On looking at the letters I have received from the solicitors again, they wrote to me on 9 February 2010 with a copy of the credit agreement attached and the letter says basically: "Further to your telephone call our client has informed us that you and your ex husband are both liable for this debt under the credit agreement. We can confirm that we have written to your ex husband today requesting payment. Shoud payment not be made within 7 days of the date of this letter then court proceedings may be issued against both of you without further notice which will incur additional costs and interest which you will both be lable to pay." I wrote back on 11 February 2010 saying: "Thankyou for sending me a copy of the credit agreement that you allege I am liable for. As I have explained, I had no knowledge of this credit agreement or of why my name shoud appear on it. I can only assume that the inclusion of my first name is some mistake on the part of my ex husband or the credit agency. You will note that I have not signed this agreement and therefore under the Consumer Credit Act 1974 I cannot be bound by it." The next thing I got was the court papers in my sole name!

I am not sure what the default notice should look like? I certainly never received it when my ex husband stopped paying as that was likely to have been back in 2006 and I wasn't even aware of the debt until recently. I have received several letters from the solicitors the first one with a statement attached of just two lines one shows a balance due of £1156.45 as at 12/05/2006 and the other a costs total of £65.00 as at 10/08/2009. The letter states that I have been sent previous invoices and statements but this is not true. This first letter is dated 1 February 2010. I have drafted my defence as follows: "The Claimant has cited a credit agreement between the Claimant and myself. I do not recognise this as my agreement, as I have never seen this credit agreement before and was unaware of its existence and it has not been signed by me. It is denied that any credit agreement was signed by the defendant, accordingly, s61(1)(a) was never complied with and therefore pursuant to s65(1) and s127(3) the agreement is unenforceable and the court shall not make an enforcement order. I request that this claim be struck out." I would welcome any comments on whether this is adequate.

I have never heard from this company on this subject until recently. I have moved from the address that I was at when this agreement was taken out. I did not even know that this agreement existed. It was taken out in February 2006. I guess they 'found' me because I have recently renewed my insurance on my house and my broker has used this same credit company (Premium Credit) to pay the premiums (they pay the premium and then you pay them over 10 months, it costs slightly more but you can spread the payments). I have used Premium Credit in this way for years without any problem through an insurance broker that I have known forever. They have never before linked me with this outstanding debt. The credit agreement they are trying to foist on me is through a different insurance broker (one I have never used) and for an insurance policy I have never seen. I only know this because when I got the first letter from Premium Credit saying I owed this money, I assumed that there had been some mistake with my new house policy and so I phoned my own broker who then told me it was nothing to do with them and was for some other insurance I knew nothing about. I still do not know the details of the policy that the money is owing on but can only assume it was for my ex husbands business? On thinking about it I remember that a very good friend of my ex husbands worked for this broker at that time and so all this must have gone on without my knowledge between them! My first name is typed onto the top of the credit agreement but that is the only place it appears and the only signature is of my ex husband and someone from Premium Credit. I can't believe that they can get away with this

Just to confuse the issue a bit. My ex husband was running a business from home and I think this credit agreement relates to something to do with that (insurance). However I was not involved in his business and worked full time for another company at the time this agreement was signed by him.

It says "The Claimant Claims 1221.45 under a written loan agreement between the Claimant and the Defendant and regulated by the Consumer Credit Act 1974. The sums due under the agreement were repayable by instalments. The Defendant has failed to pay one or more of the installments. By a notice of default and termination the Claimant required the Defendant to remedy the breach within seven days. The Defendant failed to pay the sums due or any part thereof and becams liable for all unpaid instalments due or becoming due and interest thereon at the APR." It then goes on about what costs they are claiming and the interest calculation. The total claim is £2539.10!!! The issue date of the claim is 02 March 2010, it's a money claim on line job. Thank you for your help.

Thank you for this. I read it that way too. S 60 (1) of the CCA 1972 says that the document has to be signed by the debtor and by or on behalf of the creditor. The fact that is doesn't say 'on behalf of' the debotor gave me hope that it required both signatures to bind me. I was slightly concerned that a husband may still be able to bind his wife (an outmoded idea I know)? My husband and I were estranged at the time and divorced 6 months later. I already have a copy of the credit agreement (they volunteered this early on) and my name has been included typed at the top. I have no idea what exactly the credit was for (it was some form of insurance), I have no copy of any other document relating to this. On the credit agreement my ex husband has signed as the debtor and the creditor has signed also but my signature does not appear anywhere. I have written to them and pointed this out and that I was not even aware of this agreement. This has made no difference to their position and they have now issued proceedings against me in my sole name. They claim I am jointly and severally liable. I have already given them my ex husbands new address in the spirit of cooperation and I expect they have written to him too but he is a slippery customer and has probably already moved on. I have acknowledged service of the court papers and that I intend to defend the whole claim but am unsure now how to word my defence? Any suggestions?

My ex husband took out some insurance and a credit agreement to pay for it in 2006 of which I was unaware. He put the policy and the credit agreement in joint names but I never saw or signed any documents. The credit agency are now chasing me because he has defaulted and they cannot find him. Can they do this? Am I liable for this debt?