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Lowell/BW Legal/Red/Hamptons Legal/Hutchison 3G/County Court Business Centre

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  • Lowell/BW Legal/Red/Hamptons Legal/Hutchison 3G/County Court Business Centre

    Hi,

    Back in September 2008 I entered into an agreement with 3 for mobile broadband (USB dongle) for about £40pcm which entitled me to a free Dell laptop. I paid regular monthly amounts until June 2010 at which point I informed them I wanted to cancel my contract. My memory is hazy and I have no paperwork but I think I also cancelled the DD at the same time I phoned them. On 1st September 2010 I made a payment to BPO Collections for £51 which I think was the outstanding amount I owed after cancelling my 3 DD too early.

    In March 2011 I thought I was extending my mobile broadband contract but for a lesser amount at just £6.79 per month. It would appear as though 3 considered this as a new contract even though I was continuing to use the same USB dongle. I continued paying for this new contract until March 2013 when I cancelled it and allowed the final DD to be taken.

    When I look at my Experian Credit File there is an entry for Hutchison 3G UK LTD which was started on 18th August 2008 (in line with the original agreement in the first paragraph above) which has a current balance of “settled” and a settlement date of 28th February 2013 (which is also in line with the cancelling of the lesser amount contract as per paragraph 2 above).

    It would appear as though my credit file considers the two agreements as one which was what I was led to believe by 3. It also appears as though as far as Experian are concerned the account is settled.

    In about October 2013 I started to get letters from Lowell Portfolio about an outstanding amount of £382.46 – Original company name: Three Mobile. I have ignored these letters as they never actually amounted to any action against me and were always just inviting me to settle the debt. The letters changed from Lowell to Red Debt Collections and finally Hamptons Legal. No letter actually said they were going to take action but always used terms such as “we may take action” or “we could do the following” etc.

    I have an addition entry on my Experian Credit file for Lowell Portfolio which was started on 12th June 2010 (the time I thought I’d cancelled my original contract – para. 1 above) and currently has a status of “Default” and a current balance of £382.

    On the 6th May I have now received a Claim Form from “The County Court Business Centre” where the claimant is Lowell Portfolio. They have taken the £382.46 and added £53.36 in interest, £35 court fee, and £50 solicitors’ costs so the total amount of the claim is £520.82.

    My question is how do I follow this up? I assume I am required to respond and my choices are:

    • Admit the claim and request time to pay
    • Admit part of the claim
    • Dispute the claim in full or in part
    • Request 28 days to prepare my defence
    • Do nothing.


    Although I have no supporting paperwork for either of the contracts (paragraph 1 and 2 above) I am assuming that the debt has occurred because of an added charge from when I cancelled the DD too early. I was also under the impression that I had paid everything I owed when I made the payment to BPO collections in September 2010.
    I have tried to give as much information about this as possible but my apologies if I have confused you! I’m hoping someone will read and digest the above and help me with my next course of action.

    Thank you in advance,

    Paul.

  • #2
    Re: Lowell/BW Legal/Red/Hamptons Legal/Hutchison 3G/County Court Business Centre

    Hi and welcome
    Originally posted by p.lonsdale View Post

    My question is how do I follow this up? I assume I am required to respond and my choices are:
    If you don't, the claimant will obtain default judgment against you, leaving you with a CCJ. :scared:
    Originally posted by p.lonsdale View Post

    • Admit the claim and request time to pay
    • Admit part of the claim
    • Dispute the claim in full or in part
    Any of these options would leave you with a CCJ, at least for the part you admit.
    Originally posted by p.lonsdale View Post
    • Request 28 days to prepare my defence
    • Do nothing.
    If you acknowledge the claim, you get a total of 28 days (from date of service), to submit a defence, but this only applies if you say you intend to defend the ENTIRE CLAIM at the time of acknowledgment. If yo do nothing, the claimant will get default judgment against you. :incourt:

    You may want to look at this thread: http://www.legalbeagles.info/forums/...it-Court-Claim

    Bear in mind the CCA request does not apply to a mobile contract.

    Comment


    • #3
      Re: Lowell/BW Legal/Red/Hamptons Legal/Hutchison 3G/County Court Business Centre

      If I acknowledge the claim and tell them I am intending to defend it but am unsuccessful what will the worst case scenario be? Will I get a CCJ for that amount or will it go up because of more legal fees?


      Also, as it is for a mobile broadband contract and not a credit card/loan etc, I understand that I can't send a CCA request so what is the alternative? Just skip that step and go straight to CPR request?


      Thanks for the link.

      Comment


      • #4
        Re: Lowell/BW Legal/Red/Hamptons Legal/Hutchison 3G/County Court Business Centre

        If you acknowledge the claim as 'intend to defend in full' and send a CPR request off that will be a good start. The Acknowledgement of service isn't binding and once you have the relevent information about the debt you can decide whether to defend or admit and offer to pay, or negotiate directly with the claimants.

        You are quite right that a CCA request isn't applicable to a mobile phone debt, but their claim still relies on the contract - and as such they should supply a copy of that contract for inspection. They should also supply details how the debt is made up as you didn't think you owed anything on the account.

        If you can type out the particulars of claim that would be of help.
        #staysafestayhome

        Any support I provide is offered without liability, if you are unsure please seek professional legal guidance.

        Received a Court Claim? Read >>>>> First Steps

        Comment


        • #5
          Re: Lowell/BW Legal/Red/Hamptons Legal/Hutchison 3G/County Court Business Centre

          Thank you. I will go ahead and follow the procedure in the link from the first reply above.

          One of the steps is to create a thread called "Lowell Portfolio v p.lonsdale", shall I just continue to use this thread instead or start a new one as suggested?

          Comment


          • #6
            Re: Lowell/BW Legal/Red/Hamptons Legal/Hutchison 3G/County Court Business Centre

            No just carry on in this one, you started off with all the relevant information All you're missing is the particulars of claim off the claim form.
            #staysafestayhome

            Any support I provide is offered without liability, if you are unsure please seek professional legal guidance.

            Received a Court Claim? Read >>>>> First Steps

            Comment


            • #7
              LOWELLl PORTFOLIO 1 LTD v PAUL LONSDALE

              Action so far:

              13/05/14 - Completed the "Acknowledgement of Service" on moneyclaim.gov.uk stating that I intend to defend the claim in full.


              Details of their claim against me:


              Claimant: Lowell Portfolio 1 Ltd.

              Address for sending documents: BW Legal, Leeds.

              Defendant: Paul Lonsdale (me!)

              Particulars of Claim: The Claimant's Claim is for the sum of 435.82 being monies due from the Defendant to the Claimant under a non-regulated Communications agreement between the Defendant and Hutchison 3G UK Limited. Under account reference xxxxxx and assigned to the Claimant on 06/07/2012 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 8.00% per annum (a daily rate of 0.08 from the date of assignment of the agreement to the date of issue () being an amount of 53.36.

              Signed: Alison Duckworth (Claimant's Solicitor)


              My defence:

              The full details of why I don't think I should have to pay this are detailed in my initial post in this thread. In a nutshell when I swapped from the initial contract to a smaller amount I was led to believe that I was just continuing my mobile broadband subscription but with a lesser monthly bandwidth limit. It appears as though 3 actually started a new agreement even though I was still using the original USB dongle for their service and that this claim has arisen from outstanding amounts from the original agreement. According to Experian I have a settled agreement with Hutchison with no money owed which was initiated at the time of the original contract and which terminated at the time I properly cancelled the second agreement.

              Reading between the lines I think they must have charged me a fine because I cancelled my direct debit too early and missed the final payment of the original agreement prior to starting a new direct debit for the lesser amount of the second agreement. I dealt with this at the time though as I made a payment to BPO Collections after realising my mistake and them chasing me for it. In amongst all of this I moved house and so any paperwork they may have been sending me never got to me. Lowell must have caught up with me when the bought the debt and somehow found out where I lived through my Credit File.


              My next Step:

              Send a CPR request to Alison Duckworth @ BW Legal which I will do in the next day or so and post the details here.

              Comment


              • #8
                Re: Lowell/BW Legal/Red/Hamptons Legal/Hutchison 3G/County Court Business Centre

                I'm just writing the letter for the CPR request and the template has "Claimant's name, address, and postcode" on it. Should I actually be addresses it to Alison Duckworth (claimant's solicitor according to claim form) at BW Legal (address for sending documents and payments according to claim form) rather than the claimant Lowell Portfolio 1 Ltd?

                Comment


                • #9
                  Re: Lowell/BW Legal/Red/Hamptons Legal/Hutchison 3G/County Court Business Centre

                  Please Help!!

                  I sent my CPR request to BW Legal on the 27th May (next day service signed for on arrival) and I confirmed it was delivered on the 28th May.

                  The original claim against me was issued on the 6th May so what is my deadline for filing my defence? According to the small print the "date of service" is 5 days after the issue date so that's the 11th May. Once I filed my AOS then I have 28 days from this date to file my defence so am I right in saying that's the 9th June right?

                  I wanted to get my defence in by the end of this week to be safe but I haven;t received a response to my CPR from BW Legal or Lowell.

                  What should I do now?

                  Comment

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