Help! Letter of Claim - Cohen/Hoist

[Debtpickle]

I’m worried as I’ve received a letter from Howard & Cohen, on behalf of HOIST Portfolio which is a Letter of Claim.

It relates to an Lloyd’s TSB overdraft (£2,000) and it says in the letter they have a written agreement from 2001. They state that the debt was then purchased and ‘legally assigned’ in 2015.

I was hoping that this debt was statute barred as I got into difficulties around 2010 and made my last payment (on a DMP) in June 2011. However, Hoist have put the default date of Oct 2012 which seems very late.

I’m thinking of sending a CCA request to Hoist although I understand that overdrafts may not be covered under this? I need to know when the account formally defaulted and the transactions to establish whether it’s statute barred.

I am intending to tick the box on the PAP form to say I dispute the claim and also tick box I requesting more information: Default Notice, notice of reassignment, statement of account, interest added etc.

I am a bit concerned as attached to this overdraft from my current account I had a loan (which defaulted in March 2011). However I continued to pay £1 token payments in this (to another DCA) until August 2015. Could this be used to link the other debt and constitute acknowledgment of the debt, or would it be treated separately? The Lloyd’s loan is a different account number but obviously it was linked to my Lloyd’s current account.

If Hoists late default date of Oct 2012 is correct then that would mean it due to become statute barred this October. I was thinking I could string the dispute process out until then, but I’ve just read that the 6 year ‘clock’ stops when the claim letter is issued. Is this correct?

Sorry for this long post! I hope someone can help steer me towards my next move!

Thank you in advance!

[Debtpickle]

Also do I send CCA to Hoist or their agent - Robinson Way?

Thank you!

[Debtpickle]

Please anyone offer any advice about how to handle this? I would really appreciate some help to know what steps to take.

Thank you!

[Kati]

Amethyst jaguarsuk ... any help please??

[jaguarsuk]

Hi

It may be that this account never defaulted prior to you entering into a Debt Management Plan. When you say you made the last payment I assumed you stopped paying and there were more payments due under the plan?

Once you stopped the creditor will have taken a while to realise and then decide what they wanted to do with your debt. They may have defaulted it in Oct 2012 and then sold on.

The Solicitors usually give 30 days to respond, have they and what date will 30 from the date on the letter be?

The only way to know is to Subject Access Request Letter the original creditor, the bank you had the overdraft with. If I want things in particular I like to ask for them so ask for Full History of the account, notice of default, original overdraft agreement an all other data they hold on you.

Regards the loan, that is a separate account and governed by separate individual terms and is treated separately. Unless the claimant has been sold that debt too they might not even know about it, but it's likely it'll rear it's head at some point.

[thedirtyhound]

The problem you have is that you are asking people to help you when you don't appear to be aware of the basic facts of your case. If you paid into a DMP for this debt in 2015, then you don't appear to have much prospect of successfully defending a claim. If you didn't and made your last payment in 2011, the circumstances should be different. The firm handling your DMP should be able to confirm this for you. Also, agreements for overdrafts are different from credit card agreements. The terms and conditions for an overdraft are set out in the letter of agreement. Do you have a copy of that?

[Amethyst]

http://legalbeagles.info/forums/foru...etter-of-claim

other thread - I'll get them merged

[Debtpickle]

Thank you both, very good advice and just confirms what I was planning to do, so thank you. I’ll get the SAR off right away.

@Dirtyhound the last payment on the DMP was in 2011 not 2015 and I haven’t paid anything since. That’s why I I’m thinking it may be statute barred.

i don’t have a copy of this so called agreement but I’m going to ask for a copy and see what it is.

Thanks.

[Debtpickle]

To clarify I stopped paying the DMP altogether in 2011. I have to reply to the claim by 1st June.

[Debtpickle]

jaguarsuk I’ve just thought, if I send a SAR to the original creditor (Lloyd’s) I’m concerned that might put me back on their radar regarding the other (loan) debt. This is the only one where I continued to pay £1 a month until 2015 (albeit to another DCA who has since sold it on).

Could I just request these documents from Hoist?

[pt2537]

Ok, how much of the claimed amount is charges? do you know?

If this is an overdraft account then they are payable on demand, and generally they are subject to limitation running from the point when the creditor could demand payment in full. If the last payment was 2011 and no acknowledgment has been made since, then you may have a limitation argument but also you could raise the unfair relationship challenge if the debt is made up of default charges for bounced direct debit fees etc.

I took hoist apart a while ago on a claim like this, so dont give up hope yet.

[Debtpickle]

pt2537 Thank you for your reply. I suspect a lot of it was made up of unfair charges. At the time I was really struggling and they kept slamming me with charge after charge. Then when I tried to pay it off they refused to stop interest so I was’nt making any headway.

They were being so awful and I felt unethical and after a phone call to them they actually advised me to stop paying so they’d default so that Interest & charges would stop. So that’s why I’m thinking the default happened much earlier than Hoist Claim (who have put default date 14 months after this!).

i found some old paperwork from them about a year ago saying they were taking me to court (but it wasn’t an official Letter of Claim like this one) and I just ignored it. I then got a letter a month later saying they had decided not to take me to court but offer me 50% full & final. This gives me hope they got nothing!

How did you tackle them?

[pt2537]

pt2537 Thank you for your reply. I suspect a lot of it was made up of unfair charges. At the time I was really struggling and they kept slamming me with charge after charge. Then when I tried to pay it off they refused to stop interest so I was’nt making any headway.

They were being so awful and I felt unethical and after a phone call to them they actually advised me to stop paying so they’d default so that Interest & charges would stop. So that’s why I’m thinking the default happened much earlier than Hoist Claim (who have put default date 14 months after this!).

i found some old paperwork from them about a year ago saying they were taking me to court (but it wasn’t an official Letter of Claim like this one) and I just ignored it. I then got a letter a month later saying they had decided not to take me to court but offer me 50% full & final. This gives me hope they got nothing!

How did you tackle them?

have they issued a claim as yet against you?

[Debtpickle]

pt2537 They’ve just sent me a Letter of Claim with the pre-action protocol form etc to reply in 30 days.

[pt2537]

pt2537 They’ve just sent me a Letter of Claim with the pre-action protocol form etc to reply in 30 days.

ok well if no legal proceedings are issued, then use the pre action protocol to your advantage

id ask for

A copy of the agreement (assuming they rely on one)
A copy of any default or termination notice relied on,
Any demand for payment they rely upon
Full breakdown of how the sums claimed accrued, including details of any and all Default, bounced direct debit, or late payment charges or fees added to the debt by them or the original creditor