Help needed please ref Cabot Financial

[Brynn2112]

Hi everyone, I hope someone here is able to advise me on this.
Yesterday my ex partner gave me a letter that had been delivered to her address from The County Court Money Claims Centre. The letter contained a notice of application for attachment of earnings order from Cabot Financial. There are no details of what the debt is for but I am fairly sure it was for a credit card that I stopped paying for a number of years ago at an address I lived in before I met my ex partner. I split with my ex partner 13 months ago and moved out then yet they sent this letter to her address 2 days ago. Is there anyway I can find out exactly what the debt is in relation to and can I fight the attachment of earnings application?
Many thanks in advance.
Brynn.

[Guest]

Re: Help needed please ref Cabot Financial

Hi everyone, I hope someone here is able to advise me on this.
Yesterday my ex partner gave me a letter that had been delivered to her address from The County Court Money Claims Centre. The letter contained a notice of application for attachment of earnings order from Cabot Financial. There are no details of what the debt is for but I am fairly sure it was for a credit card that I stopped paying for a number of years ago at an address I lived in before I met my ex partner. I split with my ex partner 13 months ago and moved out then yet they sent this letter to her address 2 days ago. Is there anyway I can find out exactly what the debt is in relation to and can I fight the attachment of earnings application?
Many thanks in advance.
Brynn.

Looks like they issued a claim to an old address and obtained judgment in default against you. If you think you may have a defence (could the debt have been statute barred at the time the claim was issued?), you could apply to have the judgment set aside.

You can request a suspended attachment of earnings by making an installment offer using this form: http://s3-eu-west-1.amazonaws.com/hm...r/n056-eng.pdf Under item 10, you can tick the box requesting a suspended order and give a reason. The most common reason is that an AoE order could affect your job, as many employers are not keen on employees who have CCJs. Creditors tend to accept the suspended order because they'd rather you had a job so you can pay them. You'll need to fill in your financial details to back up your repayment offer.

If you go down the set aside route then, if there's no CCJ, there's no AoE order, but you still need to deal with it before they approach your employer directly.

[Brynn2112]

Re: Help needed please ref Cabot Financial

Hi freshfield, thanks for your response. Do you know how I can find out if the debt was statute barred at the time of the claim? If I have to go down the route of asking for the claim to be set aside if it wasn't barred do I do this with the court or with Cabot Financial?
Many thanks in advance.
Brynn2112.

[Guest]

Re: Help needed please ref Cabot Financial

Hi freshfield, thanks for your response. Do you know how I can find out if the debt was statute barred at the time of the claim?

You'd need a period of at least six years without any payments or written acknowledgment before the claim was issued.

If I have to go down the route of asking for the claim to be set aside if it wasn't barred do I do this with the court or with Cabot Financial?
Many thanks in advance.
Brynn2112.

Even if it was barred, you'd still have to apply for set aside on those grounds or on any other grounds you may have to dispute the debt, for example issues with the credit agreement.

A set aside application has to be submitted to the court using Form N244 and a £255 fee is payable for the application, however, it is always advisable to start by writing to the creditor (Cabot Financial) asking to consent to the set aside before submitting your application. If they don't consent, then you submit the application together with a draft defence and witness statement. See: http://legalbeagles.info/library/how...-judgment-ccj/

Bear in mind the creditor can contact your employer directly to set up the AoE order so you still need to return your N56 requesting a suspended AoE.

[R0b]

Re: Help needed please ref Cabot Financial

The other argument for set aside is if the claim was made by the instructions of Cabot Financial UK, they don't have authorisation to conduct regulated activities and so they would have committed a criminal offence therefore judgment set aside and claim dismissed.

A technical argument but a very relevant point to make.

[Brynn2112]

Re: Help needed please ref Cabot Financial

Once again thank you for your advice Rob I will call the court tomorrow to try to get information regarding what the judgement is against and take it from there.
Many thanks
Brynn2112

[pt2537]

Re: Help needed please ref Cabot Financial

Another point to consider is that CPR 13.2 mandates the Court to set aside a Judgment entered in circumstances where the conditions in CPR 12 were not met.

To put in to plain English, if the Claim was issued on the wrong address then the time for filing the acknowledgment of service hasn't run, and thus Judgment shouldn't have been entered. I would sugest that there may well be a way of over turning the judgment here, and whats more when faced with an application it is not uncommon for the Claimant to consent to the judgment being set aside.

Just had the same happen with Hoist Portfolio today

[Brynn2112]

Re: Help needed please ref Cabot Financial

Thank you pt2537, this is all very alien to me. Would you know the best way to try to get this order set aside on these grounds? Do I contact the court that the letter came from or do I contact Cabot Financial?
Many thanks in advance
Brynn2112

[R0b]

Re: Help needed please ref Cabot Financial

You would need to make an application for setting aside the judgment for the reasons above and attach a draft defence to show you have a reasonable prospect of successfully defending the case. The cost of doing so is £255 for the application fee, and possibly summary judgment at the same time on the basis that by issuing a claim, they have committed a criminal offence and the courts cannot give judgment which was done unlawfully.

[pt2537]

Re: Help needed please ref Cabot Financial

You would need to make an application for setting aside the judgment for the reasons above and attach a draft defence to show you have a reasonable prospect of successfully defending the case. The cost of doing so is £255 for the application fee, and possibly summary judgment at the same time on the basis that by issuing a claim, they have committed a criminal offence and the courts cannot give judgment which was done unlawfully.

I ont think a defence would be needed if under CPR 13.2, there is no need to show a good prospect of success, its mandatory to set aside under that heading

[R0b]

Re: Help needed please ref Cabot Financial

I ont think a defence would be needed if under CPR 13.2, there is no need to show a good prospect of success, its mandatory to set aside under that heading

Of course you are right 13.2 is mandatory but if Cabot say that they took reasonable steps to ascertain his last known address by way of electoral roll or whatever means, then it might be dangerous just to rely on that point - unless you can be absolutely certain that they issued it under the same address details as was on the credit card and took no steps.

Best to cover all bases than just rely on one and if that is dismissed you have no fall back. But sure, if you think he has 100% chance of getting a mandatory set aside then by all means he can just rely on that. I would personally think it would be better to rely on the 13.2 and 13.3 in that he did not receive the court documents but he still has a valid defence just in case, but that's my opinion.

[Brynn2112]

Re: Help needed please ref Cabot Financial

Thanks for your comments Rob and pt2537. But how do I go about doing all of this and who should I contact first?. I don't even know how to find out what the original debt is for.Sorry but I've never had to do anything like this before.
Thanks in advance.
Brynn2112

[R0b]

Re: Help needed please ref Cabot Financial

Contact the court, try to get as much information as possible and ask them to email or send out copies of the claim and judgment to you so you have that to hand. Information you will require initially might include

- Claim number (but that will be on the claim form and judgment if sent out)
- name of the Claimant
- when the claim was issued and to what address
- how much the claim was for and whether the same amount was given in judgment

Once you have got that information, you could write to the Claimant and their solicitors if you know their details informing them of your intention to set aside the judgment on the grounds mentioned above, they can consent to the application or if not then you will make the application.

Your first priority is to contact the court though and get the information,

[Brynn2112]

Re: Help needed please ref Cabot Financial

That's great, thanks Rob.
Brynn2112