Cabot Financial / Mortimer Clarke Solicitors County Court Claim - Advice Please

[BLUEOTTER]

Well this came out of the blue , just received it this morning and relating to a long standing credit card issue.
I will need to dig out the papers as i received lots of good advice on here when in financial difficulties (i still am ) 4/5 years ago and disputed all of my debts at the time with barely any banks capable of producing a compliant agreement , this may well have been one of them .
To this day i still receive demands but i'm not plagued to quite the same extent but nevertheless being still some 40k in paper debt with no hope of paying it back and living in rented accommodation whilst trying to support a young family i am surprised they've gone this avenue.
Would have thought its quite vexatious and irresponsible of the solicitors to recommend their client cabot go down this route. Basically they'll need to bankrupt me and i still cant afford anything , i have no assets bar a small car .

Can anybody suggest please my first line of action please (assume i need to reply to this claim first within 14 days )and whether i should be contacting them both and pointing out the futility of this even with a compliant agreement.

thanks in advance ,i a panic but i know there are lots of good people on here who can hopefully start me off .

[Kati]

Re: Cabot Financial / Mortimer Clarke Solicitors County Court Claim - Advice Please

Have you acknowledged the claim?? You can do this online at https://www.moneyclaim.gov.uk/web/mcol/welcome

Send a CCA request to the claimant (see: http://www.legalbeagles.info/forums/...y-of-Agreement )

Send a CPR request to the claimants solicitor (see http://www.legalbeagles.info/forums/...ic-information )

The defence date is 28 days from service (ie when you received the claim) or 33 days (which allows 5 days for service) from the issue date printed on the front of the claim form.

[BLUEOTTER]

Re: Cabot Financial / Mortimer Clarke Solicitors County Court Claim - Advice Please

Thank you ,I shall follow your advice and get these three things ticked off .
Is it advisable to write to them in the meantime and ask exactly what they are trying to achieve here ? Bar maliciousness I can't see what the angle is here ,can't afford to pay anything even If they did have a case and win ,with 40k of potential debt I was advised by national debt line to seek bankruptcy 4 years ago rather than go down the iva route ,so they'll need to go down that path . Doubt the solicitors are aware of this ,should I make them aware of it all ?

[Kati]

Re: Cabot Financial / Mortimer Clarke Solicitors County Court Claim - Advice Please

Can you post up a copy of the letter (personal info removed)??

I wouldn't write to them except for the above .... they may see it as an acknowledgement of any debt
When was the last time you paid/acknowledged it (if you know exactly what it is)??

[BLUEOTTER]

Re: Cabot Financial / Mortimer Clarke Solicitors County Court Claim - Advice Please

Hi ,a copy of the court papers ? If you mean the cca then I don't have that as yet .
To the best of my knowledge the last payment would have been over 4 years ago , I had restons after me for another card but once I pointed out that they may as well bankrupt me they disappeared .
i don't actually think the solicitors or the dca have done any background digging because they are the only ones to be on my case still ,the others probably thought I wasn't worth their while , one look at my credit file or a check to see if I have a mortgage would tell them I'm not worth the hassle . They're either desperate (unlikely) or inundated with work (likely) and not bothering to do their research . Either way I can't see how the solicitors are acting in the best interests of their clients .Are mortimers renowned for being aggressive like this do you know ?

[Amethyst]

Re: Cabot Financial / Mortimer Clarke Solicitors County Court Claim - Advice Please

Thank you ,I shall follow your advice and get these three things ticked off .
Is it advisable to write to them in the meantime and ask exactly what they are trying to achieve here ? Bar maliciousness I can't see what the angle is here ,can't afford to pay anything even If they did have a case and win ,with 40k of potential debt I was advised by national debt line to seek bankruptcy 4 years ago rather than go down the iva route ,so they'll need to go down that path . Doubt the solicitors are aware of this ,should I make them aware of it all ?

Are you in an IVA ?

[BLUEOTTER]

Re: Cabot Financial / Mortimer Clarke Solicitors County Court Claim - Advice Please

No ,debt line said there was no point I owed too much and earnt too little ,this was 4 years ago prior to my 2 children being born . I originally enquired as I didn't know what to do and then after getting some good advice went on the offensive and requested cca's for all of them ,some banks complied ,some didn't and sold on straight away ,either way every one got sold to a dca and got bounced from one to the other until this one stuck with cabots.

[wales01man]

Re: Cabot Financial / Mortimer Clarke Solicitors County Court Claim - Advice Please

Don't think the will pay to bankrupt you, If the obtain a CCJ I imagine there may ne a tax advantage for them and they wreck your credit rating for another 6 years.
If only they would bankrupt us with large debts Highly unlikely

[BLUEOTTER]

Re: Cabot Financial / Mortimer Clarke Solicitors County Court Claim - Advice Please

Thank you so what are we saying here ? They would see a ccj imposed but not execute bankruptcy proceedings ? If that's the case what would be the scenario if I couldn't comply with the terms of the ccj ? Would it be thrown out if the dca didn't pursue bankruptcy or would it stay on record and be a matter for the court .

[BLUEOTTER]

Re: Cabot Financial / Mortimer Clarke Solicitors County Court Claim - Advice Please

After much digging around following lack of sleep i can now provide the following information on this as i was once meticulous in keeping all my documents to the extent i have 2 holdalls full of letters from banks/dca's etc.

1. Circa 2008 My ex partner who i had a mortgage with went on holiday with a friend where unbeknown to me she had a holiday romance , returned back home and left again within a week,took me 2 months to find out what had happened. Fast forward 6 months , she lost her job ,moved abroad permanently ,i lost my share of the house, my mind and everything i'd worked for.I was left with no option but to default all my credit cards ,bearing in mind my income was 25k a year ,by this time my credit limits added up were approaching 100k (hard to believe in this day and age but commonplace back then,totally irresponsible of both me and the banks) of which i believe i owed around 45k all said and done.I challenged every one to produce true copies of cca's , some did,some cobbled things together , some reconstituted agreements and some just went away.
5 years later i have rebuilt my life and am now father to two beautiful young daughters but financially i'm struggling,no assets, rented accommodation forever ,family help out ,lifes tough but isn't it for lots of people these days,we get by.

2. The court claim form lodged by mortimers on behalf of cabots yesterday refers to an "agreement" between myself and the bank circa 1998.

3. I had cca'd the bank in early 2010 and they wrote me a letter saying they couldn't trace a copy of the reconstituted executed agreement and therefore they wouldn't be seeking enforcement action . I still have this signed letter together with at least 3 letters from other dca's who were either acting for them or had bought the debt such as it is.the bank said they did have a copy of the signed application form but I've never seen it ,perhaps that's what Cabot now have .

4. In 2013 I became aware that cabots had the debt as i sent them an email (have a copy) complaining of harassment, it was incessant, texts,letters phone calls. I also emailed them about 4/5 months ago through their website (don't have a copy of this) when they began ramping up the pressure and asked them to produce a notice of assignment and copy of the cca. I haven't received anything from them at all neither have i paid anything,well i can't.

A few months ago I did receive a letter from marlin financial services acting for cabots saying they will recommend litigation action against me and that i could expect a charging order on my house (i don't have one) or an alternative enforcement method appropriate to my circumstances !! I now assume marlin is/are mortimer clarke or an in house company attached to cabots ,.

5. Yesterday i received the notification of a court claim form from Northampton and that is where i currently am. I will respond in line with Kati's good advice for which i am very grateful and acknowledge the claim on line and send further cca's to both the solicitors and cabots.

6. Thoughts are welcome on my next step here please ,i do have letters from 4/5 years ago from various dca's for this ,i have the letter from the bank stating they couldn't find the executed agreement from 1998 i feel this may be important.I don't have sight of whatever cabots/mortimers have laid their hands on which convinces them that they have a case to win.

Do they put much into due diligence ? I really don't know , are they chancing it because i seemed to have so little enthusiasm to tackle them these past few years ? Again i don't know but what i do know is i am resourceful and can find the spirit to re-engage but I've not been faced with this kind of action before and i can certainly do with some advice please ,never too old to learn and never replied to a court order before ,perhaps i can counter claim ? northampton is a long way for me

I HAVE PURPOSELY EDITED THE BANKS NAME AS I UNDERSTAND TOO MUCH INFORMATION CAN AID DCA'S AND OTHER PURVEYORS OF MISERY WHO MAY READ THESE FORUMS.

[wales01man]

Re: Cabot Financial / Mortimer Clarke Solicitors County Court Claim - Advice Please

A CCU I have has never been enforced they know full well there is no money to get from me .
it stays on record for 6 years and comes off after then
As I said there is probably a tax advantage for the creditor when a debt is unpaid.

[BLUEOTTER]

Re: Cabot Financial / Mortimer Clarke Solicitors County Court Claim - Advice Please

That's interesting ,did you contest or let them get on with it ?
I haven't had credit for 5 years and now manage ok ,probably won't ever get any again so in that point I'm not bothered about my credit record,it's obliterated ,pay day loan companies would avoid me .However it's possible I have grounds to contest this one as per my post above .

[wales01man]

Re: Cabot Financial / Mortimer Clarke Solicitors County Court Claim - Advice Please

I did not contest it I told them that the Businesses were going broke together with the fact our house was being repossed they just ignore it.
You can defend a CCJ claim there is plenty of help on here im in the same boat as you but after 5 years with no credit I get on with life and ignore the threats that's my choice it may not be yours in this instance.
If you are up for a fight with your creditorsgo fo it I have no fight left they can pee in the wind.

[BLUEOTTER]

Re: Cabot Financial / Mortimer Clarke Solicitors County Court Claim - Advice Please

Thank you for the reply i really appreciate it ,the absolute worst of all this is that one can feel so alone and helpless.Yesterdays shock has given way and i now need to weigh up my options , i feel i have good grounds but don't know what cabots/mortimers have up their sleeves , maybe nothing. Could they prove enforceability through an application form if thats all they have.
As you say and like you i have managed 5 years without credit and will continue until i shuffle off this mortal coil.If i didn't contest and accepted the ccj what would happen next ?,do i just ignore it or offer up a pound a month thereby ensuring it will never go away ?

I will get the cca request out to both parties on monday and after filing the acknowledgment of service i now have 28 days to decide where to go. I didn't tick the contest of jurisdiction so if this is incorrect can somebody please advise me .

[wales01man]

Re: Cabot Financial / Mortimer Clarke Solicitors County Court Claim - Advice Please

I felt low then I took stock of everything and picked myself up.
All the money I borrowed was to set up 2 businesses and keep them going I hoped through the recession when it got worse it became impossible to pay back I gave up.
Having family around was the best help one could have they don't judge at least mine did not . Where you go with this is a hard one for me to call whatever GOOD LUCK remember their is a future they the creditors cant stopthat.