Lowell Portfolio & Bryan Carter county court

[Miss]

Hi

I'm hoping someone can help me!

I just received a county court claim form from Lowell & Bryan carter:

"The claimants claim is for the sum of £3000 being monies due from the defendant to the claimant under an agreement regulated by the consumer credit act 1974 between the defendant and hbos plc under account reference xxxx and assigned to the claimant on 15/08/2012.
The defendant has failed to maintain contractual repayment and a default notice has been served which has not been complied with."



I understand I have to acknowledge this fairly quickly, the thing is I don't actually know what the debt is for. How can I find this out? And further, how can I defend this. Is there anyway?

Thank you in advance!!

[Kafka]

Re: Lowell Portfolio & Bryan Carter county court

Hi

I'm hoping someone can help me!

I just received a county court claim form from Lowell & Bryan carter:

"The claimants claim is for the sum of £3000 being monies due from the defendant to the claimant under an agreement regulated by the consumer credit act 1974 between the defendant and hbos plc under account reference xxxx and assigned to the claimant on 15/08/2012.
The defendant has failed to maintain contractual repayment and a default notice has been served which has not been complied with."



I understand I have to acknowledge this fairly quickly, the thing is I don't actually know what the debt is for. How can I find this out? And further, how can I defend this. Is there anyway?

Thank you in advance!!

Hello

Have you never had any account with Halifax or Bank of Scotland?

Did you receive correspondence about this before the claim was filed?

[Miss]

Re: Lowell Portfolio & Bryan Carter county court

I had a Halifax account yes, did not know they were associated with Lloyd too. It was a credit card with like a £500 limit.
I can honestly say I'm not sure if I've received correspondence before, I'm guessing since it's reached this stage I must have?

[Kafka]

Re: Lowell Portfolio & Bryan Carter county court

I think HBOS was taken over by Lloyds, but the credit card firms may still be licensed separately.

What was the Halifax account?

If the card had a £500 limit them its a big hike to get a claim of £3000.

There is a requirement for anyone to send a formal Letter Before Action at least 14 days before filing a county court claim. Normally you would have received that within the last month or so.

[FlamingParrot]

Re: Lowell Portfolio & Bryan Carter county court

I just received a county court claim form from Lowell & Bryan carter:

"The claimants claim is for the sum of £3000 being monies due from the defendant to the claimant under an agreement regulated by the consumer credit act 1974 between the defendant and hbos plc under account reference xxxx and assigned to the claimant on 15/08/2012.
The defendant has failed to maintain contractual repayment and a default notice has been served which has not been complied with."

I understand I have to acknowledge this fairly quickly,

You have 14 days to acknowledge and you can do that online. :typing: Once you acknowledge you have a further 14 days to submit a defence, plus 5 allowed for service = a total of 33 days from date on claim. You can use this handy calculator: http://www.timeanddate.com/date/dateadd.html

the thing is I don't actually know what the debt is for. How can I find this out? And further, how can I defend this. Is there anyway?

You need to follow the steps outlined below:

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)

[FlamingParrot]

Re: Lowell Portfolio & Bryan Carter county court

There is a requirement for anyone to send a formal Letter Before Action at least 14 days before filing a county court claim. Normally you would have received that within the last month or so.

Bryan Carter normally send them 2 days before the claim saying they will issue one in 48 hours or send them saying a claim has already been issued.

[Miss]

Re: Lowell Portfolio & Bryan Carter county court

Thank you for all your help! So can I just clarify, by defending the claim it means I do not agree to paying it back? If I defend it, what will then be my legal defense?
thank you again!

[Kafka]

Re: Lowell Portfolio & Bryan Carter county court

Thank you for all your help! So can I just clarify, by defending the claim it means I do not agree to paying it back? If I defend it, what will then be my legal defense?
thank you again!

You are defending the claim because you don't know what it is, in the first instance. Beyond that there is a chance that they can't supply the correct paperwork so the claim can be challenged. In addition, if its a credit card account they are likely to have added on lots of charges that can be reclaimed, so even if they can establish that you do owe them money then you can counterclaim to reduce the amount.

Did you send those letters off?

[Miss]

Re: Lowell Portfolio & Bryan Carter county court

No not yet, but I will do first thing in the morning! Will that be ok do you think?

[nemesis45]

Re: Lowell Portfolio & Bryan Carter county court

Thank you for all your help! So can I just clarify, by defending the claim it means I do not agree to paying it back? If I defend it, what will then be my legal defense?
thank you again!

Not agreeing to pay the debt is Not a viable defence.
You need specific reason why you think you are not liable for the debt.
Does this account appear on your credit reference files? I would suggest checking if you have not done so.

[Miss]

Re: Lowell Portfolio & Bryan Carter county court

Not agreeing to pay the debt is Not a viable defence.
You need specific reason why you think you are not liable for the debt.
Does this account appear on your credit reference files? I would suggest checking if you have not done so.

Im not sure if it does or not. Do I still defend the claim if it is?

[Miss]

Re: Lowell Portfolio & Bryan Carter county court

So, I've sent off the letters. However I'm still confused as to what debt this is relating to. On my credit file with my married name there is no debt registered at all. The letter received from the courts have my maiden name on it, I got married August 2008 and changed my name right after. The letter states this debt is from 2012. Could that be when Lowell acquired the debt at all? Or does that mean a credit card would have been taken out in 2012?

[nemesis45]

Re: Lowell Portfolio & Bryan Carter county court

Checking your credit file may give more information on the debt.
Default date for instance.
As advised by Kafka get the CCA request and CPR done asap.

[nemesis45]

Re: Lowell Portfolio & Bryan Carter county court

At post one it states a debt arising from an HBOS account did you have such an account with them or any other banking institution that later became part of the group or its successors?
Lowell would have updated credit files when it purchased the account.
We need to know what credit cards you have held so we can tie all this together.

[Miss]

Re: Lowell Portfolio & Bryan Carter county court

At post one it states a debt arising from an HBOS account did you have such an account with them or any other banking institution that later became part of the group or its successors?
Lowell would have updated credit files when it purchased the account.
We need to know what credit cards you have held so we can tie all this together.

I've only had the one with Halifax, but it was way before 2012. That's why this is confusing. I think it was 2007-ish.
I have one now, with Barclays. But only owe like £60 and am up to date with payments. Does that help at all?