Lowells - County Court Business centre - Statute barred debt?!

[Feltpython]

Hi.

i have recieved a county court claim form from lowells but i believe the debt may be statute barred.

it was for a Orange mobile phone bill but i have not made any payment to them since may/june 2013. I am not sure when the account defaulted tho. The sum is circa £2k.

I have not aknowledged the claim yet as unsure how to proceed.

does anyone think i would have a chance to defend this or was it too late to try for statute barred?

Also if i have to pay ( i will to protect credit rating) how can i so i do not get a ccj?

thanks for any help!

[MIKE770]

Check dates


Acknowledge Claim = tick defend all

[MIKE770]

Amethyst views??

[Feltpython]

Thanks Mike!

[Amethyst]

It is likely the contract continued until termination at the end of the contract period and that will be the date for limitations .... you can still argue it but best to see if you have any other defence to make it less worth their while proceeding. Acknowledge the claim with intent to defend i. Full for now - then send the CPR 31.14 letter to Lowell's solicitors and a SAR to Orange. Acknowledge Claim
CPR 31.14 Request
Subject Access Request Letter

Can you post up the particulars of claim from the claim form please then we can check what to ask for in the CPR letter.

You'll then have 33 days from the date of the claim form to file a defence .... once that's done and you follow the court process you probably have 4/5 months before crunch time - so try use that time to save a backup fund to use as settlement to avoid a ccj if you end up without a decent likelihood of winning the case.

If you make an offer to pay by instalment now you'd get a ccj registered against you - so the aim is to get to a point where you either defend and win, or are in front and they accept a reduced full and final settlement - or instalments under a Tomlin order ( meaning no ccj ).

[Feltpython]

Thanks for that, VERY useful. I will post later on the details. Thankyou very much for taking the time to help :-)

[Feltpython]

Amethyst So in the claim form is the following:-

1. The defendant entered into an agreement with Orange under account number $"£$"£"£$ ( the agreement)
2. The defendant failed to maintain the required payments and the service was terminated
3.The agreement was later assigned to the Claimant on 22.9.2014 and notice given to the Defendant
4. Depsite repeated requests for payment the sum of £1720.58 remains due and outstanding
and the claimant claims
a) the said sum of £1720.58
b) interest pursuant to s69 County Courts Act 1984 at the rate of 8% per annum from date of assignment to the date of issue, accruingat a daily rate of £0.377, but limited to one year, being £137.75
c) Costs


It is worth noting ( tho i doubt helps) i never received any letters as was out of the country, i lived overseas from August 2013 to November 2015 and had no fixed abode why nevee received letters etc. At the time i thought it was a permanent move and had financial issues etc why the debt was put on the back burner.

[GBExile]

Was there not a legal obligation to break down the debt between cost of phone & the cost of service.

So if the phone service was terminated then that could not be recovered past a month or two but the actual phone cost could be recovered in full less payments made to the device?

[Feltpython]

I am not sure about all that. I know phone contracts do that nowadays but back then i cannot remember what the contract was.

[Amethyst]

1. The defendant entered into an agreement with Orange under account number $"£$"£"£$ ( the agreement)
2. The defendant failed to maintain the required payments and the service was terminated
3.The agreement was later assigned to the Claimant on 22.9.2014 and notice given to the Defendant
4. Depsite repeated requests for payment the sum of £1720.58 remains due and outstanding
and the claimant claims
a) the said sum of £1720.58
b) interest pursuant to s69 County Courts Act 1984 at the rate of 8% per annum from date of assignment to the date of issue, accruingat a daily rate of £0.377, but limited to one year, being £137.75
c) Costs

In the CPR letter then ask for the agreement, notice of assignment and date the account was terminated. If you stopped payments before August 2013 when you left the country there may be a chance of it being SB, but it is unlikely if the contract was still live when you left. Worth trying to find out. The SAR to Orange may help but ask the date of termination with your CPR request. They don't say when the agreement was entered into, or if it ran its course or defaulted then was terminated and they will have to clear that up to get to judgment ( once you defend on those grounds ).

[Feltpython]

Great thankyou for the help again.

I will do all that and send off the letters.

Interestingly i got a letter off Lowell's today of a " notice of claim issue" and to call them to discuss paying off the balance and to get in contact with them.

[Amethyst]

£1720 is quite high for a phone contract - do you recall what the monthly payments were and over how long ?

[Feltpython]

I think it was for a bundle deal of a phone and ipad so im guessing all joined together. I do not remember amounts buy would of been over 2 years i guess.

[Feltpython]

@AMETHYST.

So i got a reply from the cpr.

They replied with the account opening date, the date last payment made ( July 2013) and that the line was disconnected in October on X date same year. Then says the account defaulted around febuary 2014....No specific date just " around".

Says a copy of the agreement will not be sent to me as per my request as it is not regulated by the CCA 1964.

A copy of the assignment was enclosed from late 2019.

[Feltpython]