Moneyboat.co.uk / Evergreen Finance - New Claim

[Donel361]

Hello,

New court claim received stating:

"The claimant is and was at all times in business as a high cost short term lender providing short-term finance to consumers. By a regulated credit agreement made, in writing, between the parties on XXXX the claimant agreed to advance the defendant the sum of £500ish and the defendant agreed to repay the said sum together with interest over X instalments. In breach of the agreement the defendant has*failed to pay the agreed instalments and the account was placed in to default on XXXX. Despite numerous requests for payment*the defendant has not paid the claimant the sum of £700ish. The defendant therefore owes and the defendant therefore claims the outstanding sum of £700ish including charges and interest for the missed payment. the claimant claims interest under Section 69 of the County Courts Act 1984 at the rate of *% a year from XXXX to XXXX on £700ish and also interest at the same rate up to the date of judgement or earlier payment at a daily rate of £3.00ish"

Relevant letters sent to them requesting documents from the templates page.

*

[Donel361]

I have an appointment for the courts small claims mediation service. Has anyone got any experience of this? is there any advice you could offer please.

[Celestine]

What details have they supplied? Date? Length of time? It is very likely to be a telephone mediation so just really a simple case of sticking with the facts and trying to achieve a resolution. Do you dispute the entire debt? Have you had any response to your requests for documents?

[Donel361]

Hi, yes I disputed the whole debt and submitted my defence. I sent off both template letters asking for documents referred to in their claim. All they have provided is an electronic credit agreement with my name on. No default notices, statements etc or other documents. They have been charging a few quid everyday interest. My main aim throughout this has been to avoid a CCJ.

[Celestine]

The debt should have had interest frozen after default? Are you saying they are still adding interest??
An electronic credit agreement is acceptable, these days most credit agreements are a 'tick box' rather than signature, but you should have received all documents mentioned in the claim particulars. I note they've been rather slippery with the wording around default, not mentioning a notice. You should send a SAR to the original creditor to see if they have all the documents.
The CCA request you sent should have yielded the agreement Together With a statement of account, did that happen?

[Donel361]

Thanks Celestine. They are the original creditor and have only sent the electronic agreement. Nothing else, despite requests. They say in their emails "Your payment is overdue and your balance is currently increasing by £2.30 per day." I presume when we do the mediation I can ask them to provide the documents asked for and / or accept a reasonable offer to end the matter.

[Celestine]

Well they are not helping themselves being so vague about the statement of account. That is definitely a point to raise at the mediation.
Simply raise the points on their failure to comply with document requests.
Have you raised any other points of dispute such as irresponsible lending/lack of affordability checks etc?

[Donel361]

Hi and thank you for your advice so far.

I still haven't received a default notice, statement of arrears etc etc details on how the interest has accrued. However I am just looking through emails and my credit report.

They have said the Credit agreement started on 24th June, 2019

My credit reports has a date of default of 28 Aug 2019

2 months???

And on 27 March 2020 their solicitor emailed me this notice of arrears. Should that have been done before they defaulted the account?

No reply to CP31.14 but they are willing to go through mediation tomorrow.

27-03-2020

Dear ,

STATUTORY NOTICE OF ARREARS

Missed payment regarding your Credit Agreement, dated 24th June 2019
Your Agreement, reference number: [XXXXXX] ("the agreement")


We trust this letter finds you well.

On the basis of your original payment plan as per your loan agreement, you have an arrears balance of £XXXXXX.

This is a Notice pursuant to the Consumer Credit Act 1974 that you are in arrears with your payments under the Agreement.

Default sums and interest
You may have to pay default sums and interest in relation to the missed or partly made payments referred to in this notice. Please contact us if you would like further details. This notice does not take account of any payments received after the date of the notice.

Notices
For so long as you continue to be behind with your payments by any amount, you will be sent notices about this at least every six months. We are not required to send you notices more frequently than this, even if you get behind with your payments in between notices.

Financial Conduct Authority Information Sheet
This notice should include a copy of the current information sheet on arrears prepared by the Financial Conduct Authority. This contains important information about your rights and where to go for support and advice, for example on applying for a Time Order as well as our right to charge you interest. If it is not included you should contact us to get one. Please refer to the Financial Conduct Authority information sheet for more information about how to get advice on dealing with your debt.

----

This notice is of a statutory nature and if you are currently in an agreed repayment plan with us then your plan has not changed and will continue as agreed. In the event that no agreement is currently in place to repay your balance, we recommend that you contact us in order to come to a mutually agreeable repayment plan.

If there are any other issues that you would like to discuss please contact us on 0203 818 7470.

Sincerly,
Evergreen Finance London Limited

[Donel361]

The mediator was a very nice person but the process itself was rather pointless.

I provided an overview of my understanding of matters and what my issue(s) was she then telephoned them for theirs.

I explained that no documents other than a credit agreement had been provided and they had ignored the SAR CP31.14 request. I said I cannot pay them money simply because they say I owe it. I have no idea of how they have reached the figure they have come to. I also said about being in debt, them not doing proper checks before lending and the extortionate rate at which the balance appears to have increased.

She put it to them and they said they have provided a credit agreement and therefore the money is owed (my wider point clearly didn't register with them)

I explained that they defaulted the account a month and a bit after the date of the agreement. They say that is not true (and I am basically a liar) as the account defaulted in December (which is news to me!) but as they haven't provided any documents, statements, default notices etc etc I wouldn't have known anyway.

I politely explained to the mediator that it is THEM reporting that the account was defaulted in August to the CRA's (not me) so while they suggest I am the liar It is them who doesn't have their house in order. They were having none of it.

I raised about their solicitor sending me the notice of arrears in my earlier post in March 2020. They said they don't know anything about that as they have been home working since March due to corona virus. I already know that the solicitor who allegedly wrote the letter doesn't work for them and hasn't for a year or so as she used a well known website outlining her jobs. I suppose that doesn't matter though.

I made a minimal offer of £200 as a gesture of goodwill to bring this to a conclusion and avoid wasting the courts time. It was refused outright they want the full amount but will off set the cost of them entering it in to court (£60).

I advised the mediator we weren't really getting anywhere and to tell them I want it to proceed to court as I also disagree with them they weren't willing to budge at all. I asked if she could remind them they need to provide me with copies of documents they wish to rely on at trial, as to date all they have sent is an internet credit agreement and a random email from a solicitor they claim to know nothing about. She agreed to do so.

Wished her a good weekend and thanked her for her time.


I got the impression they haven't got a clue what they are doing and it was someone in a call centre reading the standard script. YOU OWE US BECAUSE WE SAY SO. WE ARE RIGHT AND YOU ARE WRONG. WE SENT YOU X DOCUMENT SO YOU OWE US.... nonsense.

I'll take my chances at Court, they will get £5 a month if I loose as I have no assets anyway.

[Donel361]

Court Case - Outcome

I have just had a telephone hearing with the District Judge at my local County Court.

The claimant didn't turn up for the hearing and didn't submit any paperwork on which they intended to reply on (to me or the Court - as instructed to do) 12 days before the hearing. As I turned up for the hearing, submitted a defence etc etc he has decided to dismiss their case. I am not sure what that means or where that leaves things but it seems a good outcome for me as I have been stressed and anxious about this telephone hearing.

[Celestine]

If the case has been dismissed, that is the end of the road. Just be aware they may make an attempt to set aside this judgment but its pretty unlikely., They just hoped sending you a court claim would make you scare easily and pay up, looks like they couldn't be bothered to comply with anything legal and let it be dismissed.
Well done - just proves following the recommended steps often weeds out the serious pursuers and the abusers of the court system.

[Donel361]

Thanks Celeste, the Judge wasn't impressed with them wasting his time. ;-)

[Daveys31]

I have something very similar going on Donel361, the court documents were sent to an address I haven't lived at for 3 years and they are becoming really obstructive. Said I need to pay by the 26th November. I have just put up a post.

[Donel361]

[Thegaffer111]

I'm curious, what is moneyboats position now at this point? have they agreed to a deal?
i assume the debt still lingers on your file..

i have a similar case ongoing.