This is my first time using a forum and I hope someone can help.

A court summons for my daughter has been posted to her father's address

(she is using this address temporarily for mail as she has been living in France for the last 4 years and has briefly returned to England.

The summons is seeking to recover an outstanding loan of £3k+ with interest added since 2012 of £1k+ and continuing to accrue.

The court paperwork indicates this debt was with Tesco Personal Finance but the 'claimant' is Hoist Portfolio who are based in Channel Islands.

My daughter is unable to deal with this.

She is very fragile and I am therefore trying to do what I can to resolve matters

- hopefully without any judgement taken against her.

I spoke to the Court (eventually) today

- the hearing is in Northamptonshire,

I live in Rochester, Kent.

They said I needed to get my daughter to call and authorise them to speak to me.

However, in general terms they said there was 19 days from the date of the summons to respond

(I couldn't see 19 days referenced on the court papers however I'm looking at this from a phone so won't be able to see properly till this evening).

My daughter tells me, that she was having difficulty paying and was in correspondence with Tesco before she went to live in France.

She also communicated with them when she went to France

however, they never replied to her French address

- I believe there may have been a couple of letters to the address we shared in London (not with her father)

however I moved to Rochester 3+ years ago.

She does not have a copy of the loan agreement, payments made, or interest applicable so it's very difficult to put together a defence.

Certainly this (the court summons) is the first communication on the outstanding debt that she's had in a very long time.

And the first time that she's received anything addressed to her father's home

... my daughter is living between places before returning to France.

If the debt is correct, my daughter doesn't have the means to pay

neither is she well enough to deal with this.

I might be able to pay something but couldn't make the full amount - possibly £2-2.5k.

I would like to be able to act on behalf of my daughter (or get someone else to if that's more appropriate), ideally if a court judgement could be avoided I know that would ease her worries.

What should be my immediate steps?

What else can I do?

Is there anything I should avoid doing at this stage at all costs?

Any advice would be so much appreciated.

Thanks.

It would help a great deal could present your story in a way which is well spaced and using paragraph returns. It is very difficult to follow a solid block of text.

I suggest that you acknowledge the claim and state that you intend to defend. This will ensure that you have 28 days from the date of the claim in order to respond fully.

The next thing I suggest you do is to write to them immediately and asked them to provide you with a copy of the CCA – the consumer credit agreement. If they are unable to supply this then the claim becomes unenforceable. You need to do this straightaway. They have 12 working days to respond with a copy of the CCA. If they failed to provide you with a copy then send off your defence and simply say that you do not acknowledge the debt and that on XXX date you asked for a copy of the CCA and it has not been provided to you within the 12 day statutory deadline or at all.

I suggest that you get the CCA request in the post first thing tomorrow morning. Send it special delivery so that is guaranteed to arrive on Monday. Count from the Tuesday is the first working day and give 12 days. If you get the CCA then come back here.

I can see that our site team member DX100UK has been looking at the thread also. If he gives you any additional advice or any advice which conflicts with what I have given you above, then you should prefer his advice over mine.

total rubbish bankfodder - you're far more experienced than me.....

no you can do it all for her

but we need some info first

as theres a couple of ways we could play this.

as Tesco's KNEW she was moving abroad and obv didn't tell [or they did..more later]

and the fleecing DCA has purposefully issued the claimform to an old address to gain a default judgement..bet that's the truth.

now have you any proof she told Tesco's [a letter copy p'haps]

that would be great.

then we cold get this nulled with p'haps consent from hoist at no cost to you

else it could cost £255 to get it set aside because she lived abroad [that will work either way]

second option.

is follow it through

ack the claim [AOS box] on MCOL website

and get CCA/CPR running

you can do all this again without her help.

trouble with this method is

I suspect the loan was taken out after apr 2007?

so any old recon paperwork would let them proceed to getting the full CCJ

enough for now

il'll let you reply

dx

Thank you all. I'll be calling my daughter early this evening so will get all the correct info as quick as poss and re-post. I do know that during her time in France she lived at 3 separate addresses (moved twice).