County Court Business Centre Claim Form - BW Legal Services Limited

[bright colours]

Re: County Court Business Centre Claim Form - BW Legal Services Limited

Hello, I've received a letter from Lowell's solicitors in response to my letter I sent to them asking for the relevant copies in the letters you suggested, their response was:-

"With reference to the above matter and your letter dated 4 November 2016. We can confirm that we have received your Acknowledgement of Service on 4 November 2016 and your request for documentation. Once we have received your response to our client's claim we will take instruction from our client regarding your request for documentation. Should you have any further queries please contact our offices."

I have also checked on the recorded delivery to Lowell and it doesn't appear to have been signed for yet, are they known to turn away letters that are recorded? If so, my letter and £1 postal order doesn't look like it's been delivered!!

I'm also a little confused as to what response are they waiting for from me, I went online and completed the response form on 4 November 2016?

Grateful for any help you can give.

[bright colours]

Lowell portfolio - county court letter

I received a County Court Letter from Lowell Portfolio and I took all the necessary steps of replying to the claim to get the 28 days and I also sent a letter to their solicitor requesting the relevant documents, they replied saying:-

"With reference to the above matter and your letter dated 4 November 2016. We can confirm that we have received your Acknowledgement of Service on 4 November 2016 and your request for documentation. Once we have received your response to our client's claim we will take instruction from our client regarding your request for documentation. Should you have any further queries please contact our offices."


Firstly, I am unsure what they mean "Once we have received your response to our client's claim?"

Secondly, I also sent a letter to Lowell Portfolio requesting the relevant documents too and I included the £1 statutory fee postal order, I sent this recorded and the letter was never signed for so I sent another letter and another £1 postal order last Friday 18 November and yet again to date, they have not signed for this.

I am aware the 28 days are nearly complete so I'm not really sure what to do now as I've received nothing from my requests and I haven't done anything else in response to my claim, I completed the online form on 4 November 2016.

Grateful for any help you can give.

[charitynjw]

Re: Lowell portfolio - county court letter

Hi bright colours & welcome to LB.

On what date was the court claim form issued?
Also, could you post up (or type verbatim) the particulars of claim?
You'll find both on the front of the N1 court claim form.
Was your letter to the solicitors a CPR 31.14 request?
Were both letters sent to the respective addresses per the claim form?

[bright colours]

Re: Lowell portfolio - county court letter

The issued date of the county court letter: 01/11/2016


The Particulars of the Claim are:-
The Claimant's Claim for the sum of £680.00 being monies due from the Defendant to the Claimant under a Loans, Credit Cards agreement regulated by the Consumer Credit Act 1974 between the Defendant and Provident Personal Credit Limited under account reference*********** and assigned to the Claimant on 26/06/2015 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 8.00% per annum (a daily rate of £0.15 from the date of assignment of the agreement to 25/06/2016 being an amount of £54.90.

I sent the two template documents CCA Request || CPR 31.14 Request |, the solicitor replied but it doesn't look like Lowell with accept any of the recorded deliveries I've sent to them :-( I did sent a copy of Lowells letter to the solicitor too.

[charitynjw]

Re: Lowell portfolio - county court letter

Thanks for that, bright colours.

Was it for a loan, or a credit card? (the PoC mentions both)

[bright colours]

Re: Lowell portfolio - county court letter

It was a provident loan.

[charitynjw]

Re: Lowell portfolio - county court letter

We have seen other debt purchasers refusing recorded/SignedFor mail, but to my knowledge this is the first time Lowells have done it.
If it were me, to be on the safe side, I would resend via ordinary 1st class post.
Claimant name/address per court claim form.
You can get a free certificate of posting at the post office as proof.
The postal order should be made out to the Claimant (Lowell Portfolio 1 Ltd?), & endorsed 'For statutory purposes only'.
Cross-refer the request letter & the postal order.
Imho, a CCA request is too important to take chances with, but this will give you all the proof you need.

[bright colours]

Re: Lowell portfolio - county court letter

Thank you for the response, I'm a little worried about the timescale if I only have 28 days to defend my claim and I'm already on the 23rd day? By they time I get to send the letter tomorrow it won't get there until 25th and then there are only 4 days left to defend the claim and I know they have 12 days to reply? As this is the case what advice can you please give if I don't get their response back before the 28th day?

[charitynjw]

Re: Lowell portfolio - county court letter

Imho, send it anyway asap.
You can always state in your defence that you have sent the request multiple times, dates, methods used, responses (& lack of them).

[bright colours]

Re: Lowell portfolio - county court letter

OK thank you, I will send this first thing.

[charitynjw]

Re: Lowell portfolio - county court letter

Have you sent a CPR 31.14 request to the solicitors? (Lowell Solicitors, or whoever is on the court claim form)

[bright colours]

Re: Lowell portfolio - county court letter

Yes, the solicitors BW Legal replied with:-

"With reference to the above matter and your letter dated 4 November 2016. We can confirm that we have received your Acknowledgement of Service on 4 November 2016 and your request for documentation. Once we have received your response to our client's claim we will take instruction from our client regarding your request for documentation. Should you have any further queries please contact our offices."

I'm not quite sure what they mean by my response to their client's claim though?

[charitynjw]

Re: Lowell portfolio - county court letter

I guess the 'response to client's claim' will be your written defence.
Which will, I would imagine, be largely not receiving any response from the Claimant or their solicitors.
But that's fine; it's the truth & once you have posted your new CCA request, it is deemed by law to be received in 2 days.
I just wanted to confirm that the request to the solicitors mentioned CPR 31; if so, they are non-compliant with that legal requirement also.

[bright colours]

Re: Lowell portfolio - county court letter

4 November 2016

BW Legal
The Tannery
91 Kirstall road
Leeds
West Yorkshire
LS3 1HS

To whom it may concern

CLAIM NUMBER *******- REFERENCE NUMBER *******
REQUEST FOR DOCUMENTS MENTIONED IN A STATEMENT OF CASE UNDER CPR31.14

On 03 November 2016, I received a County Court claim from yourselves of which I have acknowledged receipt and indicating my intention to defend in full.

To enable me to file my defence and / or counterclaim, I require inspection of documents you mention in your statement of case ahead of filing my defence in 14 days’ time.

1. Credit Agreement
2. A copy of the contractual payment under the terms of the agreement
3. Default notice

In accordance with CPR 31.15(c) I undertake to be responsible for your reasonable copying costs incurred in complying with this CPR 31.14 request.

You should note that this claim has not yet been allocated to a specific track and the provisions of CPR 27(2) are of no effect. Had your claim not been issued through CCBC the Claimant would have been obliged to attach copies of the documentation upon which it relies to the Particulars of Claim. I , as Defendant, am entitled to see the documents on which the Claimant relies and which you will have to produce at trial. Disclosure at this stage will enable me to fully plead my case and further the Overriding Objective.

You should ensure compliance with your CPR 31 duties and ensure that the document(s) I have requested are copied to and received by me within 7 days of receiving this letter.

If you require more time in which to comply with this request you must tell me in writing and confirm your agreement to an extension of the time allowed for me to file my defence as allowed under CPR 15.5 so I may notify the court.

For your information and records I enclose a copy of the formal request for a copy of the credit agreement relating to this claim, pursuant to the Consumer Credit Act 1974, which has been posted to your client with the statutory fee of £1 today, XX XXXX 201X.

I look forward to hearing from you.

Yours faithfully


Enc: Letter to Lowell Portfolio 1 Ltd

- - - Updated - - -

This is the letter I sent to BW Legal.

[charitynjw]

Re: Lowell portfolio - county court letter

That's fine.

Your pretty well ready to do your defence now.
Could you post up the Particulars of Claim? (Type verbatim if you can't post a photo)