Brief Description of the Case
Received a claim form from Northampton County Court on 9th December 2008.
Received a CCJ on 30th December 2008
Received Notice of Discontinuance on 11th February 2009
Received Order to Set Judgement Aside on 5th March 2009
Claimant – CL Finance Limited
Claimants Solicitors – Howard Cohen & Co Solicitors
Defendant – ************
Particulars of claim – The Claimant’s claim is for the sum of 1904.25 being monies due from the Defendant to the Claimant under a regulated credit agreement between the Defendant and HSBC Bank plc under reference ************* and assigned to the Claimant on the 28th September 2007 notice of which has been given to the Defendant.
The Defendant has failed to make payment in accordance with the terms of the agreement and a default notice has been served upon the defendant pursuant to Section 87(1) of the Consumer Credit act 1974.
At the time of receiving the claim form I was not aware of the assignment of my debt from HSBC to CL Finance. I spoke with my debt manger at Consumer Credit Counselling Service (CCCS) who were handling my Debt Management Plan (DMP) and making payments through them to HSBC Credit card since May 2003.
CCCS confirmed me that from 28th September 2007 onwards payments have been made to HSBC regularly until December 2008 and provided me a breakdown of payments made to HSBC. CCCS advised me to accept the liability and to send the Admission form to Claimants Solicitors. As
Accordingly completed admission form and sent it to Howard Cohen & Co Solicitors. In the admission form I stated that I was not in arrears at any time as I was paying to HSBC regularly since the assignment of debt and attached a copy of the payment made to HSBC. Howard Cohen & Co did not consider or verified my payments with their client which I assume, and I received a Judgment for Claimant from the courts on 30th December 2008. Since then I started paying according to the judgment to Howard Cohen & Co.
End of January 2009 I was going through my old letters and found three correspondences that I received from CL Finance.
The first one was dated 6th November 2007 stating that the debt has been assigned from HSBC to the claimant together with a confirmation from HSBC 5 weeks after assigning the debt. The letter further states that they are aware that I make payments through a debt management company and I should continue making payments in the same way. For which I obliged.
The second letter was dated 9th January 2008 which states that even though I have received a demand for payment letter (no demand letter was received), they have received payment from me. And it further states that the demand for payment was issued in error as a technical fault and for me to disregard the demand for payment.
The Third letter dated 10th November 2008 with demand for payment stating that no payments have been received.
On receiving these three letters I wrote a letter to HSBC on 26th January 2009 requesting whether they have received payments from CCCS since the assignment of the debt. If they have received payments whether they have transferred it to the CL Finance and to provide me with a breakdown. I did not receive a reply from HSBC and I reported this matter to FSA Ombudsmen. After complaining I received a letter dated 18th March from HSBC confirming that they have sent the payments received from me to CL Finance with a breakdown. It showed that right throughout CL Finance was receiving payments from me through HSBC. On 23rd March 2009 I wrote another letter to HSBC requesting to a copy of Deed of Assignment of Debt, Breakdown of funds transferred to CL Finance with dates and a copy of the Agreement I had with HSBC. They are refusing to send me the Deed of assignment and copy of the Agreement I had with HSBC. They infact sent me an up to date copy of the terms and conditions applicable to my account. Without sending the original copy of the agreement I signed with them. I have referred this to FSA Ombudsman and await their response.
On 13th February I received a letter from Claimants Solcitors (Howard Cohen) confirming that they have served the courts with Claimants notice of discontinuance of proceedings. The reason being the judgment was entered erroneously. On 5th March 2009 I received Order to Set Judgement Aside from courts.
After couple of letters to Howard Cohen, I got a reply from them stating that when they were informed by HSBC regarding the payments I made ( remember after I wrote to HSBC, they did not have the courtesy to reply to me, but passed the information in my letter to Howard Cohen), they filed the notice of discontinuance. I wrote back and told them I provided the payments with my admission form and you could have withdrawn the case at that time. I further wrote to them that they should have obtained proper instructions from their client before harassing me by CCJ’s. Howard Cohen did not return a reply after this. I have given them 2 weeks time to reply and if not I have stated in my letter that I will complain to Solicitors Regulation Authority and take legal actions.
I want to find out the following;
I await your response and if you had similar experience with CL Finance/Howard Cohen please post your reply.
Received a claim form from Northampton County Court on 9th December 2008.
Received a CCJ on 30th December 2008
Received Notice of Discontinuance on 11th February 2009
Received Order to Set Judgement Aside on 5th March 2009
Claimant – CL Finance Limited
Claimants Solicitors – Howard Cohen & Co Solicitors
Defendant – ************
Particulars of claim – The Claimant’s claim is for the sum of 1904.25 being monies due from the Defendant to the Claimant under a regulated credit agreement between the Defendant and HSBC Bank plc under reference ************* and assigned to the Claimant on the 28th September 2007 notice of which has been given to the Defendant.
The Defendant has failed to make payment in accordance with the terms of the agreement and a default notice has been served upon the defendant pursuant to Section 87(1) of the Consumer Credit act 1974.
At the time of receiving the claim form I was not aware of the assignment of my debt from HSBC to CL Finance. I spoke with my debt manger at Consumer Credit Counselling Service (CCCS) who were handling my Debt Management Plan (DMP) and making payments through them to HSBC Credit card since May 2003.
CCCS confirmed me that from 28th September 2007 onwards payments have been made to HSBC regularly until December 2008 and provided me a breakdown of payments made to HSBC. CCCS advised me to accept the liability and to send the Admission form to Claimants Solicitors. As
Accordingly completed admission form and sent it to Howard Cohen & Co Solicitors. In the admission form I stated that I was not in arrears at any time as I was paying to HSBC regularly since the assignment of debt and attached a copy of the payment made to HSBC. Howard Cohen & Co did not consider or verified my payments with their client which I assume, and I received a Judgment for Claimant from the courts on 30th December 2008. Since then I started paying according to the judgment to Howard Cohen & Co.
End of January 2009 I was going through my old letters and found three correspondences that I received from CL Finance.
The first one was dated 6th November 2007 stating that the debt has been assigned from HSBC to the claimant together with a confirmation from HSBC 5 weeks after assigning the debt. The letter further states that they are aware that I make payments through a debt management company and I should continue making payments in the same way. For which I obliged.
The second letter was dated 9th January 2008 which states that even though I have received a demand for payment letter (no demand letter was received), they have received payment from me. And it further states that the demand for payment was issued in error as a technical fault and for me to disregard the demand for payment.
The Third letter dated 10th November 2008 with demand for payment stating that no payments have been received.
On receiving these three letters I wrote a letter to HSBC on 26th January 2009 requesting whether they have received payments from CCCS since the assignment of the debt. If they have received payments whether they have transferred it to the CL Finance and to provide me with a breakdown. I did not receive a reply from HSBC and I reported this matter to FSA Ombudsmen. After complaining I received a letter dated 18th March from HSBC confirming that they have sent the payments received from me to CL Finance with a breakdown. It showed that right throughout CL Finance was receiving payments from me through HSBC. On 23rd March 2009 I wrote another letter to HSBC requesting to a copy of Deed of Assignment of Debt, Breakdown of funds transferred to CL Finance with dates and a copy of the Agreement I had with HSBC. They are refusing to send me the Deed of assignment and copy of the Agreement I had with HSBC. They infact sent me an up to date copy of the terms and conditions applicable to my account. Without sending the original copy of the agreement I signed with them. I have referred this to FSA Ombudsman and await their response.
On 13th February I received a letter from Claimants Solcitors (Howard Cohen) confirming that they have served the courts with Claimants notice of discontinuance of proceedings. The reason being the judgment was entered erroneously. On 5th March 2009 I received Order to Set Judgement Aside from courts.
After couple of letters to Howard Cohen, I got a reply from them stating that when they were informed by HSBC regarding the payments I made ( remember after I wrote to HSBC, they did not have the courtesy to reply to me, but passed the information in my letter to Howard Cohen), they filed the notice of discontinuance. I wrote back and told them I provided the payments with my admission form and you could have withdrawn the case at that time. I further wrote to them that they should have obtained proper instructions from their client before harassing me by CCJ’s. Howard Cohen did not return a reply after this. I have given them 2 weeks time to reply and if not I have stated in my letter that I will complain to Solicitors Regulation Authority and take legal actions.
I want to find out the following;
- Whether I am entitle for any type of compensation for harassment caused by the dishonest court action.
- Whether the claimant/solicitor conduct is amount to professional negligence.
- Whether the claimant/solicitors conduct is amount to professional misconduct/misleading, ie. Purported intention to mislead the court.
- How to obtain a copy of my original credit agreement.
I await your response and if you had similar experience with CL Finance/Howard Cohen please post your reply.
Comment