Howard Cohen & another County Court Claim

[bongo boy]

Hey all, hope you can help with this one, am helping a mate with some serious debt probs, has recd another county court claim from the above bunch, however there is still a dispute with the account as a CCA request was submitted in March 09 and no docs have yet been recd. Despite this he has still been making payments via the CCCS.

 

Cohens have ignored this and proceeded with a county court claim, have made no ref to the CCCS. They tried this on with another of his debts which i submitted a defence to, and they wrote to me asking me to withdraw it ! I havent done so and heard no more. I have a feeling as they have gone the county court route whilst in dispute they are a bit in the wrong ? can anyone help ? Cheers Bongo

[PGH7447]

if he is with the cccs then get them involved, also acknowledge on line and defend on the principle that agreed payments were being made under a payment plan set up by cccs, watch the barstewrd squirm

[PGH7447]

whos the dca Clueless finance?

 

if it is then this is getting quite telling for Lewis and welcome and cattles

[bongo boy]

yeah it is clueless finance ! the prob with the CCCS is they just admit the claim and then he ends up with another ccj so far it's happened twice with them handling things despite being in dispute re CCA requests not fulfilled so am reluctant to tell him to let them handle it !

[PGH7447]

also report cohen to the solicitors regulatory body, time this muppet was sent packing

 

defend the claim on the basis that an agreement was in place and adhered to, the judge will not be too impressed with this time waster again

[GhostDebt]

I think CCCS just usually admit it, so if you want to defend, you will have to defend it yourself.

Might be worth doing the CPR requests to Cohens in any case.

[bongo boy]

i tried cpr requests last time and the response from cohen was that all the information was in the claim !!

[DonkeyB]

Well, if they are only relying on the PoC they will fail. Any documents mentioned in the PoC must be produced on request. I bet the PoC mentions Condition 7 of the T&Cs...

 

Have a look at pt2537's great new thread for advice on how to proceed:

 

http://www.consumeractiongroup.co.uk/forum/legal-issues/241827-legal-action-how-start.html

[PaulW922]

also report cohen to the solicitors regulatory body, time this muppet was sent packing

 

defend the claim on the basis that an agreement was in place and adhered to, the judge will not be too impressed with this time waster again

 

I agree - it will be difficult to deny that the debt exists in these circumstances so the CCA route is probably not the one to go down. Replying on the basis that you are under a payment plan with CCCS which HC has agreed to comply with (it is probably in their code of conduct to cooperate with payment plan managers) and offer the same amount you are paying now - you could also ask the court not to award the element of the claim that relates to HCs costs on the basis that they are acting unreasonably, given an agreement is in place and you are adhering to it.

 

Of course the risk is that if they still take the matter to court you will get a CCJ. Whether that matters if you have multiple defaults I don't know. One 'advantage' that a CCJ has is that provided you keep up payments the only way a creditor can get the amounts increased or demand full payment is to apply back to the court.

 

Others may have different views.

[bongo boy]

Thanks for all your advice guys, have submitted a defence for him regarding the CCA request default, unfair charges on the account and Cohen/his client's failure to utilise his appointed third party. This worked last time he tried this with a similar account so i'm hoping it will again. I have a feling this is just another scare tactic used by Clueless and Cohens, if you defend they seem to back off... may be wrong.... fingers crossed...;-)

[bongo boy]

Hi all, had a reply from Cohen asking for the defence to be withdrawn ? Also asking to enter into an agreement, a consent order ??? why would he want to do that ? if He is already using the CCCS then an agreement is already in place... anyone have any views on this? seems to me Cohen realises his claim is going nowhere and trying a different tack...

[PGH7447]

Who's defence yours?

 

do not trust him and do not sign any consent order, if an agreement was / is in place then that is enough, if he writes and says the case has been withdrawn then check with the court

[bongo boy]

Cohen asked for the defence to be withdrawn, i've already advised my mate not to sign any consent order. He is still paying via the CCCs anyway....

[bongo boy]

Hi all, all quiet so far, my mate has not signed the comsent order however it appears Cohen has been in touch with the CCCs asking them to forward the consent order to him ?