasing agent names. DATA is Data Research again (see below). INSTRUCT means ask solicitors to begin court action. |
| 05 November 1997 | 27 December 1997 | NB T/C RECD FROM COMPLIANCE ASKING FOR FULL PRINT OF LRU NOTES OWEING TO DEBTOR REQUESTING AS PER DATA PROTECTION - SUPPLIED | COMPLIANCE is Bradford & Bingley's compliance department - which deals with Data Protection Act notices. LRU is Bradford & Bingley's Loss Recovery Unit, whose diary logs you are reading. DATA PROTECTION is the Data Protection Act under which we obtained this diary log |
| 05 November 1997 | 27 December 1997 | COPY LTR RECD OF 20/8/97 LTR NOT PREVIOUSLY RECD - DOES NOT CHANGE ANYTHING SO RETAINED PENDING IMMINENT CC ACTION | Flynn does not record that he sent a letter to the customer on this date. At this point you realise the Bradford & Bingley has "cleaned" this record for public viewing. The debt collector (probably Gary Flynn) is recording receipt of a letter the customer sent to him after the customer discovered that the debt collector hadn't received a letter the customer sent to him earlier in this chase. The customer sent the letter again when he realised Bradford & Bingley had not received it.
This log also contained no record of the customer ringing Flynn to check if he had received the letter. |
| 27 October 1997 | 27 December 1997 | DATA REPORT O/S PENDING INSTRUCTIONS TO SOLICTORS TO COMMENCE PROCEEDINGS | O/S = outstanding
Note: from here on up, you are reading the results of a second Subject Access Rights notice. |
| 10 October 1997 | 25 October 1997 | DATA TO PRELIT AS Wescot UNABLE TO 3/4 | Bradford & Bingley commissions DATA to prepare a pre-litigation report. We think the agent is Pointer Data Research. 3/4 means 3 out of 4 detective agents were employed. Prelit is the prelitigation report lenders ask for before deciding whether or not to sue. It estimates their chances of recovering any money if they do win. The entry is incomplete but we think Wescot were unable to get enough data about this customers' earnings for the Bradford & Bingley to feel confident about suing him. |
| 30 September 1997 | 30 November 1997 | Wescot REPORT O/S 2/4 +1 | Westcot's report on his earnings is outstanding. +1 means they've had a month to compile it. 2/4 means 2 out of 4 available detective agents have worked on it |
| 10 September 1997 | 28 September 1997 | Wescot TO DO REPORT AS THEY DID TRACE | Lender asks Wescot to prepare the report as they found the repossessee (using, we suspect, credit reference agency reports and a mobile phone application form) |
| 10 September 1997 | 27 September 1997 | CI TO PRELIT AS ALTHOUGH I&E ON FILE NO MENTION OF WHOM HE WORKS FOR - AS SOON AS RECD THEN LITIGATE | CI is Corporate Investigation - a tracing agency. I&E is his Income & Expenditure details. Prelit is a report estimating his true earnings and employer details. See Do's & Don'ts or further up this log to see why employer name is so important to them. |
| 04 September 1997 | 16 October 1997 | KNOWN POST OUTSTANDING - DIARY ON | Means they haven't received a reply to their last letter. In fact, the repossessee had replied to it and re-sent it after discovering that they hadn't received it. "Diary On" means the countdown to suing him has started. |
| 14 August 1997 | 04 September 1997 | LTR RECD FROM HIM ASKING FOR MARKETING DETAILS & VALNS DECLINED & ADVISED HE WAS WELL AWARE OF SITU & HOW ABOUT HE SUE THE ORIG VALUER? OH & STILL SEE YOU IN COURT |
"LTR"=Letter. "RECD"=Received. "VLNS"=Valuations. Note the final comment and contrast it with lender claims that they hate taking borrowers to court. Note: When we served a second Data Protection Act Subject Access Rights notice on Bradford & Bingley, we found it had blanked out the sarcastic lines. This is just part of the evidence that these logs have been "cleaned" |
| 17 July 1997 | 14 August 1997 | LTR RECD FROM A1-B ASSN SAYING HE IS NOT ENTERING INTO AN OPEN ENDED AGREEMENT & WILL OFFER 25PM FOR 3YRS - DECLINE & ADVISE WE WILL SEE HIM IN COURT | "A1-B ASSN"= Bankruptcy Association of Great Britain. They originally negotiated on behalf of this borrower. "25PM"=£25 per month |
| 06 July 1997 | 07 August 1997 | LTR RECD FROM A1-BASSN OFFERING 500 - DECLINED & ADVISED WANTING 25PM AS ONLY ON LOW WAGE BUT MANAGING TO PUT ASIDE 30PM FOR GIFT ETC | "A1-B ASSN"= Bankruptcy Association of Great Britain. They originally negotiated on behalf of this borrower. "25PM"=£25 per month |
| 19 June 1997 | 28 July 1997 | DIARY ON PENDING RESP | "Diary On" means they've replied to his last letter and will prepare to sue if no response received by the diary date. |
| 16 May 1997 | 19 June 1997 | LTR RECD ASKING TO VERIFY FLAT SALE PRICE & WHICH FIGURE WE ARE LOOKING FOR - ANSWERED | "LTR"=Letter. "RECD"=Received. |
| 07 May 1997 | 03 June 1997 | NEW FILE RECD FROM PROJECT TEAM ALREADY STRIPPED & READY FOR RECOVERY. +VE Wescot REPORT ON FILE SO INIT LTR SENT TO 46 DER &482 SENT TO H/O | "+VE"=Positive, meaning here that the repossessee has been found and seems to be earning. "46 DER" is an abbreviation for the repossessee's address. "Recovery" means debt recovery. "INIT LTR"=Initial letter. |
| 20 March 1997 | 21 May 1997 | Wescot INSTRUCTED TO TRACE | Wescot is a tracing and debt recovery agency owned by the Equifax credit reference agency. |
| 31 May 1995 | 31 May 1995 | MIG RECALC - INDEXED FIGS AMENDED | Reference to the repossessee's mortgage insurancy policy. |
| 31 January 1995 | 31 January 1995 | ORIGINAL VALUATION CHECKED. PROPERTY IN VERY POOR CONDITION - ORIG WITHIN 10% | Means that the Bradford & Bingley had re-valued it to see whether a likely claim against the original surveyor might succeed and determined that it would not because it was less than 10%. Courts don't generally grant claims against surveyors where the valuation is less than 10% off. |
| 19 December 1994 | 19 December 1994 | Diarised on, from 19.03.1995 to 01.01.95 | No explanation available. |
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