Help needed with Lowells Please

[jezmeister]

Hi Group, this is my first post, i hope someone can help me.

I took out a credit card with Vanquis in 2010 and maintained my monthly payments on time for the next 5 years. In 2015 I became aware of information that the credit aggreement might not be legally binding, so i wrote a number of letters to Mike Lenora CEO at Vanquis asking for verification so i could settle the account. I did not get any reply, so after sending a final letter informing him that i would not be paying any more money to this account until i had verification, I cancelled the direct debit.

Roll forward to 2016 when i recieved a letter from Lowells informing me that Vanquis had 'sold' the account to them, and wanted me to pay the balance of £4000, reduced to £2000 if i set up a payment plan to clear the balance. I wrote to Lowells straight away informing them they they were now liable for the debt, because they had purchased the account while it was still in dispute, and without my consent.

They responded by saying they would provide evidence of the alleged debt by way of a copy of the aggreement together with statements of the account, and until they had provided this evidence the account would be put on hold.

I replied by asking them to furnish me with ORIGINAL aggreement signed by both parties, NOT photocopies, signed notice granting power of attorney to Lowell portfolio to act on my behalf, Validation of the alleged debt - full accounting, statements, verification of their claim against me in the form of a sworn affidavit in accordance with Bill of Excahnge Act 1882, and true and certified copies of the deed of assignment and deed of novation. I gave them 7 days to furnish me with this information.

3 months to the day later, i recieved a photocopy of the credit aggreement which can only be described as fraudulent at best! The signature that is supposed to be from a representative of Vanquis has been photocopied on to the document the wrong way round, and the date is incorrect - 23.06.10 instead of 26.03.10! None of the other documentation i requested was sent either.

I didn't reply back to Lowells, and soon had the barrage of phone calls and voicemails that lasted over 6 months. Then in the post yesterday came a claim form from the bulk centre where they have lodged a claim against me to recover the full amount.

So, what is my best course of action in this matter?? I have all the original paperwork and letters still to hand to back up what i have done. I wait for your advice.

Thanks in advance.

[Amethyst]

You need to send a formal CCA request and a CPR 31.14 request for documents mentioned in the statement of case. If you can type out the particulars of claim we can help guide you. Did you not respond to the letter before claim? ( or just not receive one?)

Were you previously on the 'Get Out of Debt Free' website?

If you can upload a copy of the agreement ( suitably redacted of your personal details) that will assist. Was it taken out online with digital signature ( X in a box basically) ?

Was there any dispute over the account when you stopped payments, or you'd simply been misled into thinking it was a good idea to write to the CEO asking for the agreement then stop paying because you didn't receive a response?

Presumably this now shows as defaulted on your Credit File ? Should fall off in a couple of years if you defaulted in 2015.

Some useful links for you
Pre-Action Letters
First Steps
Check dates
Income/Expenditure
Acknowledge Claim
CCA Request
CPR 31.14 Request
Subject Access Request Letter
Example Defence
Witness Statements
Directions Questionnaire

[jaguarsuk]

Well in terms of your understanding of how they have acquired the alleged debt and their relationship to it you seem to be wholly misunderstanding, I'd assume you got the "signed notice granting power of attorney to Lowell portfolio to act on my behalf" and "verification of their claim against me in the form of a sworn affidavit in accordance with Bill of Excahnge Act 1882" bit from another site?

The debt has been bought by Lowell and therefore they aren't acting on your behalf, they are now the owner under the Law of Property Act 1925.

You need to:

1. Acknowledge Claim
2. Send a CCA Request to Lowell (mark he postal order or cheque "CCA 1974 STAT FEE ONLY)
3. Send a CPR 31.14 Request to their solicitors
4. Send a Subject Access Request Letter to Vanquis
5. Finally Check dates to ensure what your defence deadline date is

Make copies of everything for your records, send first class post and get proof of posting.

[jezmeister]

You need to send a formal CCA request and a CPR 31.14 request for documents mentioned in the statement of case. If you can type out the particulars of claim we can help guide you. Did you not respond to the letter before claim? ( or just not receive one?)

Were you previously on the 'Get Out of Debt Free' website?

If you can upload a copy of the agreement ( suitably redacted of your personal details) that will assist. Was it taken out online with digital signature ( X in a box basically) ?

Was there any dispute over the account when you stopped payments, or you'd simply been misled into thinking it was a good idea to write to the CEO asking for the agreement then stop paying because you didn't receive a response?

Presumably this now shows as defaulted on your Credit File ? Should fall off in a couple of years if you defaulted in 2015.

Some useful links for you
Pre-Action Letters
First Steps
Check dates
Income/Expenditure
Acknowledge Claim
CCA Request
CPR 31.14 Request
Subject Access Request Letter
Example Defence
Witness Statements
Directions Questionnaire

Thanks for your reply. I recieved the letter before claim this morning (01.06.19) the actual claim form was issued on 20.05.19!! I don't know if that makes any difference to the case??

So back in 2015 i became aware of information relating to credit and loans not being what we were led to believe - i think it was from getoutofdebtfree website - so i worte to Vanquis asking for proof that the agreement we had was all above board, and that i would settle my account in full on provision of this evidence. Over the course of 6 months i sent letters asking for the original credit agreement to be sent to me, knowing full well that they had probably sold it on and no longer had it in their possession, but there was no reply back from Vanquis so i cancelled my direct debit, informing them that i would pay the balance in full when they satisfied my requests.

There is no record of defaults on my credit file for this account.

The credit agreement was filled in manually and sent back to them by post. You will see on the attached file that the agreement has been made to look like it was signed by someone at Vanquis, signature wrong way round - photocopied on? - and is not the original as requested.

Lowell have also written to me stating that they purchased the account from Vanquis, so surely that means that they now own the debt and are liable for it?? They have even offered to reduce the debt by 50% if i set up a payment plan by a certain date, which indicates that they purchased this account from Vanquis for a vastly reduced sum and are looking to make a healthy profit by recovering the full amount.

I will do the CCA request and the CPR 31.14 and send off so they have by Tuesday as i think that is the cut off for responding to the claim.

Can you please look at the documents attached and advise if there is any defence i can counter claim with in the meantime. Many thanks


I have attached a copy of all the letters and credit agreement for your reference.

[Amethyst]

Have you acknowledged the claim ? If not do so, with intent to defend in full- you have 14 days from 20th May to get that done. Then you will have until around 26th June to sort your defence out. I can't open the zip file on my phone so will have a look when I get on the pc, but get the claim acknowledgement in if you haven't already.

[jezmeister]

Have you acknowledged the claim ? If not do so, with intent to defend in full- you have 14 days from 20th May to get that done. Then you will have until around 26th June to sort your defence out. I can't open the zip file on my phone so will have a look when I get on the pc, but get the claim acknowledgement in if you haven't already.

I have put the claim of acknowledgement in online and stated that i intend to defend this claim. Once you have had a look at the documents on the zip file, please let me know what the best course of action will be.
Thank you very much for your time and help.

[Amethyst]

On the credit agreement, paragraph 4.3 states "Other fees that may be charged are set out in paragraph 5.1" - I can't see paragraph 5.1 on that page - is there a second page to the agreement ?


Send a SAR to Vanquis directly ASAP too - https://legalbeagles.info/library/gu...ccess-request/ - this will come in useful particularly regarding the lack of default ( it wasn't sold until Sept 2016 - so it seems when you cancelled your DD is when the account defaulted so likely back end of 2015 or early 2016 )

[jezmeister]

On the credit agreement, paragraph 4.3 states "Other fees that may be charged are set out in paragraph 5.1" - I can't see paragraph 5.1 on that page - is there a second page to the agreement ?


Send a SAR to Vanquis directly ASAP too - https://legalbeagles.info/library/gu...ccess-request/ - this will come in useful particularly regarding the lack of default ( it wasn't sold until Sept 2016 - so it seems when you cancelled your DD is when the account defaulted so likely back end of 2015 or early 2016 )

I have sent the SAR to Vanquis and the CCA/CPR to Lowells, what do we do now?? There is not a second page to the agreement, I've looked for section 5.1 on the paperwork but can't see it on anything that they sent me with the copy of the agreement.

[Amethyst]

Start putting your defence together - if you look at the example it will give you a decent starting point.

https://legalbeagles.info/library/gu...-court-claims/

If you look at s78 consumer credit act https://www.legislation.gov.uk/ukpga/1974/39/section/78
it says


...shall give the debtor a copy of the executed agreement (if any) and of any other document referred to in it, together with a statement signed by or on behalf of the creditor showing, according to the information to which it is practicable for him to refer,—

(a)the state of the account, and

(b)the amount, if any currently payable under the agreement by the debtor to the creditor, and

(c)the amounts and due dates of any payments which, if the debtor does not draw further on the account, will later become payable under the agreement by the debtor to the creditor.

[jezmeister]

Start putting your defence together - if you look at the example it will give you a decent starting point.

https://legalbeagles.info/library/gu...-court-claims/

If you look at s78 consumer credit act https://www.legislation.gov.uk/ukpga/1974/39/section/78
it says


...shall give the debtor a copy of the executed agreement (if any) and of any other document referred to in it, together with a statement signed by or on behalf of the creditor showing, according to the information to which it is practicable for him to refer,—

(a)the state of the account, and

(b)the amount, if any currently payable under the agreement by the debtor to the creditor, and

(c)the amounts and due dates of any payments which, if the debtor does not draw further on the account, will later become payable under the agreement by the debtor to the creditor.

Hi Amethyst, hope you're having a good weekend.

I have had a load of paperwork sent to me from Vanquis and Lowells that i have been going through. So, according to their records i cancelled the DD in Dec 2013, but they make no note of the letters that were sent to them by myself. The account was passed to Moorcroft on 28th Oct 2015, then passed on to DLC on 4th March 2016, before finally being "sold" to Lowells on 31st Aug 2016.
There are a lot of late payment charges and billed finance charges going up to Aug 2014, then a charge off - total account on 29th Feb 2016 for the total of £4146.37, and a final charge off for the same amount on 28th Nov 2018. No mention anywhere about the account being in defualt.

I requested the original aggreement to be sent from Vanquis, but they have sent the photocopy with the dodgy signature again.

What is your take on this? I'm putting my defence together today to send online via my gov account in the next few days before the 26th, so any advice would be welcome.

Many thanks

[jezmeister]

Hi Amethyst,

Any more advice for me after reading the above update??

many thanks