Lowell county court claim - Defence

[Agrace]

Here are the emails from Talk talk, BT just carried on sending standard monthly bills and didn't acknowledge that I had left them at all. Any help on how to explain these points in the defence appreciated or if there's any more information I should request etc

As far as i know as well as me attempting to inform them i had switched, talk talk would have dealt with that as from reading online it says you no longer have to inform your provider as the new company handles the entire switch.

I was out of contract with them so no early cancellation fee that i could be liable for, any advice appreciated thank you

[Amethyst]

Indeed.

Who tells my current provider?


If you're currently with BT, EE, PlusNet or Sky one of our agents will cancel your contract with them once you've placed your order with TalkTalk.

Anyways the SAR should give more info as to what happened, for now though we can raise the issues in the defence.

Do you recall how you paid the BT bills - Direct Debit ?

[Agrace]

I thought that was the case, no direct debit i paid the bills online by card by logging into my BT account when the bill was ready, I was not behind with any payments and was paying the out of contract amount £53.49 each month x

[Agrace]

Amethyst could you possibly advise on how to make these points in my defence?

I've saw the example defence and can work on that its just how best to word these points so it's clear

[Amethyst]

Exceedingly roughly as an idea ..............

In the [Northampton County Court Business Centre]

Claim No: [XXXXX]

[Claimants Name]

Claimant

And

[Defendants Name]

Defendant

DEFENCE

The Defendant received the claim [Claim Number] from the [Name of Court – often Northampton or Salford] County Court on [Date you received the claim]

Each and every allegation in the Claimants statement of case is denied unless specifically admitted in this Defence.

The claim is stated to be for an agreement with BT PLC under account reference ****** ('the agreement'). It is admitted that the Defendant held an account with BT Plc. The Defendant does not recognise the account reference given.

The Claimant states "The Defendant failed to maintain the required payments and the service was terminated." This is denied. The Defendant made all agreed payments on time and the service was cancelled in September 2016 with no outstanding payments due.

The Claimant, following a request for more information made by the Defendant pursuant to CPR 31.14 and the Consumer Credit Act 1974, in a letter dated xxxxxxxxxxxx, states "This matter relates to a former BT plc account opened on 13 October 2014. The last payment of £53.49 was made on 4 September 2016 and the account defaulted around 29 March 2017."

It is admitted that the last payment of £53.49 was made on 4 September 2016. The payment made was the final payment following cancellation of the service and transfer to a new service provider, TalkTalk.

It is believed that the original BT plc account contract was for a period of 18 months. Therefore from April 2016 the Defendant was free to cancel the services without penalty or termination charge. The Claimant is required to allow inspection of the original contract/agreement.

It is denied that the account defaulted around March 2017. It is denied that BT Plc served any Default notice on the Defendant pursuant to s87 Consumer Credit Act 1974. The Claimant is required to prove that a compliant Default Notice was served upon the Defendant. The Claimant is required to prove that the any Default notice relied upon complied with the requirements of s88(4A) Consumer Credit Act 1974 and that the notice was in the prescribed form as required by The Consumer Credit Enforcement Default and Termination Notice Regulations 1983.

Had the Defendant have received a Default or Termination notice from BT plc he would have raised a complaint at the time.

The Defendant has sent a Subject Access Request to BT Plc to find out further details and is awaiting a full response.

The Claimants statement of case states that the account was assigned from BT Plc toon 22/02/2018. The Defendant does not recall receiving notice of this assignment.

On the [Date] The Defendant sent a request for inspection of documents mentioned in the claimant’s statement of case under Civil Procedure Rule 31.14 to [Claimant’s Solicitor]. I requested the Claimant provide copies of the [Agreement, Default Notice and Notice of Assignment].

[Claimant’s Solicitor] has not sent any of these documents to the Defendant.

Under Civil Procedure Rule 16.5 (4) Where the claim includes a money claim, a defendant shall be taken to require that any allegation relating to the amount of money claimed be proved unless he expressly admits the allegation. Therefore, it is expected that the Claimant be required to prove the allegation that the money is owed as claimed.

The Defendant respectfully requests the court orders the Claimants to provide the necessary documentation, a full statement of account, a copy of the original agreement/contract on which the Claimant intends to rely, default and termination notices and notice of assignment, in order for the Defendant to fully plead his case else the Claim should stand struck out.

In the event that the relevant documents are received from the Claimant, the Defendant will then be in a position to amend his defence, and would ask that the Claimants bear the costs of the amendment.

18.It is denied that the Claimant is entitled to the relief as claimed or at all.

Statement of Truth
The Defendant believes that the facts stated in this Defence are true.
Signed ________________________________
Dated ________________________________

[Agrace]

Great thankyou I will get the defence done this evening to send off first thing, is it worth doing the defence on the money claim website also?

[Amethyst]

If you can do it on MCOL then as long as you get a receipt for it through email you shouldn't need to send it on paper as well xxx

[Agrace]

Amethyst reply from Lowell today. I guess this means they intend to go ahead with the claim. The mind boggles

Do i need to do anything now or just await further instruction from the court?
Thanks

[Agrace]

Sorry to bump just want to be sure there's nothing else i need to do for now?

[charitynjw]

I'll give Amethyst a nudge for you.

Btw, Lowell often go forward with court case until later in the proceedings, then discontinue shortly before the hearing.
My guess is that at this stage of the game they have nothing to lose by hanging on,& hoping possibly that the Defendant will wobble & cough up.
You can't rely on that happening of course, but it is handy to know,
Bit like a game of poker, really.

[Amethyst]

Nope, you're just waiting now for the Directions Questionnaire. You'll likely receive one from Lowell first, but you don't need to complete yours until the court instructs you to xxx

[Agrace]

Great thankyou both. Even if it did go to a hearing I've not any doubt they would lose as I don't owe any money, they can't prove I do as the debt doesn't exist lol!

Another question if they decided to drop the case before a hearing, will the supposed debt be wiped from credit file?

[Amethyst]

Did you send a SAR to talk talk ? Just thinking it might be worth doing to get details of them cancelling with BT ....

I don't think it's as clear cut as you don't owe the money ( to the court I mean) yes you can show you tried to terminate and as you were out of fixed term there shouldn't be a termination penalty ...but it seems you didn't actually terminate ....

they will have to counter those arguments with the contract terms ... the weak point on your side I think is that when you continued getting bills you didn't make a complaint ( so far as I'm aware?) .... it will really need spelling out all your attempts to terminate etc in witness statements later on. So the SAR stuff from BT and talktalk should help as well as your own records.

Not being negative just don't want you to be over confident xxx

[Amethyst]

Oh forgot the credit file bit ... if you can evidence it was ( should have been) terminated without any arrears etc then yes the default marker would be inaccurate - have you got markers from BT and Lowell ? If court confirms the termination then they should be able to remove the markers yes.

[Agrace]

Oh yes i do get what you're saying, I sent the SAR to BT who said they need extra time due to increase in requests, i forgot talk talk! Will do that asap.

Would BT SAR not be able to show live chat communication or telephone calls? That would be case closed then I'd assume as it would prove my attempts of telling them I'm switching.

However the fact I was getting my broadband from talk talk and not BT during this time as well as them informing BT of the switch, I'd surely believe is enough for this to be a non case? Maybe I'm being a bit too hopeful, but if they weren't actually providing any services to me and it was Talk Talk, i can't see how I'd be liable to pay regardless of the cancellation dispute?