CashCow - Marlin - Mort - LTSB

[CashCow]

Hello to everyone here at LB, was hoping you could give me some advice.

Today my partner received a claim form from the County Court Business Centre regarding a loan she had taken out with LTSB in 2004.

It says:

Claimant: Marlin Europe
Address for payments: Mortimer Clarke Solicitors
Defendant: My better half
Particulars: By an agreement between Lloyds TSB ("LTSB") & the Defendant on or around XX/XX/2004 ("the Agreement") LTSB agreed to loan the Defendant monies under the terms & conditions set out therein. In breach of the Agreement the Defendant did not pay the instalments as they fell due & the Agreement was terminated. The agreement was assigned to the claimant on XX/11/2013. THE CLAIMANT THEREFORE CLAIMS: 1. £11,000(ish) 2. Interest pursuant to section 69 of the County Courts Act 1984, namely (over)£5,000 & continuing until Judgment or sooner payment at the rate of 2.40


Some background info:

When we hit on hard times we had quite a few debts, we wrote to the bank(s) and offered a repayment plan of £5 per month and asked them to freeze any interest payments, which they agreed to. After a while of regular payments, the debts started to get passed around to different recovery firms, each wanting a new budget and each trying to squeeze more cash, which was always refused. It came to the point where we no longer had any clue where we stood with payments, so would end up randomly paying a few fivers and waiting for it to be passed along again.

The debt owed to LTSB was for just over £12,000, but when the account was passed to Marlin they split it into 3 parts, 1 of them being for £11,000 (neither of us can remember what the other two parts might relate to, one part for £1,000 and the other for £300)

We got the usual threatening letters demanding we respond, so we payed them £5 off the largest amount. Then around a month ago we recieved 3 letters from Mortimer Clark stating contact them or else, so earlier this week we payed another £5 (only this time my partner payed it onto the £1,000 demand rather than the £11,000 by mistake), she also emailed them offering to continue to pay £5 per month on the money owed to LTSB, but asked for them to recombine these figures so as not to cause any more confusion for us.

Then today a claim form hits the mat with the amount owed inflated by a further £5,000 plus costs, can they do this?

So if anybody here can advise me on our best course of action now I would greatly appreciate it.

Thanks for taking the time to read this

CashCow

[Amethyst]

Re: CashCow - Marlin - Mort - LTSB

Many of these Consumer Credit debt based Court Claims are issued through the County Court Business Centre and are rather lacking in detail and information. The are often claims bought by debt purchasers who don't have the paperwork to back them up to hand and who wing it on the hope that they obtain a default judgment.

So, first steps (within 14 days of receiving the claim)

1: ACKNOWLEDGE THE CLAIM - you can do this online usually at www.moneyclaim.gov.uk
You'll need your claim reference and password from the front of the claim form

2: Send A CCA REQUEST to the CLAIMANT ( see here )
This applies to all credit cards / loans / hire purchase / store cards type debt. It doesn't apply to Mobile Phones / Utilities or Overdrafts.

3: Send a CPR request to the CLAIMANT'S SOLICITORS ( see here )
This applies to everything unless they happen to have supplied you with a bunch of paperwork to back up their claim (v. unlikely)

[Amethyst]

Re: CashCow - Marlin - Mort - LTSB

Best thing is to get those bits sent off first to get all the information you need to decide whether to defend the case or make an admission and offer to pay.

It might be a good idea to send a simple data protection act subject access request to Lloyds as well - this is £10 and can take 40 days to return, but could contain something useful further down the line if you do decide to defend so best to get it in early.

When approx did you default on the original debt ? (as it doesn't seem to be stated in the particulars) as this s.69 interest can only be charged back to when the contract was terminated (ie it can't be concurrent with when the debt was incurring interest otherwise - so you aren't paying interest twice on the same debt. - 2. Interest pursuant to section 69 of the County Courts Act 1984, namely (over)£5,000 & continuing until Judgment or sooner payment at the rate of 2.40 Also I do think ''When we hit on hard times we had quite a few debts, we wrote to the bank(s) and offered a repayment plan of £5 per month and asked them to freeze any interest payments, which they agreed to. might help - do you have that in writing at all ?

[CashCow]

Re: CashCow - Marlin - Mort - LTSB

I can't remember when we defaulted on the debt, it may have been in 05 or 06, but I'm just guessing.

Unfortunately we no longer have any of the correspondence from when we agreed the payments (foolish I know).

I will get on with those first steps immediately

Thanks for your prompt reply

[CashCow]

Re: CashCow - Marlin - Mort - LTSB

When acknowledging the claim do we select defend the claim in full?

Also, do you have a link for a template with regards to the dpa we need to send to Lloyds?

Thanks

[Amethyst]

Re: CashCow - Marlin - Mort - LTSB

DPA wise - just the basic ICO template is fine -

[Your full address]
[Phone number]
[The date]

[Name and address of the organisation]

Dear Sir or Madam

Subject access request

[Your full name and address and any other details to help identify you and the information you want.]

Please supply the information about me I am entitled to under the Data Protection Act 1998 relating to:

xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx details of what you want - probably transaction lists, agreements, screen notes etc xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx

If you need any more information from me, or a fee, please let me know as soon as possible.

It may be helpful for you to know that a request for information under the Data Protection Act 1998 should be responded to within 40 days.

If you do not normally deal with these requests, please pass this letter to your Data Protection Officer. If you need advice on dealing with this request, the Information Commissioner’s Office can assist you and can be contacted on 0303 123 1113 or at www.ico.org.uk

Yours faithfully
[Signature]

[Amethyst]

Re: CashCow - Marlin - Mort - LTSB

When acknowledging the claim do we select defend the claim in full?

Thanks

Yes - unless there is a portion of the debt you are happy admitting and offering to pay on, then tick defend in full which basically just extends the time you have to gather information and decide what to do to 28 days.

[Amethyst]

Re: CashCow - Marlin - Mort - LTSB

I can't remember when we defaulted on the debt, it may have been in 05 or 06, but I'm just guessing.

If it was 05/06 you defaulted and you haven't made any payments since then you MAY find the debt is statute barred by virtue of s.5 of the limitations act. Which basically means they are out of time to claim it from you.

Do you remember any contact with DCA's on the debt at all since defaulting?

[CashCow]

Re: CashCow - Marlin - Mort - LTSB

Should we tick the contest jurisdiction box or not?

Thanks

[CashCow]

Re: CashCow - Marlin - Mort - LTSB

If it was 05/06 you defaulted and you haven't made any payments since then you MAY find the debt is statute barred by virtue of s.5 of the limitations act. Which basically means they are out of time to claim it from you.

Do you remember any contact with DCA's on the debt at all since defaulting?

We have made payments throughout this time so I don't think statute barred will apply

[Amethyst]

Re: CashCow - Marlin - Mort - LTSB

No, you don't want to contest the jurisdiction.

[CashCow]

Re: CashCow - Marlin - Mort - LTSB

With regards to this section of the CPR request-

"To enable me to file my defence and/or counterclaim, I require inspection of documents you mention in your statement of case ahead of filing my defence on XX XXXX 201X.

1. Agreement / Contact
2. Default Notice
3. Assignment
4. Formal Demand"

...which date do we enter here?
...and do we leave the numbered items as they are, or do these need to be changed to something else?

Also, we are hand writing these and making photocopies, that should be ok right?

[Amethyst]

Re: CashCow - Marlin - Mort - LTSB

You can handwrite if you prefer, or you could email the solicitors - ensure you add a read receipt.


''Particulars: By an agreement between Lloyds TSB ("LTSB") & the Defendant on or around XX/XX/2004 ("the Agreement") LTSB agreed to loan the Defendant monies under the terms & conditions set out therein. In breach of the Agreement the Defendant did not pay the instalments as they fell due & the Agreement was terminated. The agreement was assigned to the claimant on XX/11/2013. THE CLAIMANT THEREFORE CLAIMS: 1. £11,000(ish) 2. Interest pursuant to section 69 of the County Courts Act 1984, namely (over)£5,000 & continuing until Judgment or sooner payment at the rate of 2.40''

Is the particulars of claim so basically pick out the documents they have disclosed within that as that is what they are relying on to bring the claim.

The date will be the date of issue of the claim plus 33 days.

As you are aware what the debt is, and other than you got into difficulty and made an arrangement to pay which unfortunately failed, there isn't a major dispute on the debt, and it is likely that you are going to need to come to an arrangement to pay.

I would amend that first line

''"To enable me to fully consider my options, I require inspection of documents you mention in your statement of case ahead of filing my defence on XX XXXX 201X.''

Regarding the interest - if it was defaulted in 2005/2006 then that is a fair whack of interest a simple 8% per annum to have added to the debt, and yes, unfortunately they are entitled to do so.

Do you own your own home?

The CCA request really wants to go by post though as you need to include a £1 postal order/cheque with it. I'd send one to Lloyds as well as one to the Claimants.

[CashCow]

Re: CashCow - Marlin - Mort - LTSB

Do you own your own home?

No, we have no real assets of any kind

So the CPR should read..
"On xx/xx/xxxx I received a County Court claim from yourselves of which I have acknowledged receipt indicating my intention to defend in full.
To enable me to fully consider my options, I require inspection of documents you mention in your statement of case ahead of filing my defence on (issue +33 days)"
is that correct?

And I should be sending 1 copy of this to the soliciters, 2 copies of the CCA to both Marlin and LTSB each with a £1 pound postal order, and a DPA request to LTSB with a £10 postal order, right?

[Amethyst]

Re: CashCow - Marlin - Mort - LTSB

That sounds perfect

Once that's done we can start making sure your income expenditure statement is up to date in the event you need to make an offer to pay via installment.