Court Citation received - please advise.

[mickmcg28]

Hi,

First of all, excuse me if I am vague on dates as I haven't had time yet to dig out all the related paperwork etc. I came home today to find a citation from my local court sent to me from a local solicitors office on behalf of Marlin Capital Europe Ltd. relating to a £7k debt to Barclays Bank PLC. Firstly I have never dealt with Barclays so I am guessing this relates to an Egg Card that I had dating back to approx 2002.

Around 2008 I was self employed and ran into some cash flow problems which resulted in me falling behind with a few debts and Egg eventuyally passed the debt on to a DCA (I think Aktiv Kapital). In 2009 I wrote to them requesting a copy of the original CCA which they failed to send and I then sent them an "Account is in dispute" letter and I never heard from them again.

Recently, around January of this year I received a letter from Marlin Capital Europe advising that they had now taken over the management of all of Barclays Banks debts and so I assumed at that point that Barclays Bank had purchased Egg???

Then today, I have received a court citation requesting that I pay the full amount or request a "Time To Pay Direction" or else I can defend the action.

Firstly, I read elsewhere a while ago that if no payment is paid towards a debt for 4 years the debt was unenforcable and also, as I sent an "Account is in discpute" letter to them after they failed to send me the CCA agreement, is this worth defending or should I look at asking for a Time to Pay Direction?

Any help or advice would be great.
Thanks!!

[Celestine]

Re: Court Citation received - please advise.

Definitely worth defending!

Non-compliance with your s.78 CCA request is good grounds for starters.

You are being sued, you need to see the agreement that you signed originally to see whether it is enforceable.

Did you ever receive a Default Notice from Egg?

have you kept copies of the CCA you sent in 2009? (IMPORTANT :O)

Are you in England? If so, the Limitation period on a debt is 6 years since you last made a payment or acknowledged liability for the debt. (Scotland = 5yrs)

OK, so you need to acknowledge and tick 'defend'.

You also need to send a request pursuant to CPR31.14 to the acting solicitors, requesting to see all documents referred to in the claim document. (e.g. agreement/default notice/assignment between Egg/Barclays - Barclays/ Marlin.)

First of all type up the wording of the Particulars of Claim which you will find on the court document.

[Celestine]

Re: Court Citation received - please advise.

This is nice reading too
http://www.legalbeagles.info/forums/...ard-climb-down

[mickmcg28]

Re: Court Citation received - please advise.

Did you ever receive a Default Notice from Egg?

Yes I think I did but it was so long ago I will have lost it.

have you kept copies of the CCA you sent in 2009? (IMPORTANT :O)

Yes, I have a soft copy on an old hard drive and also a copy of the Account in Dispute letter I sent after not receiving the CCA.

Are you in England? If so, the Limitation period on a debt is 6 years since you last made a payment or acknowledged liability for the debt. (Scotland = 5yrs)

I'm in Scotland and have just read up on this so no point going down that road, at least for another year!!

OK, so you need to acknowledge and tick 'defend'.

You also need to send a request pursuant to CPR31.14 to the acting solicitors, requesting to see all documents referred to in the claim document. (e.g. agreement/default notice/assignment between Egg/Barclays - Barclays/ Marlin.)

First of all type up the wording of the Particulars of Claim which you will find on the court document.

Thanks for the advice, I will do this tomorrow.
The letter states I have until May 29th to respond. Is requesting the above info enough of a response to stop any further action being taken? Are they obliged to put the case on hold until they have spplied me with the requested documents?

Thanks again
Mick

[CleverClogs]

Re: Court Citation received - please advise.

Are you in England?

His profile says he's in Scotland.

Of course, the hawfwitted tattie-heids at Marlin willnae ken that Scotland has her ain courts an' law.

If so, the Limitation period on a debt is 6 years since you last made a payment or acknowledged liability for the debt. (Scotland = 5yrs)

Section 6 (link) and Schedule 1 (link) of the Prescription and Limitation (Scotland) Act 1973.

OK, so you need to acknowledge and tick 'defend'.

Aye, but do you no think he should ask for the matter to be heard in Scotland, under Scots Law?

You also need to send a request pursuant to CPR31.14 to the acting solicitors, requesting to see all documents referred to in the claim document. (e.g. agreement/default notice/assignment between Egg/Barclays - Barclays/ Marlin.)

True, wherever it is to be heard.

[mickmcg28]

Re: Court Citation received - please advise.

The citation is from a local Scottish court, and Marlin are being represented by a local Scottish Solicitor.

[mickmcg28]

Re: Court Citation received - please advise.

Bumping this back up as I am running out of time.
To update, I have sent off a CCA request to the currect DCA who are suing me and I have sent an SAR to Barclays who must now own Egg?? Anyway, I forgot this was bank holiday weekend and so I have only until Wednesday to reply to the citation with one of the following 3 options and I am getting nervous as I have yet to receive any reply from either of the CCA or SAR requests.

Option 1 : Admit the claim and apply for a time to pay direction.
Option 2 : Admit the claim and pay the whole sum (which I cannot do as I dont have £7k)
Option 3 : Defend the claim.

If I go for Option 1, do I automatically get a CCJ against me? I really do not want this as I plan to move house later in the year.
If I go for Option 3, what would happen if I lost? Would I be liable for all the legal costs etc. and be expected to pay in full or go to jail etc??

On my Experian credit report, there is no mention of this debt which I would expect to see there if there was a proper CCA for the Egg card. So I would be defending the claim on the grounds that there is no legal Credit Agreement in place or at least that it hasn't been made available to me after two requests.

As I say, I am running out of time and need some good legal advice. Even if the advice is - get a lawyer!!

Thanks again,
M.

[Celestine]

Re: Court Citation received - please advise.

I'll ask PT to look at this on the morrow.

I did discuss this case with him when you first posted and he had a couple of concerns primarily due to Slater v Egg [2010]

[mickmcg28]

Re: Court Citation received - please advise.

Thanks Celestine

[FlamingParrot]

Re: Court Citation received - please advise.

Didn't realise there was a new thread, replied to the other post:

My first suggestion would be to start a new thread here: http://www.legalbeagles.info/forums/...-a-Court-Claim

As you have another week to respond, I'd suggest not admitting anything just yet. Your credit report is no indication of the status of a debt. If you defaulted 6 years ago, it could have dropped off your file. Creditors can and do record defaults against unenforceable debts regardless of whether there is a valid CCA or not.

First of all, don't panic! We need to know a bit about the history of this account.

• When did you last make a payment? If it was 5 years ago or more (assuming you are in Scotland), it could be statute barred. The fact the debt doesn't appear on your credit file suggests it could have been defaulted at least 6 years ago.
• When did you default on your Egg card? Did you ever get a default notice from Egg? If so, have you still got it?
• Did you get a notice of assignment? You say the account was first passed to Capquest and now Marlin, you should have received notice of assingment on both occasions.
• Have you still got proof of having requested a copy of your agreement in 2009? Any of their responses? Did they say they couldn't locate it? Or just didn't respond?
• Who are they using as solicitors? Mortimer Clarke? Restons? Those firms are commonly used by Marlin. Did you get a letter before action, basically a letter saying they would be issuing a claim?

These are just a few basic questions we'll need answers to, preferably on a new thread. We have two consumer credit specialists on board, the site owner being one of them. Once we have the full facts, we can ask them to take a look at your thread and get their qualified opinion. The sooner we can do this, the better. If you have any documents you may wish to post, make sure you remove all personal details before scanning or taking a picture with a digital camera or mobile phone. :camera:

[FlamingParrot]

Re: Court Citation received - please advise.

Bumping this back up as I am running out of time.
To update, I have sent off a CCA request to the currect DCA who are suing me and I have sent an SAR to Barclays who must now own Egg?? Anyway, I forgot this was bank holiday weekend and so I have only until Wednesday to reply to the citation with one of the following 3 options and I am getting nervous as I have yet to receive any reply from either of the CCA or SAR requests.

Option 1 : Admit the claim and apply for a time to pay direction.
Option 2 : Admit the claim and pay the whole sum (which I cannot do as I dont have £7k)
Option 3 : Defend the claim.

If I go for Option 1, do I automatically get a CCJ against me? I really do not want this as I plan to move house later in the year.

Yes, you would if you admit the claim.

If I go for Option 3, what would happen if I lost? Would I be liable for all the legal costs etc.

I'll wait for a qualified opinion especially since you are in Scotland, but I wouldn't think so, since the small claims threshold is now £10k and this falls below.

and be expected to pay in full or go to jail etc??

Go to jail? Of course not! :scared: :scared: :scared: We're not in Dubai! Debt is a civil matter, not a criminal one. They are suing you in civil court, it's not a criminal offence to be in debt! :nono: Rest assure that just won't happen!

On my Experian credit report, there is no mention of this debt which I would expect to see there if there was a proper CCA for the Egg card. So I would be defending the claim on the grounds that there is no legal Credit Agreement in place or at least that it hasn't been made available to me after two requests.

As I say, I am running out of time and need some good legal advice. Even if the advice is - get a lawyer!!

Thanks again,
M.

See my post above.

[mickmcg28]

Re: Court Citation received - please advise.

OK - I'm not going to Panic - yet!!

• When did you last make a payment? If it was 5 years ago or more (assuming you are in Scotland), it could be statute barred. The fact the debt doesn't appear on your credit file suggests it could have been defaulted at least 6 years ago.
  My last payment was in 2009 - I would guess around April? They (Capquest) demanded payment in full after I missed or was late with a payment and I sent them a CCA request. I doubt the account is statute barred because of this which is why I am surprised there is no mention of it on my Experian report. I was hedging my bets on this being likely due to them having no CCA.
• When did you default on your Egg card? Did you ever get a default notice from Egg? If so, have you still got it?
  To be 100% honest, I would be lying if I said that I did. I don't remember getting one but at the time, I was in all sorts of financial mess and was getting letters almost daily. I suspect that I would have done and I don't have it.
  
• Did you get a notice of assignment? You say the account was first passed to Capquest and now Marlin, you should have received notice of assingment on both occasions.
  Yes, I got a letter in January that said along the lines of "We are Marlin Capital Ltd. and we are now managing this account for Barclays Bank Plc". It made no demand for money and did not ask for any response as far as I recall. Again, I do not have the letter.
  
• Have you still got proof of having requested a copy of your agreement in 2009? Any of their responses? Did they say they couldn't locate it? Or just didn't respond?
  I still have copies of the letters from 2009. I sent a cheque for £1 and I will have a bank statement somewhere that shows they cashed the cheque. I sent recorded delivery but have lost the receipt for that. They did not respond at all to the CCA request. They cashed the cheque and then after 3 weeks or so, I sent them an 'Account in Dispute' letter. Again, I had no response to that and heard nothing at all about the Egg card until January this year when I got the letter from Marlins to say they had taken over the account, as mentioned above.
• Who are they using as solicitors? Mortimer Clarke? Restons? Those firms are commonly used by Marlin. Did you get a letter before action, basically a letter saying they would be issuing a claim?
  They are using a local company called Nolans. I got no letter before this to say that there was a claim pending.

The CCA request and the Account in dispute letters were from templates over on the CAG website. I will try and post scans of them if I can figure out how to do that.

This is what I need to determine before Wednesday....

1. Do I have a good chance of defending successfully and if so, do I need to hire a solicitor/lawyer?
2. If the answer to the above is no or not good, do I go down the "Request Time to Pay" route and take my medicine (including the CCJ)

If I have not received any response from the CCA request by Wednesday which I think is day 12 (they signed for it on 13th May) can I ask for more time???

Thanks all who have taken the time to look over this for me,
Mick

[mickmcg28]

Re: Court Citation received - please advise.

Go to jail? Of course not! :scared: :scared: :scared: We're not in Dubai! Debt is a civil matter, not a criminal one. They are suing you in civil court, it's not a criminal offence to be in debt! :nono: Rest assure that just won't happen!

Thanks for that reassurance I will maybe get some sleep tonight!!

[FlamingParrot]

Re: Court Citation received - please advise.

I would guess around April? They (Capquest) demanded payment in full after I missed or was late with a payment and I sent them a CCA request. I doubt the account is statute barred because of this which is why I am surprised there is no mention of it on my Experian report. I was hedging my bets on this being likely due to them having no CCA.

I doubt that would be the reason, in McGuffick v RBS it was established that reporting to the CRAs does not constitute enforcement, therefore they are free to record a default even without CCA.

The CCA request and the Account in dispute letters were from templates over on the CAG website. I will try and post scans of them if I can figure out how to do that.

You can just take a picture with a digital camera or mobile phone, making sure you cover up your personal details, or else take the picture and remove them using a photo editing program. I think I am familiar with the CCA and account in dispute CAG templates, I used them myself in 2010/11.

This is what I need to determine before Wednesday....

1. Do I have a good chance of defending successfully and if so, do I need to hire a solicitor/lawyer?

If they have never produced an agreement, I'd say you do.

2. If the answer to the above is no or not good, do I go down the "Request Time to Pay" route and take my medicine (including the CCJ)

If I have not received any response from the CCA request by Wednesday which I think is day 12 (they signed for it on 13th May) can I ask for more time???

Thanks all who have taken the time to look over this for me,
Mick

Have you sent a request for documents referred to on the PoC, under CPR 31.14?

[mickmcg28]

Re: Court Citation received - please advise.

Thanks FlamingParrot. What is a PoC, under CPR 31.14? I sent an SAR to Barclays asking for ALL documents, statements, default notices etc. Everything relating to the account.

These are the letter I sent to CapQuest in 2008/2009, and the other more recent ones to Marlin and Barclays. Hopefully you can see them OK. As yet, I have not received any replies.

Thanks,
Mick

PS - the date on the last 2 letters is 9th May 2013, I have blanked them out :/