HFC / Restons Claims £6k against me :( Won (in a way)

[Amethyst]

Hi guys

Okay had a letter today from RESTONs Solicitors.

Basically I had a loan for 6k to pay off a credit card (I KNOW!!!)
I got into difficulties paying and contacted CCCS.
A couple of weeks ago I had a default letter from HFC. I contacted CCCS and they said the repayments were set up and agreed with HFC and there wasn't a way to avoid the Default (which is fine becuase I thought I'll get all the defaults on now then by the time my DMP is finished my credit file will be clear too) so to ignore the letter.

Then today I have a letter from the solicitors - dated 10//8 wanting payment of £7000+ by the 17th. The default balance is stated as being £6058 and the Collection Charge is quoted as being £1000+ !!!!

The letter also says their client want to give me a specially discounted settlement figure.

I dont want to call them until I know my options, and I cant speak to CCCS until monday.

Any ideas guys ?


(and I havent had a reply to my Data Protection Act request as yet)

[Amethyst]

Re: HFC / Restons Claims £6k against me Won (in a way)

Well I cant really do a CCA as I acknoweldge the debt - I have it - its not very old.

The loan account doesnt have any charges on it. This £1000 charge is excessive and I would be asking for a breakdown of it from the solicitors.

The account is being paid through CCCS so basically I have to call them and see what they say first - although they seem to accept penalty charges without question.

So I'll call them first thing Monday and see what they recommend -

this reduced settlement figure - any ideas what kid of percentage its likely to be ? For if its like 2k and we write off the debt I may forgoe my windows (that hurts !) and pay it off, gaining us £60 a month odd to pay to other creditors.
Or if they offer a reduced settlement figure do they still let you pay in installments ? So I could accept a lower figure and continue paying through CCCS at the same rate I am doing and it would just be paid of earlier ?

Well, guess I have to speak to CCCS.

[Amethyst]

Re: HFC / Restons Claims £6k against me Won (in a way)

Called CCCS - I am paying the account at 66.36 monthly (the original payment was £148 so its not hugely different)

01925 661600 is the solicitors direct number from saynoto0870

CCCS dont really advise much - they just say they'll send their paperwork on to Restons and change the address the payments are made to. I asked them about questionning the £1000+ collection charge and the increased default balance, and said I would contact the solicitors to request a breakdown in writing of this (You'd think thats what CCCS would advise? they did sound suprised when I told them the amount of the charge LOL)

I also said I would ask for a reduced settlement figure based on my ability to pay monthly (which CCCS didnt seem to think of either)

I'm glad I basically know my rights now as I think CCCS would just have had me paying this extra £1000 odd back and increasing my payment period.....
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~ ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
Then I called the solicitors - they wouldnt talk to me fully as its in my husbands name - but I told her the account was with CCCS and gave her the reference number - she said they would deal with them - I also asked her for a breakdown of the Collection Charge and default balance and she got all confused and 'CCCS dont usually ask for that ! - and people dont usually question the amount ..... OMG ! why would people not question a collection charge of over £1000 !!!!!!!! I also asked about the reduced settlement and basically we cant have it if we still want to pay monthly through CCCS.... so considering reduced windows

So husband has to phone her tonight (so I'll have to write down what he has to say LOL) to request the breakdown etc. Should be interesting.

Anything else you think of we can ask them let me know

Cheers guys.

Karne
x

[Amethyst]

Re: HFC / Restons Claims £6k against me Won (in a way)

spoke to solicitors who said the £1000+ collection charge was applied by HFC before it was passed to the solicitors.

spoke to HFC who said yes theres lots of late payment charges on the account (so i'll claim those back LOL) and had no record of the £1000+ collection charge.

I now have to call their Litigation Dept tmw as they are shut now.
That'll be fun.

Also I was told that although CCCS have had two payments from us now they have not made any payments to HFC as agreed and thats why the default has occured.

So another call to CCCS in the morning me thinks.

Am I doing okay >???????

[Amethyst]

Re: HFC / Restons Claims £6k against me Won (in a way)

poken to litigation dept.
Basically the £1000 collection charge is a contracted amount of 16.3% to cover the expenses of passing it on to a DCA (which is what Restons are essentially) They will not give me a breakdown of this so I am writing to them to chase my Data Protection Act reuqest and specifially requesting that breakdown, and a refund of late payment charges applied to the account.

The defualt balance is correct - if I had paid the full monthly installment over the 36 months the loan would have cost £8200 odd, so its this minus what I have paid.

Also spoke to CCCS
Basically to stop the default occuring HFC wanted a payment - if I had of made that payment it would have meant my DMP would have been cancelled.

I asked if the 16.3% would be deemed disproportionate to their costs, thus making it unlawful. And she didnt think so.

Then she started saying about the OFt announcment in April and how some people had been refunded some charges straight after this report, but they weren't repaying any more (me thinking OH yes they are) I said would it be worth asking, she said its worth asking but i wouldnt expect you to get anywhere.

Maybe the CCCS should be kept a bit more up to date with all the proceedings and refunds being made at the moment...

So my plan

Send S.A.R - (Subject Access Request) request under Data Protection Act reminder to HFC
Write and ask for breakdown of the charge (apparently they have to do this within 14 days) and try and have this refunded as dispropotionate ?

What do you think - is that the right way to go?

I'm going to have to leave the accounts to default to get the CCCS DMP working properly, as I only have £178 a month for 9 creditors.

[Amethyst]

Re: HFC / Restons Claims £6k against me Won (in a way)

FFS ! I need some help guys....

received court claim from restons on behalf of HFC


I'm calling CCCS now to discuss it with them but have a feeling they wont be much help

Claim issued by moneyclaim - dated 23rd August

so they didnt give much time as warning.....and I contact them last week as I mentioned above

Also Restons said they would deal with CCCS - and didnt say anything about submitting a court claim


My first thought is to admit part of the claim (The £6058 part as this is the actual debt)

I want to counterclaim for the late payment charges but this is only like £75

I also do not admit to owing their sodding collection charge od £1009.93 as they are refusing to give me a breakdown of what this refers to and I believe it is disproportianate to their costs.

[Amethyst]

Re: HFC / Restons Claims £6k against me Won (in a way)

Thank Lula

Spoke to CCCS

they'd be great if I didnt have any reason to query the amount on the debt - they are of the opinion that I'd have no chance getting the £1000 deducted.

I have 14 days so shall I chase them for the breakdown or use this in my defence of that part of the claim ?

They have filed the claim with moneyclaim - CCCS were going on about how they had to do lots of paperowrk and apply to the courts before filing the claim - pah !

Its so unfair - we make sure we give them 28 days and they can give us whatever notice they feel like.

The particulars of claim are rather shoddy too in my opinion. They havent quoted any legislation at all - its basically the same as some of these claims people are putting through and getting the 'embarrased'by lack of particulars defences from Abbey.

I'll type the particulars out in full in a mo.

[Amethyst]

Re: HFC / Restons Claims £6k against me Won (in a way)

Particulars of Claim.

The Claimant claims payment of the overdue balance due from the Defendant under a contract dated on or about 24/08/2004 in the sum of £7068.34

PARTICULARS a/c no - XXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXX

DATE.........ITEM........ ..........VALUE
10/08/06 Default Balance .........£6058.41
10/08/06. Collection Charge........£1009.93
Post Refrl Cr ...........NIL

TOTAL: - £7068.34





then they add the court fee and solicitors costs on making the total they want me to pay £7408.34 !!!!!!!

tempting to send them the embarrassed defence back LOL

[Amethyst]

Re: HFC / Restons Claims £6k against me Won (in a way)

CCCS are sending me the income/expenditure lists from my DMP to submit with my defence/admission.

Theres probably 4 x £15 late payment charges which I could contest.

Other than that I admit liability for the loan default amount.

I have asked HFC for a statement of this account and havent received this yet.

It seems CCCS want me just to admit I owe all the claim and offer to pay what I am already paying £68 a month, and expect HFC to put a charging order on my house. Which I am not happy with whatsoever. CCCS also say it is unheard off for this collection charge to be deducted from the amount.

Also as I contacted the solicitors in good time and they were dealing with CCCS why on earth should I pay their court fees and soicitors costs ?


My questions are:

Can I counterclaim that the £1000 odd collection charge is a disproportionate penalty ?

and also for the late payment charges ?


Can I contend that the claim should not have been brought as I have already an agreement in place to pay them ?

[Amethyst]

Re: HFC / Restons Claims £6k against me Won (in a way)

Right Called CCCS again

They are sending me my budget plan, and a screen print shoing that a letter went from them to HFC on 22nd June offering to pay £68 a month.

As far as I am aware this was agreed by HFC and the plan commenced at the beginning of August. The payments go out form CCCS on the 10th of each month so they would have received the first payment around the 15th.

CCCS say they cant send me a copy of the actual letter offering to pay or a copy of any letters back from HFC agreeing to the reduced payment.

I'm thinking along the lines of getting the claim struck out ? because the default and the claim have been made after an agreement to pay was made.....

what do you think ?

I'll get husband to call HFC this evening and get a copy of the credit agreement, contract and a full statement of the account.

I'm still waiting for a reply to my letter asking for a breakdown of the collection charge - if this 16% odd isnt in the contract I'll definately dispute that....if it is can I still dispute it as a disproportiate penalty ???

[Amethyst]

Re: HFC / Restons Claims £6k against me Won (in a way)

Thanks N.O.

I do need someone who can type legally stuff for me... I know what I mean but getting it into words is a bit of a nightmare.

I wont have proof of asking for the statement of account as it was on the telephone and they sent me the statement for the wrong account......

I'll see what I can come up with this evening.

[Amethyst]

Re: HFC / Restons Claims £6k against me Won (in a way)

Sharon.

Step 1. Knowledge claim on MCOL today this gives you 28 days to file defence.

Step 3. Then admit £6058, and file a defence to the £1,000 charges. If this a personal loan we will use the CCA and OFT debt collection guidance as your defence. Do not worry.

Fill out a N9A admitting the £6,058 and fill in the budget (do not under estimate as this is what you will be paying each month after judgement).

Step 3 (and last). I will post later as I have to run but this is your defence.

[Amethyst]

Re: HFC / Restons Claims £6k against me Won (in a way)

Thankyou Ashley - I appreciate your help.

yes it is a personal loan.

I'll stick to the budget plan I did for CCCS as that is working fine. I can copy this over to the N9A form.

I'll be getting all the paperwork together tmw. Have requested info from CCCS and HFC re the accounts so it could take a couple days.

[Amethyst]

Re: HFC / Restons Claims £6k against me Won (in a way)

i didnt specify on the S.A.R - (Subject Access Request) that I required a copy of the agreement and havent sent them a CCA letter and £1 fee - which I believe is required before the debts uneforeable.

I am asking the solicitors to ask their client for a copy of the agreement and original contract - mainly to see if 16.3% is quoted in the contract to enable me to fight the 1k collection charge. If the actual percentage isnt quoted I stand more chance than if it is.....

I'll admit the claim (the actual debt of 6k) partially and fight the 1k, court costs and sols costs....

thanks


(have asked solicitors to get the following from HFC by 6th Sept)

breakdown of collection charge
full original contract and terms and conditions
copy of signed credit agreement
full statement of account.


Have acknowldged the claim with intent to defend part of the claim.

[Amethyst]

Re: HFC / Restons Claims £6k against me Won (in a way)

Just thinking - as this claim against me is for over 5k its fasttrack ( I'm only defending 1k odd of it so will get it transferred to small claims) - but in fast track the Part 18 request is valid ?????

If I get no joy before Wednesday with the solictors could I submit a Part 18 request for information ?? What time scales would this bind them too etc.

Just a thought, any help would be appreciated.