Received Court Claim, help please

[Bobx]

Hello everyone,
I am new here and ran into this forum couple of weeks ago while looking for some help.
Today I finally got down to trying to get my head around the issue and coming here for some help and hoping that someone could kindly guide me or give me suggestions and help.
I just followed the links and guidance on filling the Acknowledgment of service as per your guidance on the pages, which I must add, is brilliantly and well explained, thank you for that.
My Claim form Issue date which is showing on the page is 21st of May and as per the notes adding the 5 days hopefully by acknowledging it online today I am still on time to have done so and get the 28 days.

Secondly as per the image of the claim details I am attaching here any pointers and help would be much appreciated.

Rxxxxxx solicitors have two other claims which they took me to court for few years ago and at the time overly stressed and totally out of my bounds I did not follow the right procedures nor contest them so they got two CCJ against me and for which I am paying monthly amounts (very small) that the courts accepted, but over the course of the last two years they have managed to put a charge on my property and that is where they stand now. Last year they contacted me, they had acquired this new debt and I filled the I &E form which they sent and I agreed to pay £10 monthly towards it also. Now 12 months on they asked to review and after sending the I&E form again and requesting that the £10 amount be accepted again they declined and emailed me back stating that they were going to put a charge on my property as what I was offering was too little. There was no CCJ for this debt yet, but now two weeks on they have issued me with this claim. So clearly their intention is now obtaining CCJ and going on to apply for another charge on my property.

Now just a brief history about myself. I used to be a contractor with few local councils and in 2010 lost the contracts, my business went into spiral and I packed up. It so happened that my wife also lost her job on the same year. My debts spiralled and I just could not handle anything. Mentally depressed and trying to find a job etc in those first few years, finally now I am starting to see light at the end of the tunnel. I have established myself as self employed, work flow has been improving steadily, last year was better than the previous and now this continues to improve. My wife has a steady job and at present doing a course that at work will increase her pay scale substantially in the next few. months. But I am nowhere near to the point to say I am comfortable still, each month is a struggle and my mortgage is always a priority. I have accumulated arrears of 6 months on my mortgage but most of those arrears were accumulated in the beginning. For the last two years now I haven't. missed payments and have been paying towards part of the arrears also. Prospects of improvement is continuing well, work wise and financial wise. I need to also mention that I bought the house just in my name before we got. married so the mortgage is only on my name. I get the feeling that the solicitors are eyeing for the house as my mortgage term is finishing in about 9 years, and there is a some of equity in it. I also negotiated with the mortgage lender to let me just pay interest only at present. But as things have been improving the mortgage lender have approached me to renegotiate the arrears to try to add onto the mortgage. I have only about 9 years left and am 53 years old, so there are quite a few things also to still consider and I am at present finally into a frame of mind that I can try to tackle and resolve all the financial situation.

I am thinking of speaking to one of the debt agencies for help, but for now this Rxxxxx court case has landed and its making my head.
Any help advice and guidance is truly welcome and it will go a long way to help me remain motivated.
Thank you and apologies for the long post.

[jaguarsuk]

Your deadline for filing your defence is 4pm on Monday 25th June 2018 (you 33 days from 21/05/2018 falls on a Saturday, so you have until the next working day).

Send a Subject Access Request Letter to MBNA asking for copies of:

1. Signed Credit Agreement
2. Notice of Default
3. Notice of Assignment
4. Full History of Account
5. Any other information they hold of you

Send a CCA Request to the Claimant listed on the form with a cheque or postal order for £1 marked "CCA 1974 STATUTORY FEE ONLY."

Send a copy of the CCA letter alonf with copy of the Cheque/Postal Order to Restons and a CPR 31.14 Request asking for "contract between the Defendant(s) and MBNA."

Make sure you take copies of everything for your records and when signing the letters vary your signature slightly with addition of a squiggle, line(s) or dot(s) to ensure that your real signature doesn't magically appear on a blank credit agreement. No need to be eccentric, but just enough to show a difference.

You may not get your SAR back in time for filing the defence, but we can hope.

[Bobx]

Your deadline for filing your defence is 4pm on Monday 25th June 2018 (you 33 days from 21/05/2018 falls on a Saturday, so you have until the next working day).

Send a Subject Access Request Letter to MBNA asking for copies of:

1. Signed Credit Agreement
2. Notice of Default
3. Notice of Assignment
4. Full History of Account
5. Any other information they hold of you

Send a CCA Request to the Claimant listed on the form with a cheque or postal order for £1 marked "CCA 1974 STATUTORY FEE ONLY."

Send a copy of the CCA letter alonf with copy of the Cheque/Postal Order to Restons and a CPR 31.14 Request asking for "contract between the Defendant(s) and MBNA."

Make sure you take copies of everything for your records and when signing the letters vary your signature slightly with addition of a squiggle, line(s) or dot(s) to ensure that your real signature doesn't magically appear on a blank credit agreement. No need to be eccentric, but just enough to show a difference.

You may not get your SAR back in time for filing the defence, but we can hope.

Thank you very much for this, I will be on it straightaway,
many thanks

[Bobx]

How can I file a defence or what do I need to do if I haven't received my SAR?
Any advice please?
Many thanks

[Bobx]

By the way the original debt was with MBNA but the Claimant is Arrow Global Guernsey Ltd, and Restons are the solicitors.
Many thanks

[jaguarsuk]

If they have refused or have told you they are unable to comply with the 31.14 and/or CCA request you will file a defence based on the Example Defence .

[Bobx]

The debt they are chasing me for is of £12k, does the procedure work the same way as above that you Kindly guided me to the links?
Thank you

[Bobx]

Also will the fact that a year ago when the solicitors approached me and asked me to pay a nominal monthly amount and I agreed, payed £10 monthly until now, have any reflection on this case?
May I add they hold two more accounts with CCJ and also they obtained a charge on my property for which I have been paying monthly amounts have any effect on this specific claim?
Many thanks

[jaguarsuk]

Also will the fact that a year ago when the solicitors approached me and asked me to pay a nominal monthly amount and I agreed, payed £10 monthly until now, have any reflection on this case?
May I add they hold two more accounts with CCJ and also they obtained a charge on my property for which I have been paying monthly amounts have any effect on this specific claim?
Many thanks

All of this is very significant and given the value of the claim (£12K) it will be heard in the fast track where costs can be significant. Whilst the process is the same, given the value and the fact they already have a charge on your property I would advise you to seek professional legal advice.

pt2537 's firm specialise in consumer credit claims or you can look here: https://justbeagle.com/

[Amethyst]

Hi Box Welcome and thank you for the kind words in your initial post xx It's appreciated.

You don't seem to have a dispute on the debt at all at the moment?

Was there any PPI or card protection insurance on the account at all do you know?

The SAR should show all that up - they do have 20 days to respond to you with the information so you may need to request they agree to an extension to your defence filing date if nothing arrives before the defence is due.

The account was opened in 2002 - so it will be a signed application/credit agreement that they need to provide.

It is quite right you should make them evidence their case first of all. That's all the CCA and CPR requests do. If they come back with the documents you would be back in a position where you need to come to an agreement to pay, and if they are unable to take your affordable offer of £10 now, it seems they will just push on and request a charging order anyway - but if that is the case whether you defend initially or not, there's really nothing to be lost in defending to begin with until they produce the documents at least, you can change from defence to admission further along the line before any hearing.

As it is over £10k there is an issue of costs so if you got to a hearing and subsequently lost there could be a substantial amount of costs incurred which would be added to the debt, so you need to be aware of that and take it into account throughout the process. As Jaguar has said, if it looks like you will be proceeding with defending the claim you might be able to get professional legal help dealing with it, often this can be on a CFA basis.

At the moment it is a wait and see what comes back, if it gets to 3/4 days before the defence due date and you've still had nothing, look into an extension and if they don't agree file a 'holding' defence as per the example.

[Bobx]

Thank you Amethyst, that was very helpful and it gives me a good perspective of the follow up.
I suppose as Monday is the due date for the defence I need to look into an extension as you suggest today. Do I contact the solicitors and request them an extension and then follow the template as here by editing the correct lines that reflect the request for extension and send it to the court?

Many thanks