Sumary Judgement / Cabot

[Head_Burried]

To cut a long story short I have been trying to defend a claim for an old Tesco loan that Cabot Financial have since taken on.

I did the usual CPR request and at the time I submitted my defence I had no reply so this was the basic grounds of my defence and the claim was stayed.

Since then the stay has been lifted and Cabot Financial have sent me copies of my original loan agreement with my signature along with various other paperwork. In fairness it all looks in order.

Today I have received a letter advising if I don't respond offering a repayment plan by 1st August at 4pm they will apply to the court for a summary judgement.

My question is - what is a summary judgement? Is it possible the court can issue me with a CCJ without me being able to change my defence?

[Amethyst]

The stay has already been lifted or they have applied to lift the stay and for summary judgment ? Have they sent you a copy of the application or have they not actually made it yet?

When/ if they do you can respond with a Witness Statement with reasons why summary judgment ( basically judgment without hearing because you have no prospect of success ) should not be granted and why you should be allowed to amend your defence now considering the late submission of the documents ( if you used the example defence you should have said something in there about the claimant paying costs of amending defence?)

So - how old is the Tesco Loan, when did it default etc ? How much approx. is it ?

[Head_Burried]

Thank you for the reply.

I haven't received a copy of the application or heard anything from the court. It is just a letter from Cabot's solicitors advising if I don't contact them before 4pm on 1st August they will apply for a Summary Judgement.

I presume then if/when they apply the court will contact me with the chance to respond.

The loan was defaulted on approximately 5 years ago and the amount Cabot are claiming for is around the £13,000 mark.

In all honesty I think I am going to struggle to defend it now as all their paperwork seems to be in order.

[Amethyst]

£13k ouch. Okay, do you want to post up the agreement ? ( Redacted ) Any sign of Default notice/ assignment etc ? Of course they're less 'defendable' than no credit agreement but worth asking for again …. any other issues with the debt - PPI / excessive charges etc ?

[Head_Burried]

This is some of what they have sent. They have also sent all the terms and conditions of the loans and yearly statements that the balance hasn't changed because there were no more payments.

I never took out PPI and there are no excessive charges.

[Amethyst]

Looks okay See what others think too though

The agreement contains all the terms referred to in it? and states it's a Regulated Consumer Credit Agreement at the top. From the bits you have posted I'd expect it to be compliant and complete.

So if you're going to have to settle it probably is best to try and do it now before they apply - likely it would need to be a monthly instalment ( ensure it is affordable ) and it might be wise to have it agreed under a consent order that the claim will remain stayed until the agreed amount is paid, so that you have security of knowing making the payments won't still result in a CCJ - and they have the security of knowing if you default on the agreed payments they can obtain a judgment. It will likely add £100 on to whatever you agree.

Of course a full and final would be best and you might well get a good discount if you did that, but with this size debt that's unlikely to be an option ( unless you happen to have £6k laying about randomly lol ).