Bryan Carter issued litigation proceedings in County Court.

[Davefisher]

Hi, let me explain my story.

Several years ago a girlfriend took out a catalogue in my name. She racked up just a couple of hundred pounds in debt. We split up and I refused to pay for her goods, seeing as I'd never signed anything and I know she never had any access to any id of mine etc. To open the account with, so I was never concerned with any legal proceedings etc.

After a while the letters stopped and I moved out of my parents house. My brother has been living there since my parents passing and has received one or two sporadic letters in that time from various collection agencies.

I'm not living in the same part of the country and have just visited him to find numerous letters from a company called "Bryan Carter solicitors" the most recent of which was issued on the 25th of October and states they've now issued litigation proceedings in the county court. It also says I will receive a claim form in the next 48 hours? Assuming anytime time now.

I have no idea what I'm dealing with here. I don't think the debt is yet six years old but it has to be there or there abouts. Should I be worried? How do I approach this?

[RSVPT]

Re: Bryan Carter issued litigation proceedings in County Court.

Hi Davefisher

I am in a similar situation to yourself. Did you get any response to your request for info by the 11th? and what did you send as your response. No personal details but please can you give an overview - many thanks

Re: Bryan Carter issued litigation proceedings in County Court.

Nope, well I didn't request it. They may send something. Should I call up tomorrow and request it?

Yes.

Your defence, if the matter still goes to court, should be that the debt has been paid in full.

[jumper999]

Re: Bryan Carter issued litigation proceedings in County Court.

hope this is of some help

http://www.trustonline.org.uk/unders...stay-on-record

[Davefisher]

Re: Bryan Carter issued litigation proceedings in County Court.

? Anyone?

[Davefisher]

Re: Bryan Carter issued litigation proceedings in County Court.

Surely no judgement can be made against me anyway? My bank details will clearly show I paid them today.

[Davefisher]

Re: Bryan Carter issued litigation proceedings in County Court.

Yep, you have to sort priorities, and I'm glad you can put this behind you now. Just as an aside, are you getting written confirmation from BC that this is settled and they are withdrawing the court claim?

Nope, well I didn't request it. They may send something. Should I call up tomorrow and request it?

Told you I was naive!

[Amethyst]

Re: Bryan Carter issued litigation proceedings in County Court.

Yep, you have to sort priorities, and I'm glad you can put this behind you now. Just as an aside, are you getting written confirmation from BC that this is settled and they are withdrawing the court claim?

[Davefisher]

Re: Bryan Carter issued litigation proceedings in County Court.

Called up. Payment done with. The debt will still disappear from my credit file in the next year. Not the result I wanted but happy that I'll still be ok to get a house and move on with my life.

A big thank you to everyone here for helping me and putting up with my naivety. I really really appreciate everything. If there's anything I can ever help with somehow then just pm me and I'll get a notification in my emails.

You guys are amazing people and you should be proud of yourselves.

[Davefisher]

Re: Bryan Carter issued litigation proceedings in County Court.

Can anyone just confirm that for me? Is this debt going to remain if I acknowledge and pay for it now?

[Davefisher]

Re: Bryan Carter issued litigation proceedings in County Court.

So I call them up, negotiate repayment... But how is the court then notified before tomorrow etc?

[Davefisher]

Re: Bryan Carter issued litigation proceedings in County Court.

It was never that I couldn't afford to pay the debt, it was that I didn't want to acknowledge it as my own. Even if I pay it off isn't it going to affect my credit? I wanted it to vanish. I was hoping to buy a house next year.

If I pay it then will it sit in my credit history for a further six years or so?

[Davefisher]

Re: Bryan Carter issued litigation proceedings in County Court.

If I acknowledge and pay for this debt, is it then not going to appear on my credit rating for a further six years?

[Davefisher]

Re: Bryan Carter issued litigation proceedings in County Court.

How do I go about contacting Brian Carter to arrange some kind of payment settlement and avoiding a ccj? What do I say and when?

[Amethyst]

Re: Bryan Carter issued litigation proceedings in County Court.

Just read back through this and it looks like Bryan Carter have simply turned down your request for documents under CPR while agreeing to the extension to the 11th December. I think it's come about due to a misread on http://www.legalbeagles.info/forums/...218#post385218 .

So yes you do need to get your defence sorted and in.

It is entirely your decision what you want to do, The debt is £450 odd isn't it, so you could, if you wanted to definately avoid a CCJ and can afford to, contact Bryan Carter and negotiate a repayment by installment or full and final settlement which could be done via a consent/tomlin order which would mean the case gets stayed at court unless you miss payments then you get judgment against you.

Unfortunately you can't yet defend on the basis of non compliance with your CCA request as they have 12 more days to respond if they received it this morning.... not sure you would want to, or could, defend on an assumption that they won't comply.

you could apply to the court to push the CPR request disclosure, but that would cost you the application fee, and there's no guarantee it would be granted, and if it were, no guarantee that BC wouldn't have the documents to back up the claim

Other than that I can't see a solid defence for you to enter I'm afraid. The account is in your name, you do acknowledge it, you don't have any certainty about the last acknowledgement dates and it's likely to be near to Stat Barred time (as that's when BC tend to send court claims and we know that Lowells got lots of close to SB debts off shop direct), so defending and losing would get you a CCJ (which you could pay by installments but still it's a big blodge on your credit file for the next six years).

See what others recommend. Sorry if I sound like it's all bad news, last thing I want is to stress you out but you know your own circumstances far better than I so only you can decide the best option for you.