Help before set aside hearing

[Doost]

I found out that i had a ccj in January this year after applying for a remortgage. when i looked into it it was issued from Lowell to my previous address in May 2016. Prior to the i had no knowledge of it. I asked Lowell for info on it and they advised me it was from a shop direct account opened in 2002 with a last payment being made in Marchch 2010. I am not aware of this so i requested a SAR from shop direct i sent them £10 fee and i had no response. I wrote agai after 40 days and still no response. In the mean time i sent a n244 to court asking for a set aside and sent a witness statement advising that i know nothing about this and also that it was sent to my old address. I now have a hearing date 14th May. Today i recieved a statement from lowell saying how they will defend the claim. They include screenshots of letters sent to me all to addresses that i no longer lived at on the dates sent so i have never received any of these. They also say i made £10 a month payments to them between November 2011 and August 2012 which i didnt do. I have bank statements back to June 2012 to show this didnt happen. They said that they couldnt obtain an original agreement from shop direct as they dont have it so sent a terms and conditions showing what it would have been like. They are saying that i should have kept them up to date with addresss however this was never possible as i never received anything from them...i would really appreciate some advice on this before i go to court. Thanks in advance.

[Doost]

Any advice or help with what to do with this would be very much appreciated. Thanks

[Doost]

Any advice on this?

[R0b]

Hello

Have a read of the following link. If you have any questions after that, let us know.

http://legalbeagles.info/forums/foru...tailed-version

[Doost]

I've read through the link thankyou.

i have followed all of the procedure. My main questions are do you think i have a chance of being successful. Any letters that they attatched to their statement are all dated as being sent to adresses that i had moved from and so i didnt receive any of them. I didnt inform them of change of addresses as i wasnt aware of them chasing me for the money. They are also saying that i contacted them and started to pay £10 a month over 10 months which isnt true and i have bank statements to show this. They have no signed agreement and only a very small screenshot with a date on as to when a default letter would have been sent. No default letter. I dont recall having rhis account at all so it is very confusing.

[Diana M]

Have you now received your SAR from Shop Direct?

If so, does it contain the credit agreement and any reference to you being served with a Default Notice which are two things they will need to prove their case. If they’re not there then it’s arguable that they didn’t happen, despite Lowells producing some reconstituted Ts & Cs (from what you say).

A set aside requires you to persuade the court that there was incorrect service of the claim. Have you produced evidence to demonstrate that you were living elsewhere at the time, such as the Land Registry entry for the house you bought and moved to?

And/or proof that you were on the Electoral Roll elsewhere such as a screenshot of your CRA file showing your Electoral Roll presence at the new address in May 2016?

And/or a Council Tax bill/statement at another address for the period when the claim was issued.

Did you have accounts showing on your CRA file such as your mortgage or bank account dating from 2016 which would have been visible to Lowells if they had searced your file before they issued proceedings (i.e. if they’d carried out due diligence).

Did Lowell search your file in 2016 before issuing the claim? Searches remain on a CRA file for two years so they won’t show now but if you’ve obtained a copy of your file previously then the CRA can resend it to you retrospectively.

This evidence should have been exhibited with your Witness Statement when you made your set aside Application.

You should also have filed a Draft Defence with your Application which demonstrates to the court that you have likely prospects of winning the case if the CCJ were to be set aside and you are given the opportunity to defend it.

Di

[R0b]

Well, we don't have the full history of this issue nor have we seen your witness statement so on the limited information you've received, it sounds as if you may have both a reasonable prospect of successfully defending the claim and that there is some other good reason to set aside the CCJ.

What you need to do is to pick apart and put as many holes as possible in what Lowell are suggesting. For example, they are alleging that you paid £10 per month and if you have copies of your bank statements to prove no payment came out then that ought to be sufficient evidence to rebut their allegations. Equally, you should ask them for the account number and sort code of the bank that made the transfers. Chances are they probably won't reveal that because it may be that they are misleading the court (i.e. creating false screenshots) of payments but don't be claiming that in court without proof.

The fact that you moved home and have no recollection of the alleged debt is also another good reason because you would have likely defended the claim on the evidence you've got as well as the fact that Lowell have admitted that there is no original agreement - though it sounds like Lowell have reproduced the terms and conditions of what they think are the correct terms at the time, if they haven't produced a witness statement from the person who reproduced those terms (presumably from shop direct) then how do you know that they didn't just produce those terms themselves and stuck your name to it?

Only a judge can decide based on the evidence before him/her but if you are successful, certainly look at getting your costs back, including the time spent on your witness statement or at the very least, your application fees. If you also filed a draft defence you may wish to ask the judge to give permission to amend the defence based on the new evidence.

[Diana M]

Any letters that they attatched to their statement are all dated as being sent to adresses that i had moved from and so i didnt receive any of them. I didnt inform them of change of addresses as i wasnt aware of them chasing me for the money. They are also saying that i contacted them and started to pay £10 a month over 10 months which isnt true and i have bank statements to show this. They have no signed agreement and only a very small screenshot with a date on as to when a default letter would have been sent. No default letter. I dont recall having rhis account at all so it is very confusing.

Our posts have crossed.

Are you saying you never had an account with Shop Direct? If so, did your Draft Defence include a denial of the debt/account?

Have they produced anything with your name on it (original document not a recon)?

What was stated in the Particulars of Claim?

How much is the CCJ?

Di

[Doost]

Thank you so much for your replies.

I never received my SAR from shop direct even after chasing them for it.

Lowell are saying in their statement that they have no signed agreement or copy of default letter. They have just sent a terms and conditions with no name at all on it and a small screenshot just a square with a date in it to say that this is when the default letter would have been sent.

i do have proof that i was living at my new address at the time that the court papers would have been sent to my previous address.

do i need to send a new witness statement to court before i attend to reply to their statement or just take the information with me?

thanks again for your help.

[Doost]

Sorry yes i do not recall having an account. I have stated this to the court. Lowell have produced a statement that has my name on it with some payments dating back to 2007 but i dont recognise it. They have said they dont have any original terms and conditions and only a screenshot with a date as to when a default letter would have been sent.

[Doost]

The ccj is for £505.

[Diana M]

I never received my SAR from shop direct even after chasing them for it..

Maybe because you never had an account with them?

Ask them why they have not responded to your SAR. If the answer is because they hold no data on you then that begs the question where did Lowells get their “evidence” from.

A letter from Shop Direct denying that they have ever done business with you could assist your case.

Di

[Doost]

I have recently asked them this question i will try to upload screenshots that lowell have sent

[Doost]

[Doost]

The other is a very small sqare with a date printed in it to say when a default notice would have been sent.