county court bulk collection notice for Overdraft on current account

[antjmurray]

Hi, first post on the forum so apologise in adavnce in going over old ground.

I today received a claim form from Northampton County Court bulk collection issue date 07/02/14 with the claimant being Lowells Portfolio signed in print by an Alison Duckworth.

The particulars are the following:
The claimants claim is for the sum of 528.58 being monies due from the defendant to the claimant under a current accounts agreement regulated by CCA 1974 by the defendant and Lloyds TSB bank plc.

under account ref ********** and assigned to the claimant on 30/06/13. The defendant failed to maintain the contractual payement under the terms of agreement and a default notice has been served and not complied with.

It then talks about the 8% interest which is standard.

This debt is either just past or coming upto the statute barred 6 years of taking out the overdraft on a current account and hasnt been used or acknowledged at any point since then.

Can someone give me a step by step idiots guide as to what to do. Many thanks in advance

[legaleaglet]

Re: county court bulk collection notice for Overdraft on current account

Hi, first post on the forum so apologise in adavnce in going over old ground.

I today received a claim form from Northampton County Court bulk collection issue date 07/02/14 with the claimant being Lowells Portfolio signed in print by an Alison Duckworth.

The particulars are the following:
The claimants claim is for the sum of 528.58 being monies due from the defendant to the claimant under a current accounts agreement regulated by CCA 1974 by the defendant and Lloyds TSB bank plc.

under account ref ********** and assigned to the claimant on 30/06/13. The defendant failed to maintain the contractual payement under the terms of agreement and a default notice has been served and not complied with.

It then talks about the 8% interest which is standard.

This debt is either just past or coming upto the statute barred 6 years of taking out the overdraft on a current account and hasnt been used or acknowledged at any point since then.

Can someone give me a step by step idiots guide as to what to do. Many thanks in advance

The first thing you need to do is find out your default date, as this is important. (this can be obtained using the free noddle.co.uk service, if the debt has been reported on there).

The second thing is to diarise to submit an acknowledgment of the papers (do it online, the details and password are on the paperwork) with your intent to defend the whole claim. If you don't acknowledge then they can apply for a default judgment against you.

The third thing is to CPR the claimant so you get copies of the paperwork they intend relying on in court. This can give you a lot of information that might be useful to work from.

If your default date is 6 years or more then you can submit a complete defence of Statute Barred. You may find in your investigations that phantom payments of £1 have been added to your account to stop the 6 year clock ticking. If this has happened then the claimant needs to prove you made them.

[antjmurray]

Re: county court bulk collection notice for Overdraft on current account

I have acknowledged the papers online, however I thought CPR was only applicable if a credit card, this was a current account with an authorised overdraft

[antjmurray]

Re: county court bulk collection notice for Overdraft on current account

I have signed up at Noodle and the following details were found

Account was set up on 24/08/07 and defaulted on 27/02/09

Why would it take Nearly 18 months for the account to default? No payments were made into the account and no acknowledgement was given of the debt.

Any advice on how to proceed now, Thanks

[legaleaglet]

Re: county court bulk collection notice for Overdraft on current account

I have signed up at Noodle and the following details were found

Account was set up on 24/08/07 and defaulted on 27/02/09

Why would it take Nearly 18 months for the account to default? No payments were made into the account and no acknowledgement was given of the debt.

Any advice on how to proceed now, Thanks

CPR18 can be used for information purposes, CPR 31.14 is for specific documents mentioned in the statement of claim.

So, they mention current account agreement, default notice and assigned to claimant (notice of assignment), so you can ask under CPR31.14 for all of these for a start. It is entirely possible that the Default Notice is 'faulty', a lot of them were, but that will not help you enormously.

You should get all of these documents at 'bundle exchange' time, but that is some way down the line, so best to get now.

When you checked on noddle did you go back in time and look for phantom payments to the account that may have delayed the default date?

[antjmurray]

Re: county court bulk collection notice for Overdraft on current account

The only info for that account says that payment have been defaulted from 09/13 which would be when Lovell got hold of the account from whoever was the previous debt agency chasing the debt. No info regarding payments or anything like that apart from the account being defaulted in 02/09

[legaleaglet]

Re: county court bulk collection notice for Overdraft on current account

I have PM'd you with some details and questions.

However, apart from the CPR 31.14 I would be sending a SAR to Lloyds TSB as this requires them to provide all documentation pertaining to you that they hold. It will cost you £10 (postal order best idea as then they don't have your signature to lift - ahem).

If you need help with the SAR or CPR 31.14 then just shout.

[FlamingParrot]

Re: county court bulk collection notice for Overdraft on current account

I have acknowledged the papers online, however I thought CPR was only applicable if a credit card, this was a current account with an authorised overdraft

You must be thinking about CCA requests which do not apply to overdrafts. The Civil Procedure Rules (CPR) apply to any money claims. Under CPR 31.14, you have a right to request any documents mentioned on the particulars of claim:

31.14

(1) A party may inspect a document mentioned in –
(a) a statement of case;

(b) a witness statement;
(c) a witness summary; or
(d) an affidavit.
(e) Revoked.

I have signed up at Noodle and the following details were found

Account was set up on 24/08/07 and defaulted on 27/02/09

Why would it take Nearly 18 months for the account to default? No payments were made into the account and no acknowledgement was given of the debt.

Any advice on how to proceed now, Thanks

With an overdraft, it can be trickier to establish when the account was actually defaulted and when it becomes statute barred. With loans and credit cards it's straightforward because, once you miss a payment, the bank would have a cause of action. With an overdraft, there are no set payment dates. For example, I have a business account that I didn't use for a couple of years. In theory the account has no overdraft facility, however, the bank applied its own fees and charges over the period when there was no money being paid in, causing it to go overdrawn by several hundred pounds. I then started using the account again and the overdraft got automatically paid off, but the account was never defaulted despite leaving it overdrawn for a long time (probably over a year), which was good for me because a director with my credit record would struggle to open another business account. As with everything, it works both ways. :decision:

CPR18 can be used for information purposes, CPR 31.14 is for specific documents mentioned in the statement of claim.

So, they mention current account agreement, default notice and assigned to claimant (notice of assignment), so you can ask under CPR31.14 for all of these for a start. It is entirely possible that the Default Notice is 'faulty', a lot of them were, but that will not help you enormously.

You should get all of these documents at 'bundle exchange' time, but that is some way down the line, so best to get now.

When you checked on noddle did you go back in time and look for phantom payments to the account that may have delayed the default date?

You don't need phantom payments to delay the default date of an overdraft, see above.

The amount isn't much larger than mine was, and the bank never defaulted the account/recalled the O/D. I guess if it had been a larger sum, they would have moved faster.

[FlamingParrot]

Re: county court bulk collection notice for Overdraft on current account

I have PM'd you with some details and questions.

However, apart from the CPR 31.14 I would be sending a SAR to Lloyds TSB as this requires them to provide all documentation pertaining to you that they hold. It will cost you £10 (postal order best idea as then they don't have your signature to lift - ahem).

If you need help with the SAR or CPR 31.14 then just shout.

They have 40 days to respond to a SAR and, unlike non-compliance with a CPR 31.14 request, you can't request an extension until they comply. My guess is, that would leave the OP out of time unless he sent a CPR request that wasn't complied with and the claimant agreed to an extension of 28 days, assuming Lloyds complied within 40 days. Sounds like a very tight squeeze! :clock:

The OP could also send a Part 18 request to find out the last payment date, but as this is an O/D, it's not clear what the court would accept as the time when the cause of action starts running from.

[FlamingParrot]

Re: county court bulk collection notice for Overdraft on current account

Below is the CPR 31.14 request for overdrafts:

Dear Sir or Madam,

Re: xxx (claimant) v yyy (defendant)

Case No:

CPR 31.14 Request

On xx/xx/xxxx I received the Claim Form in this case issued by you out of the Northampton County Court.

I confirm having returned my acknowledgement of service to the court in which I indicate my intention to contest and counter claim all of your claim.

Please treat this letter as my request made under CPR 31.14 for the disclosure and the production of a verified and legible copy of each of the following documents mentioned in your Particulars of Claim:

1. The agreement/overdraft facility confirmation and Terms and Conditions from that date. You will appreciate that in an ordinary case and by reason of the provisions of CPR PD 16 para 7.3, where a claim is based upon a written agreement, a copy of the contract or documents constituting the agreement should be attached to or served with the particulars of claim and the original(s) should be available at the hearing. Further, that any general conditions incorporated in the contract should also be attached.
2. The Demand/Termination Notice (Notice served under Sections 76(1) and 98(1) of the CCA1974.
3. Notices of Sums in Arrears under running account credit CCA2006 sec 86C.
4. 4. Notice of Assignment.

You should ensure compliance with your CPR 31 duties and ensure that the documents I have requested are copied to and received by me within 7 days of receiving this letter. Your CPR 31 duties extend to making a reasonable and proportionate search for the originals of the documents I have requested, the better for you to be able to verify the document's authenticity and to provide me with a legible copy. Further, where I have requested a copy of a document, the original of which is now in the possession of another person, you will have a right to possession of that document if you have mentioned it in your case. You must take immediate steps to recover and preserve it for the purpose of this case.

Where I have mentioned a document and there is in your possession more than one version of that same document owing to a modification, obliteration or other marking or feature, each version will be a separate document and you must provide a copy of each version of it to me. Your obligations extend to making a reasonable and proportionate search for any version(s) to include an obligation to recover and preserve such version(s) which are now in the possession of a third party.

In accordance with CPR 31.15(c) I undertake to be responsible for your reasonable copying costs incurred in complying with this CPR 31.14 request.

If you require more time in which to comply with this request you must tell me in writing. You must tell me before the time for compliance with this request has expired. In telling me you require more time you must tell me what steps you have taken and propose to take in order to comply with this request and also state a date by when you will comply with this request. In addition your statement must be accompanied with a statement that you agree to an extension of the time for me to file my defence. Your extension of time must be not less than 14 days from the date when you say you will have complied with my request and you must state the new date for filing my defence as required under CPR15.5.

If you are unable to comply with this request and believe that you will never be able to comply with this request you must tell me in writing.

Please note that if you should fail to comply with this request, fail to request more time or fail to agree to an extension of time for the filing of my defence, I will make an application to the court for an order that the proceedings be struck out or stayed for non-compliance and a summary costs order.

I do hope this will not be necessary and look forward to hearing from you.

Yours faithfully

[ncf355]

Re: county court bulk collection notice for Overdraft on current account

Any update on this, OP?

[Taurus100]

Antjmurray How did this claim go? I have something similar