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heathrow

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Everything posted by heathrow

  1. Just to let you guys know; I opted for mediation because I considered the risks of fighting this in court against counsel was too risky despite still believing a had a strong case. The process, although costing around £550 because of the amount of the claim, went very well and was actually conducted very amicably. The outcome was that I was able to settle for a little over one third of the original amount Cabot were claiming in full and final settlement.
  2. I think you should demand copies of all the documents they claim to have sent that you have not got under CPR31.14 (I think it is). This is your entitlement.
  3. I beat Howard Cohen because they could not provide the credit agreement and they had written to say they couldn't. At the end of the day Foxy ... they have got to prove the debt and that they have any intitlement to chase you. Have you had any other correspondence such as a statement of account, defaukt notice, notice of assignment or anything like this? Citizen B is absolutely right ... the DCAs know full well that most people crack when they receive this rubbish and they don't like it when they are challenged and this, from my experience, is when they start to employ all kinds of devious tactics.
  4. Probaly need this time to 'conjure up' some sort of document as alleged proof, don't you think???? Sounds like a shaky tale Dotty. I think it is high time somebody started to investigate this bunch becasue the more I probe the more of their activities appear distasteful.
  5. SARS documentation has arrived in a huge bundle that contains some spread sheet information that has a load of blank sheets of paper when there is nothing entered; copies of my own WS and exhibits and copies of their WS and attachments. Really nothing substantial although there are pages and pages of telephone logs that proves just how many times they called me. I think some of this could be quite damning especially as my WS includes letters written to Cabot informing them that I will never discuss my financial affairs on the telephone? It also contains some, but not all, of the credit card statements and clearly shows that PPI has been paid of over £1000 but they still refuse to acknowledge this issue.
  6. There is a time limit on them supplying the documents. What they have maintained in my case is that they had sent them but I never received them and on their computer print out of their activity although there is a record of letters that I have received being sent there is none for the CPR 31.14 requested documentation.
  7. You are probably right. It doesn't sound as if they have much of a case but it won't stop them trying. I won a case a few years back when a DCA took me to court over a Goldfish card. I've never had a Goldfish Card and they sent an agent solicitor who initially got the case concerned because they did have statements of an account - but not a Goldfish account - that I had had. I wrote to the court on the advice of somebody I know who is a judge and quoted the relevant parts of the Consumer Credit Act relating to CCAs and got the case thrown out bceause I knew they didn't have an agreement as they had to say they hadn't. I guess you have requested a copy of the alleged agreement under CPR31.14? if they don't comply by providing it in the alloted time I would suggest making an application to the court to have the claim struck out.
  8. From my own experience I feel it is scandalous how these people behave but what concerns me even more is that the courts are allowing these shoddy Claims to proceed. What do they mean that they do not have to comply with CPR31.14 ... in my opinion of course they do. I would also buy a £10 postal order and lodge a SAR with them which gives them 40 days to provide all the information that they have on you. Good luck ... they are a tricky bunch (but then aren't all DCAs and their tame lawyers?) but you need to turn the tables by putting pressure on them.
  9. I am delighted to see some good contributions to this thread and thank you all. Please keep them coming. Merlin100 I agree with your comments and I too have gained a lot from fellow CAGers. By pulling together seems the only way that we can beat these b*****ds. However, no matter how resilient we may be, if we have a wife or partner who crumbles at the first phone call or letter dropping through the door from a DCA you are then having to fight on two fronts. I had a case many years ago involving a dispute over my business rates with the local council Unlike other debts, councils can appoint bailiffs without first obtaining a judgement (as I understand). While I was working abroad this sinister bailiff from a firm that is well known turned up at my business premises and threatened my young female member of staff. She was scared witless, called my wife who went to my premises with my niece and all three women were similarly threatened. Not knowing what to do my wife fell for the bully's tactics. The bailiff was acting beyond the law by involving third parties (you7ng women at that) in a claim for what was only an alleged debt of a couple of hundred pounds that they knew absolutely nothing about. As the firm in question are also private investigators (of which I have some experience) I believe they knew i was away and hence used the opportunity to harass my staff and family. When I complained to the then local government ombudsman they sided with the council and refused to take any action. My wife was frightened stiff when the bailiff said he would come to my home and take our property that she went to the bank and drew the money out and paid up. Now, had CAG existed then I would have responded quite differently and would have known more of my rights and would have sued the bailiff. The problem is, in cases such as this, that involved trespass, the police are meant to intervene but they often refuse to get involved or to protect the victims. I won one case against a DCA who was trying to enforce a Claim for a Goldfish card that I have never had. The judge happened to be naive (he'd only recently been appointed from being a solicitor (in fact he had been my ex-wife's solicitor's clerk although he obviously didn't remember me but I knew him)) and he said they could have time to produce the CCA. I informed him that the DCA had already advised me under an SAR that they didn't have this. They were using an agent solicitor who was out of his depth and the judge ordered an adjournment. I consulted a client who happens to be a Judge and he advised me to write to the court quoting the appropriate clause in the Consumer Credit Act regarding CCAs and I got the case struck out. My current case is proving to be a lot tougher and tricker (please see my other thread) although I believe I have a strong case for harassment against the DCA over the way I have been pursued and badgered.
  10. Ah well that is good news I guess. I'll amend the date in my diary to chase them. I'll come back to you later Citizen b with those last payment dates. Thanks again for your support.
  11. Well done Manface and you know as much as I do how this does cause marital problems. As you say the DCAs love all of this because they can play on an individual's vulnerability. Like you, I don't sign letters to these people ... instead I do the typical solicitor squiggle; what is good for the goose is good for the gander and all that.
  12. The problem is Merlin 100 we all know this in hindsight but most of us can be a bit lax at times or we lose correspondence etc. Like an idiot I had a lot of stuff stored on computer, much of it scanned and then the hard drive packed up and I lost the lot. I agree however with your reasoning about putting the DCAs on the ropes. We really have to play them at their own games and stand up to them. Another problem of course is that it can cause an awful lot of family strife for those of us that have partners. My wife for example cannot take the pressures of all of this and it gets her depressed whereby I tend to fight so I have to keep the details away from her.
  13. Thanks for replying. I will take a look tomorrow and let you know when the last payments were made on the accounts. I have instigated the mediation; it will be a bit costly but I will possibly be able to judge their attitude if they agree to this and the courts claim that mediation should be attempted becasue they see the trial as the last resort. Re the SARs - they would have recived this on 23 March and I guess by 40 days the rules mean 'working days' and with Easter in between this has cost time. I have most of the statements from the Ocs but not all so do you think it is worth issuing SARS on them too?
  14. Thanks for your response CitizenB I have sent off my lengthy WS and the response has been for Morgans to send me their Listing Questionnaire (Pre Trial Checklist) that states they will using Counsel. They attached an estimate of their costs of over £5,100 with a load of garbage added to try and justify these charges. I fail to appreciate what costs they have really incurred apart from court issue fees because most of the documentation they have sent with their WS consists of statements for the two accounts and heavily redacted documents that do not mention me or any account numbers and copies of template letters. I sent an SAR request to Cabot that they acknowledged on 26 March and I wrote to them today to say I would not accept a CD but required printed copies of the documents. The court date is due to be set for sometime in June ... not yet decided but I will not be here for one week and have informed the court and Morgans of this. I would prefer to have more time to give me the opportunity to determine what the SAR disclosures will contain. Do you feel I can apply to have the month for trial moved back by applying to the court? . I have also contacted a mediation firm and may take this route to see what the outcome is. I feel that Morgans are trying to further intimidate me with their estimated costs (£190 an hour) as this would intimidate many people! In response to your other queries; As far as I recall the accounts were opened in response to mail shots. The B/Shark one was applied for in 2000; the other in 2004. I started to miss payments in 2006 and tried to establish a dialogue with the original lenders but got no response. Shortly after I started getting calls from Cbot that continued for almost 3 years. Surely this is harassment? There is also PPI on one of the accounts that the OC has never repaid amounting to around £1000 and despite writing to them several times in or about 2006 they failed to respond.
  15. Thank you very much citizenB ... your kind help is much appreciated.particularly as I have recieved very few comments on this thread recently and more-or-less had to do my WS based on what I thought was right following considerable research. The statement is however 5,000 words long.
  16. Thanks Citizen B ... I have mentioned all of this in my WS and part of this contains letters as exhibits that were written to the original lenders but were never answered the the OC before the debt was allegedly sold. No, I haven't produced a spreadsheet although I can state the amount of PPI I was missold on the account where it was applied and I am still waiting for SAR requests including missing statements to be provided by Cabot. The Pre-Trial checklist attached to the Listing Questionnaire that Morgans has provided requires an estimate of costs and a copy of this has been sent to me that amount to in excess of £5,100. These figures could easily have been plucked from the sky as I see it and they are charging £190 an hour for issuing documents that, in the main, are redacted templates and computer prints outs of Cabot's activity on my account. The latter includes a record of the countless phone calls they have made to me. If you have the time to read through my thread I think you will start to understand the basics of this case as I have attempted to be as open as possible.
  17. Thanks folks for putting some good arguments. This is good healthy stuff so let's keep the comments coming because I feel this will give others the confidence to fight their corners. Citizen B I'd like to see links to cases where the defendant's have won against these people. I have used the argument and quoted part of the judge's summing up in the Harrison -v- Link case on my witness statement to show how I have been harassed in much the same way by the DCA before they decided on issuing their claim. Dx100k ... surely doesn't unlawful really mean the same thing as illegal because if something is unlawful ... it is not strictly legal if you get my gist? However, I am basing my post on some of the horror stories I am reading on these pages whereby CAG members have researched their cases and put up strong opposition against Claimants only to find that when the case comes to trial there arguments, although accurate, are disregarded by the judge sitting. One of the problems as I see it is that many County Court judges are recently appointed from the ranks of solicitors and they may be specialists in some areas such as child law etc. but they can find themselves out of their depth when it comes to financial matters and so forth.
  18. I have now sent Morgans my WS - a lengthy affair, but a document that I nevertheless pick out the various areas where I consider they have failed to provide correct documentation or blatantly ignored the law and CPR. I have also highlighted how I consider I have been harassed by Cabot for more than 3 years by well in excess of 300 telephone calls. They have responded by sending me their Claimant's Listing Questionaire and an estimate of their costs that exceeds £5,000. Can anyone help by advising me how I am meant to defend this when I cannot even afford to be represented? I see this as their latest attempt to intimidate me into submission - either this or they feel their claim is shaky and by doing this they are hoping I will back down and settle.
  19. The majority of contributors to this forum, I am quite sure, do not get into debt because we want to. For most it has been caused by life changing situations such as losing our jobs, a business failure, marriage breakdowns and the like. These factors in themselves leave us extremely vulnerable. It also leaves us wide open to the underhanded and frequently illegal tactics of the debt collection agencies and their in-house lawyers who know they can wear us into submission by intimidation. The more I read through the posts on this site the more I am convinced that the whole process of defending ourselves against powerful unscrupulous DCAs who refuse to follow correct legal procedures is more often than not a complete lottery. How many times, when our cases come to court and we attempt to defend ourselves are we faced with lies, illegalities and deceitful tactics that the judges simply ignore. Conversely, if we fail to abide by any rulings and orders made by the courts we are severely reprimanded. It seems to me, that in many County Courts, to be a defendant automatically makes us guilty in the eyes of the judges and rather than expect justice we are victimised. In reality, how many of us go to court against a DCA expecting to win more especially if we are defending ourselves against tricky barristers? When we lose, or even challenge the way we have been treated, the DCAs and their lawyers retaliate by loading their costs, interest and charges. In my own case; where I can prove I have been seriously harassed by telephone calls by one particular DCA for nearly three years and can also prove they have not followed correct legal procedures, I have now received an estimate of their costs in taking me to court in the Fast Track of over £5000, almost one third of their claim against me. Courts are intimidating places for people like us - so where is the justice? How can we consider defending this type of treatment when most of us are merely trying to live a daily existence against rising costs and cannot afford to be represented in court? It is all a sham and the only people that ever win are the fat lawyers or those with sufficient financial clout to hire good lawyers. I am hopeful that you will add your views to this thread so that we can debate if there is any way we can consider some way to even the playing field.
  20. Thanks everybody. Well, regarding exhange of documents, Morgan's WS now contains a whole heap of documents that were not included with the original bundle and I have found a few that I want to add concerning correspondence regarding PPI that was never dealt with by the original creditor.
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