Court claim received from CL Finance/Howard Cohen sols **SETTLED**

[ByTheWay]

Re: Court claim received from CL Finance/Howard Cohen sols

Thnks alot Sara, will be getting my proper defence in this week so I'll just have to sit back and wait for a date, unless HC&co decide to withdraw, tho that doesn't seem likely!

[ByTheWay]

Re: Court claim received from CL Finance/Howard Cohen sols

Hi guys, I have written a covering letter for the court and made copies of my financial statement and the letter I sent off to HC & Co (annex's 1 & 2) and also changed point 7 of my defence to

7. To date, the claimant’s solicitors have acknowledged the request and supplied a true copy of the credit agreement, but have not supplied the alleged default notice nor 14 months of statements dated July 2006 to March 2007 and July 2007 to November 2007 (inclusive). Nor have they supplied a copy of the terms and conditions to which they refer.

so if it's OK I'll get this lot posted off to the court later on this afternoon as I only have til Friday to get it in.
Thanks for all the help and support xx

[ByTheWay]

Re: Court claim received from CL Finance/Howard Cohen sols

Defence was posted on Weds by recorded delivery.
Today I will be sending this letter to HC&co.

Dear Sir/Madam,

RE: REQUEST FOR INFORMATION

I refer to my letter dated 28th January 2008 where I requested the following information;
1. A true copy of the executed credit agreement and any terms and conditions that applied to the account at the time of any default and at the time the account was opened. 2. A copy of default notice.
3. A copy of or print out of all account transactions.

I acknowledge receipt of the credit agreement and some statements but have still not received the following;
1. Any terms and conditions that applied to the account at the time of any default and at the time the account was opened, notably the terms in which you refer to in your particulars of claim.
2. A copy of default notice.
3. Statements dated July 2006 – March 2007 and July 2007 – November 2007 inclusive.

I would appreciate your due diligence in this matter and ask that you forward these documents to me as soon as possible. If you do not have these documents then please confirm this in writing by return.

Yours faithfully,

[thephoenix]

Re: Court claim received from CL Finance/Howard Cohen sols

Dear Sir/Madam,

RE: REQUEST FOR INFORMATION

I refer to my letter dated 28th January 2008 where I requested the following information;
1. A true copy of the executed credit agreement pursuant to s.77-79 of the Consumer Credit Act 1974 and any terms and conditions that applied to the account at the time of any default and at the time the account was opened.
2. A copy of default notice pursuant to s.7 & s.35(2)(a)(b)
of the Data Protection Act 1998
3. A copy of or print out of all account transactions.

I acknowledge receipt of the credit agreement and some statements but have still not received the following;
1. Any terms and conditions that applied to the account at the time of any default and at the time the account was opened, notably the terms in which you refer to in your particulars of claim.
2. A copy of default notice.
3. Statements dated July 2006 – March 2007 and July 2007 – November 2007 inclusive.

I would appreciate your due diligence in this matter and ask that you forward these documents to me as soon as possible. If you do not have these documents then please confirm this in writing by return.

Yours faithfully,


Just to give it a little body ;-)

Not 100% sure whether section 35 should go in but it is relevant to the cause, hopefully someone with a little more DPA knowledge will confirm.

s.35
Disclosures required by law or made in connection with legal proceedings etc

(1) Personal data are exempt from the non-disclosure provisions where the disclosure is required by or under any enactment, by any rule of law or by the order of a court.
(2) Personal data are exempt from the non-disclosure provisions where the disclosure is necessary—
(a) for the purpose of, or in connection with, any legal proceedings (including prospective legal proceedings), or
(b) for the purpose of obtaining legal advice,
or is otherwise necessary for the purposes of establishing, exercising or defending legal rights.


Depends on whether a Default Notice is classed as 'personal data'

[ByTheWay]

Re: Court claim received from CL Finance/Howard Cohen sols

Thanks Phoenix, will adjust the letter accordingly, got to be worth a try.

The ICO seems to think that lenders should keep a record of default notice.

Accuracy of a lender’s default records

39 Records
Any default record should be accurate. We normally expect a lender to
keep records that are necessary to show an agreement exists and to
support filing a default. We would also expect a lender to be able to
produce evidence to justify a default record they had placed on a credit
reference file. Not having any supporting records may indicate a breach
of the data protection principle requiring personal data to be adequate,
relevant and not excessive for the purpose for which it is processed. A
record that a notice of an intention to file a default was sent, if not a copy
of the notice itself, will help lenders to comply with this requirement.

Notices of intention to file a default

32 Lenders should tell their customers about filing information with a credit
reference agency as part of the account opening procedure, in line with
the requirements of the ‘fair processing code’

4. This explanation will not
normally refer explicitly to defaults and will often be distant from the
events which cause them. Therefore we strongly recommend that a
notice of the intention to file a default should be served. Many lenders
now subscribe to trade association codes of practice which require this.
This practice helps the transparency of the credit reference process and
may even prompt payment, so avoiding the need to file a default at all.
33 Notices to comply with Sections 13.7 of the Banking Code5 and 7.5 of
the Lending Code6 should provide adequate warning. A notice of
intention to file a default can be sent with a formal default notice served
under Section 87 of the Consumer Credit Act 1974. Where lenders are
not required to issue these notices, they can send an intention to file a
default through a final demand, letter or relevant account statement,
which should make clear not only the intention to file but also the date of
the intended default. The date should allow the customer enough time to
respond properly. Lenders who have to provide a notice of intention to
file a default under a relevant code of practice should be aware that not
complying with the code may be taken into account in any assessment of
the fairness of their processing.

[thephoenix]

Re: Court claim received from CL Finance/Howard Cohen sols

ahhhh this is true but there is a sentence that shows they do not necessarily need to keep a copy of the actual default notice itself

".......A record that a notice of an intention to file a default was sent, if not a copy
of the notice itself, will help lenders to comply with this requirement....."

most companies send these out to scare you into paying :mad2:

still worth a try though, go for it :first:

[ByTheWay]

Re: Court claim received from CL Finance/Howard Cohen sols

I did notice that, and after having checked through all my correspondance not once do they state an intent to file or send a default notice. :tinysmile_grin_t:

[thephoenix]

Re: Court claim received from CL Finance/Howard Cohen sols

I did notice that, and after having checked through all my correspondance not once do they state an intent to file or send a default notice. :tinysmile_grin_t:

it's all good stuff init :whoo:

[ByTheWay]

Re: Court claim received from CL Finance/Howard Cohen sols

HC&co cashed my cheque payment today so yep, tis all good (so far...)

[ByTheWay]

Re: Court claim received from CL Finance/Howard Cohen sols

I have today received a WITHOUT PREJUDICE letter offering me £300 F&FS. I have till 18th to pay it. I wish I had that amount of money going spare cos I would pay it! No mention of my letter to them!

[Amethyst]

Re: Court claim received from CL Finance/Howard Cohen sols

well at least it means they're on the back foot and know they won't get any more than what you originally offered them So good news really.

[ByTheWay]

Re: Court claim received from CL Finance/Howard Cohen sols

I have received the SO mandate I requested from the solicitors today. This obviously means they must have accepted my monthly offer...but what I'm not pleased about is that it lists that I pay £1 pm for the next 721 months! As you know I'm willing to pay what I owe, but not their court costs. To show willing I plan to fill this in and send it off, and maybe in the future I'll be able to negotiate a reduced settlement (not including their court costs)
The mandate is to be paid to LDR (Lewis debt recovery) which confused me as they'd not been mentioned before. After a quick look on the net it seems they are affiliated with HC&co in some way.

[Amethyst]

Re: Court claim received from CL Finance/Howard Cohen sols

Did they send a letter accepting the £1 payment or anything with the mandate?

[ByTheWay]

Re: Court claim received from CL Finance/Howard Cohen sols

They didn't accept it in a way, the letter states "We refer to your request to pay the above debt. Please find enclosed SO Mandate etc.. Should we not receive this document within 7 days we will be unable to grant you an installment facility."

[Amethyst]

Re: Court claim received from CL Finance/Howard Cohen sols

hmmmmmmmm

did you offer the £1 before they started court proceedings ?

Is the letter marked without prejudice ?