can anyone help me with these (Brian carter) jokers please

[royalblue]

Back in 2012-13 I had a contract with orange and lost the phone, I owed about £160.00 because I didn't insure my new tech and the bill kept going up and up.. after a few months Lowell sent me letters and phonecalls asking for more money than was stated but I was not going to pay off a bill that wasn't my initial bill from Orange. I kind of forgot about all of this and avoided them :/
Brian Carter got involved and are asking for £579.97 Inc courts costs and I have only 4 days to reply to this or I'll have a ccj against my credit rating. I'm proper lost with all of this but don't want to call them and say I'll pay my original debt as they'll probably push me into a corner with threats until I'm raging and get even further away from sorting this out... Any help is good help please

[Stu]

Re: can anyone help me with these (Brian carter) jokers please

Firstly they can't give you 4 days, if you have received ccp you have 14 days to respond to them which then turns that to 28 days to file a defence, are these papers "threatening" court action or actual court papers if they are ccp then do as first said repond to the court, if it is threatening action then that is a different matter and you have time?

And welcome to the forum

[royalblue]

Re: can anyone help me with these (Brian carter) jokers please

Firstly they can't give you 4 days, if you have received ccp you have 14 days to respond to them which then turns that to 28 days to file a defence, are these papers "threatening" court action or actual court papers if they are ccp then do as first said repond to the court, if it is threatening action then that is a different matter and you have time?

And welcome to the forum

Sorry I misread, it says I have 14 days to respond, this was posted on the 7th of July, lowell sent a letter on the 8th of July saying because I have failed to make repayments to the above account they have now issued litigation proceedings in the county court. And I will receive the claim form in the next 48 hours direct from the court. Their principal balance was £465.77, but with interest, court fees and solicitor costs comes to £579.97. It doesn't read threatening now it's from the county court business centre but either way I don't think I should have to pay the whole sum, I will gladly pay some.. just thought I'd research on here first to see if I can do this without succumbing to their added costs.. as I really don't want a bad credit rating

- - - Updated - - -

And thanks

[royalblue]

Re: can anyone help me with these (Brian carter) jokers please

How should I respond to this letter from the county court business centre is probably my best question.. thank you for your reply

[Stu]

Re: can anyone help me with these (Brian carter) jokers please

As i see it you have two options, defend yourself in court stating the excessive costs, or and personally i think you should contact Lowell ask them to stop proceedings and agree an amount (a lesser one off payment), just because they set an amount doesn't mean you can't negotiate a one lump sum payment, very often they offer a 50% discount anyway as its easier for them that way, all you can do is ask.... You admit you owe the monies so dont sit on this as it is such a small amount to get a CCJ for

Tell them you will pay half and to stop action and make sure you get everything in writing regards any discount and action stopped.

[Amethyst]

Re: can anyone help me with these (Brian carter) jokers please

If you only have 4 days left of the original 14 then you need to acknowledge the claim to extend your time to 28 days - you can do this online at moneyclaim online and say you intend to defend in full. That gives you a little bit of breathing space if you wanted to try a without prejudice conversation with the solicitors about settling. I would recommend sending the CPR 31.14 request to the solicitors as well though to obtain a copy of the agreement and documents they are relying on ( those mentioned on the claim form - eg default notice / agreement / terms etc ) This would put you in a better position for negotiating as they are likely to accept an offer rather than trawl about locating evidence.

So, first steps (within 14 days of receiving the claim)

1: ACKNOWLEDGE THE CLAIM - you can do this online usually at www.moneyclaim.gov.uk
You'll need your claim reference and password from the front of the claim form - this will extend the time you have to respond to the claim to 28 days from when you received it

2: Send a CPR request to the CLAIMANT'S SOLICITORS ( see here )
This applies to everything unless they happen to have supplied you with a bunch of paperwork to back up their claim (v. unlikely)

[royalblue]

Re: can anyone help me with these (Brian carter) jokers please

I've managed to sort this problem out with them,, I'm paying half the monies.. Thanks for all of your support you guys