Capquest Claim - advice please

[birchy]

Hi All,

My partner has received a County Court Claim from Capquest/Restons solicitors who have purchased an old Shop Direct catalogue debt. The letters have been sent to her old address that she moved out of 5 years ago. Luckily(?!), her ex partner still lives there, so has been forwarding the letters. Up until now, I have advised her to ignore the letters as I believe Capquest are using bullying tactics.

The Court Order doesn't seem genuine as the "The County Court" stamp is clearly a photocopy or generic image and is definitely NOT an ink stamp as I would of expected. I also believe the debt is statute barred as it is from 1997 and (as far as she can remember) she has not made any payments in the last 6 years.

This is the first time I have ever seen such a letter, so would like some advice please. What is our next move?

I have attached a copy of the letter with all personal info removed.

Thanks in advance.

[birchy]

Re: Capquest Claim - advice please

Additional questions:

1. Does she need to acknowledge the court order?
2. Does acknowledgement have to be done in writing?
3. Will acknowledgment be admitting liability?

She's getting very stressed and upset over this and wants to setup a payment plan. I'm doing my best to prevent her making any rash decisions...

[MIKE770]

Re: Capquest Claim - advice please

First Steps |

- - - Updated - - -

First Steps |CCA Request Letter || CPR 31.14 Request Letter


tick defend all on acknowledgement form, defence is later on down the line,


acknowledgement is just referring to receiving claim, tell her to calm down, there is a long way to go before any court appearance if any at all,
[MENTION=61310]diana[/MENTION]M

[warwick65]

Re: Capquest Claim - advice please

Hi
It looks pretty genuine to me , I am happy to post up a redacted copy of mine if it will help.

As Mike has said, first step is to acknowledge the claim.
This can be done online on the MCOL website, or you can print off the acknowledgement and email it to them or post it. Acknowledgement is not admitting anything neither is sending a CCA request of a CPR request

Then you need to send a CCA request and the £1 fee to Capquest
Then a CPR 31.14 to Restons asking for a copy of the contract and notice of assignment , include for reference a copy of the CCA request but not the fee

I think it would be wise to update the claimant and Restons with your new address but I stand to be corrected on that

I also think it would be a good investment to send a SAR to Shop Direct to get all the historic data they have on you . That one costs you £10 and as you have moved they will be right in asking for proof of ID

Restons are notoriously difficult to deal with

can your OH remember just how the account was opened, on the phone, by filling out an order form, sending an order off? Could be important because I strongly suspect they will not be able to provide a signed copy

The other important question is, when was a payment last made to the account ?

You do need to follow the court timeline otherwise there will be a CCJ by default but hopefully a strong defence will make them run for the hills, it is a relatively small amount

@Amethyst - did shop direct exist in 1997? Think you are the catalogue queen
[MENTION=87380]Diana M[/MENTION] - what are you thoughts on changing address?

[MIKE770]

Re: Capquest Claim - advice please

|| Subject Access Request Letter send with £10 postal order and keep Recorded delivery receipt, as Warwick says always a good move to get the information you may need so get it iff soonest as they have 40 days within to comply keep copy of your request

[warwick65]

Re: Capquest Claim - advice please

Here is my claim form

86_Claim_Form edit.pdf86_Claim_Form edit.pdf86_Claim_Form edit.pdf

[birchy]

Re: Capquest Claim - advice please

Thanks for the replies. I'll get the acknowledgement done ASAP.

As far as she can remember, no payments or admission to liability have been made in the last 6 years.

My question is: is this actually worth defending, and if so could it ultimately cost us a lot more if our defence fails? Can the original £392 still be paid, or has the actual debt already increased to the £477 being claimed? I don't want to make this any worse than it already is.

[warwick65]

Re: Capquest Claim - advice please

So you think you have a defence of statute barred as well. Remember the work you do doesn't cost and it would be very unusual for any other costs to arise. I would get a defence in and see what happens. If it proceeds you can always settle at mediation but it sounds as if you have a strong defence.

[birchy]

Re: Capquest Claim - advice please

Was just thinking...the CO was sent to an address my OH hasn't lived at for over 5 years. If her ex wasn't still living there, she wouldn't even know the letters and CO existed. What would the outcome of been if she was blissfully unaware?

[warwick65]

Re: Capquest Claim - advice please

Was just thinking...the CO was sent to an address my OH hasn't lived at for over 5 years. If her ex wasn't still living there, she wouldn't even know the letters and CO existed. What would the outcome of been if she was blissfully unaware?

She would have a default judgement against her name and you would then have had to go to the trouble and probable expense of getting it set aside and then defending again

[Amethyst]

Re: Capquest Claim - advice please

@Amethyst - did shop direct exist in 1997? Think you are the catalogue queen

Ahh haaa that sounds terrible... but no, they didn't exist in 1997. 2003 I believe. I should pull all the info together really.

Likely originally Littlewoods or some such.

[warwick65]

Re: Capquest Claim - advice please

So the POC are wrong and maybe when you send a s78 request a recon may just have the wrong derails

[birchy]

Re: Capquest Claim - advice please

Claim has been acknowledged via the online portal. I presume the next steps are:

1. Send CCA to Capquest
2. Send CPR to Reston s

Please verify if this is correct?

Thanks again.

[MIKE770]

Re: Capquest Claim - advice please

Read Para 3

[charitynjw]

Re: Capquest Claim - advice please

& as [MENTION=98117]warwick65[/MENTION] has suggested (above), SAR Shop D for any/all data held.
http://legalbeagles.info/library/gui...ccess-request/