Claim received - statute barred or other defence??

[beaglelover]

Hello and hi to everyone, I'm new here :-)

I am hoping to gain some knowledge and get some help with a claim that I have received this morning from Northampton Bulk Centre. The claim has been issued by Drydens Fairfax Solicitors on behalf of Capquest, who purchased the debt from Lloyds TSB. The particulars of claim do not indicate on what date they purchased the debt. The debt relates to a joint account overdraft facility. The claim has been issued to me only and not my partner (which is fine under the premise of "joint and several" I guess). This debt is very old (2008). The date of default on my credit file is 4 November 2008. I do not believe that I have made a payment in relation to this debt since the summer of 2008, but would need to ask the back to send me paper statements to confirm this as my online banking (with Santander) does not extend back that far. I have never acknowledged the debt to either Capquest or Drydens. I was about to send Drydens a "prove it" letter but they have been very quick off the mark with issuing and I hadn't done it yet (they sent me a letter before action on 9 September and issued on 24 September). They called me about a week ago and I refused to go through Data Protection with them and told them that I would be writing to them.

I have today Acknowledged the claim and indicated that I intend to defend it. I am wondering how to go about this? Should I rely on suggesting that it is Statute Barred or go down the road of asking for the CCA (which I very much doubt will be available) and SA requests etc?? After getting into a huge pickle in 2008, my credit file is about to start to become cleaner with accounts falling off this year and next and so a brand new CCJ I really don't want right now :-(

Any help would be hugely appreciated. Many thanks in advance.

[Kati]

Re: Claim received - statute barred or other defence??

Hi [MENTION=53366]beaglelover[/MENTION] to LB!!

I'm sure you'll get lots of help and advice here xx

[beaglelover]

Re: Claim received - statute barred or other defence??

Hi @beaglelover to LB!!

I'm sure you'll get lots of help and advice here xx

Thank you :-)

By the way, as well as hoping to get lots of good advice from the "legal beagles" here, I do actually own one (the dog that is not a legal!), hence the user name!

Thanks again for the welcome x

[stevemLS]

Re: Claim received - statute barred or other defence??

To establish a limitation defence you will need to show the date of the last payment.

You can get it by a SAR to Lloyds, even though you no longer bank with them.

[beaglelover]

Re: Claim received - statute barred or other defence??

To establish a limitation defence you will need to show the date of the last payment.

You can get it by a SAR to Lloyds, even though you no longer bank with them.

Ok great, thanks. So I send the SAR to Lloyds and should I write to Drydens to letthem know that this is what I am doing? What happens if I don't get a response within the timescale? Is that in itself a defence? Should I be asking for anything else?

[Johnboy007]

Re: Claim received - statute barred or other defence??

Hi,
A debt is statute barred if you have not made one single payment (even a penny), or acknowledged the debt, for six years.
The debt is coming up to the six years, so you would do well to ignore it for a little while longer.
You say you acknowledged the claim, as long as it was not an acknowledgement of the debt.
Otherwise the six years start all over again.
You would do well to play the delaying tactics.
Don't contact them until well after mid November.

[beaglelover]

Re: Claim received - statute barred or other defence??

Hi,
A debt is statute barred if you have not made one single payment (even a penny), or acknowledged the debt, for six years.
The debt is coming up to the six years, so you would do well to ignore it for a little while longer.
You say you acknowledged the claim, as long as it was not an acknowledgement of the debt.
Otherwise the six years start all over again.
You would do well to play the delaying tactics.
Don't contact them until well after mid November.

Hi, thanks for the reply. I have acknowledged the claim and advised that I will defending it. How do I "delay" though based on the fact that I only have 28 days to respond to the claim? By sending them letters asking for proof etc??

[stevemLS]

Re: Claim received - statute barred or other defence??

Hi,
A debt is statute barred if you have not made one single payment (even a penny), or acknowledged the debt, for six years.
The debt is coming up to the six years, so you would do well to ignore it for a little while longer.
You say you acknowledged the claim, as long as it was not an acknowledgement of the debt.
Otherwise the six years start all over again.
You would do well to play the delaying tactics.
Don't contact them until well after mid November.

I'm so sorry but the fact that proceedings have been issued makes this bad advice - if you ignore it you will get a default judgment against you.

[beaglelover]

Re: Claim received - statute barred or other defence??

I'm so sorry but the fact that proceedings have been issued makes this bad advice - if you ignore it you will get a default judgment against you.

Yes, thanks, I did think that I can't now just ignore it... I would like to know what the advice would be as to the best way forward in terms of defendng the claim? I have to go to work soon so probably won't be back online until tomorrow morning but many thanks for the advice so far :-) x

[Johnboy007]

Re: Claim received - statute barred or other defence??

I'm so sorry but the fact that proceedings have been issued makes this bad advice - if you ignore it you will get a default judgment against you.

Point taken there Steve.........

[Amethyst]

Re: Claim received - statute barred or other defence??

Hello and hi to everyone, I'm new here :-)

I am hoping to gain some knowledge and get some help with a claim that I have received this morning from Northampton Bulk Centre. The claim has been issued by Drydens Fairfax Solicitors on behalf of Capquest, who purchased the debt from Lloyds TSB. The particulars of claim do not indicate on what date they purchased the debt. The debt relates to a joint account overdraft facility. The claim has been issued to me only and not my partner (which is fine under the premise of "joint and several" I guess). This debt is very old (2008). The date of default on my credit file is 4 November 2008. I do not believe that I have made a payment in relation to this debt since the summer of 2008, but would need to ask the back to send me paper statements to confirm this as my online banking (with Santander) does not extend back that far. I have never acknowledged the debt to either Capquest or Drydens. I was about to send Drydens a "prove it" letter but they have been very quick off the mark with issuing and I hadn't done it yet (they sent me a letter before action on 9 September and issued on 24 September). They called me about a week ago and I refused to go through Data Protection with them and told them that I would be writing to them.

I have today Acknowledged the claim and indicated that I intend to defend it. I am wondering how to go about this? Should I rely on suggesting that it is Statute Barred or go down the road of asking for the CCA (which I very much doubt will be available) and SA requests etc?? After getting into a huge pickle in 2008, my credit file is about to start to become cleaner with accounts falling off this year and next and so a brand new CCJ I really don't want right now :-(

Any help would be hugely appreciated. Many thanks in advance.

Hi

If you feel the debt might be statute barred then a SAR to Lloyds to get your transaction lists on the account is a very good idea. It will take 40 days to come back so you will be entering your defence before that comes through, but should be before the case gets allocated - so if your only defence to the claim is that you believe it to be statute barred - and the lists come back and you aren't stat barred - you can make a negotiation attempt at that point.

If the default date is November 2008 they will argue that is the date of the cause of action accruing, as opposed to your last payment. It does sound like it might be quite tight time wise, as cause of action on an overdraft account is quite tricky to pin down.

In your SAR request ask for the terms and conditions of the account as that may assist.

Approx how much is the claim for?
What kind of account was it ? (Cash / Platinum etc) and when was it opened ?
Was the debt made up of overdraft charges and had you been in communication with Lloyds before ditching the account ?

Now you have acknowledge and said you intend to defend you should send a CPR 31.14 request to the claimant for the notice of default and of assignment and the contract their claim is based upon. If you type out their particulars of claim from the claim form we can check what to ask for.

Basically need to know more to help suss out which way you can take this, and if your credit file is most important to you, then you might decide to negotiate your bum off to avoid a CCJ (but still gather the information first as it can make them a little simpler to negotiate with esp if you can't do a full and final )

Sharon
xx

[Amethyst]

Re: Claim received - statute barred or other defence??

Ooooo also if you have a Beagle ????? we'd love to see a piccie

[Kafka]

Re: Claim received - statute barred or other defence??

Hi
Now you have acknowledge and said you intend to defend you should send a CPR 31.14 request to the claimant for the notice of default and of assignment and the contract their claim is based upon.
xx

The CPR request would be better sent directly to DFS, assuming they are named as the contact for the claim

[beaglelover]

Re: Claim received - statute barred or other defence??

Hi, many thanks for the replies. Sharon I will try to deal with your questions in order.

The debt MAY be SB but I'm not sure. I intend to ask for a copy of CCA in order that they prove the debt is mine - can i do that as part of the SAR, do it seperately or is there little point in doing it all??

The claim is for £5,802 plus costs. From memory the o/d facility was around £5k i think so £800 odd would be charges. It was a joint platinum current account. We originally planned to repay via a DMP and so LLoyds were only made aware at that point (ie we didn't advise them prior to that the account would no longer be funded/used for salaries etc).

The particulars of claim are brief and as follows:

1. The claim is for the sum of £5,802.96 in respect of monies owed by the defendant on a credit agreement held by the defendant with LLoyds Banking Group under account number.... upon which the the defendant failed to maintain payments

2. A default notice was served upon the defendant and has not been complied with.

3. By virtue of a sale agreement between Lloyds Banking Group and the claimant the claim vested in the claimant who has the genuine commercial interest. The defendant has been notified of the assignment by letter.

I could POTENTIALLY offer a full and final on this but it would not likely be able to exceed 20-30% - what would be my chances to do think? Should I tie them up in requests as much as possible to start with? They may then not see me as an easy target and be less likely to agree perhaps? I am not sure of the tactics of Drydens - I can find lots of info on Lowell/Bryan Carter et al, but not so much on these guys..

Thank you so much for all your help so far x

[beaglelover]

Re: Claim received - statute barred or other defence??

Ooooo also if you have a Beagle ????? we'd love to see a piccie

I'll see what I can do! He is a VERY naughty beagle I can tell you that!