Hi,

Lowell are taking me to court in a couple of weeks for a debt that I very much dispute, and i wondered if anyone could help advise me please..

I had a shop direct account,

opened about 5 years ago, maybe 6, but im not sure exactly.

I got into a bit of a financial pickle and got behind with payments,

ignored it for a while,

realised my mistake and came up with an arrangement to pay.

I believe this debt should have been defaulted but I don't think it was.

Either way I paid as per the arrangement,

it wasn't a huge sum anyway and cleared the debt totally.

I started receiving letters from lowell demanding money for some debt,

i ignored them for one reason and another,

which i know i shouldn't have done,

last july I got a claim form from court from them.

I responded,

filed the defence,

sent off the letters requesting details of this debt and the £1 postal order,

i received absolutely nothing in response to those, lowell continued with the claim.

I agreed to mediation,

mediation said I couldn't do it as theyd not sent any of the proof back.

I then received a court date and i have to supply my defence and documents I intend to use.

These need to be back in 2 days.

Ive left it so late as ive read that lowell try not to respond until after they've received the response so they can try to belittle your defense.

I found another forum and followed advice up to now

but then found here last week and have been desperately reading all i can as it seems so more.. accurate and helpful here.

Oh the defaulted debt is listed as for £160 and the balance is now £330,

presumably with their fees added

I think I've got myself a defence together based around what I've read here and past cases but I still have a few questions if thats ok.

. I am absolutely terrified..

Lowell haven't provided any documents,

no agreements,

default notices,

account details or transactions.

Is this enough of a defence?

What happens if they suddenly provide all of the documents with their defence?

Will they count in court as they didn't supply them within the requested dates last year?

(I've read a lot about lowell making documents up)

I'm pretty sure that I never used the account after it was cleared,

i didnt however keep any of the documents I had from shop direct as id paid them off and didn't see it as necessary so I can't even double check the paperwork.

Will this go against me?

The default date on my credit file is July 2015.

If they can't provide any documents,

which they shouldn't be able to,

what will happen to this default,

will it be removed?

If not it seems unfair as I didn't default on this debt as i didnt have one.

If it isn't removed is there any way I'll be able to have it back dated to when I think I did default before I paid my balance off?

I'm really worried about court,

im educated and intelligent enough but have absolutely no legal experience and im very worried about getting confused with all the laws that I'll need to discuss and what if I get them wrong?

And will I need to point them.out to the judge?

Sorry for the stupid questions,

as I said I'm really worried

please fill this out:

http://www.consumeractiongroup.co.uk/forum/showthread.php?419198-You-have-received-a-Claim-What-you-need-to-do.-**UPDATED-2016**(1-Viewing)-nbsp

what defence did you file please post that up too.

I gather you must be at the witness statement stage then?

what date is the hearing

what date must you exchange witness statements?

Name of the Claimant ? Lowell

Date of issue July 2016

What is the claim for –

What is the value of the claim? The claim is £330, defaulted amount was for £160

Is the claim for a current account (Overdraft) or credit/loan account or mobile phone account? Catalogue

When did you enter into the original agreement before or after 2007? After

Has the claim been issued by the original creditor or was the account assigned and it is the Debt purchaser who has issued the claim. Lowell, / carter

Were you aware the account had been assigned – did you receive a Notice of Assignment? Not that I'm aware

Did you receive a Default Notice from the original creditor? Not that I'm aware

Have you been receiving statutory notices headed “Notice of Default sums” – at least once a year ? No

Why did you cease payments?

Because I cleared the account and it was at zero, i had the account, but had no balance on it

What was the date of your last payment?

About September/ October 2014, i dont have any of the paperwork as I'd paid off the account

Was there a dispute with the original creditor that remains unresolved? No

Did you communicate any financial problems to the original creditor and make any attempt to enter into a debt managementicon plan?yes and i did enter an arrangement to pay and cleared the account. None of this shows on my credit file, its only listed from 2016, nothing at all prior

Sorry to post again, but I'm really desperate, i have to post my witness statement this afternoon or email it this evening, could anyone help please?

Your Standard Disclosure will be any CPR/CCA requests and responses.Anything referred to or relied upon within your defence or witness statement (Your witness Statement also becomes part of your disclosure once completed)

Your Witness Statement will be a factual account in your own words which particularises your defence and is signed with a statement of truth and dated.

There are plenty of examples of how a WS should be drafted and laid out...the contents are unique to your own claim...there are no templates....and can be found in most threads here that are at the same stage as yourself or within the Legal Success Forum.

Regards

Andy

Thabk you for your reply..

Yes ive spent days reading and re reading and i am just typing up a witness statement related to the notes ive made while reading.

Can I say that I acknowledge the account?

Because I do, I had one and cleared the balance.

I dont know how i can prove this though.

The default and all this came about 18 months after I'd cleared the account completely but as it's now not even on my credit file I dont know how to prove it.

They've not responded to any requests for the info, which on this one I genuinely haven't owed any more so i really don't understand the debt or the default at all. I'm not sure how I can put this but in the witness statement.

If i upload my witness statement would you please have a look at it for me?

Certainly...aslo need a copy of your defence though otherwise the statement is meaningless to check.

Ok, almost finished and ill post them up.

But, ive just gone through my old paperwork box and have found statements from December 2014 showing that I cleared my balance then. Should I include these?

Ok, almost finished and ill post them up.

But, ive just gone through my old paperwork box and have found statements from December 2014 showing that I cleared my balance then. Should I include these?

Yes anything that supports your defence should be referred to and included as an exhibit.

My defence:

Defence

The Defendant denies monies are owed to the Claimant as alleged in the Particulars of Claim and does not recognise the assertion that any debt has been Legally Assigned to the Claimant and as such the Claimant is put to the strictest of proof, including but not limited to:

I. Pursuant to s.77-79 of the Consumer Credit Act 1974 (CCA1974) the Original Signed Consumer Credit Agreement, along with a copy of the original Terms & Conditions and any subsequent changes in said Terms & Conditions (referred to as the ‘Regulated Agreement’ within the Particulars of Claim) and show how the Defendant has entered into an agreement.

II. Show how the Claimant has reached the amount claimed by proving a full Statement of the Account referred to, including details of all payments made and calculation of how interest was charged against each item listed, leading to the Alleged Debt of £330

III. Also, as this is an Alleged Debt, I believe Penalty Charges may have been applied to the Account and as such may be unlawful under the Unfair Consumer Contract Terms Regulations 1999. Therefore, I would request details of each and every Penalty Charge applied to the Account along with details of their lawfulness (i.e. if the charge is stated as being for ‘Administration’ what Administration was undertaken to support the Penalty Charge being applied) along with details of any Interest imposed against each Penalty Charge applied.

IV. Show how and when the agreement was breached and provide notice by way of Notice of Sums in Arrears served by the Original Owners along with a copy of the Default Notice from the original owners of the Alleged Debt and Certified Copies of how this was served upon the Defendant.

V. Show how the Claimant has the legal right, either under statute or equity to issue a claim by providing the following:

a) A copy of the Default Notice referred to in the Particulars of Claim and Certified Copies of how this was served upon the Defendant, again as referred to in the Particulars of Claim.

b) As claimant has stated the debt was ‘assigned to the claimant on 24/07/2015 a copy of the Legal Assignment, including, but not limited to a copy of the Deed of Assignment and / or Deed of Tripartite Novation.

c) A copy of how the Defendant was served with the aforementioned Legal Assignment.

d) A copy of the Alleged Notice of Assignment sent by the original creditor to the Defendant and details of how this was served upon the Defendant.

e) Details of the costs paid by the Claimant to the Original Owner for the Alleged Assignment of the Agreement on 24/07/2015 (as referenced in Section 1 of the Particulars of Claim).

VI. As per Civil Procedure rules 16.5(4), it is expected that the Claimant prove the allegation (as set out in the Particulars of Claim) that the money is owed.

VII. Also, should any amount be inclusive of interest, the Defendant denies interest is payable in accordance with Section 69 of County Courts Act 1984 and again the Claimant is put to the Strictest of Proof.

VIII. The defendant sent out a CPR18 request letter on 18th July 2016, which was signed for on the 19th July 2016, asking for the following documents to be produced:

1. The agreement/contract, including the specific terms at the point the alleged Agreement was made and any subsequent changes.

2. The deed of assignment

3. The notice of assignment

4. The default warning letter

5. The default notice

IX. I would also like to take this opportunity to remind you under Civil Procedure Rule Part 39 PD 39a (3.3) any documents upon which the claimant intends to rely the ORIGINALS should be brought to any subsequent hearing for examination.

Statement of Truth

I believe the facts stated in this defence are true.

I'm now thinking my defence wasn't very good...

I'm now thinking my defence wasn't very good...

Well make it better in your Witness statement:wink:

WITNESS STATEMENT OF DEFENDANT

1 I make this statement in support of my defence to the claim above and rely on the exhibits attached.

2 This claim is for a Home Shopping agreement regulated by the Consumer Credit Act 1974 between the Defendant and Shop Direct Finance Company Limited under account reference xxxxxx

.

3 It is admitted that I have held a catalogue account a number of years ago which I used to purchase some goods.

4 After some time, I got into financial difficulty when coming off of maternity leave and fell behind with my payments.

5 I made an arrangement to pay the debt, with the original creditors by paying an amount per month.

6 I kept up with this payment plan and in November 2014 had cleared the balance owing and my payment plan ended. (See Exhibit marked A1.)

7 Since November 2014 I do not recall using the catalogue again at all, in fact I believed the account was closed.

8 I am unaware of any outstanding balance and nor do I recall being contacted by the original creditors, nor have I been issued with a default notice pursuant to section 87 (1) CCA 1974.

9 I therefore cannot make any admittance to any alleged debt.

10 On the 18th July 2016, in response to the particulars of claim served upon me, for more clarity on the matter I made a request under section 78.1 of the Consumer Credit Act, and paid the £1 fee via postal order for a copy of the credit agreement and statement of account.

11 This letter was sent recorded delivery and as such was signed for on 19TH July 2016 by DOWDING at 0735

12 I also made a CPR 31.14 request to the claimants solicitor on 18th July 2016, which was received and signed for by OLDROYLD.

I enquired for information including:

1 Agreement/contract

2 Notice of assignment

3 Default warning letter

4 Default notice

5 Information statement of Account relating to the accrue of charges and interest

13 The claimant and its solicitors have not complied with any of my requests and have not sent any related documentation clarifying or proving the alleged debt, and therefore defaulted payments, or service of default notice.

14 The claimant have not been able to clarify by way of an itemised list how the alleged balance was derived and the legality of the charges applied to the said balance. The claimant has not in any way proven the existence of the alleged debt.

15 Notwithstanding the above the claimant remains in breach of the 12 day response period under Section 78.6, therefore the claimant is unable to request any relief until such time they can comply

16. It is therefore contended that there is no outstanding balance nor as the claimant been able to produce any documentation to prove otherwise and I therefore respectfully request that the court dismiss this claim and award costs it feel fit in defending this matter.

STATEMENT OF TRUTH

The contents of my statement are true to the best of my knowledge and belief.

Signed

Dated this day……………………..2017

Can someone have a look at this for me please? I think i may have written too much and gone a little overboard with the bullet points...

Also, how do i reference my documents that i'll be using? Like the lettters i've sent, proof of postage and receipt etc.. Is CD 1, CD2 etc ok?

Do i include the defence that i submitted on mcol?

shouldn't really be demanding the deed you'll never see that.

that smacks of Freeman of the land twaddle and the judge will laugh you out if you refer too much too all that rubbish that you've probably read on certain other sites........

ok. I put that in my defence, shall i just delete that from the witness statement and hope noone really notices?

I also have another problem.

My stuff is due in tomorrow and I'm having huge printer issues.

The court say that they'll accept an email, but that i'll have to ask lowell if they will.

I'm sure they wont if it helps me and i don't have an email address currently for them.

I can sort the printing issue tonight,

but that will then mean that they receive it all a day late.

Court said that would be ok,

but then said it'll be up to the judge as lowell will probably complain.

should i email or post late? or both?

Amendments made in blue Tulip.

Andy

Thank you very much. I'm so nervous, and your help really is appreciated

I've just checked my documents,

the letter i sent the solicitors,

I used a template and all over it says CPR18,

is that wrong and it will go against me?

Or is it the same thing that you've changed above to CPR 31.14?

Dont worry ..its the witness statement that matters... for information you cant use CPR 18 in Small Claims Track

Oh. I wish I'd found this forum last summer! So shall I put in the d3fnse about the cpr 31.14 and link to the cpr 18?

You can amend it for your records.

Please help

I have to post the documents today, I have about half an hour and ive just double checked the orders bit and it says I have to send all documents including

The letter making the claim and reply

What is this please?

Please help

 

I have to post the documents today, I have about half an hour and ive just double checked the orders bit and it says I have to send all documents including

 

The letter making the claim and reply

 

What is this please?

See post#6 I have already explained standard disclosure

Ah right thank you. Ive got witness statement, all documents and a list of documents sent and proof of post and stuff but when I read it i worried it was something else, the court papers or something