I'm tryin to help the mother in law with her debts.

.today she received a letter from 'Mortimer Clarke Solicitors' advising they are working on behalf of 'Cabot' allthough i believe mortimer clarke are part of cabot?

They are saying if she doesn't contact them within 30days they have been instructed to apply to the court for a ccj,

The account was assigned to cabot in 12/2016 and started in 08/2013 its a catalogue debt.

They enclose a questionaire type form with do i owe the debt

,i agree i owe the debt,

i don't agree etc the form goes like that etc

and a expenditure form they want her to tick the relevant box and sign it which i said no...

.would it be right to contact them and ask for the signed contract if one exists.

.statements...notice of assigment etc....

would this then seeing as contact has been made the ccj threat put on hold for now?

She is on the basic benefit so got nothing

...the address is her friends house not her own address

...shes divorced but stays at her friends house and used that address but don't know how cabot have it..

..obviously she doen't want a ccj going there so what's the best way to procede.

right no one gets a CCJ until a load of other hoops have been gone through so start to learn about the processes or you will be of little help to MiL.

What they have sent is a letter threatening to take leagl action at some unspecified point in the future.

This letter is not a Letter Before Action because it doesnt use the correct wording and doesnt contain the right inforamtion about what is being claimed is owed and why.

That means even if they want to act after 30 days the most they can do is send out a proper LBA and that will have to give a minimum of 14 notice before they can file a claim

The claims process then takes at least a month and then if the claim is denied another 6 months on average to get to court and if she then loses the claim she will have another period to pay the monies due. If she then fails to pay within that time she will get a CCJ so the actual CCJ is miles away.

What to do?

Ignore their form as it has not place in the legal process.

Find out what the debt actually is and who owns it so that means sending Cabot a CCA request along with £1 statutory fee.

If they dont respond with the information within 12 days they cannot enforce the debt so cannot threaten court action.

The info also required would be a copy of the Notice of Assignment and also statements of account, which should be sent out once a year anyway but they have to provide them when requested in this manner.

these will be a bit vague because they wont have details like how much of the amount due is late payment fees, interest, random charges that these companies like to apply even though they are unlawful etc so she might have to ask the original creditor for the full info via a SAR, which costs £10

Update on the letter received..

now i have gone through it properly it says a 'letter of claim details' then runs through debt details etc what do i advise her to agree to or not and sign etc?

It does say 'date of assignment 19/12/16' but she has no notice not to say it wasn't sent she isn't the best with getting issues sorted out..

..what would be the best way to go from here offer £5 a month or dispute it?

They state if she doesn't contact them they may issue court proceedings so even disputing would or could stop it? any help apreciated.

The link above is the form she has been issued.

why don't you scan the letter up to PDF please

read UPLOAD

then we can all laugh at it too. and then advise properly

dx