LOL! Or maybe I should add this: If you tw*ts call me at work again, my super hard ex-con mates will be round your offices with baseball bats! Seriously though, I have a bad feeling I know what's coming next from these idiots. It'll be passed to their "legal people" who will get a CCJ and make it sound like I'm the one who has been difficult and evasive. I just find it utterly unbelievable that they refuse to discuss this in writing. I find telephone calls unacceptable as I'll have no record of what's been discussed and will have no audit trail to refer back to. And is this kind of debt (mobile phone) governed by different rules than normal credit debt? Is it really true that they don't need a Notice of Assignment or Default Notices?

They called me again at work this Friday! What's wrong with these people? All I want is a copy of the original agreement, a valid Notice of Assignment and valid default notice(s)! Do they not have to provide me with these? Has anyone else heard of DCAs not being willing to conduct correspondence in writing due to the Data Protection Act? Sounds like nonsense to me.

Apologies if I've posted this in the wrong forum. I was just wondering if anyone knows if mortgage penalty fees can be claimed back in the same way as bank charges?

I have an account with T-Mobile which my husband took over a few years ago (although the account stayed in my name). We went abroad in May this year and got quite a shock when we saw the May phone bill. The roaming charges were highly excessive and my husband challenged T-Mobile about them, although they claim they have no record whatsoever of him doing this. Before we know it, they have passed the (now even bigger) debt to Buchanan Clark & Wells who have been quite unpleasant in their pursuit. So far they have sent: 1. Formal Demand 2. Final Notice 3. A letter saying a copy of the documentation will be sent to me directly by the client (although I had not yet asked for anything) 4. A letter addressed to me (using a wrong initial) saying I need to give written consent that this person with the wrong initial can discuss the account on my behalf. (I presume the wrong initial is a typo and what they really mean is that I need to give writen permission if I want my husband to duscuss the acount with them). 5. They have called me at work on at least three occasions, being very argumentative. I have written to them (sent recorded) and asked for a copy of the original agreement, a valid Notice of assignment and a valid Default Notice. They were adamant that they needed no such thing. I was quite surprised at this. Can this be right? Do they not need any of the above? Is this kind of debt governed by different rules than your bog standard credit debt? They also said that they could not discuss my account in writing due to the Data Protection Act, it all had to be conducted via telephone. I find this absolutely shocking! I made it quite clear that I was not willing to discuss ANYTHING over the phone and that I found it highly inappropriate that they contacted me at work. Surely it is not unreasonable to expect that any correspondence regarding this should be in writing? I'm really unsure what to do next. Does anyone have any ideas?

Boooooo! It turned out that Welcome had sent an AQ to the Court after all, it had just been delayed by the snow, hence the extra time given:mad:. They never sent us a copy of it though, despite us sending them a copy of ours. Can we insist on seing theirs? The court has now obviously perused our AQs as they have now sent us a letter "Standard order for stay for settlement with consent of all the parties". So basically the claim is stayed to enable both parties to attempt settlement. One of the following steps must be taken: the claimant must notify that the whole claim has been settled or; either of us must write to the court requesting an extension of the stay period, explaining the steps taken towards settlement identifying any mediator, expert or other person helping with the process. This letter must confirm agreement of all the other parties or; all parties must file a completed AQ. Where a settlement of some of the issues in dispute has been reached, a list of those issues should be attached to the completed AQ. The list must be agreed by all parties. There was no mention at all about disclosure of credit agreement, default notices etc. Odd:confused:. Well, the thing is, we have been trying to settle this for months now. What more can we do? Nothing's changed. Maybe we should just re-send the letters we have already written to them about this. As the judge obviously hasn't ordered them to disclose any documents, maybe we should send them a CCA request or an S.A.R.? What say you?

Yesterday we received a letter from the court saying the claimant hasn't filed their AQ. They've been given until Monday 2 Mar 09 to file one or the case will be struck out. If a case is struck out, is that the end of it or can they try again?

Thanks for this its starting to make sense at last! It was HP for a car that I wanted to return. Basically the finance company misinformed and lied to me about my rights under the law. I consulted OFT about it and they clearly informed of my legal rights under the sales of goods and services act. The finance company lied about handing me a default notice, that I HAD TO maintain the agreement for the length of the HP agreement, that I couldn't return the vehicle with an arrears on it - which made no sense at all - and I couldn't sell it! I included in my defence letters written to the HP company stating my case and my rights under the law. So now I need to complete the AQ as best I can highlighting that I want the agreement cancelled and the vehicle, a vehicle which I have paid over 51% off the HP agreement, back as is my rights. That I object to being misinformed by the HP company and forced to keep a vehicle that I no longer wish to maintain on my drive, which I am considering charging rent for!

Thanks for this 42man its a N150. Sorry to sound so thick but we don't know what the AQ actually is and what its used for. I checked the links you put on and I've already read them when I searched the site. I'm still just as confused. We have until the 14th to fill the form in and we're currently none the wiser. My husband wanted to return the car to welcome finance informing them that he wished to terminate the agreement. Welcome refused to terminate the agreement, accept the vehicle back or allow us to sell it. Welcome claimed that we couldn't return the vehicle as there was an arrears on the account and a default notice had been served, the later certainly wasn't true. we have since stopped paying for the vehicle. They applied to Northampton CC and sent thru a defence form which my husband filled in disputing Welcomes claim and submitting a reasoned and solid defence quoting the 'sales of goods and services act' and Welcomes refusal to take the car back, terminate the agreement etc etc. We heard no more until this came thru and now were at a loss at what we should fill in on the AQ. So I guess what I need to know is what should we submit on the form, what evidence do we need to include, what documents, what does the N150 AQ actually do/mean. I basically need someone to walk me thru the form in relation to our issue. Again sorry to sound so thick but we're really in the dark. As you can see we're running out of time and could really do with the help. I appreciate all the support I've found on here and anything you can do to help would be greatly appreciated.

My husband's just received an Allocation Questionnaire regarding a claim Welcome Finance has made against him. We've been searching the forum for help on completing this and have found some helpful advice but most examples seem to be for cases where he would be the claimant, not the defendant. On some aspects of the AQ, we're none the wiser and have only a very vague idea of what we should fill in. We don't really understand why he's been sent an AQ at all. He hasn't so far requested a copy of the credit agreement, should we take the opportunity to ask for this in the draft order we'd attach to section F? Although the amount claimed for is a bit more than £5,000, is it still advisable to request that it be dealt with under Small Claims rather than Fast Track? And what about section C - Pre-action Protocols? What on earth is that? Previous correspondence to the claimant? What we have done so far in an attempt to resolve the matter? We just want to fill the form in appropriately and correctly. He's had a very negative experience with the Court system in the past and is very wary of getting screwed again. When Welcome Finance filed their claim with the Court, the Court wrote to my husband asking if he disputed the claim (can't remember what the form was called now). He filled it in and attached a supporting statement , giving his reasons why he disputed the whole amount. Presumably it is as a result of this that he's received an AQ? Any help on filling this in, from a defendant's viewpoint, would be greatly appreciated.

Thanks everyone! You know, I completely forgot to mention anything about the costs at the hearing. I was thinking about it all the way to court, and actually after I left as well but I think the relief of having the SD set aside made me completely forget while I was still in the room and I didn't want to rock the boat. Typical! I did ask for costs to be awarded to me in my application though, will that still count? I was convinced too, apart from a couple of very important facts (no valid CCA and no default notices), that I had a weak case, but that's not the impression I got from the judge. He seemed to be in no doubt that the SD should be set aside. As these facts abviously spoke for themselves (I didn't have to say very much at all), perhaps it wouldn't have mattered whether the judge was good cop or bad cop. We can only speculate. He did also point out that DCAs were abusing the insolvency regime by basically using it as a means of debt collection. I totally agree. That'll teach them to issue SDs willy nilly. Talk about using a sledgehammer to crack a nut. Bet they wish they'd just let me keep paying my humble amounts now:D Beanpole, when is it your turn?

Thanks very much Beanpole! I'm drafting a skeleton argument/statement to hand to the judge at the moment. Hopefully I can keep it short and simple as I do have a tendency to waffle on a bit. But what of the different notices of assignment? Do I mention it? Surely something like that wouldn't look good for the dark side? They have in fact altered a legal document.

Yes, this will be the main part of my argument. No prescribed terms on the CCA. That and no default notices. It's still a bit annoying though, because the notice of assignment I received is not the same as the one in their court bundle. It has clearly been changed at a later stage to incorporate the S.A.R. info. It looks like they are just trying to cover their backs here, as if to say: "look, your honour, we clearly said in our letter that the debtor could ask for their personal information." I can categorically state that they have NEVER mentioned this in ANY correspondence to me before. That's why I'm in two minds about whether to mention it tomorrow or not. If I do, I would basically be admitting that I did indeed receive a notice of assignment (mind you, my defence merely argues that this was not served correctly ,not that it wasn't served at all). What would it mean for them if their letter was proven to be false/amended? Also, they had considerably longer reading through my application and defence than I have had reading through their court bundle. They had about a month and a half, I have had a mere 10 days! I think this would prejudice me slightly! Would the judge take this into consideration? I'm really sorry, I realise you folks actually have lives outside this forum, but I would greatly appreciate some feedback on this a.s.a.p. as it will be to late tomorrow! Heeeeeelp! 42man, if by "case law" you mean real life examples from court hearings/trials, then I have already included a few in my defence, which are relevant to this sort of thing (although the DCA legal bods are claiming they have little relevance and are trying to discredit my entire defence, calling it "spurious at best"). If not, then yes please post them here! And does it matter if a CCA request is sent subsequent to an SD being issued? The DCA seems to think it does. Weird, I would have thought a CCA request could be sent at any time.

I did find these criteria as well when I first read up on SDs a few months back. That's why I thought the fact that I was already paying back the debt was a defence in itself and therefore I used this in my initial application (albeit not the amounts the DCA harrassed me to pay but nonetheless, all I could afford). I was later advised that this was NOT a defence. I suppose it's only the last two points that would apply in my case but at the time of writing my application I knew nothing of S.A.R. or CCA requests. They don't really answer my question whether I should mention the different notices of assignment at the hearing though

I have a feeling I might lose mine, too. I appreciate that people on this forum are trying to reassure me, and I have tried to do as I have been advised as best I can but I really don't think it's looking good for me. I just hope all my preparation hasn't been in vain. However, I have just noticed that the notice of assigment I received nearly a year ago is slightly different to the one they have included in their court bundle. All of a sudden, they have added a couple of paragraphs about how they will comply with any request from me about my personal information and that I can send an S.A.R. to them with a fee of £10! How noble:rolleyes:! My original notice of assignment does not mention this at all! It is definitely not the same letter, there are other very minor discrepancies as well:mad:. Would it be worth mentioning this at the hearing or should i keep shtum about my notice of assignment? What do all you gurus think?

I'm very very pleased for you Prudence, well done! You must be very relieved. Good job the dark side didn't turn up, I doubt I shall be so lucky with my hearing on Monday!

You're very lucky they didn't turn up. I'm positive my dark side will. They did last time and I really don't think they would risk losing by default! I also made small token payments and was harassed to pay more ( I have since stopped making these payments until they can prove they are legally entitled to pursue the debt). I was told by someone else on this thread that making these payments actually wasn't a defence in itself and I shouldn't rely on it. So I'm quite (pleasantly) surprised that this actually resulted in the SD being set aside. I would have thought it would actually have gone against you, especially as she obviously didn't deny the debt. Before I was advised differently, that's basically what I said in my application but my defence raised entirely different points, i.e no CCA supplied etc. Hmmmm...not sure what my argument should be now. Do I stick to the application or the defence I submitted later? Maybe it will depend on what the judge decides to focus on.

Thanks for that 42man. I never received any default notices and there are no copies of any in the DCA's bundle either. The copy credit agreement I received doesn't say anything about amount, dates or frequency of repayments or about credit limit. Like I said, it looks like it could relate to just about any debt/loan/credit I might have had with the original creditor. Although it has my signature on it, there is nothing there that proves it relates to the particular debt the DCA are pursuing. In other words, the prescribed terms are definitely missing. I have already mentioned the stuff about prescribed terms and default notices in my defence. You're right about the charges as well. There are none that I can see on the statements I eventually received, disappointingly enough. When I prepared my application to set aside I really thought it was a fair and reasonable assumption that there would have been excessive charges, so used this as part of my grounds to dispute the debt. At the time I had none of the statements to say for sure and had only 18 days to comply. The real substantial charges regarding this were levied on my current account for the returned DD's but that's another issue. Nor did I know about the need for them to supply a credit agreement at the time either. I wish I had. My application would have looked very different had I known my rights at the time. Why does it not matter that they have provided the credit agreement (albeit with prescribed terms missing) two months late? I thought they were "committing an offence" if the default to comply with a CCA request continued for more than a month? I am not in a position to reduce the debt to under £750 unless I should suddenly win the lottery jackpot or successfully rob a bank. There's just no chance, it's several thousand pounds and the DCA is smelling equity! I have read several other threads but can't really find one person whose circumstances are identical to mine. There always seems to be something more they have in their favour that I don't. When reading the witness statement from the DCA Litigation Executive I can't seem to make up my mind whether it's really weak or very strong. How can he say my defence has little relevance to the matter? Does it not matter that the credit agreement they finally supplied doesn't contain the prescribed terms? Which is the judge likely to listen to? I honestly expect the judge to ask: "do you owe this money?" And what am I to say? Would it be adviseable to simply say "no, the credit agreement has no prescribed terms"? Why was I then previously making small token payments towards the debt? I have a really bad feeling about this next hearing and suspect I have been foolishly wasting my time constructing my futile defence, which according to the DCA agent should be dismissed as irrelevant. But maybe that's what they want me to think? How can the Consumer Credit Act be irrelevant? Surely it's in place for a very good reason? I'll be very disappointed and surprised if the judge ignores that fact.

Haven't been on the forum for a while and just got back from holiday yesterday. In the post were some documents from the DCA, in two separate envelopes, one letter dated 16 Sept (containing copy of finance agreement with original creditor, a print out of their annotated notes from their computer system and copy notices of assigment), the other dated 17 Sept (containing another copy of the finance agreement, notice of acting, witness statement in opposition to my application and statement of costs). Isn't this a bit late? They were supposed to supply me with a copy of the CCA around 10th July, if my memory serves me correctly. This is over two months late! They defaulted on my request quite some time ago! Anyway, the credit card agreement they have supplied doesn't mention anything about the amount of the debt, the amount or frequency of the repayments and doesn't specify anywhere that it really relates to the same debt the DCA is pursuing. This really could be one of several possible debts I might have with the same original creditor. There's nothing to tie the two together. Another thing which forum members may find worrying is that in the DCA's bundle is a print out of some poor bloke's entire thread from this forum! I shan't mention the member's username. I find it odd that they found it necessary to find out where I had gotten my defence from. So what if I found it on this forum? I'd have to get it from somewhere, as I certainly wouldn't have been able to come up with all that myself! I don't see why it should matter where I got it from. It seems they are trying to invalidate it somehow, as they are basically saying it has little relevance in this matter as it's not a trial but an application for a set aside. They are also quoting other advice given on this forum which they "find concerning". This seems a bit desperate to me. Is this really the best they can come up with? The points in my defence are still valid, as far as I'm concerned. Besides, I'm a litigant in person and cannot be expected to be a jour with the correct legal terminology. Also, the DCA has had considerably more time to go through my defence than I have had to go through their witness statement. Should I ask for another adjournment, perhaps?

We're in the process of remortgaging after a looong 3-year tie-in period with a very high mortgage interest. We were in arrears with our current lender, Rooftop, a couple of years ago and it went as far as a repossession order but luckily we managed to rescue our home at the eleventh hour, paid off the arrears and have been up to date with payments since. The potential new lender has found one item on my credit file for about the same amount as our current mortgage and, having not seen the file myself, I can only assume that it's a result of the repossession order. This could mean that we get yet another rubbish sub-prime mortgage deal with high interest but as the issue has been resolved, I contacted Rooftop to ask them to remove it. They asked me to put my request in writing and I did this about two weeks ago. I called today to chase it up as I hadn't heard anything. After lots of to-ing and fro-ing, no one at Rooftop really knows what happened to the letter and have asked me to fax it to them, along with a copy of the credit file. I don't object to faxing the letter but I do object to paying £11 for getting a copy of my own credit file! Can't they just contact Equifax themselves and get the info they need? What is the correct procedure here? Will I just have to bite the bullet and get it myself? Will it reflect negatively on me (and my credit rating) if Rooftop have to do the search themselves?

That really sucks, josh! I get the impression that a few of us here are having a very negative experience in court and that the judges are biased and just don't want to listen. I take it from your earlier posts that you didn't take a copy of the application form too keep for yourself. Do you know what happens now then? Can they serve another SD on you? I'm really not clear on what actually happens when an SD is set aside. Are they still free to chase you for money but just not to petition for your bankruptcy?

I definitely didn't receive any default notices. Certainly not from Largo. Is that where the default notices should come from and not the original creditor? I did get a notice of assignment but apparently, according to the Law of Property Act, this wasn't served properly (should've been by registered post but wasn't). All this, and much more, is already in my submitted defence. Wonder if I should send this to Largo as well. Maybe it would put them straight and make them think twice if they read it. I'm so worried about what might be in the bundle from HSBC that I daren't go pick it up! What if it contains a bona fide credit agreement! I'm screwed! I think I'll wisely keep quiet about this in court and say I haven't received a sausage!

Well, one would think so. It's just a waiting game at the moment. I think it all depends on the judge's whim on the day by the sound of some other poor sods' experience in the court. I bet he won't even bother reading my defence. He'll probably ask straight out if I have a debt with them and what am I going to say? Yes? No? Yes, but not one that's enforceable? I really don't want to put my foot in it!

Just need some more advice, please. While the creditor is in default of my CCA request, should I stop making payments to them? If I continue, it looks as if I'm acknowledging the debt and if I stop, it'll just give them one more thing to use against me. Damned if I do and damned if I don't! What should I do????? And can I withdraw my original affidavit and submit another one? I was totally unaware of my rights when I wrote my why-don't-I-just-shoot-myself-in-the-foot affidavit and as a result it's completely RUBBISH!!! I'm done for if it's the affidavit and not my subsequently submitted 12-page defence that will be the focus on the day of the next hearing.

I suppose to do it the "proper" way you have to fill in a form (think it's called N244 or N422 or something like that) but then there will be a fee to pay. My local court said it was £40. I refused to pay that so I just e-mailed them my request. It was denied because I had not had consent from the dark side. So, in effect, my defence is based on no CCA being received. I am fairly confident that this is still going to be the case on the day of the hearing. They only have a few days left in which to produce the goods and it's looking less and less likely as the deadline looms. If I were you I'd start to compile a defence based on no CCA. At least you'd have something prepared to bring with you which will still be valid on the day of the hearing in the event of no CCA. 42man has sent me some excellent bits to use in such a defence (have a look at some of his posts on my "Hearing to have SD set aside thread" under "Legal Issues"). I compiled my defence based on these and just edited out the bits I didn't think were relevant to me and my case. It still ended up being 12 pages long;)! It's good for you that they haven't provided you with a CCA. If they did, you'd have to think of something else to use in your defence. When does your CCA or S.A.R. deadline expire?

Did you submit a defence beforehand? Also, I'm sure I read in one of the Legal Successes threads that the dark side need to submit an affidavit as well for an SD set-aside hearing (just like I had to) and if they don't, they are not following court procedure. I might call the court to check if they have submitted anything yet. I'm worried the judge will be brusque, dismissive and pushy too. What if s/he doesn't bother reading my defence? I'm relying on my written defence completely as I know I'll be completely tongue-tied in court. It's only a few days away and I'm proper bricking it! And I'll be all alone too! Might bring a teddy bear for comfort.