**discontinued** county court document received have no idea what to do.

[whu]

Good morning i am really hoping someone can help i have received a county court claim form this morning from lowell portfolio i ltd listed as the claimant and this is for an agreement with vodafone entered into on the 23/2/2011 and according to lowell assigned to them on the 31/3/2014 i took out a contract with vodafone on a 24 month contract at a fixed price and was told it was fixed for 24 months they then put the price up and i contested this and refused to pay the increase they then cut off my service. i have received a few letters from lowell up until december last year and now the court letter i have had no contact with lowell at all at anytime and they have sent or provided no documents or proof as to the validity of the debt that they are trying to enforce. what do i do? any help would be greatly appreciated as this is causing me great stress and anxiety.

[ostell]

Re: county court document received have no idea what to do.

First thing you do is acknowledge the claim using the instructions and details on the form. DO NOT PUT ANYTHING IN THE DEFENCE. This gives you 33 days from the date of issue to get your defence into the court.

What does the particulars of claim say on the form?

Quite often the contract would say that if they put up the prices then you have 30 days to cancel without charge. have you still got your original contract?

[whu]

Re: county court document received have no idea what to do.

Hi and thank you for the response the particulars of claim state the following,
1)the defendant entered into an agreement with vodafone under account reference xxxxxxxxx ('the agreement')
2)The defendant failed to maintain the required paymentsand the service was terminated.
3)The agreement was later assigned to the claimant on 31/03/2014 and notice given to the defendant.
4)despite repeated requests for payment,the sum of £554.14 remains due and outstanding
And the claimant claims
a)the said sum of £554.14
b)interest pursuant to s69 county courts act 1984 at the rate of 8% per annum from the date of assignment to the date of issue accruing at a daily rate of £0.121,but limited to one year,being £44.33
c)costs.
it was so long ago that i have no documentation at all and i have had no contact from lowell other than the odd letter dropping through the post i have not contacted them or acknowledged the debt the letter received from lowell solicitors 0n the 01/12/2017 stating a letter of claim says i entered the agreement on the 23/02/2011 i hope this helps and once again thank you for the prompt reply as i am very worried.

[pt2537]

Re: county court document received have no idea what to do.

Hi there

You say this was a fixed price agreement? do you have a copy of the contract at all? it seems to me that this would be a central part of any defence you may raise, along with of course the question of the assignment

[whu]

Re: county court document received have no idea what to do.

Hi i don't have the agreement or any details we have moved home twice in between this one strange thing is that there was a default on my credit report for vodafone but this has now disappeared? would this be because it has reached the 6 year statute barred? i am at a loss at this moment to understand why lowell would do this if that was the case? do i have any options here do you think?

[whu]

Re: county court document received have no idea what to do.

A little more background on this i took out a mobile phone contract with vodafone on the 23/02/2011 at a vodafone shop and was told by the sales assistant that this was a fixed price contract and i specifically asked several times that the price could not go up during the contract and was assured this was the case. a couple of months into this contract i received a text message stating the price of my plan was going up (common by mobile phone companies it seems) cue a lot of phonecalls and emails to vodafone resulting in my refusing to pay the increase and sending the phone back to vodafone. i then had a default notice appear on my credit report. now this was a long time ago and i have looked but i do not have any documents or emails available so this is all from memory what i am sure of is i have not had any contact with lowell or vodafone. The vodafone default has now gone from my credit report and lowell have sent one letter to me on the 1/12/17 and then this county court claim yesterday so i am at a bit of a loss as to what i do next? acknowledge the claim leaving the defence blank? But then how do i question the assignment and or ask for evidence from lowell that they can legally collect this debt that may even be statute barred? i would appreciate any advice as i have never had this situation before and would struggle to pay a solicitor for advice and help.

[whu]

Re: county court document received have no idea what to do.

I am in the process of sending a SAR to vodafone but i am unclear as to what my other options are and could really use some help please @ostell @pt2537 @Amethyst i have barely slept for two nights and am at a loss to what i can do with this thank you.

[TheSpirit]

Re: county court document received have no idea what to do.

A little more background on this i took out a mobile phone contract with vodaphone on the 23/02/2011 at a vodaphone shop and was told by the sales assistant that this was a fixed price contract and i specifically asked several times that the price could not go up during the contract and was assured this was the case. a couple of months into this contract i received a text message stating the price of my plan was going up (common by mobile phone companies it seems) cue a lot of phonecalls and emails to vodaphone resulting in my refusing to pay the increase and sending the phone back to vodaphone. i then had a default notice appear on my credit report. now this was a long time ago and i have looked but i do not have any documents or emails available so this is all from memory what i am sure of is i have not had any contact with lowell or vodaphone. The vodaphone default has now gone from my credit report and lowell have sent one letter to me on the 1/12/17 and then this county court claim yesterday so i am at a bit of a loss as to what i do next? acknowledge the claim leaving the defence blank? But then how do i question the assignment and or ask for evidence from lowell that they can legally collect this debt that may even be statute barred? i would appreciate any advice as i have never had this situation before and would struggle to pay a solicitor for advice and help.

Lowell are a buyer of CCA debts so they should inherit all the rights & obligations from Vodaphone. What you need is a copy of the contract, when you have that Beagles should be able to advise your next steps.

[whu]

Re: county court document received have no idea what to do.

hi,and thank you how would i get a copy of the contract vodafone state there not available via a Sar?

[nemesis45]

Re: county court document received have no idea what to do.

hi,and thank you how would i get a copy of the contract vodaphone state there not available via a Sar?

Has VF given a reason for the contract not being available via a SAR? e,g. generic data not personal.

[Amethyst]

Re: county court document received have no idea what to do.

The SAR to Vodafone is the right thing to do - you should also do a CPR request to Lowell’s solicitors asking for the original contract and terms, default notice and notice of assignment. You should also add in a request for a full breakdown of how the amount claimed is made up.

Do you recall when the price rise happened and when you ceased payments ? Did you argue with them by phone / email ? any sign of anything in your records ?

Also do you recall if you had a handset from VF with the contract ? If so a separate CCA request might be in order ( to Lowell ) - see top of the forum for links.

[nemesis45]

Re: county court document received have no idea what to do.

hi,and thank you how would i get a copy of the contract vodaphone state there not available via a Sar?

Might well be worth a chat with the Information Commissioners Office re VF's claim that the contract cannot be provided with a SAR.

Some companies define contracts and generic data because all the details are the same for each customer, however if the document has your name address etc. it is then personal data.

nem

- - - Updated - - -

Lowell are a buyer of CCA debts so they should inherit all the rights & obligations from Vodaphone. What you need is a copy of the contract, when you have that Beagles should be able to advise your next steps.

Telecoms service contracts are not regulated under CCA 1974.


nem

[whu]

Re: county court document received have no idea what to do.

Hi and thank you to everyone that has commented.
Reference the sar this is the statement that vodafone have on there website

•  Copies of Contracts
  We are unable to provide you with a copy of your signed contract. These are not held in arelevant filing system. We can provide you with copies of your terms and conditions, please readbelow for more details.

so today i am going to get the sar and cpr ready and i did have a handset with the contract so a cca to lowell thanks @Amethyst but what would this be for also talking to a friend yesterday the court claim form is signed lowell solicitors limited and a friend thought there should be a persons name on this? my main concern here is time 30 days seems like 20 mins to me at the moment.

[whu]

Re: county court document received have no idea what to do.

A couple of questions please the particulars of claim do not mention a default notice and i don't think i ever received one can i still request this on the cpr?
and the defence date on my cpr what should this be?

[whu]

Re: county court document received have no idea what to do.

[MENTION=55034]nemesis45[/MENTION] [MENTION=6]Amethyst[/MENTION] i need to get these letters of today but i am unsure in regards to the cpr 31.34 and challenging the assignment the court docs do not mention a default notice which i am fairly sure i never received also it seems lowell have added a default over the original videophone one and changed the default date?