Lowell County Court claim

[Emmpass]

Hi I'm after some advice.

Today I have received a letter from County court for a claim from lowell. Its for a vodafone contract and a catalogue account. They date back to 2011 and 2009 but I did make a payment to lowell back in sept 2016 to stop them calling me but only the once.

I have done the acknowledgement but what do I do next? The catalogue account was actually open by my mum in my name at her address and I wasn't aware at the time. The Vodafone account I don't even remember having but when I worked in a phone shop the supervisor would open random phone account in our names to gain commission he ended up being fired.

They have joined these two together to total one amount which including fees is 1813.87

The particulars of the claim are:

The claim compromises of the following agreements the defendant entered into:
A) shop direct finance company limited 657.29
B) Vodafone limited 850.93
The agreements were terminated as payments were not maintained and subsequently assigned to the claimant. And the claimant claims
A) the total of the said sums being 1508.22
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, but limited to one year, being 120.65
C) costs

So what now?

[MIKE770]

Check dates

Acknowledge Claim

CCA Request

to shop direct with £1.00 postal order = keep copy of all from now on

CPR 31.14 Request to Lowells solicitors request all items mentioned on the court form only - nothing else.

acknowledge claim and tick defend all on MCOL site

[GBExile]

Its a bit naughty how they are now recover debts from multiple business debts.

If this behaviour is not illegal now then it will be shortly.

Just fight the lot. They surely cannot launch action from 2 or 3 debtors in the same case.

Some judge will be clued up & realise they are taking the mick.

[Emmpass]

So I have had a reply from Lowell Solicitors. They have said...

The reference noted on the right is in relation to accounts previously held with shop direct and Vodafone and balances have been consolidated.

With regards to shop direct they have requested the relevant documents.

With regards to Vodafone. Its is not regulated by the cca which means Vodafone are not required to retain a copy of the agreement and therefore they are unable to request a copy. A default notice is a formal letter sent to a customer when they fail to maintain payments, mobile phone accounts have a service agreement and so a defuakt notice would not have been issued. They have requested a statement and notice of assignment for my attention.

My defence is due in on Tuesday.

What now?

[Emmpass]

My defence is due tomorrow and I don't know what I need to say with regards to the mobile phone contract?

[MasterCoder]

Just say that you don't recall having ever held a Vodafone contract and would require more details that Lowells' are failing to provide. They are right in that they don't need a default notice for terminating a phone contract but there would surely be an application form. The obligation is on Lowell to show that you owe the money.

However, they've rolled it all up into one claim which is very naughty I think. I am in the later stages of a claim with Lowell myself and a couple of days ago pt2537 pointed out their pleadings were invalid because they don't plead default. Well, one of those accounts definitely is covered by the CCA so I would assume that would be an avenue to explore. Hopefully he can give you better advice.