restons solicitors threatening court action

[mark88p88]

Hello everybody
I’m hoping someone can help me with my problem.
Today I received a letter from Restons solicitors on behalfof Cabot Financial Limited regarding a Vanquis credit card debt. Until today I havenever heard of this firm of solicitors (are they just sabre rattling?) but, tocut a long story short: I opened an account with Vanquis in June 2008, butafter October 2012 I was no longer able to make payments (I suffer with severe,medication immune depression as well as anxiety and I let my finances slide asa student). I remember some letters from Cabot Financial which I just ignored,but out of the blue I receive this letter demanding £3,505.85 10 days from now,otherwise the case will go to court. I have a lot of questions, this is all so newto me...
·I have no documentation regarding this creditcard debt; do I have a right to access the original agreement?
·The balance seems very large with no breakdowngiven; am I entitled to see it?
·Are there some forms I can fill in to defendthis?
I’m just about getting by but I’m terrified of a relapseback into severe depression; does anybody have any advice on how I shouldproceed?
Any advice is gratefully received

[warwick65]

Re: restons solicitors threatening court action

Hi there

So as this letter is a clear threat of litigation I would so the following
1) Send a S78 request to Cabot. With this you include a postal order for £1 . The letter clearly states it is the fee for statutory purposes only
http://legalbeagles.info/forums/show...y-of-Agreement

2) Send the following letter to Restons

[Type your full name]
[Type your full address]
[Pick the date]
Type the firm or company name
Type the address of the firm or company
Dear Sirs
Ref: Enter as per letter received.
Thank you for your letter dated Pick the date on letter you are responding to. . As the letter contains a threat of litigation, it is being treated as a formal letter before action. As such, I refer you to paragraph 3 of the Practice Direction Pre-Action Conduct, which states: “before commencing proceedings, the court will expect the parties to have exchanged sufficient information to (a) understand each other’s position; (b) make decisions about how to proceed;”
Paragraph 6 states “the parties should exchange correspondence and information to comply with the objectives“ and Paragraph 6 (c) of refers to “the parties disclosing key documents relevant to the issues in dispute.” My request refers to the documents I require to obtain the necessary information to assess my position in this case.
I require copies of the following:

1. The original Type agreement or contract as appropriate.;
2. The Default Notice;
3. The Notice of Assignment;
4. The Deed of Assignment
5. Statements of account;

These documents would be expected to be supplied if proceedings were issued and would likely be in your possession if you were issuing a claim. If you consider that there is difficulty in providing a copy of a document, please identify that document and the reason.
DELETE THIS PARAGRAPH IF A CCA REQUEST HAS NOT BEEN SENT OR IS NOT APPLICABLE.Additionally, there is a duty to supply documents under the Consumer Credit Act 1974. A request has been made under s.Type 77 for loans or 78 for credit cards and catalogue accounts. on Pick the date when the CCA request was sent.and I am awaiting a response from Enter the creditor’s name..
I shall being able to provide you with a full response to your letter within 14 days of receipt of the documents listed above and also reserve the right to refer to the contents of this letter if proceedings are issued without first providing copy documents to me.
Yours faithfully,

Your full name

I know that the rules on preaction conduct are changing but I don't think they have yet. I used this letter 12 months ago and while it didn't stop the claim in the end it did slow it down by nearly a year

So a quick question, you say you stopped paying in Oct 2012 , can you remember when you actually defaulted- you could look on your credit file to check . What I am thinking is you need to slow them down by 18 months and maybe a CCA request will do it.
I have highlighted in red the bits that you need to ammend but please double check that it all makes sense

[warwick65]

Re: restons solicitors threatening court action

Just to add
I appreciate it is scary. I have had a claim recently but the old adage :How do you eat an elephant?' One bite at a time is so very true

Take each step as it comes

Send each letter by Royal mail signed for , keep copies of the letters and the post office receipts and then when a signature shows up on the online tracking - keep a copy of that as well.

I have kept every letter from every creditor since I started dealing head on with my debts. I was in a very very bad place but if i am honest it helped me get better by giving me something to focus on. Well it was that and the amazing help from some people who didn't know me from Adam on various forums - they gave their time and phone bills free of charge to help me and I am eternally grateful

[charitynjw]

Re: restons solicitors threatening court action

How do you eat an elephant?

African, or Asian?

[MIKE770]

Re: restons solicitors threatening court action

make a trunk call 1st

[mark88p88]

Re: restons solicitors threatening court action

Thank you so much for your advice; i'll send the letters and i'll let you know of their response

Thanks again

[mark88p88]

Re: restons solicitors threatening court action

The paperwork gives a termination date of May 2013, which I assume is the recorded default date?

[charitynjw]

Re: restons solicitors threatening court action

The paperwork gives a termination date of May 2013, which I assume is the recorded default date?

I have no documentation regarding this creditcard debt

When you say 'recorded default date', where is it recorded?

[mark88p88]

Re: restons solicitors threatening court action

i'd assumed on my credit file, and from that date that is when the 6 year time frame would begin? I really don't know anything about this though

[charitynjw]

Re: restons solicitors threatening court action

Ok
You had mentioned 'paperwork', I was therefore wondering whether you had in your possession a copy of the s87 CCA Default Notice.
It appears not.
It would be very illuminating for you to SAR the original creditor (Vanquis) for all your personal data held by them.
At present, you are fighting in the dark.

[mark88p88]

Re: restons solicitors threatening court action

Unfortunately, all I have is the letter from Reston's threatening the action

[charitynjw]

Re: restons solicitors threatening court action

http://www.legalbeagles.info/forums/...quest-template

[mark88p88]

Re: restons solicitors threatening court action

Hello everybody, I've had a reply from Reston's, which isn't very positive. I have no idea how to proceed, whether I should say that I don't acknowledge the debt etc. I certainly wasn't served a default notice. Any help would be greatly appreciated, I've copied out the response below:


"We acknowledge receipt of your recent request made pursuant to the Practice direction relating to Pre-Action Conduct.
As a preliminary point, we respectfully draw your attention to Paragraph 6 of the above Practice Direction which states that compliance should be proportionate. In our view, your request is neither reasonable nor proportionate.
Although we accept that paragraph 6(c) of the Practice Direction does include a provision that parties should disclose key documents relevant to the issues in dispute, you have failed to clarify what issues are in dispute. Instead you have simply requested an extensive list of documents which we believe is a delaying tactic and the sole purpose of your correspondence is an attempt to avoid repaying this debt.
in response to your specific requests we respectfully point out the following:
- We are unaware of any valid request pursuant to S77-79 of the Consumer Credit Act 1974 being made to the creditor and the appropriate statutory fee having been paid. We have however referred this matter to our client for clarification and await their response [I have actually sent this to Cabot Financial who have taken the debt from Vanquis, apparently]
- Throughout the lifetime of your account you would have been provided with regular statements of account by the original creditor, showing details of debts and credits applied to your account. Please therefore revisit your own personal records if you require details of how the outstanding balance has accrued.
-It is our client's position that any charges applied to your account were applied in accordance with the terms and conditions which governed your account and it is denied that any such charges were unfair.
- It is out understanding that a default notice has previously been served on you and we note you do not deny this. Again, we suggest you revisit your own records for a copy of this document.
- There is no requirement for a copy of the Deed of Assignment to be provided to you, nor does our client intend to provide this. The Deed of Assignment is a commercially sensitive agreement between the assignor and the assignee which contains confidential information about other customers in addition to yourself. It would therefore be a breach of the Data Protection Act 1988 to disclose this document to you as you are not a party to the contract. The only obligation is to serve a Notice of Assignment , which we believe has been done, pursuant to Section 136 Law Property Act 1925. Furthermore, you do not appear to dispute having received a Notice of Assignment, nor do you allege you are still being pursued for this debt by the original creditor and hence there is no sensible basis for you to challenge the assignment of your account.

We trust that the information set out in this letter explains the reasons why we do not deem it appropriate to provide the documentation you have asked for. To clarify, this is a straightforward debt recovery action and sufficient information/documentation has been provided to you previously in order for you to understand the basis of the proposed claim against you. Furthermore, as no grounds for a dispute have been set out in your correspondence, we can only assume you accept this debt is owed and as such, we now look forward to receiving your proposals for discharging the outstanding balance within the next 14 days, failing which we are instructed to issue legal proceedings against you.

[oracle1]

Re: restons solicitors threatening court action

It's a template reply from Restons. I got the same thing today :-(

[warwick65]

Re: restons solicitors threatening court action

Restons usual rubbish

There is nothing you have asked for that they should not need to start a claim or indeed what they should produce.
@Diana M @Amethyst does this warrant a response?

It seems to me they are trying to get some form of admission by omission

maybe a response along the lines

Dear Sir
I do not acknowledge any debt to you or your client and the purpose of my letter was to ascertain not only the natire of the alleged debt , hence requesting the contract and statement of account, but also any rights you or your client may have to issue a claim, hence the Default notice, notice of assignment and deed of assignment.

Yours faithfully



mark did you send a SAR to Vanquish, if not get one set asap
http://legalbeagles.info/forums/show...quest-template

Several options there