"Notice of discontinuance" by Hoist Portfolio Holding 2 Ltd / Howard Cohen Solicitors

[happywizard]

My question is regarding (1) "How to file a counterclaim for actual expenses and punitive damages" risen from the a discontinued claim and (2) "How to get the default entry removed/cleared from my credit history?


Are there any template letters available in this matter? Could someone point me in the right direction, please.


Well, my story is similar to most people here on the forum who received a court claim out of Northampton County Court Bulk Centre issued by Hoist Portfolio Holding 2 Ltd (allegedly acting on behalf of Santander UK PLC) using Howard Cohen & Co. Solicitors and Robinson Way to do their bullying and intimidation.


I followed all the steps as advised on this forum, for which I am most grateful:
1.) acknowledged of service with intend to defend in full
2.) send my CCA s77-s79 request with £1
3.) send my CPR31.14 request
which I followed up with reminder letters, but they only replied with an acknowledgement from Howard Cohen saying "they are in the process of obtaining the documents requested and once they have them would provide a 14 day extension for filing my defence", which I believe was send to me with the intention to stall my defence filing in a timely manner in order to obtain a default judgment against me and "legalise" the alleged debt.
I prevented this by 4.) filing an "unless order" via the N244 form (including a draft order for a judge to order them to provide specific disclosure of the documents the based their claim pursuant to CPR31.14 and included a witness statement listing my recorded efforts to obtain the documents from them by friendly means without court and 5.) by emailing my defence to the court at the very last minute to be filed with my case files (i.e. after I submitted the N244 application, my case was barred online in my moneyclaim account, that online filing of my defence was not possible any more, but court staff ensured me that my defence would be included in my case files if I emailed my defence).

Well, my case was then transferred to my local court for a "hearing of my application order" to be scheduled (that's not like a track being allocated to the claim), the hearing date at court took a 6 month wait to be scheduled.


Meanwhile, I received no further correspondence from Hoist Portfolio & Howard Cohen, et al. with regards to my specific disclosure request, instead they just send me a statement of the alleged defaulted account about 3-4 weeks before the actual hearing date.


On the hearing date, I went all prepared to court only to find to my surprise that Howard Cohen solicitors didn't even had bothered to show up, neither had they informed me of their last minute "notice of discontinuance", i.e. "the claimant discontinues all of this claim" that I was led into an empty court room with a surprised and friendly judge telling me that they did not expect me to attend the hearing today since my claim was discontinued and that I was free to go home again.


When asking the judge, what about who is paying for the cost of my application and punitive damages, likewise what about the removal of the default entry on my credit file, the judge simply said that I could file a counterclaim, while the judge was just there to make sure the law was followed correctly.


So no much help there, while I am still waiting for an official letter from the court, my understanding is that I may have just 28 days to file such a counter claim once the claimant informed (served) me with a copy of the "Notice of Discontinuance" he filed with the court, and which I received (from Howard Cohen on behalf of Hoist) only a few days after the court hearing, i.e. apparently they had filed the "Notice of Discontinuance" just the day before the hearing and posted it to me after the hearing only.


You may understand, that while I am happy that this entire bogus claim has now been discontinued, I am left very angry about all this waste of time, the distress and harassment I received in nthe process, last but not least the defamation of character by staining my credit file which has yet to be cleared, and that I do not want to rest my quest until these "Scam Artists" paid punitive damages and cleared my credit file.

Clearly, as my case has demonstrated, Hoist Portfolio & Howard Cohen are misusing the due process by filing bogus claims without being in possession of the correct documents if any and in the hope to intimidate and trap uninformed defendents into either payments or worth into a default judgement to legalise an unenforcable debt.

Any advice and help in this matter is highly appreciated.


Looking forward to hearing from you.

[Kati]

Re: "Notice of discontinuance" by Hoist Portfolio Holding 2 Ltd / Howard Cohen Solici

:bump:

[judgemental24]

Re: "Notice of discontinuance" by Hoist Portfolio Holding 2 Ltd / Howard Cohen Solici

https://www.justice.gov.uk/courts/procedure-rules/civil/rules/part38#38.6


(3) This rule does not apply to claims allocated to the small claims track.

[nemesis45]

Re: "Notice of discontinuance" by Hoist Portfolio Holding 2 Ltd / Howard Cohen Solici

My question is regarding (1) "How to file a counterclaim for actual expenses and punitive damages" risen from the a discontinued claim and (2) "How to get the default entry removed/cleared from my credit history?


Are there any template letters available in this matter? Could someone point me in the right direction, please.


Well, my story is similar to most people here on the forum who received a court claim out of Northampton County Court Bulk Centre issued by Hoist Portfolio Holding 2 Ltd (allegedly acting on behalf of Santander UK PLC) using Howard Cohen & Co. Solicitors and Robinson Way to do their bullying and intimidation.


I followed all the steps as advised on this forum, for which I am most grateful:
1.) acknowledged of service with intend to defend in full
2.) send my CCA s77-s79 request with £1
3.) send my CPR31.14 request
which I followed up with reminder letters, but they only replied with an acknowledgement from Howard Cohen saying "they are in the process of obtaining the documents requested and once they have them would provide a 14 day extension for filing my defence", which I believe was send to me with the intention to stall my defence filing in a timely manner in order to obtain a default judgment against me and "legalise" the alleged debt.
I prevented this by 4.) filing an "unless order" via the N244 form (including a draft order for a judge to order them to provide specific disclosure of the documents the based their claim pursuant to CPR31.14 and included a witness statement listing my recorded efforts to obtain the documents from them by friendly means without court and 5.) by emailing my defence to the court at the very last minute to be filed with my case files (i.e. after I submitted the N244 application, my case was barred online in my moneyclaim account, that online filing of my defence was not possible any more, but court staff ensured me that my defence would be included in my case files if I emailed my defence).

Well, my case was then transferred to my local court for a "hearing of my application order" to be scheduled (that's not like a track being allocated to the claim), the hearing date at court took a 6 month wait to be scheduled.


Meanwhile, I received no further correspondence from Hoist Portfolio & Howard Cohen, et al. with regards to my specific disclosure request, instead they just send me a statement of the alleged defaulted account about 3-4 weeks before the actual hearing date.


On the hearing date, I went all prepared to court only to find to my surprise that Howard Cohen solicitors didn't even had bothered to show up, neither had they informed me of their last minute "notice of discontinuance", i.e. "the claimant discontinues all of this claim" that I was led into an empty court room with a surprised and friendly judge telling me that they did not expect me to attend the hearing today since my claim was discontinued and that I was free to go home again.


When asking the judge, what about who is paying for the cost of my application and punitive damages, likewise what about the removal of the default entry on my credit file, the judge simply said that I could file a counterclaim, while the judge was just there to make sure the law was followed correctly.


So no much help there, while I am still waiting for an official letter from the court, my understanding is that I may have just 28 days to file such a counter claim once the claimant informed (served) me with a copy of the "Notice of Discontinuance" he filed with the court, and which I received (from Howard Cohen on behalf of Hoist) only a few days after the court hearing, i.e. apparently they had filed the "Notice of Discontinuance" just the day before the hearing and posted it to me after the hearing only.


You may understand, that while I am happy that this entire bogus claim has now been discontinued, I am left very angry about all this waste of time, the distress and harassment I received in nthe process, last but not least the defamation of character by staining my credit file which has yet to be cleared, and that I do not want to rest my quest until these "Scam Artists" paid punitive damages and cleared my credit file.

Clearly, as my case has demonstrated, Hoist Portfolio & Howard Cohen are misusing the due process by filing bogus claims without being in possession of the correct documents if any and in the hope to intimidate and trap uninformed defendents into either payments or worth into a default judgement to legalise an unenforcable debt.

Any advice and help in this matter is highly appreciated.


Looking forward to hearing from you.

The judge is not likely to provide " legal advice" one the claim is discontinued, but unfortunately you cannot seek the costs as this was on the small claims track.

nem

[happywizard]

Re: "Notice of discontinuance" by Hoist Portfolio Holding 2 Ltd / Howard Cohen Solici

https://www.justice.gov.uk/courts/procedure-rules/civil/rules/part38#38.6
(3) This rule does not apply to claims allocated to the small claims track.

The judge is not likely to provide " legal advice" one the claim is discontinued, but unfortunately you cannot seek the costs as this was on the small claims track.
nem

Thank you for pointing me to the applicable procedure rules, however my case was never allocated to the small claims track, hence I believe it should be reasonable to expect that the claimant must reimburse the defendant for the actual costs (and possibly punitive damages) risen from their incompetence and deception.


I like to follow this matter up with a counterclaim to make them pay and subsequently hope to prevent that others receive these random claims.


Although each case is different, it is my firm believe that the like of Hoist & Howard Cohen are abusing the due process by filing these claims by chance (without being in the possession of the correct documents) in the hope to trap their victims (defendant) who do not take sufficient care of the timely manner of the court proceedings they are being subjected to and being led into a default CCJ and which apparently “legalises” an unenforceable debt.


i.e. in my case after the claimant being non-compliant with CCA s77-79 and CPR 31.14 requests, and attempting to confuse the due process by acknowledging the CPR31.14 requests only, but not in actual fact granting an extension for filing of defence as allowed under CPR 15.5, I was left with no choice, e.g. in order to prevent a default CCJ been filed against me, I had to file an application (via the N244 form incl. draft order and a witness statements about the non-compliance) for an direction order pursuant to CPR 31.14 with the court (Northampton).


Subsequently, a bar was put on my case before a small claims track was allocated, in fact I had to email my defence to the
court (Northampton) on the very last day allowed to file my defence, which they confirmed would be added to my case file for information (apparently due to the N244 application, proper filing of my defence wasn’t possible anymore, however the submission of my defence in time was recorded).


A few weeks later, my case was transferred to my local court (London) for a hearing of the application to be scheduled (this I learned is different from a small claims track allocation), while it took nearly 7 month for the “application hearing” to be scheduled (apparently the courts have a huge backlog – understandable with the like of Hoist & Howard Cohen using up valuable court time).


Again, the claimant did not inform me about their “Notice of discontinuance” in advance of the hearing date, only recently they had sent me a further demand for payment of the alleged debt, but without any of the documents I had request from them to proof their claim. They posted a copy of their “Notice of discontinuance” to the court only the day of the actual hearing, which I received days later.


Subsequently, it should be reasonable for me to expect to be reimbursed for all the time they wasted, time and costs for preparing for the court, time and costs of me writing the letters I send them (recorded), time and cost for traveling, time and costs of lost income, distress to myself and immediate family members, sleepless nights, the anxiety, and so on, which I believe translate in punitive damages, last but not least the defamation of character by staining my credit file (apparently this stays on there for 6 years).


How do I go about to get my credit history files cleared, I already filed a dispute/complaint through the noddle credit report website.

However, Robinson Way is refusing to take this off. Do I now proceed straight to filing a formal complaint at https://ico.org.uk/concerns/handling/


I never heard of Hoist Portfolio 2 ltd before the court claim; they (via Robinson Way) filed a default on my credit file, without a previous history of the alleged debt. Apparently acting on behalf of Santander UK PLC, which whom I never held any financial products, I certainly did not sign any contracts/agreements with them nor Hoist.


Well, as I said before, I am happy that they discontinued their claim, however this is not the end of the story for me and I hope you will agree that Hoist Portfolio, Robinson Way & Howard Cohen should not be let of the hock that easy to subject someone else to this kind of harassment and intimidation.


Any thoughts (e.g. me thinking a "Tomlin Order" may be the way forward in this context), advice and template letters which can be used would be appreciated

[stevemLS]

Re: "Notice of discontinuance" by Hoist Portfolio Holding 2 Ltd / Howard Cohen Solici

As far as I know it is very rare for English Courts to award damages in these circumstances regarding dealing with them as one of "life's inconveniences" up with which people have to put.

I fully appreciate that you would not view it in that manner but that is the general approach, the court will make an award for demonstrable losses and may make a modest award for costs (I think £18/hr is the going rate for a LiP).

However, the claim against you has been discontinued, it is "dead and buried" and so no counterclaim is possible, the time for lodging that would have been when you filed your defence. Any claim you had against them would be dealt with by an entirely new claim. You should forget about claiming against the solicitors, if you are determined to pursue this (which in my view is a mistake) then you would issue against whoever the claimant in the proceedings was.

[nemesis45]

Re: "Notice of discontinuance" by Hoist Portfolio Holding 2 Ltd / Howard Cohen Solici

Just some points before looking deeper into your situation.

Hoist and Robinson Way are part of the same group of companies Hoist buys debt, RW Manages / Collects the debts.

Discontinuance of a claim does not mean that it has " gone away" the claimant can apply to the court to restart the same
claim. ( one possible reason for a counter claim failing.)

I note you say you have never have been a customer of Santander, if the claim was in regard to a Santander account was this mentioned in defence?

The point on claims being started by debt purchasers when not in possession of the documentation/evidence to prove their claim is a long standing thorn in the side of defendant, legislation is needed to change this.

On Credit Reference File Entries:

1. The credit file entry is generated by the Original Creditor who's successors ( debt purchasers) inherit the rights and obligations of the agreement) can only update the original entry with their details ( name address, contact details etc.) They cannot change the default date or the outstanding balance.

2. RW/Hoist are only continuing to report the status of the debt according to the details provided by the original creditor.

3. The discontinuance of the court claim ( and indeed withdrawal of a claim) does not mean the underlying debt has been extinguished and we see debt purchasers playing the " moral " card " we know we can't enforce but we know you want to pay your debt"!

4. Credit files have to be an accurate and up to date picture of the conduct of the account, so if there was an account, which was defaulted it is reported, unenforceable in court even statute barred debts will remain on file for the full 6 year life of the default after which it is removed paid or not.

5. If you maintain that you were not a customer of the original creditor Santander as you say above, this whole affair should have been taken up with them as they would have originated the credit file entry Not Hoist or RW.

Please consider the above extrapolated from your post above.

nem