** Lost ** Moriarty Law/MMF v lb1989

[lb1989]

Really got no idea what to do next, what should I be putting in my defence? I guess so far I’ve got an unclear CCA, an incorrect agreement date on the POC, and a satisfied CRA entry from Mr Lender in 2013, with no equivalent MMF/Lantern entry

[Amethyst]

I'll get a basic outline for you to work from xx

[Amethyst]

VERY ROUGH STARTING POINT WORK IN PROGRESS just to give you a start point and some bits to research when writing your defence. Input/rewording etc very welcome of course. I'm not a lawyer so CHECK CHECK CHECK !! Obviously if you CAN get formal legal advice as it's a bit complex arguing mis-stated credit etc that would be best but I have no idea whether it can work out cost effective for a £350 claim. Some firms will give advice for free on the phone but they'd need to be consumer credit specialists ( so like Diana M and pt2537 's firms ) but I don't know if they can do small small claims on CFA's ( back end fees ) - I think the aim really is to get MMF to discontinue in your case.




In the Northampton County Court Business Centre
Claim No: [XXXXX]

Motormile Finance Ltd
Claimant
And

[Defendants Name]

Defendant




DEFENCE

1. I received the claim (Claim number) from the Northampton County Court on 16^th March 2018.
2. Each and every allegation in the Claimants statement of case is denied unless specifically admitted in this Defence.
3. This claim appears to be for an agreement regulated under the Consumer Credit Act 1974. The Claimant’s Statement of Case states that the Defendant owes the Claimant £350 under a regulated loan agreement with PDL Finance Ltd T/A Mr Lender dated 04/10/2013.
4. The Claimants statement of case states that the account was assigned to Motormile Finance UK Ltd (MMF) on 10/02/2014. The Defendant does not recall receiving notice of this assignment.
5. It is denied that PDL Finance Ltd t/a Mr Lender served any Default notice on the Defendant pursuant to s87 Consumer Credit Act 1974. The Claimant is required to prove that a compliant Default Notice was served upon the Defendant.
6. On 18^th March 2018 I sent a request to Moriarty Law ( the Claimant’s Solicitor) for inspection of documents mentioned in the claimant’s statement of case under Civil Procedure Rule 31.14. I requested the Claimant provide copies of the Agreement, Assignment and Formal Demand.
7. Moriarty Law has not complied with my request and has not sent any of these documents to me.
8. On 18^th March 2018 I sent a formal request for a copy of the original agreement to the Claimant, Motormile Finance Ltd ( MMF) pursuant to section 78 of the Consumer Credit Act 1974 along with the statutory £1 fee.
9. On 23^rd March 2018 I received a letter from a company called ‘Lantern’ enclosing a copy of the alleged agreement and returning my statutory £1 payment. I have not received any notice of assignment nor notification of any change of name from the Claimant.
10. The agreement sent is dated XX/10/2013 not the 04/10/2013 as stated by the Claimant in their statement of case.
11. The Lender is stated to be ‘Mr Lender, PO Box 366, Loughton, IG10 9EW’ and the Credit Intermediary as ‘Mr Lender, Suite 105W, Sterling House, Langston Road, Loughton, IG10 3TS’.There is no mention on the agreement of ‘PDL Finance’ only the Trading as name of ‘Mr Lender’. The name and postal address of the Creditor are required to be displayed on the agreement ( Sch.1 Para 2.The Consumer Credit (Agreements) Regulations 1983 )
12. The amount of credit is mis-stated on the agreement to be £200. Which appears to include sum for an Administration fee of £7 and a Same Day Transfer Fee of £10 which were not optional and should be stated as a Charge for Credit. The Amount of Credit should be stated as £183.
13. A term stating the amount of the credit is a prescribed term for the purposes of Sections 61(1)(a) prescribed by the Consumer Credit (Agreements) Regulations 1983, Regulation 6(1) and paragraph 2 of Schedule 6.
14. The Total Amount Payable is stated to be £270.
15. The APR of the Agreement is stated to be 63144%. The interest rate is stated as being either 1.94% per day or 1.17% per day – and both are stated as being equivalent to 672% per annum.Therefore the interest rate and APR are mis-stated.
16. The duration of the Agreement is stated to be 18 days.
17. The Agreement states Repayment of £70 should be made on the 22/10/2013 ‘or such later date as we shall specify.
18. This is 18 days after the start of the agreement. Therefore this is misleading as it would appear to the Debtor if the stated repayment of £70 is made the agreement is at an end.
19. No further amounts of payment, nor dates, are stated clearly for the Debtor. The agreement is unclear and it would appear it may be incomplete and thus the Claimant has failed to comply fully with s.78 of the Consumer Credit act 1974 and therefore is unable to enforce the agreement.
20. There is no indication of the Total Charge for Credit (Sch 1. s.9 The Consumer Credit (Agreements) Regulations 1983 )
21. Due to the infringements on the regulated Consumer Credit Agreement an order of the court is required to be obtained by the Lender under s127(1)&(2) of the Consumer Credit Act 1974, and in the absence of such the Claimant cannot enforce the agreement.
22. The Claimant has not given any detail of how the amount claimed has been calculated.It appears from the supplied Agreement that the original loan was £183. In the absence of further information from the Claimant I do not know how they have arrived at a sum of £350 to claim.
23. On attempting to find out more information I have checked my Credit Reference Agencies file.The only entry for Mr Lender is shown as ‘Satisfied’ and closed on xxxx 2013.
24. Under Civil Procedure Rule 16.5 (4) where the claim includes a money claim, a defendant shall be taken to require that any allegation relating to the amount of money claimed be proved unless he expressly admits the allegation. Therefore, it is expected that the Claimant be required to prove the allegation that the money is owed as claimed.
25. I request the court orders the Claimant to provide the necessary documentation in order for me to fully plead my case else the Claim should stand struck out.
26. In the event that the relevant documents are received from the Claimant I will then be in a position to amend my defence, and would ask that the Claimant bear the costs of the amendment.
27. It is denied that the Claimant is entitled to the relief as claimed or at all.

Statement of Truth
The Defendant believes that the facts stated in this Defence are true.
Signed ________________________________
Dated ________________________________

[lb1989]

This is great, thanks @AMETHYST; . I'll spend some time with this today. Is submitting the defence on MCOL the best way to do it? Or sending in the post?

[Amethyst]

Either is fine, it may end up a bit too long for the restricted character limits on MCOL... you can email it to the court as a word or pdf attachment or post it ( just ensure it's in by the right date )

[lb1989]

I did manage to submit it on MCOL and I’ve seen some posts here before with stories of MCOL being unreliable so I had a PDF a copy ready to email, but it was acknowledged a couple of hours after submitting.

I submitted on Thursday, and yesterday (!) got a letter from Moriarty acknowledging it and they’ve said the documents requested. Is this a game for them, I sent them an original request nearly 4 weeks ago and they wait until the defence to send them?

anyway, they’ve sent the same copy of the credit agreement, a notice of assignment which looks to have been sent via email originally, and a statement of account which doesn’t add up (starting balance is over £500?) - I will take pictures and blank out personal stuff at some point today and post on here.

They have offered to settle out of court or through small claims mediation on their letter.

[lb1989]

Sorry for the delay, I've been away - a couple of updates from submitting the defence. I got a letter from Moriarty on 12th April referring to defence, and enlcosing the documents requested - agreement, notice of assignment and statement of account.

I then got another letter from Moriarty on Wednesday confirming they are proceeding with the claim.

I haven't had anything further from the court yet... what should I do next?

[Amethyst]

Okay, next step should be directions questionnaires from the court xxx

Yes, it is a bit of a game for them - they count on you being scared of the court process so wanting to settle if they say they're proceeding.

Is the agreement theyve sent same same as what you had ?

Whats the £200 adjustment do you know? Mind you the rest doesn't make a lot of sense either considering the original loan was 183 ....

[lb1989]

Ok thanks - so I can wait for the directions questionnaire to arrive?

re the £200 adjustment - I have no idea. The starting balance of £500+ doesn’t make sense either considering it was £183 loan

yes, the loan agreement they’ve sent is identical to the one that “Lantern” sent.

[Amethyst]

Yip just wait for that for now then you should get a copy of the claimants directions questionnaire as well.

[lb1989]

Okay so had a letter through today from CCBC with a copy of the DQ and a letter as attached. Is the idea here to go through Mediation first?

[Amethyst]

Okay good, you okay filling the DQ in ?

just looking back at their letters




says they confirm the bank account the £200 was paid into.... well it wasn't because they only paid out £183 ( any chance you can get that bank statement from that month ?)

So original loan was £200 ( well, £183 ) on

04/10/2013 - by Feb 14 it was £552 and there was some adjustment of £202 to make a nice round £350 random amount. They really will have to show how it went from the £183 to the £552 and what the adjustment was. I still think you're fine.

Mediate - most people tick yes, it doesn't hurt if it fails and if you WANT to settle at that point ( around the £183 mark ) it's entirely up to you and saves you having to deal with the court. You don't have to mediate, or settle at mediation, you could mediate for them to drop their claim .... but make sure you do get the DQ filled in and sent back to the court ( and a copy to the claimant ) ( actually the claimant is still down as MMF isn't it... I'm not sure but will look into whether they should be changing claimant name with the court )

[lb1989]

Should be fine filling in the DQ. I take it this one is by post then, no ability to submit on MCOL?

For “witnesses” do I put 1 for me, or is that for something else? It does say “including yourself”

re the statements - I’ll have to reach out to the bank to find out. I’m fairly sure I still have a savings account with them with a penny in, that should make it easier to get hold of the old current account statements.

Any reason to delay sending the DQ back? I’ve got just over 2 weeks but would rather just send it ASAP unless there’s a reason not to?

thanks for your help

[Amethyst]

Yip it's on paper ( you can fill in the pdf and email it to court but you'd have to send hard copy to claimant, so might as well do both on paper ) MCOL is pretty much done with at this stage in a claim.

Witness - 1 ( just you )

good to to hear you might be able to get bank statement - be something to evidence their documents aren't in order

no reason or benefit to delay returning the dq so just submit when you're ready

[lb1989]

Okay so DQ has been posted to court and MMF or whatever they're calling themselves these days

The deadline was towards the end of next week, I assume I'll hear more shortly after that?