Welcome Finance vs Mikeyb101

[mikeyb101]

Hi all, need advice about an upcoming court date please. I took out a loan with Welcome Finance back in 2005 and stopped paying in 2007. Cut a long story short Hegarty LLP acting on behalf of Welcome Finance managed to get a CCJ against me in December for about £3.3k and now I have to attend court on the 7th Feb for questioning about my finances.

Welcome mis-sold me PPI on the loan which I am now in the process of reclaiming. I intended to use this as a defence for the CCJ but I missed the defence deadline. I've sent Welcome and Hegarty several CPR requests for the documents relating to my account but each time they've replied with "we need £1 and more ID from you to verify" blah blah blah which I'm under the impression isn't correct. I know they can charge £1 for a Subject Access Request but this is a CPR Request which shouldn't be charged for, right?

Anyway I'm looking for some advice on what to do at the questioning to help me out. I've posted this over at the CAG forum but looking for a second opinion just to make sure.

Thanks

[FlamingParrot]

Re: Welcome Finance vs Mikeyb101

You say you already have a CCJ and your hearing is to question you about your finances, this means setting up the monthly repayment levels, which will depend on your I&E statement.

Are you planning to apply for the CCJ to be set aside? Or what's the purpose of your CPR requests at this stage? Normally you'd send those BEFORE you get a CCJ, when you are in the process or preparing a defence.

The £1 fee applies to a s.78 CCA request not a SAR. This is a request for your credit agreement but once you've got a CCJ there's no obligation to reply to such a request because the judgment supersedes any agreement.

A SAR would cost you £10. They would still have to satisfy a SAR request even if they've got a CCJ against you because it's a request for data about you under the Data Protection Act, not the Consumer Credit Act.

[Kafka]

Re: Welcome Finance vs Mikeyb101

The hearing is about repayment on the CCJ and if you want to challenge it you need to apply to set it aside. I can't see how you can do that if you didn't defend, unless you can claim that you didn't receive notification or similar.

Welcome are likely to have added lots of charges onto the account that can be reclaimed, as well as the PPI and a SAR will give you all the data you need for that. Obviously that's a separate issue to the CCJ.

[mikeyb101]

Re: Welcome Finance vs Mikeyb101

Thanks for the replies.
I sent the CPR Request when I was planning my defence but neither Welcome nor their solicitors replied in time. What's the difference between a s.78 CCA request and a CPR Request and can I be charged for a CPR request? As you say I'm probably wasting my time pursuing the CPR Request at this stage anyway. I've already got a copy of my credit agreement but I'd like a breakdown of charges, PPI payments and interest so I can work out what I can claim back.

Can I get the CCJ set aside as I'm counter-claiming for mis-sold PPI?

[dogtired]

Re: Welcome Finance vs Mikeyb101

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[mikeyb101]

Re: Welcome Finance vs Mikeyb101

I've read through a few other threads on here about Welcome and a lot mention that the agreements may not be enforceable. How can I find out if mine is unenforceable?

[Kafka]

Re: Welcome Finance vs Mikeyb101

You need a copy of the agreement so you can check the details, but that's academic now that they hold a CCJ, because the challenge to the agreement - if there is one - needed to be in your defence. I really can't see how you can apply for setaside now unless you have new information that was not available for the hearing or if you claim that you didn't receive the court papers.

I think your counterclaim also needed to go in with the defence. You can still claim PPI back even if they hold a judgement, though they might seek to offset this from the judgement figure rather than repay you. Same applies with charges even if they hold a CCJ and I've reclaimed charges that way from the OC, even though it was the DCA that held the CCJ.

[Kafka]

Re: Welcome Finance vs Mikeyb101

Some more thoughts here...

If they didn't follow the proper process there may be something that warrants a challenge to the CCJ, as Welcome are notorious for being sloppy with paperwork. Was the account defaulted correctly? Did you receive a Letter Before Action? Did Welcome add on charges to the account for 'fees' adding 100s to the total that were not part of any agreement? Did they fail to comply properly with requests for data?

This is scraping the barrel a bit at this stage I think, but there may be something in the process to chew on. Can you post up a timeline of events through the history of the account so we can see exactly how it unfolded and what correspondence you received? There might be something there.

[mikeyb101]

Re: Welcome Finance vs Mikeyb101

Some more thoughts here...

Was the account defaulted correctly?
Did you receive a Letter Before Action?
Did Welcome add on charges to the account for 'fees' adding 100s to the total that were not part of any agreement?
Did they fail to comply properly with requests for data?

Can you post up a timeline of events through the history of the account so we can see exactly how it unfolded and what correspondence you received? There might be something there.

Defaulted correctly - not sure
LBA - Yes I got one of those
Charges - Not sure as there was no breakdown of charges or interest, just a final amount owed plus court fees.
They've failed to comply numerous times to data requests, 3 or 4 CPR requests so far and I still have no data.

I'll post a timeline later today, I'm going in for questioning in a couple of hours and want to double check my paperwork.

[Kafka]

Re: Welcome Finance vs Mikeyb101

You won't know about charges added until you get statements and they don't usually provide these unless you request them. You sometimes find 100s of £ appearing as 'fees' without explanation.