Next/lowells/ bryan carter solicitor court claim issued

[ELIZABETH1]

I need some help with this one........

Bryan Carter has issued a claim (10th DECEMBER 2013) on behalf of Lowells for a Next Account for online shopping account opened 4 years or so ago. Account was opened online - I originally went online to buy something and the account was automatically opened....

Claim says

The claim is for £xxxx.xx the amount due under and agreement with the original creditor and the defendant to provide finance and/or services and/ or goods.

This debt was assigned to / purchased by Lowell Portfolio 1 Ltd on 26/04/2013 and pursuant to the law of property act 1925

Particulars
NEXT
A/C xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx

The Claimant claims £xxxx.xx
The claimant also claims interest persuant to s69 county court act 1984 from 26/04/2013 to date at 8% per annum amounting to xxxxxx


I have sent the CCA to Lowells and heard nothing to date.
SAR to NEXT no response yet.
CPR 31.14 to Bryan Carter asking for a extention to file defence etc.. and copied him the copies of SAR/CCA requests so he sees that I am actively looking for more information on this claim etc...

To which he responded :-

Further to your letter dated 20th december requesting disclosure under part 31 of the CPR's

We confirm that claim was issued on 10th December by NCCBC and court protocol was followed when issuing the claimants POC's. Practice Direction 7c point 1.4(3A) eliminates the requirement to attach the documents to the POC's when they are issued by this court.

We confirm this matter will most probably be allocated to the SCT as this is a simple contractual matter and part 31 of CPR does not apply.

It is the original creditors policy to issue agreements at the date of the contract and statements throughout duration of the agreement and in this regard we ask you to refer to your own records.

We confirm we are not agreeable to an extension for filing your defence.

Please note we have not yet been informed that you have filed acknowledgement of service. As you are aware a claim was issued on 9th December 2013. please respond to claim using the response pack provided by court.

We recommend you seek independent legal advice.

SO seems they won't supply information and allow extension to file a defence...........


What is the best way to reply to this - I need to get some response to court as soon as I can.

I am pretty sure there will be charges etc.. with this inflated balance sought in claim - so there may be room to argue those?

[ODC]

Re: Next/lowells/bryan carter court claim issued

It is the original creditors policy to issue agreements at the date of the contract and statements throughout duration of the agreement and in this regard we ask you to refer to your own records.

What planet is this man on???

[andrew1]

Re: Next/lowells/bryan carter court claim issued

What planet is this man on???

It's not a matter of what planet he's on, this needs strategically responding to...time is not on Lizzy's side.

CPR is a good place to start...I have just come out of hospital so can't help much I regret, but any legally trained helper should know the way...this guy needs teaching a lesson.

A1

[ELIZABETH1]

Re: Next/lowells/bryan carter court claim issued

It's not a matter of what planet he's on, this needs strategically responding to...time is not on Lizzy's side.

CPR is a good place to start...I have just come out of hospital so can't help much I regret, but any legally trained helper should know the way...this guy needs teaching a lesson.

A1

I've been thinking - I CCA'd Lowells on 20th December and hd no reply at all from them... surely they cannot enforce until they've proven debt?

I'm waiting on the SAR off NEXT too. So nothing seems to be happening... I have written to Bryan Carter today telling him he needs to "prove it" and allow time to prepare a defence CPR r16.5 (3) - somehow these people are going to have to prove their figures and claim?

I will copy it all to the court and let Judge see what has been going on..........

[andrew1]

Re: Next/lowells/bryan carter court claim issued

40 days to respond to an SAR, I take it you mean you'd SAR'd Lowells rather than CCA'd them young lady?

A1

[andrew1]

Re: Next/lowells/bryan carter court claim issued

I stand corrected...'CCA'd' as in applied for a copy of their agreement under s.78 CCA for £1 to be supplied within 12 days..

Apologies, been out of this side of things a while...below from the OFT website:

Unenforceable credit agreements

Borrowers and hirers are able to ask creditors to send them information about their credit agreements. If information is not provided within 12 working days, the debt becomes unenforceable until they get the information they asked for.
Sections 77, 78 and 79 of the Consumer Credit Act 1974 outline the information creditors must provide to debtors under fixed-term, running account and hire agreements.
Under these sections a debtor can pay £1 to get:

• a copy of their agreement
• copies of some of the other documents mentioned in their agreement
• a statement of account.

If this information is not provided within 12 working days the debt becomes unenforceable. This means a creditor:

• cannot:
  - make the debtor pay the debt before they're supposed to
  - get a court judgment against the debtor
  - take back anything hired or bought on credit, or take anything used as security in the agreement.
• can:
  - ask debtors to pay what they owe
  - send a default notice
  - pass information on to a credit reference agency
  - pass information on to a debt collector
  - sell the debt to someone else
  - take the case to court.

A1

[FlamingParrot]

Re: Next/lowells/bryan carter court claim issued

I need some help with this one........

Bryan Carter has issued a claim (10th DECEMBER 2013) on behalf of Lowells for a Next Account for online shopping account opened 4 years or so ago. Account was opened online - I originally went online to buy something and the account was automatically opened....

If the account was opened online after January 2005, then a tick box would fulfill the role of a signature as per the The Consumer Credit Act 1974 (Electronic Communications) Order 2004

I have sent the CCA to Lowells and heard nothing to date.
SAR to NEXT no response yet.
CPR 31.14 to Bryan Carter asking for a extention to file defence etc.. and copied him the copies of SAR/CCA requests so he sees that I am actively looking for more information on this claim etc...

To which he responded :-

Further to your letter dated 20th december requesting disclosure under part 31 of the CPR's

We confirm that claim was issued on 10th December by NCCBC and court protocol was followed when issuing the claimants POC's. Practice Direction 7c point 1.4(3A) eliminates the requirement to attach the documents to the POC's when they are issued by this court.

We confirm this matter will most probably be allocated to the SCT as this is a simple contractual matter and part 31 of CPR does not apply.

No idea what CPR 31.14 letter you sent but the one I usually suggest has the following paragraph which covers that argument, as the claim wouldn't have been allocated:

Although your claim is for a sum which does not exceed £10,000.00 and thus in all likelihood it will be allocated to the small claims track once I deliver my defence, however as I am unable to lodge my defence at this moment, the case has not been allocated to a track for determination upon delivering a defence, as a consequence the provisions of CPR 27(2) have no effect and you should not seek to avoid compliance with your CPR 31 duties by claiming otherwise.

It is the original creditors policy to issue agreements at the date of the contract and statements throughout duration of the agreement and in this regard we ask you to refer to your own records.

We confirm we are not agreeable to an extension for filing your defence.

Please note we have not yet been informed that you have filed acknowledgement of service. As you are aware a claim was issued on 9th December 2013. please respond to claim using the response pack provided by court.

We recommend you seek independent legal advice.

SO seems they won't supply information and allow extension to file a defence...........


What is the best way to reply to this - I need to get some response to court as soon as I can.

I am pretty sure there will be charges etc.. with this inflated balance sought in claim - so there may be room to argue those?

Did you actually acknowledge and state your intention to defend?

The claim was issued a month ago, when did you send the CPR 31.14 request? They should have replied in 7 days, otherwise you should have got in touch asking for an extension at that point.

As for the CCA request, they should have responded in 14 days. When was that one sent?

For the SAR, they do have 40 days, what were you hoping to obtain? You need to move fast on this one to avoid default judgment. :scared:

[ELIZABETH1]

Re: Next/lowells/bryan carter court claim issued

Thank you Andrew1 and Flaming Parrot - thank you both for your help!!

I sent the CCA request on 20th December and they have not replied at all yet.

There will be charges etc.. on account and I do not recall any Default Notices etc... so I was hoping the SAR would show up what letters/papers went where etc.. through changes of address etc... mail may not coincide with addresses? Now sure what I will find but the devil is always in the detail?

I am hoping paperwork will give a clearer picture.....

[FlamingParrot]

Re: Next/lowells/bryan carter court claim issued

The issue here is that you received a claim on December 10th, if you acknowledged it and stated your intention to defend in full, that should have given you a total of 28 days in which to submit your defence. :clock: Failing to keep to the deadlines can easily result in default judgment being awarded to the claimant. :scared:

The timescale for responding to a SAR is 40 days, which is a lot longer than the 28 days you'd normally have to submit a defence. Awaiting response to a SAR does not constitute grounds to apply for an extension to submit your defence. Non compliance with a CPR 31.14 request IS grounds to get the claimant to agree to an extension of up to 28 days, but you need to ring them up and get them to agree to it and put it in writing so you can inform the court. :typing:

Non compliance with a s.78 request can be used as bar to enforcement but you'd need to submit a defence stating the fact. If you haven't agreed anything with the claimants and informed the court, as things stand now, you could be looking at default judgment entered against you while you await response to your SAR.

[ELIZABETH1]

Re: Next/lowells/bryan carter court claim issued

Thank you so much for this - I have PM'd you

I have sent a request to Bryan Carter for him to disclose the info I have asked for and to extend time to gather a defence etc... I am awaiting his response to this request..

[FlamingParrot]

Re: Next/lowells/bryan carter court claim issued

Thank you so much for this - I have PM'd you

I have sent a request to Bryan Carter for him to disclose the info I have asked for and to extend time to gather a defence etc... I am awaiting his response to this request..

PM received, I will be back a little later to look at it in detail.

When you say you have sent a request to disclose the info, do you mean an unless order on an N244?

EDIT: I see you have submitted your defence, which was due by today. I hope everything goes well for you. ray: ray: ray:

[ELIZABETH1]

Re: Next/lowells/bryan carter court claim issued

Yes I have submitted a defence,,,

[ELIZABETH1]

Re: Next/lowells/bryan carter court claim issued

Well - the defence was submitted to court on time and Bryan Carters have decided to proceed with claim they've told myself and court.

Yesterday I received two letters from them......
The first was a letter thanking me for my payment and I need to send them proff of my payment... (I haven't paid them anything = THEY STILL HAVE NOT PROVEN THIS DEBT WITH A CCA OR SAR THEY HAVE NOT SENT ANY PAPERWORK FROM NEXT, LOWELLS OR BRYAN CARTER... )
The second letter with the same date of 20th Jan 2014, they enclosed a consent order saying they'll accept monthly repayments... if I make a reasonable offer.... they've copied this to court too.. giving me 7 days to pay them.

NOW - they've not proven anything and say they won't supply any information at all as Part 31 doesn't apply to them with this as it's small claims track, (i hasn't been allocated any track yet) - they using Practice Direction 7C point 1,4 (3A) = they say they can make a claim without proof of paperwork...

Is there a way to get these people struck out for this? I made the CCA request to Lowells on 20th December 2013, and the SAR to Next on same date and no paperwork whatsoever has arrived yet.

What is the best action from myself now?

[ELIZABETH1]

Re: Next/lowells/bryan carter court claim issued

Does anybody know how I can reply to this consent order - I am worrying about timescales etc....


"Well - the defence was submitted to court on time and Bryan Carters have decided to proceed with claim they've told myself and court.

Yesterday I received two letters from them......
The first was a letter thanking me for my payment and I need to send them proff of my payment... (I haven't paid them anything = THEY STILL HAVE NOT PROVEN THIS DEBT WITH A CCA OR SAR THEY HAVE NOT SENT ANY PAPERWORK FROM NEXT, LOWELLS OR BRYAN CARTER... )

The second letter with the same date of 20th Jan 2014, they enclosed a consent order saying they'll accept monthly repayments... if I make a reasonable offer.... they've copied this to court too.. giving me 7 days to pay them.

NOW - they've not proven anything and say they won't supply any information at all as Part 31 doesn't apply to them with this as it's small claims track, (i hasn't been allocated any track yet) - they using Practice Direction 7C point 1,4 (3A) = they say they can make a claim without proof of paperwork...

Is there a way to get these people struck out for this? I made the CCA request to Lowells on 20th December 2013, and the SAR to Next on same date and no paperwork whatsoever has arrived yet.

What is the best action from myself now? "

[mystery1]

Re: Next/lowells/bryan carter court claim issued

If you have defended then, at present, the 31.14 is pretty ineffective because the claim will be small claims and by the time any application gets heard it's likely the the claim will be allocated to small claims and cpr 31 does not apply. By entering a defence you have cost yourself the tactical position of utilising an unless order.

Asking them to prove it and then you'll pay is just silly, luckily it's not so costly in small claims. Defend if you want, s78(6) does provide a defence, but be prepared to fail as they can rectify this. S69 doesn't apply to consumer credit so should be defended regardless.

Absent details of your defence it's hard to say what to do.

If they are offering a consent order they will probably negotiate if you ask them.

M1