Advice please, Lowell and Northampton business centre

[Kels2018]

Hiya everyone, I am just after abit of advice, I received a claim form on Saturday (02/06/18) from county court business centre for a debt I have with gratten plc, the amount they are claiming is £570.96. I really don't want a ccj, but don't have the means to pay in full right now, but I will be able to scrap the money together over the next month.

If I send the acknowledgement of service the deadline is extended to 28 days isn't it? If I then admit all the claim at the end of the 28 days how many days do I get to pay the balance and get the ccj taken from my credit file? Or does it have to be paid in full when I admit the claim?

I really want to get this sorted but as I said I don't have the means to pay it all up front right now, but I will be able to get it over the next month or so.

does anyone have any other suggestions on how I can go about it?

It's making me sick with worry

thanks

[glendale]

You will have 30 days from judgment to pay -if paid then no ccj will be registered on cra and that will be the end of the matter .
That's if If you intend to pay this debt rather than defend it -so delaying tactics can benefit you till you have the funds .

- On receipt of a claim form or the particulars of claim if served separately, the defendant has 14 days to either respond to the claim or to file an acknowledgement of service. Upon filing an acknowledgement of service, the defendant then has 14 further days to prepare a defence. That means that the defendant can have up to 28 days to respond to the claim but if he or she files the acknowledgement of service the day after receipt of the particulars of claim, the defendant only has 15 days to file a defence.

[Hattie]

Can you just admit and say you’re struggling to pay and offer dates and amounts you will pay to clear it off? Will citizens advice help you?

[ostell]

To correct the errors in post #2 Acknowledge the claim and you get 33 days from date of issue to get your defence to the court. Do the acknowledgment on line using the details and password on line. but nothing in the defence.

Any court hearing will be months away so if you are willing to pay, including the court fees, then this gives you several months to find the money. You can make an offer to pay even if the case has started. You could even accept mediation before court and they might accept a lower sum to get rid of the problem.

If you lost at court then paying the amount awarded within 1 month will ensure that a CCJ is not recorded against your name.

[thedirtyhound]

It is a hell of a lot easier to deal with companies like Lowell before they issue. They will often to a "Full and Final" settlement for far less than the balance. They once offered me a 70% reduction to settle an account. So lets say you owed £500, then £150 would have cleared it. The problem is that if you wait until after they have issued, you will get the court fee on top, plus the solicitor's costs of issue. If you start trying to deal with them at that point, they have got you by the balls. You can ask the court for extra time to pay and you would almost certainly get it. But Lowell would also be entitled to enter judgment against you. They will also want their costs of issue back. So you would do well to get away with £500. So many people come after they have received a claim form. If only they had acted earlier, their job would be a lot easier!

[ostell]

I understand that the claim has already been issued.

[jaguarsuk]

You have acknowledged service and indicated that you intend to defend in full.

As such there is no reason why you should not follow the process to see if they have an enforceable debt against you. As ostell has said there are plenty of opportunities to settle and as for reduced settlement they will likely take between 30 & 50% right up to the second before you walk in the court room as they pay about 1p for every £1 of the alleged debt to buy it.

Your deadline to file a defence is 33 days from the date of the form, so I'm assuming 31st May 2018 based on you receiving it on Saturday and that would make your deadline 4pm on 3rd July 2018, so plenty of time. It would be helpful to confirm the date on the form though?

Send a CPR 31.14 Request to the solicitors asking for any documents they have listed in the particulars of claim (if you type out those here using "X" to replace account numbers or names we can assist with what those documents are).

I'm assuming you enter into a Revolving Credit Agreement with gratten, so if you do then send a CCA Request to the claimant with a cheque or postal order for £1 with "CCA 1974 STATUTORY FREE ONLY" written on the front.

Finally send a Subject Access Request Letter to Gratten Plc asking for the same documents as in the 31.14 letter, full history of account and any other information they hold of you.

When signing the letters add an extra squiggle, line or dot(s) to your signature - enough to vary it from the real one, but not overly eccentric. This will just ensure that your signature doesn't find it's way on to a blank credit agreement and if it does you can prove the fact.

Take copies of everything for your records including the Cheque/Postal Order.

[thedirtyhound]

In your opening comment, you basically said that you owe the money, but can't afford to pay. I understand the predicament, because I've been there myself. However, when push comes to shove, you actually need to show some grounds for defending the claim. Not being able to pay isn't one of them! So hopefully the discovery process will yield some possibilities for you. Sometimes lenders trip themselves up by deficient paperwork. Now the claim has been issued, you might as well put them to as much work and trouble as possible. If they can't get all the paperwork in order, that in itself might be sufficient for them to give up. You never know in these cases quite what's going to happen, because the communications between the current debt owner and the initial lender can be very weak. Remember that the initial lender sold the debt because it was basically too much trouble for it to deal with. They didn't want to waste any time on it. That will still be the case today, so the people chasing you may not get a lot of cooperation from Gratten. I guess you will know soon enough and good luck with it!