LOWELL PORTFOLIO 1 LTD v tribal1

[tribal1]

Returned from being out of the country to a Northampton CC Claim Form
Issue Date: 15th Sep 2014
I received on 30th Sep 2014 and filed Acknowledgement of Service with Intent to Defend as I believe the debt referred to is Statute Barred, although do not recognise the name of the original creditor.
I have taken the date of service to be Issue Date + 5 days (20th Sep 2014).

I will today send the 2x letters recommended, to both Claimant (Lowell Portfolio 1 LTD) and correspondence address stated on Claim (BW LEGAL).

Particulars of claim:
[The Claimant's Claim is for the sum of xx(circa £6k)xx being monies due from the Defendant to the Claimant under a Financial Services agreement regulated by the Consumer Credit Act 1974 between the Defendant and Compucredit International under account reference xxxxxxxx and assigned to the Claimant on xx/03/2008 notice of which has been given to the Defendant.
The Defendant failed to maintain the contractual payment under the terms of the agreement and a default notice has been served and not complied with. The claim also includes statutory interest pursuant to section 69 of the County Courts Act 1984 at a rate of 8% per annum (a daily rate of 0.81 from the date of assignment of the agreement to the date of issue () being an amount of xxx(circa £2k)xxx]


The amount claimed is stated as xx(circa £6k default amount)xx + court fee + solicitors costs (the additional interest isn't listed separately in those boxes - is this normal?)

At the date of assignment stated, I don't believe that I had made any payments or acknowledgement due to difficult circumstances at the time. The date of assignment stated above presumably is later than any default date, and I have definitely not acknowledged this debt since that date, nor ever made any payment following the default (I am unable to locate any paperwork relating to this credit agreement which leads me to think the default was at least 12 months earlier than the date of assignment stated).
My credit file does not show any line referring to this debt, so I believe it is statute barred?

Any advice gratefully received - should I be seeking legal counsel at this point, or proceed to submit a defence on 15 October based on the above pending receipt of any responses to letters?

Many thanks

[Amethyst]

Re: LOWELL PORTFOLIO 1 LTD v tribal1

Compucredit could be an old Monument card ? if that rings any bells.

Yes send the CPR and CCA letters off, you sound like you have the dates sorted, so it is just a case of seeing if there is any response to the letters, any documents and entering a defence based on what you do, or don't, get back.

If it was assigned in 2008 and you have never paid anything to Lowell then it is also likely it will be statute barred, if you can get together any bank statements from around late 2008/early 2009 that might help later if they suddenly come up with random payments made.

So post up if you hear anything, and around 5 days before your defence is due come back and we can help you put that together.

Sharon
xxxx

[tribal1]

Re: LOWELL PORTFOLIO 1 LTD v tribal1

Hi ... Thanks for the info so far. Defence is due to be submitted by the end of the week so thinking about what needs to go in it!
So far just received an acknowledgment of receipt from bw legal for documents request advising that they'll endeavour to respond within 12 days but have forwarded to their client for response. (They state received on 8th Oct following posting by recorded deliv. on 3rd).
Nothing from lowell directly.
Is there a particular set of statements I should include in the defence?
many thanks

[tribal1]

Re: LOWELL PORTFOLIO 1 LTD v tribal1

So, I've not had any further correspondence back from either of the requests. Have attempted a defence statement that makes some reference to those, here's what I intend to submit today:


-----------------------------
1. The Claimant's claim was issued on 15 September 2014.

2. The Defendant contends that as this is a claim in contract and
an excess of 6 years have passed since any cause of action may
have accrued, any alleged debt is therefore statute barred
pursuant to section 5 of the Limitation Act 1980.

3. The Defendant made a formal request for a copy of the original agreement under section 78(1) Consumer Credit Act 1974 on 2 October 2014. The Claimant replied
on 8 October 2014 confirming they do not hold a copy and have requested one from their client, who may in turn need to refer the request to the Original Creditor.

4. The Defendant made a request for inspection of documents mentioned in the Statement of Case under Civil Procedure Rule 31.14 on
3 October 2014 which was delivered and signed for by the Claimants
solicitor on 6 October 2014. As of 17 October no information or reply has been received.

5. The Defendant contends the Claimant should have the documents on which he intends to rely in his claim before commencement of proceedings.

6. The Claimant's claim to be entitled to payment of xxxxx or any other sum, or relief of any kind is denied.
-----------------------------------


I've not made any reference to any default periods relating to the requests for docs as from what I can tell I didn't quite get them in in time that the 12 working days has now passed?

Hoping this looks sensible but would be grateful just for a yes/no/almost !

In the meantime, it's become apparent that I changed bank accounts around 5 years ago and haven't got easy access to statements from that time, but have made enquiries with the previous bank on how to obtain them. Is this likely to be more straightforward to request under the DPA somehow, or go through whatever process the bank have for obtaining them via their customer services route?

Thanks all.
Px

[tribal1]

Re: LOWELL PORTFOLIO 1 LTD v tribal1

Update on this that have received letter from bw legal stating their client intends to proceed (dated just within the reasonable 28 days of receipt of copy defence).

Also received a Notice of Proposed Allocation and form N180 from the court. None of it is pre-completed.

The only other correspondence I've had in-between is acknowledgements from bw legal to the CCA request, confirming that they have referred this to their client, who may have to refer to the original creditor.
Also a letter from lowell directly with ref to the CPR request stating that BW legal are handling and therefore this request has been passed to them.

Should I have followed up the CPR/CCA requests in the interim? (Due to the delay in receiving court docs the 12 wkg days had not expired by the time my defence got submitted).
Is it worth writing to them again now to do this?

Not sure what the next steps are or how to prepare for this to proceed but I maintain that the statute barred defence stands. Any comments much appreciated.

[FlamingParrot]

Re: LOWELL PORTFOLIO 1 LTD v tribal1

Update on this that have received letter from bw legal stating their client intends to proceed (dated just within the reasonable 28 days of receipt of copy defence).

Also received a Notice of Proposed Allocation and form N180 from the court. None of it is pre-completed.

It wouldn't be pre-completed, but the N180 should be straightforward to fill in.

The only other correspondence I've had in-between is acknowledgements from bw legal to the CCA request, confirming that they have referred this to their client, who may have to refer to the original creditor.
Also a letter from lowell directly with ref to the CPR request stating that BW legal are handling and therefore this request has been passed to them.

Should I have followed up the CPR/CCA requests in the interim? (Due to the delay in receiving court docs the 12 wkg days had not expired by the time my defence got submitted).
Is it worth writing to them again now to do this?

Not really. they CAN respond to your CCA request at any time but it's THEIR duty to respond, not yours to chase them. :thumb:

As for the CPR request, it will no longer be relevant now the case is going to be allocated to small claims because part 31 which the request was made under, does not apply to small claims. You were able to submit the request because, up until this point, the case hadn't yet been allocated.

Not sure what the next steps are or how to prepare for this to proceed but I maintain that the statute barred defence stands. Any comments much appreciated.

In that case, you don't have to agree to mediation, just fill in the questionnaire and return it as indicated. The court will then issue directions to both sides. :thumb:

[tribal1]

Re: LOWELL PORTFOLIO 1 LTD v tribal1

Thanks fp, N180 gone back today. I guess I should chase up old bank statements as never got hold of them in anticipation of an alleged £1 payment made at some point suddenly being quoted...