Claim Form for over £16,000 - PLEASE can someone help/assist

[Lloyd323]

I have attached the letter I received today It feels like a very stressful situation & am trying my best to not let it worry me. Please take a read of the attachment of the claim, I appreciate your time taken out to read this. Something to note, they have put the claim in my personal name & address, not the liquidized company.

A little information for you. During Covid this debt/credit card was taken out to keep the my business afloat. So it was a business credit card but apparently I am the personal guarantee. No matter how hard i tried to keep it alive I had to choice but to liquidse The company.

They then would send letters chasing the debt that was not paid (as the company could not for obvious reasons - I won't bore you with facts as we all had our own stressful personal reasons why Covid turned our lives upside down & I wish everybody positivity for the future). They would send duplicate letters but with different names on envelopes. One addressed to me personally & another to the company name only. Bearing in mind this debt has never ever gone onto my personal credit record.

I would always RTS (Return to sender) when receiving letters. Over the next year or 2 it has gone to multiple debt collectors & I always RTS until finally a claim has gone through as seen in the attachment.

To be clear, I have never acknowledged any debt, never replied to any letter or answered any phone call to date & as mentioned above this debt never went onto my personal credit file.

So this is my conclusion/plan of action but I would REALLY like to hear if anybody has something better to suggest with the information I have provided so far. I have tried my best to follow protical on this website & do some research & this is what I came up with for the next steps.

1. Acknowledge the Claim
2. Write to Claimant to obtain a copy of the Credit Agreement
3. Write to Claimant’s Solicitors to obtain more information about the claim

So i have some questions. Starting with the "Acknowledge the claim". Do I put my personal address the letter/claim was addressed to OR the company address? Bearing in mind the claim letter has my peronal address & name on it.

Just to confirm, I then tick box number 1? "I intend to defend all of this claim"

So with the plan of action I written above. Steps number 2 & 3. Do I send these 2 letters to AZZURRO??? Because it says in number 2 letter to "Write to the claimant" & in number 3 letter "Write to claimants solicitors". Well.....isn't the claimant also the solicitor in this case???? So id send letters 2 & 3 to AZZURRO?? Please let me know if i'm totally off track here.

Again, thank you very much for anybody's help. I don't know why my wife's stressing over this as it's not her problem, but we did both agree we would be more than happy to pay anybody on here for help as a good will gesture.

[Lloyd323]

Sorry, was having issues uploading the letter so put it into another post.


image_45476.jpg

[Lloyd323]

Can someone please confirm if i would put my personal details in for the "acknowledgement form" & tick option 1? Or should I do something completely different? Thank you.

[atticus]

The "letter" is a County Court Claim Form. You are now reaping the benefits of your approach of avoiding this situation.

It makes quite clear who the Claimant is (Azzurro) and who its solicitors are (Solaris).

I assume that the defendant is named as you yourself. It is you yourself, the defendant, who should acknowledge service.

Above all others, you need to see the guarantee. Lending to a company is not regulated under the Consumer Credit Act.

[echat11]

1. Acknowledge the Claim - Do this.

https://legalbeagles.info/library/gu...ledge-a-claim/

2. Write to Claimant to obtain a copy of the Credit Agreement - Do this, case of seeing what they say and send.- send to Claimant

https://legalbeagles.info/library/gu...etter-example/

3. Write to Claimant’s Solicitors to obtain more information about the claim - Do this.- send to solicitors

https://legalbeagles.info/library/gu...-of-documents/

Do I put my personal address the letter/claim was addressed to OR the company address? Bearing in mind the claim letter has my personal address & name on it.

I would put your personal address, I assume that's the address that you used to take the card out. You would of used your address as the 'Guarantor'.

Just to confirm, I then tick box number 1? "I intend to defend all of this claim"

Yes

[atticus]

Bear in mind that as the claim is for more than £10,000 it will not be dealt with in the Small Claims Track. This means that if you lose the case, you can expect to be ordered to pay the Claimant's legal costs.

This means that what you need to do is establish as quickly as possible whether you have a defence that has any chance of success. This is to ascertain whether settlement will be a better course. The longer you contest the case, the more the Claimant's lawyers have to do, which will of course increase legal costs. You will already not have helped yourself with your unwise approach to correspondence.

[Pezza54]

Please read the lengthy article at https:/hallellis.co.uk/unenforceable-guarantees-legal/

Did you take out directors guarantee insurance?

[atticus]

That article is helpful, but in the case of some types of guarantee possibly misleading*. The OP needs to see the guarantee.

*As I am constantly telling my students, law firms put articles on their websites as marketing tools and to climb the google rankings.

[Lloyd323]

Above all others, you need to see the guarantee. Lending to a company is not regulated under the Consumer Credit Act.

Thank you - How do I go about seeing the guarantee, sorry if I come across naive. It was a cap on tap credit card. When setting the agreement up the credit card was advertised to use for business's & especially to help you through Covid. Of course I gave company name & so on. They also taken my personal details as managing director.

1. Acknowledge the Claim - Do this.

https://legalbeagles.info/library/gu...ledge-a-claim/

2. Write to Claimant to obtain a copy of the Credit Agreement - [COLOR=#FF0000]Do this, case of seeing what they say and send.- send to Claimant

Thank you for assisting I have done step one I will shortly be moving onto step 2.

Please read the lengthy article at https:/hallellis.co.uk/unenforceable-guarantees-legal/

Did you take out directors guarantee insurance?

No I did not take out any insurance. But thank you for pointing this out & helping.

[Lloyd323]

Just a quick question. Now I filled in my acknowledgment, does that "automatically" give me 28 days from date on letter or do I need to do something else to extend it by the additional 14 days? Thanks.

[atticus]

You should request a copy of the guarantee from the Claimant's solicitor. You can make this request under CPR rule 31.14 as it is referred to in the Claim Form.

Link to template CPR 31.14 request: https://legalbeagles.info/library/gu...-of-documents/

[Lloyd323]

Thank you ATTICUS. Will do.

Can anyone possibly answer this question please? - Now I filled in my acknowledgment, does that "automatically" give me 28 days from date on letter or do I need to do something else to extend it by the additional 14 days? Thanks.

[echat11]

Thank you ATTICUS. Will do.

Can anyone possibly answer this question please? - Now I filled in my acknowledgment, does that "automatically" give me 28 days from date on letter or do I need to do something else to extend it by the additional 14 days? Thanks.

When you've Acknowledged of Service (make sure you get conformation of this), that gives you 28 days (5 days postal) from the issue date on the Claim Form.

[Lloyd323]

ECHAT11 - THANK YOU

Got a few questions if anybody could help please.

When writing to Claimant to obtain a copy of the Credit Agreement. I also read this statement below from this website. It reads:

"NB: If you have received a court claim and are sending this as part of the first steps (after acknowledgment of the claim) then it would be advisable to send to the Claimant, but also send a copy to the solicitors address for their information."

So based on that information above, shall I send the same copy to the soliciter (as well as claimant)? If the answer is YES, then do I also send the £1 fee to them also?

With the CPR 31.14 letter. Apart from 1. A copy of the guarantee , and 2. Agreement / Contract. Should I be requesting anything else? Also do I need to be specific to ask for an "Agreement OR Contract"? If so, (excuse me not being very knowledgeable about this) then which do I ask for?

Thank you.

[atticus]

no, you just send the solicitors a copy of the letter.

The request under CPR 31.14 should be for any documents referred to in the Claim Form. You should specify them all. Reading the document you posted, these would inclide the Unregulated Agrement, the Notice of assignment and the guarantee.