Redhawk Legal - final notice - starting to panic now !

[calvi83]

Hi, I'm a new member of Legal Beagles but have been following the threads about Lifestyle Claims & Redhawk with great interest.I had a contract with CCR who later became Lifestyle but ended up having to start the whole PPI process from scratch and by myself - with the FOS. When I eventually won I got a bill from Synergy (never signed anything with them as far as I know) and wrote a letter of complaint to them about this bill as I had effectively done the work myself. I never recieved any reply to this letter. I did however get a very abusive phonecall from Synergy! When I found out that Lifestyle had gone into administration and had their licence revoked I thought it would be the end of the matter - until Jan this year when Redhawk suddenly appeared on the scene demanding payment (certainly never signed any letter of authority with them). When I told them that I'd disputed the bill with Synergy they vanished again but have now reappeared.
Last week I recieved a letter demanding £1500 and giving me 7 days to pay. I phoned them up and ,after I told them that I'd disputed the bill, I was told that they'd look into it. 10 minutes ago I recieved another letter - their final notice - threatening me with bailiffs, court action CCJ'S etc etc.
Certain info on this letter contradict much of what I've read on Legal Beagles and I need to know if these people actually have any authority. According to their letter they do in fact have a MOJ authorisation no - CRM23872. The letterhead also says , 'Client Connection ltd trading as Lifestyle Claims has now entered administration and Redhawk Legal ltd have now purchased such right title and interest that the administrator (Sharma & Co) holds in the customer lists, goodwill, customer contracts and the trading style of the above company'. This strongly suggests that they do in fact have the right to persue payments for Lifestyle - or am I wrong ?
The letter also states that they will use their own debt collection agency. I have read here that this agency holds no licence - is this still the case ?
Please, please help me out here - I feel that I'm rapidly running out of time. The first thing to do is obviously to complain to the MOJ - can you please tell me how I go about this and who I shoiuld be contacting - a link would be very useful if poss.
Any help and advice would be ver, very much appreciated - but I'm certainly not paying for something I did myself. Many thanks in advance.

[Celestine]

Re: Redhawk Legal - final notice - starting to panic now !

Hi Calvi

Welcome to Legal Beagles.

If you've been reading the threads on Redhawk, you'll know that Tuttsi and EXC have been advising on these issues. Im sure one of them will be along shortly to advise in more detail.

:beagle:

[TUTTSI]

Re: Redhawk Legal - final notice - starting to panic now !

Hi Calvi and welcome to Legal Beagles.

Unless you have signed any contracts with either Synergy or Redhawk, either now or in the past you do not have a contract with them and therefore you do not need to pay these people any money. A LB member recently had contact with Synergy who was chasing for money and after writing to Synergy stating that he did not have a signed contract Synergy backed off completely. The MOJ were advised of this and have noted the position with regards to Synergy and the same should happen with Redhawk Legal who are just another CMC they are NOT debt collectors and they should not be purporting to be one.

Our advice would be to write a prove it letter to Synergy and request the signed contract from yourself binding you into a contract with them, the chances are they are trying it on unless at some time you did sign up to them when they were previously called Gravity Solutions?

Whenever you send letters to these companies never sign with your normal signature.

The contact details for the TS/MOJ c.woods@claimsregulation.gov.uk

We also have taken a Legal Opinion which we are discussing with the MOJ/TS so if you can stave them off a tad longer we hope to have some more positive news very soon.

I also note that I have a PM from you and will take a look shortly but I would imagine that everything is on this post.

Hi, I'm a new member of Legal Beagles but have been following the threads about Lifestyle Claims & Redhawk with great interest.I had a contract with CCR who later became Lifestyle but ended up having to start the whole PPI process from scratch and by myself - with the FOS. When I eventually won I got a bill from Synergy (never signed anything with them as far as I know) and wrote a letter of complaint to them about this bill as I had effectively done the work myself. I never recieved any reply to this letter. I did however get a very abusive phonecall from Synergy! When I found out that Lifestyle had gone into administration and had their licence revoked I thought it would be the end of the matter - until Jan this year when Redhawk suddenly appeared on the scene demanding payment (certainly never signed any letter of authority with them). When I told them that I'd disputed the bill with Synergy they vanished again but have now reappeared.
Last week I recieved a letter demanding £1500 and giving me 7 days to pay. I phoned them up and ,after I told them that I'd disputed the bill, I was told that they'd look into it. 10 minutes ago I recieved another letter - their final notice - threatening me with bailiffs, court action CCJ'S etc etc.
Certain info on this letter contradict much of what I've read on Legal Beagles and I need to know if these people actually have any authority. According to their letter they do in fact have a MOJ authorisation no - CRM23872. The letterhead also says , 'Client Connection ltd trading as Lifestyle Claims has now entered administration and Redhawk Legal ltd have now purchased such right title and interest that the administrator (Sharma & Co) holds in the customer lists, goodwill, customer contracts and the trading style of the above company'. This strongly suggests that they do in fact have the right to persue payments for Lifestyle - or am I wrong ?
The letter also states that they will use their own debt collection agency. I have read here that this agency holds no licence - is this still the case ?
Please, please help me out here - I feel that I'm rapidly running out of time. The first thing to do is obviously to complain to the MOJ - can you please tell me how I go about this and who I shoiuld be contacting - a link would be very useful if poss.
Any help and advice would be ver, very much appreciated - but I'm certainly not paying for something I did myself. Many thanks in advance.

[calvi83]

Re: Redhawk Legal - final notice - starting to panic now !

That is REALLY good news - many thanks.

[EXC]

Re: Redhawk Legal - final notice - starting to panic now !

Just to be clear the legal advice we have taken is that the assignment of claims and/or details of claims from Lifestyle to Redhawk is that it is illegal and unenforceable.

This is because 'regulated services' are defined as "referring details of a claim or claimant, or a cause of action or potential claimant, to another person'' under the The Compensation (Regulated Claims Management Services) Order 2006. Under s.4(1) of the Compensation Act 2006 "A person may not provide regulated claims management services unless— (a) he is an authorised person;"

Client Connection Ltd (Lifestyle Claims) surrendered their authorization to conduct claims management activity on 5 October 2012, prior to the contracts being referred to Redhawk on 9 October. As neither Client Connection Ltd or the administrator (Sharma & Co) were authorized at the point Sharma sold the contracts to Redhawk, the referral was illegal and in fact a criminal offence under s.7 of the Act.

Redhawk will argue that the sale of the contracts took place ''under the provisions on the Insolvency Act 1986'' but this irrelevant to the consideration of the requirement of the seller to be authorized under the Compensation Act.

To date and despite numerous threats, Redhawk or the debt collectors acting for them have not issued any legal proceedings against any ex Client Connection customers because they know full that they haven't got a leg to stand on.

[CleverClogs]

Re: Redhawk Legal - final notice - starting to panic now !

Client Connection Ltd (Lifestyle Claims) surrendered their authorization to conduct claims management activity on 5 October 2012, prior to the contracts being referred to Redhawk on 9 October. As neither Client Connection Ltd or the administrator (Sharma & Co) were authorized at the point Sharma sold the contracts to Redhawk, the referral was illegal and in fact a criminal offence under s.7 of the Act.

Will Sharma be shamed after prosecution, or will it be tacitly ignored as seems usual?

[calvi83]

Re: Redhawk Legal - final notice - starting to panic now !

Thank goodness I found this forum. The information to date has been both fascinating and invaluable - and judging by the numbers of views my thread has had since yesterday , it seems I am not alone in having problems with this company.
I emailed the MOJ this morning (thank you Tuttsi for the link) and recieved a reply earlier this afternoon. It was not terribly optimistic I have to say but at least my complaint has been registered and responded to.The legal issues over the initial sale were raised but not actually answered and I also raised a question about Redhawk using unlicenced debt collectors which I read about in another thread - apparently they don't need one.
However , apart from the fact that I'm being charged for work which was not finished and which I ended up doing myself, what I find unbelievable is that a company can simply go into liquidation and vanish without informing its clients (I only found out 3 months later through this forum !), that client details,business etc etc can simply be sold on without any consent or agreement from the clients themselves- and without any notification, and that a company can ignore a legitimate complaint from a customer for nearly a year and still try charging them.
I get the impression that Redhawk are trying to claw in as much cash as they can as quickly as they can. Everyone keeps mentioning July ???

[TUTTSI]

Re: Redhawk Legal - final notice - starting to panic now !

Yep your thread has had an incredible 191 views in just a few days. My original post on cento client review which then eventually changed names to Lifestyle claims has had many thousands of views. I am pleased that the MOJ actually answered your email today although they never give much away. Keep fingers crossed that things are happening behind the scenes.

[calvi83]

Re: Redhawk Legal - final notice - starting to panic now !

Not giving much away is precisely the expression I was looking for ! But it was a very quick response and I - and apparently hundreds of other people - will also be hoping that things are moving behind the scenes. Thank you so much for the help and advice. It's very, very much appreciated.

[EXC]

Re: Redhawk Legal - final notice - starting to panic now !

Did you pay an up-front fee to Lifestyle?

If so tell me if your name appears in the list of creditors in this document - which appear sideways. Please note that the names are not in alphabetical order within their letter groupings.

[calvi83]

Re: Redhawk Legal - final notice - starting to panic now !

Hi, no I go way way back ! - I paid CCR upfront fees and I don't appear on the Lifestyle list.

[CleverClogs]

Re: Redhawk Legal - final notice - starting to panic now !

I wonder when it might be appropriate for someone to remind those rogues of the retort in the matter of Arkell v Pressdram.

[TUTTSI]

Re: Redhawk Legal - final notice - starting to panic now !

I tried to relate that case to Redhawk Legal and just did not understand the relationship of these two cases. Can you please explain in PIL CC.

I wonder when it might be appropriate for someone to remind those rogues of the retort in the matter of Arkell v Pressdram.

[CleverClogs]

Re: Redhawk Legal - final notice - starting to panic now !

Although the cases seem to be quite dissimilar, both the eponymous James Arkell and Redhawk "Legal" (sic) issued demands for money on rather spurious grounds,

I accordingly wondered if the forthright retort from the (unreported) case from 1971 might be employed to ensure that Redhawk was left in no doubt as to the nature of the response by their victims.

[EXC]

Re: Redhawk Legal - final notice - starting to panic now !

Hi, no I go way way back ! - I paid CCR upfront fees and I don't appear on the Lifestyle list.

Cento Client Review, Lifestyle Claims and Money Claiming Experts were all trading names of Client Connection Ltd going under the same company registration number and MOJ authorization.