DISCONTINUED !!!! - Court claim form from Lowell/Lloyds TSB

[eric4178]

Hi all,

Any advice and help you can give me would be gratefully received.

Date the claim was issued from the court - 12 Feb 2014

The full Particulars of Claim as detailed on the form:
"The Claimant's Claim is for the sum of £1192.51 being moneys due from the Defendant to the Claimant under a Current Accounts agreement regulated by the CCA 1974 between the Defendant and Lloyds TSB Bank PLC

under account reference xxxxx and assigned to the Claimant on 30/06/2013 notice of which has been given to the Defendant. The Defendant failed to maintain the contractual payment under the terms of the agreement and a default notice has been served and not complied with.

The claim also includes statutory interest pursuant to section 69 of the County Courts Act 1984 at a rate of 8% p.a from the date of the assignment of the agreement to the date of the issue (10/02/2014) being an amount of £49.72"
- Despite demand for payment, 14078 remains due
- The claimant claims 14368 and interest under s69 county court act 1984 and costs

The amount claimed -
Amount claimed - £1047.51
Solicitors costs - £80
Court fee - £65


Background to the debt/claim:
I grew up with an account with Lloyds TSB but decided to close down the account in September 2007 as I went back to university as a mature student and a different bank offered me a better deal. I was overdrawn at the time but well within the limit. In the closing letter, I explained that I was due to be paid on a certain date and that I would like my account to be closed down and any balance transferred to my new account (my wage bill at the time proved it would have covered it, though not by all that much). I also moved home.

Around 2 years later I received a letter from a debt collection agency advising that I owed almost £1000 to Lloyds TSB and that I was only to contact the DCA, not the bank. I sent a letter explaining that I was unaware of this debt and mentioned all I have as above. I didn't acknowledge the debt and asked for a detailed breakdown of how this amount had accrued. I heard nothing and all went quiet for a while.

Over the last 3 years or so, a number of DCAs have contacted me about this debt. I gave a similar, written response to the first one or two and heard nothing back from them, then stopped bothering as other DCAs sent letters through the door.

I don't have any old statements or correspondance to back up my story, anything that I had disappeared during another house move a couple of years ago.

I've been onto noddle and it says the account was defaulted in June 2009. It doesn't give me any further information or balances before Sept 2013. I don't recollect much from the actual time - I'd started in university, I'd just left home for the first time, I was planning a wedding and working part time and that account was something I never considered.

I will appreciate your help and advice on this matter urgently.

Eric

[FlamingParrot]

Re: Court claim form from Lowell/Lloyds TSB

Welcome to LB!

Any advice and help you can give me would be gratefully received.

Date the claim was issued from the court - 12 Feb 2014

First thing to do will be to acknowledge service of the claim, you can normally do this online with the password printed on your claim form. When you acknowledge, tick the box saying you intend to defend it in full. :typing: That will give you a total of 28 days to submit your defence, calculated from the date of service (5 days after the date printed on the claim). That should give you till the 7th of March.

The full Particulars of Claim as detailed on the form:
"The Claimant's Claim is for the sum of £1192.51 being moneys due from the Defendant to the Claimant under a Current Accounts agreement regulated by the CCA 1974 between the Defendant and Lloyds TSB Bank PLC

under account reference xxxxx and assigned to the Claimant on 30/06/2013 notice of which has been given to the Defendant. The Defendant failed to maintain the contractual payment under the terms of the agreement and a default notice has been served and not complied with.

The claim also includes statutory interest pursuant to section 69 of the County Courts Act 1984 at a rate of 8% p.a from the date of the assignment of the agreement to the date of the issue (10/02/2014) being an amount of £49.72"
- Despite demand for payment, 14078 remains due
- The claimant claims 14368 and interest under s69 county court act 1984 and costs

The amount claimed -
Amount claimed - £1047.51
Solicitors costs - £80
Court fee - £65

Background to the debt/claim:
I grew up with an account with Lloyds TSB but decided to close down the account in September 2007 as I went back to university as a mature student and a different bank offered me a better deal. I was overdrawn at the time but well within the limit. In the closing letter, I explained that I was due to be paid on a certain date and that I would like my account to be closed down and any balance transferred to my new account (my wage bill at the time proved it would have covered it, though not by all that much). I also moved home.

Around 2 years later I received a letter from a debt collection agency advising that I owed almost £1000 to Lloyds TSB and that I was only to contact the DCA, not the bank. I sent a letter explaining that I was unaware of this debt and mentioned all I have as above. I didn't acknowledge the debt and asked for a detailed breakdown of how this amount had accrued. I heard nothing and all went quiet for a while.

Over the last 3 years or so, a number of DCAs have contacted me about this debt. I gave a similar, written response to the first one or two and heard nothing back from them, then stopped bothering as other DCAs sent letters through the door.

I don't have any old statements or correspondance to back up my story, anything that I had disappeared during another house move a couple of years ago.

If no payments were made into the account since September 2007 and you never acknowledged the debt in writing, I'd say you could submit a SBd defence, putting the onus on the claimant to prove that it isn't. :grin:

It wouldn't be up to you to back up your argument, it would be up to them to show payments were made. Given that most banks claim not to hold data older than six years, I'd say Lowell won't be able to do it. :thumb:

I've been onto noddle and it says the account was defaulted in June 2009. It doesn't give me any further information or balances before Sept 2013. I don't recollect much from the actual time - I'd started in university, I'd just left home for the first time, I was planning a wedding and working part time and that account was something I never considered.

Credit files are not a reliable indicator of SBd statuts. When it comes to overdrafts, they are even less reliable, since there are no set payment dates as with cards and loans.

[eric4178]

Re: Court claim form from Lowell/Lloyds TSB

Thanks for your reply!

Would I need to get back in touch with Lowell stating I intend submitting a Statue Barred defence or will they automatically need to prove otherwise just by acknowledging service of the claim on the moneyclaim website?

[FlamingParrot]

Re: Court claim form from Lowell/Lloyds TSB

Thanks for your reply!

Would I need to get back in touch with Lowell stating I intend submitting a Statue Barred defence or will they automatically need to prove otherwise just by acknowledging service of the claim on the moneyclaim website?

No, you don't need to get back in touch with Lowell, you submit your defence to the court and they will pass it on to Lowell. If you haven't yet acknowledged service and you are sure about SBd, then you can just acknowledge and submit that as your defence at the same time.

A SBd defence would be along these lines (check dates, figures, etc.):

The claimant’s claim was issued on the 12th of February 2014.

The Claimant's defendant contends that the Claimant's claim so issued is a claim in contract and is statute barred pursuant to the provisions of Section 5 of the Limitation Act 1980. If, which is denied, the claimant contends that the Defendant is in breach of the alleged contract, in excess of 6 years have elapsed since the date on which any cause of action for breach accrued for the benefit of the Claimant.

The Claimant's claim to be entitled to payment of £1192.51 or any other sum, or relief of any kind is denied.

[eric4178]

Re: Court claim form from Lowell/Lloyds TSB

That's great. Thanks for that. I've submitted that as my defence, so I guess the next thing is to wait and see what happens.

[eric4178]

Re: Court claim form from Lowell/Lloyds TSB

It's been near enough 3 weeks since I submitted that defence and so far I've heard nothing back. Is this normal or might it be a good sign (hopefully)?

[eric4178]

Re: Court claim form from Lowell/Lloyds TSB

4 weeks to the day the defence was submitted and not a dickie bird. How much longer can they stretch these things out?

[eric4178]

Re: Court claim form from Lowell/Lloyds TSB

Righty-o, finally a response from BWLegal -

"We write with reference to the above matter.
Our client intends to continue with the claim.
Accordingly, please find attached copy correspondence sent to court."

Second page says the same plus confirmation that they have sent a copy of this letter to the defendant.

What should my next step be? Do I need to sent a CPR 31.14 letter to Lowell?

[FlamingParrot]

Re: Court claim form from Lowell/Lloyds TSB

Righty-o, finally a response from BWLegal -

"We write with reference to the above matter.
Our client intends to continue with the claim.
Accordingly, please find attached copy correspondence sent to court."

Second page says the same plus confirmation that they have sent a copy of this letter to the defendant.

What correspondence is that? Have you received a directions questionnaire yet?

What should my next step be? Do I need to sent a CPR 31.14 letter to Lowell?

You said on a previous post that you had submitted the statute barred defence I posted up for you, once you have done so you no longer send requests for documents which is what a CPR 31.14 letter is.

That's great. Thanks for that. I've submitted that as my defence, so I guess the next thing is to wait and see what happens.

[eric4178]

Re: Court claim form from Lowell/Lloyds TSB

Hi,

Yes, I've received a directions questionnaire which I have filled in and is ready to be sent. The letter I referred to was one sent by bwlegal. On page 1 it lists:

Our client: Lowell Portfolio 1 Ltd
Balance Due: xxxx,
Original creditor: Lloyds TSB Bank PLC
Original Account No: xxxxx
Claim Number: xxxxx
County Court: Northampton (County Court Bulk Centre) County Court

We write with reference to the above matter.

Our client intends to continue with the claim.

Accordingly, please find attached copy correspondence sent to court.

Page 2 is seemingly addressed to the Court Manager, Northampton Court,

Dear Sir/Madam

Claim No: xxxxx
Lowell Portfolio 1 Ltd -v- xxxxxx

The Claimant intends to continue with the claim.

We confirm that we have sent a copy of this letter to the Defendant.

Yours faithfully.

[FlamingParrot]

Re: Court claim form from Lowell/Lloyds TSB

That's fine, they are just stating their intention to continue with the claim after receiving your defence. Presumably you have returned the directions questionnaire as you said above. Best of luck! ray:

[eric4178]

Re: Court claim form from Lowell/Lloyds TSB

Thanks. I've received their directions questionnaire this morning.

They agree to mediation.

Number of witnesses - TBC!

E1: Have you included a fee with this form? - No!

I might be wrong but that makes me think they haven't got a shred of evidence to be able to prove I owe that money and that they have simply been scaremongering all along. If they had a concrete case, would they be more likely to pay the fee as they'd be confident of getting it back? Would not paying a fee suggest they have no confidence of winning and therefore losing said fee?

[eric4178]

Re: Court claim form from Lowell/Lloyds TSB

An update of sorts.

It's been over 2 1/2 months since I sent off my directions questionnaire. With the copy I sent to Lowell I thought I'd include a statute barred letter as found on this site, just thought it would be worthwhile letting them know my position as I saw it. Apart from their own directions questionnaire, I haven't heard a thing from Lowell. It's all gone very quiet.

In May I received a Notice of Transfer of Proceedings to my closest court. Last week I received a Notice of Allocation to the Small Claims Track giving a date for the hearing of the claim. According to this, "By 8th July, 2014, the parties must file with the Court and send to each other copies of all documents upon which they rely and copies of the written statements of themselves and their witnesses (if any)". I presume this means I'll need to write a statement? Can anyone give me some advise on this please? Thanks

[Amethyst]

Re: Court claim form from Lowell/Lloyds TSB

Morning

So you entered a statute barred defence - based on having attempted to close the account in September 07 and basically never hearing from them again.

There's not much you can do to evidence not making payments to an account but yes a WS is usually a good idea before a hearing. Lowells like to come up with random low value payments in 2010 so WS should include a definate statement that nothing has been paid to any DCA etc.

A Witness Statement is a factual account of what happened. I'll link an example ( http://www.legalbeagles.info/forums/...340#post411340 ) but basically

1: On xxxxxxxxxxxxx I did xxxxxxxxxxx
2: On xxxxxxxxxxxx I received xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx

etc.

On this part

I grew up with an account with Lloyds TSB but decided to close down the account in September 2007 as I went back to university as a mature student and a different bank offered me a better deal. I was overdrawn at the time but well within the limit. In the closing letter, I explained that I was due to be paid on a certain date and that I would like my account to be closed down and any balance transferred to my new account (my wage bill at the time proved it would have covered it, though not by all that much). I also moved home.

Would you have your new bank account statement from that time, was the excess paid over to your new account or did the wages just get paid in and you never heard any more about it. It may have been they had added charges on that meant your wages didn't quite cover it and its built up from there. However they didn't inform you of this so you were convinced that was the end of the account, all was paid up etc.

Would the account you had have attracted a charge if you didn't pay your salary in each month ? ie. if it wasn't closed as you requested could a monthly charge been added (which might explain why it took two years to default the account) ?

Just couple bits to think on including in witness statement if you have the information.

Lowells WS will probably be something saying its not Stat Barred because it defaulted in 2009 and include a statement of account (such as it is) showing odd payments made within the limitations period. It would be nice to get that before you have to submit yours but if they wait till last minute or don't bother at all then still get yours done and in.

[eric4178]

Re: Court claim form from Lowell/Lloyds TSB

Hi,

Thanks for your reply.

I'll get a witness statement written up.

With regard the questions you've asked, I don't have any bank statements from the student account I had - that account is also closed as I switched to the same bank as my wife banks with. There weren't any monthly charges on the account, it was only Lloyds basic current account which had a small overdraft of around £200. The money going in would have covered that. I don't recall any direct debits coming out of the account as I had moved them all. I suppose I could check with that employer to see if they have records of what was paid and when - that might help solve this mystery. I don't know whether this is significant, but only a couple of months before I closed down the account I was successful in getting some old bank charges back - it didn't amount to a lot (under £200) and my account had been in good order for at least a year before I closed it.

A curious thing is that Lloyds never contacted me at the address that I moved to, though the first DCA to get in contact with me did.

Should Lowell (or someone else) have been adding low deposits to the account to "keep it open", how could that be disproved?

Starting to get a bit twitchy now!!

Thanks for your help. It's made a huge difference