Hi all,

Looking for some additional advice as I appreciate that this is a topic well covered on the CAG forums.

I have had a look on the CAG forums at similar cases to get an idea of how to proceed with a claim that Lowells are making towards my girlfriend

- I'll state at this point this is on behalf of my girlfriend as she isn't any good at this sort of thing.

Please see below particulars of the case they are bringing.

I hope everything is covered..

Name of the Claimant : Lowell Portfolio I LTD

Date of issue – 19 Jul 2018

What is the claim for – the reason they have issued the claim?

1) The defendant entered into an agreement with O2 (UK) Ltd under account reference xxxxxxxxxx ('the agreement').

2) the defendant failed to maintain the required payments and the service was terminated.

3) the Agreement was later assigned to the Claimant on 30/04/2013 and notice given to the defendant.

4) Despite repeated requests for payment the sum of £796.54 remains due and outstanding.

And the Claiment claims

a) The said sum of £796.54

b) Interest pursuant to s69 county courts Act 1984 at the rate of 8% per annum from the date of assignment to th date of issue, accruing at a daily rate of £0.175, but limited to one year, being £63.72

c) Costs

What is the value of the claim? £990.26

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

When did you enter into the original agreement before or after 2007? I'm guessing after that date! The original account (according to her credit file) was opened 25/09/2007

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? I believe the account was assigned to Lowells as they stated this was 30/4/2013.

Were you aware the account had been assigned – did you receive a Notice of Assignment? Not to the best of our knowledge but we've only been together 6 years, and 4 years in our current property. It's possible something was sent to an old address.

Did you receive a Default Notice from the original creditor? No idea. In all honesty a lot of these because of the age and the fact she's no longer an O2 customer go in the bin. There's also the fact we've moved three times, finally settling 4 years ago.

Have you been receiving statutory notices headed “Notice of Default sums” – at least once a year ? Again not sure, as above... Reading some other CAG threads would this not be applicable as mobile phone contracts are not covered by the CCA?

Why did you cease payments? No idea. She had this account before I knew her, and I believe it may have possibly had something to do with her state of mind at the time. She split from her ex who she was with for 15 years and got a bit depressed. Working as a carer on basic minimum wage and living alone for a time, so probably got swept away.

What was the date of your last payment? No idea on this. Have contacted O2 with a kind of altered SAR directly by E-mail requesting details they hold on her

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 management planicon? No

I'm going to fill out the AOS on-line on her behalf (praying that this doesn't get as far as court as neither of us will be up to that)

However I would appreciate some advice on whether this would possibly be statute barred?

I understand why they are bringing the claim now as it's just under a year before the 6 year period runs out.

But surely the 6 year period runs from the last date a payment was made?

Am I right to go down this route of defence?

And am I right to hit O2 with a SAR. (I'm expecting them to have little information though on her as the account was opened 6 years ago, although assigned to Lowells just under 6 years ago)

At this stage should I specify that I'm contesting the entire claim or just part of it? She had an account and it's likely the contractual term hadn't ended but it's hard to know exactly at this stage what terms she was under as the account was opened 5+ years before it was assigned to Lowells.

Given all the uncertainty I'm leaning towards contesting part of the claim? Would that be the best course of action? and then hit them with a CPR 31.14?

Many thanks in advance,

Need to check with O2 when the last payment was on this.

It's all going to depend on when the last payment was made. It has to have been before July 2012.

Before you use statute barred as a defence you must be certain.

Also aswell for a mobile debt it seems pretty high... Probably full of Early Termination Fees...

Go find out how its broken down. Wonder if its part of the O2 Refresh which means if it is - Some of the balance will be due under a Consumer Credit Agreement.

Thanks for the replies.

I'm right in sending O2 a SAR.

Should I just complete the AOS on-line in the meantime and request more time to prepare a defence?

Also aswell for a mobile debt it seems pretty high... Probably full of Early Termination Fees...

Go find out how its broken down. Wonder if its part of the O2 Refresh which means if it is - Some of the balance will be due under a Consumer Credit Agreement.

Yeah I thought it was pretty high too, would definitely need to see the contract before admitting liability to all or part of this amount.

Go have a look at some mobile debt CCJ threads. Acknowledge the claim to make sure they dont get a default CCJ and Yes - It should give you enough time to do that.

Probably wont get to see the airtime agreement, but they will need to have a CCA for it if the handset was sold under O2 Refresh,

As I'm acting on her behalf it's asking me whether I'm a litigation friend? Should I just tick that box? I haven't been appointed legally or anything

Go ring o2 ask last payment date!

Dont ever part admit=CCJ by default

Get CPR31:14 running

bugger,

I already said I'm challenging part of the claim.

That's what I don't like about these claim forms

- they make it sound as though any response "may" only result in a CCJ.

I'm guessing that if we can challenge it and we negotiate a settlement that if needs be we can pay it off within the 30 days to avoid a CCJ.

I have entered myself as a litigation friend.

One other question I have is that when I send the CPR 31:14 do I have to send that to the court as well as the solicitors?

Sols only

Shame you jumped without waiting for advice....

You've Been here as long as me and should know better...

What time did you file AOS?

Earlier today ....to be fair I did ask for advice and not all my questions were addressed.

I find it odd how they make you choose between contesting all or part of the claim prior to being in receipt of all the relevant information.

I feel like there should be general option to stay the claim for 28 days whilst further information is sought, but we are where we are.

How someone can rock up one day and take you to court out of the blue is crazy.

Courts are meant for genuine cases, not get rich quick schemes for lazy half arsed armchair solicitors looking to make a few quid out of ignorant people.

I'll send the CPR 31:14 letter off asap and update the thread once I see a response.

Thanks and apologies if I jumped the gun by sending the AOS the way I did.

I was caught in two minds as to whether I can

1. obtain any information from O2 regarding last payment date in order to use statute barred as a defence and

2. whether or not she was still contractually obligated to pay at least some of the contract.

Agree the fee is too high, it's probably at least two or three times what the phone was worth, and she was probably into her third contract by the time it was suspended.

did you fill in the postal form and send it off or did you use MCOL website to do AOS?

its not a solicitor its a debt collection agency

the sols represent them is court.

you do not await the CPR 31:14.

do not miss your defence filing date.

did you ring o2 and ask last payment date?

Hi, I completed the AOS on the MCOL website...

I haven't called O2,

I sent them a SAR request from her e-mail account to the E-mail address I found through the CAG forums.

I'm assuming if we called them I'd have to get my girlfriend to do it as it was her account.

You wont get the sar in time

You can do it after she has given perm to them on the phone

Just a quick update

- the CPR 31:14 has gone off to Lowells.

I have called O2 and they seem to still have a record of her account, but there was a security question on the account.

I now have the answer so I'll call them this back afternoon and give them the security question answer.

So hopefully I should have some decent information later today.

Great work

I just spoke again with O2 and I have to say it was a bit painful and the guy I spoke with didn't seem to really understand the law.

I explained our situation and that we require all information on my girlfriend, and I specifically need to know the last payment date on her account.

I gave them the security password and everything seemed fine.

It then got a bit hairy when he said that they only held records for two years.

This is when I obviously went into detail about the law etc and I would complain to the information commissioner as they are denying her right to all the information they hold on her. (At that point he was kind of intimidating that they couldn't give me any information about her account - Only that one definitely existed in the past)

I did get a little peeved when after telling them their commitment should be to hold records for 6 years and that they would be breaking the law, his response was well as the account is more than 6 years old they would be breaking the law anyway if they held it for longer than 6 years. The guy seriously didn't know what to do...

Eventually he said we could apply for a SAR by phone (Which is what I have already done via E-mail).

It transpires that they may have records in their "archive" but in order to get that we would need to go down the route of a SAR, and they would require my girlfriend to do that as the address has changed and the mobile number on the account is no longer active. At one point we were in a bit of an impasse as he wasn't really sure how we could get her information as her details have changed....

It looks like they don't hold much info on her as the account is over 6 years old?

Thoughts anyone?

Well you can interpret that 2 ways...either he realised shortly into your call that the debt had been assigned and was not going to pass on any helpful information or they genuinely do not hold anymore info than already provided.

If its the second reason then that tells you how much Lowell know about the debt and how difficult it will be to process the claim.

Yeah I think they'll be bugger all information available and obviously we can't wait the 30 days for O2 to respond.

I guess I'll wait to see what Lowell's respond with.

Any advice for me on what I should do about the fact I ticked I'll be defending part of the claim?

Am I right in thinking I should just let this play out and still go down the statute barred route if Lowell can't provide any more info?

If you opted for admit part (there is no option to defending part)...then it is deemed you could get an auto CCJ for the part you admit ?

If the claimant refuses your part admittance the claim proceeds as a fully defended claim

I don't admit any of it now, is there any way you know of amending it?

If they refused the part admittance how could they take it all the way if it was clearly statute barred?

Surely the case would still be on dodgy ground if they went all the way to court?

What about seeing it play out and then offering a £1 token payment?

I never said which part I was admitting too ...

Well if you did not submit a figure to the part you admit it will be rejected and treated as a fully defended claim.

right, I should be ok anyway as I haven't admitted to any figure?

Should be......but for future reference always defend all.

Yeah noted.... Will do, thanks for your help.

We're going to try O2 again over the weekend and still request her information over the phone quoting article 15, but this time I won't say what it's for etc.

you never know, we may end up getting someone a bit different