Lowell PRA Court claim

[Henti]

Hi
I have been helping a friend with a Lowells court claim for some years.
She originally took out a loan in 2006 and this was terminated in 2007.

In 2008 she commenced a DMP(with a fee paying company), and along with other debts the terminated sum of the now Lowell debt was included.

In 2015 she asked to look into several PPI issues among them a claim against welcome.

In the process i sent welcome the DPA and a CCA request. this came back empty, welcome returned the respective fees saying that records no longer existed, acknowledging that the loan was no longer enforceable.

Whist all this was going on, I got her off the fee paying DMP and she went with Stepchange.

I advised her to forget the Welcome repayments as she was under no contract to pay and they probably owed her more than her debt in mis-sold PPI anyway.

A few weeks ago she received a letter before action from PRA regarding the debt. I rang them on her behalf and after the usual DP issues were resolved they agreed that there could be no action.

late last week she received an N1.

They are claiming that an enforceable agreement was made on the commencement of the DMP, this is despite the fact that we all know DMP's do not involve a contract and are in fact a voluntary agreement. Also the repayments are of course paid to the DMP and it is they who negotiate, also she never saw any agreement let alone signed one.

The claim was via Northampton bulk center and I have just acknowledged the claim.

There are so many paths to follow regarding a defense I am at a loss to know where to start to be honest, also this is a vexatious claim in my opinion. The claim is under 4k.

I wondered if there is anything that can be done about that, also if anyone on here has come across this before,

Here PPI claim is still with the FSCS.

[Amethyst]

Re: Lowell PRA Court claim

If Lowell are claiming there is an enforceable agreement on commencement of the DMP they need to provide that agreement.

Could you type out the Particulars of Claim pls.

You should send the standard CCA and CPR letters from the First Steps post, as regardless of the DMP they will need to provide the original agreement under the CCA to be able to enforce.

How much approx is the PPI claim for?

[Henti]

Re: Lowell PRA Court claim

Hi
The PPI claim has not been calculated yet as they have not found any of the necessary paperwork, much of it is from before 2005.

She had a number of accounts with Welcome going back to 2004, some paid off, some rescheduled. I have been trying to get more details and have a lot of paperwork from welcome on this, mostly self contradictory. I would calculate that we are talking abut in the region of eight to ten thousand, going off earlier ones I have been involved in that of similar details.

They have already said that no agreements ever existed for the loan on the claim, so I fail to see how they can enforce.

On the POC it just says on default of a regulated agrement entered into on the xx/xx/ 08, this as the date of the inception of the DMP.

I have the letter from welcome which says that the agreements are unenforceable as they do not exist.

[Henti]

Re: Lowell PRA Court claim

I really do not know what they hope to gain by this.

A CCA as sent last year as said previously, does she need to send another one ?

[Amethyst]

Re: Lowell PRA Court claim

"default of a regulated agrement entered into on the xx/xx/ 08, "

In that case in your CPR request you ask for a copy of that regulated agreement. Don't give them too much info, just state the documents they have mentioned in their statement of case and request copies.

They are just trying it on and to intimidate you, just follow the court process through, when it comes to defence we'll try give you a hand as there seems to be quite a lot of issues with their claim you can use in your defence. Probably lots of unfair charges going on as well.

It is usually best to do a further CCA request once you get a court claim - just strengthens your argument in court - you can also use the previous request and letter from Welcome saying it doesn't exist, and we already know there isn't a regulated agreement for the DMP, so I really wouldn't be worrying - although it seems like a massive waste of time and pain in the bum for you, once you have defended and if they discontinue at least that will be the end of it.

I wonder actually whether it's worth a counterclaim for the missold insurance - where in the process are you with FSCS ?

[Henti]

Re: Lowell PRA Court claim

Can you do that if the claim is with the FSCS ?

My only concerned is if they say it is a re schedule of an earlier agreement(can they call a DMP a re-schedule ?).
Unless I am wrong even a re-schedule/variation requires a signed document, and don't they have to produce the original agreement in any case ?
or am I over thinking ?