Lowell Group CCJ

[RSMUK]

Hi,

I was given a CCJ on 7th Feb 2014 by Lowell Group, for a Vodafone contract. The debt amount was £987.

During this time I was living & working overseas and didn’t have the opportunity to defend myself in this case as I did not receive letters.

Fast forward to 2016 when I moved back to the UK to find this debt on my credit file after failing a tenancy application. I contacted the court to find out who the debt was from and given Lowells name.

I decided to pay for a solicitor to help in this matter as I had no recollection of ever owning a Vodafone contract and I hadn’t recieved the original court letter.

After quite some chasing by the legal company, the debt had been passed onto BW legal, all documents they hold had been requested and passed to me, but it was just lists of none sense. No evidence.

I have since sent a request to the court to set the judgement aside, and my hearing is on 20th August.

My question is how likely are Lowell to show up? How likely is it that the judge rules in my favour to set the judgement aside given I have sent my employment information & immigration documents to prove I wasn’t in the country?

Thanks in advance,

[Amethyst]

Probably 50/50 on both...

Did you ask Lowell/BW Legal to consent to the set aside before filing it? The debt/judgment is still owned by Lowell, just being managed by BW Legal I assume?

A claimant can file at the last known address of the defendant if they have taken reasonable steps to ascertain the current address.

CPR 6.9
(3) Where a claimant has reason to believe that the address of the defendant referred to in entries 1, 2 or 3 in the table in paragraph (2) is an address at which the defendant no longer resides or carries on business, the claimant must take reasonable steps to ascertain the address of the defendant’s current residence or place of business (‘current address’).

How long before the Claim was issued had you moved overseas ?

Do you know when the debt was assigned to Lowell ?

Do you have a reasonable prospect of success at defending the claim ? ( ie. any disputes over the original Vodafone debt? or simply that you don't believe you ever had a VF contract ?)

Did the court send you a copy of the particulars of claim and judgment? Have you done any research into the original debt? ( how was it opened, what was it for, could it have been opened after you left for example )

[RSMUK]

Thank you for responding so quickly.

Yes the legal company requested for the judgement to be set aside with BW Legal before we went ahead with my forms as they came back to say they wouldn’t agree so the legal company put the form together for me.

I moved overseas in April 2011 & the CCJ was placed on my file in Feb 2014. I was away just under 3 years before the date of the CCJ.

I didn’t know about the debt at all until I went to rent a property in August 2016.

I paid £10 to BW legal for subject Acess Request information, which had absolutely nothing in there. The only digging I have done into this was with Lowell who said the CCJ was issued to an address I have never lived at so therefore I deamed this to be fraudulent.

As the legal company advised, I submitted all the information I had to Action Fraud.

[RSMUK]

Sorry I must add I was living overseas from April 2011 into March 2015. Just so you understand the dates

[Amethyst]

Okay, that's a little better then - you missed off that the address was one you had never lived at in your first post ….

Lowell who said the CCJ was issued to an address I have never lived at

Did you tell Lowell and BW of this ? it sounds like fraud or a 'tracing' error by Lowell in that case. Any name errors ? date of birth / initials etc as well ?

Is there anything else weird on your credit file? linked addresses / other debts you don't recognise ? or just this CCJ applied to the register ?

What was in the BW Legal SAR response ? anything about the dates the VF account was opened/closed etc ? Maybe the termination date?

Presumably you have evidenced where you lived at the time of the contract ( or during the period the contract might have been taken out if you don't know - so say from 2006 to 2014 ) If not I'd take that with you to the hearing to show you never resided at the address the claim was issued to ( which presumably is the address that the contract was taken out at )

I might send a SAR off to Vodafone ( they're free now, no more £10 payments) - it's unlikely to get any information but it might help to say that you have approached Vodafone to try get any information ( and report the possible ID fraud ) when you have the hearing - there isn't enough time to give them the full 30 days, but to have approached them will assist.

[Amethyst]

ooo also, you found out about the CCJ in August 2016..... we're August 2018 now ….. might be an issue of promptness - what was your solicitor doing for that time and when was your application made ? ( basically is the delay a justifiable delay - claimant/judgment holder refusing to produce info or respond etc? )

[RSMUK]

I actually went to the solicitor last year as I tried to navigate ansb

[RSMUK]

Sorry I didn’t mean to press send on that I instructed the solicitor last year after I tried to navigate the whole thing myself prior to that I asked for information from Lowell without getting any information back. It’s taken the solicitor over a year to get to this point as BW legal we’re dragging their feet on everything.

[Amethyst]

Did you ( or your solicitor ) get / ask for the original claim from the court?

Did you put a witness statement In With the application detailing what had been done to date ?

[RSMUK]

I don’t think they did ask for the original court claim, I haven’t seen those documents at all.

And this is the witness statement sent with the application:

1. The claim which forms the subject matter of this judgment relates to a Vodafone contract connected to the mobile number 07XXXXXXXXX
2. The judgment creditor is the assignee of Vodafone.
3. I dispute owing this money, whether as alleged or at all.
4. Furthermore, I did not receive any of the court paperwork in connection with this claim.
5. I note that judgment was recorded in early 2014
6. Between April 2011 and March 2015, I lived and worked in xxxcccccc
7. I attach a Certificate of Clearance from xxxxxxxx Police Force as confirmation of this (Appendix 1)
8. As further proof, I attach a letter from my employer at the time, dated May 2014 (Appendix 2)
9. Due to being out of the country, I was unable to receive the claim form and thus unable to file a defence
10. I have not got, nor have I ever had, a mobile phone contract with Vodafone.
11. A mobile phone was provided through my employer prior to 2010, which may have been with Vodafone
12. This phone was not in my personal name, and no payments were made by me personally.
13. All matters pertaining to the work phone were dealt with by my employer at the time.
14. I have made repeated Subject Access Requests to both Vodafone and the Claimant.
15. Within those Subject Access Requests, I have asked for a copy of the original contract
16. I have also requested confirmation of payments made on the account, including where those payments
were made from
17. To date, neither Vodafone nor the Claimant have been able to provide proof that this contract was
entered into by myself, or that I have ever made a payment on the account.
18. Had I been aware of the legal action being taken against me, I would have defended the claim due to
the debt being disputed and put the Claimant to strict proof.
19. It is my belief that the above issues fall within CPR 13.3(1)(a) & (b), in that there is some other good
reason to set aside the judgment, namely non-receipt of the claim form, and there is a realistic prospect of defence.

[Amethyst]

Good - that covers it

Have you discussed the matter with your employer at all ?

[RSMUK]

Ah thank you for all your responses.

I am actually self employed so luckily haven’t needed to divolge this information to anyone outside of my bank/letting agent.

Lets hope it goes in my favour on 20th

[Amethyst]

Sorry, I meant your employer who had taken out a Vodafone contract which might have led to this claim, as per your witness statement ?

8. As further proof, I attach a letter from my employer at the time, dated May 2014 (Appendix 2)

ie. to get that letter from them - have they stated in that that the contract was in the business name and you would not have been personally liable etc.

[RSMUK]

Ah I see, no that was related to my letter of employment when I lived overseas, not the company I worked for that had the business Vodafone contract.

I doubt I will be able to get any information from the employer you have in mind as that was 2003-2005. They were difficult at the best of times.

[RSMUK]

Just an update, the claimant wrote to my solicitor ahead of Monday’s court date to offer a concent order to set my judgment aside. I then have 14 days to give my defence, and also take them to strict proof! Very happy with that