Thanks for that. Yes it was a good defence, because it showed that they, the debt collection company, had basically broken several rules/laws with regard to letters before action and pre-action protocol and at the very least would have taken up their time and caused them some embarrassment. After the action was stayed they then sent me a Tomlin Order which I obviously ignored and now they are trying to say that I have defaulted on my agreement twice despite the fact that I never had an agreement with them and have made payments 'as quickly as possible' which is all I ever said I would do. The Tomlin Order, needless to say had a confidentiality clause in it, which is the main reason that I ignored because one day I will spill the beans on these useless imbeciles, (although if you read any of my few other posts you will quickly be able to see who we are talking about)! Maybe I should just do as you say and put the ball back in their court! To be honest they are so bloody useless they are either a. trying to save face with their clients, or b. don't actually realise how crap they are! I think that it's 'b' myself!

Put simply. I defended a summons on the basis that I felt the companies case was wrong in many respects, but I was paying off the amount owed anyway because there was no dispute that I owed the money. They didn't challenge my defence and the action was automatically stayed. Two thirds of the account is now settled but they say I missed a payment (I didn't, they are cretins) and they sent me a letter saying that they would apply for the stay to be lifted and for judgement to be entered against me for the remaining balance without further notice to me. I'm not bothered about their threats as such because I have made the payment, but CAN they get the stay lifted and enforce judgement when my defence is still valid? I'd just like to hit them with both barrels and tell them to **** off and let their clients know how useless they are to be honest.

I've been doing some more research on this, and I have come across the phrase 'pre-action protocol'. From what I have read not only must a letter be sent, but the claimant must give a reasonable deadline for a response (this must not be less than 14 days and it’s usually appropriate to allow 28 days). This letter that got here late only gave me 7 days anyway, so does this mean that the claim is not valid as 'pre-action protocol' wasn't followed according to the letter of the law?

They are 8/10ths of a mile from each other according to Google Maps!

Thanks for the replies already! It's just a claim form which I have about another 5 or 6 days to respond to. I can handle most of that, as I've seen them before, but I'm more concerned about the obvious immorality of what they have done because I would have made every attempt to settle this amicably had I been given the chance. The thing is of course that they will try to argue otherwise (that they didn't send the letter out late) but how strange the coincidence that the letter was sent to me and the county court summons was applied for on, or about, the same day and I can only presume that the claim form took so long to get to me because it left the court and a bit late, and it got caught up in the post over the Easter period Incidentally, the solicitors are a company called Sharp Young and Pearce who claim on their website to work very closely with LRC. I think that they are pretty much one and the same to be honest because their phone numbers are virtually identical 0844 858 8888 for LRC and 0844 858 8899 for Sharp Young and Pearce

About 10 days ago I received a letter from LRC about an outstanding debt. The reason that I'm not sure what day it was, was because it came during the Easter period so it arrived on either Thursday 5th or Saturday 7th April and I didn't open it until after the weekend. The interesting thing was that the letter was dated 21st March and I was told that I had to reply by 28th March. A bit impossible don't you think! Sadly the envelope was franked in such a way that you couldn't tell the date that it was posted meaning that they could have posted it just a few days before. It was an amount that I admit I owe however so on Wednesday of this week I sent them a very nice email pointing out that I had only just received the letter and I quote..... 'and while I know that the post can be a bit slow in my area, I am more inclined to think that you didn't actually post it on the 21st March now did you?' In the same email I also said that 'I will start immediate repayment of this amount with £100 today and that I will pay it off just as quickly as possible' and I paid £100 online within the hour. I didn't get a reply, (and still haven't had one) but on Friday I received a county court summons which was dated 4th April (!) meaning that I had never had the chance to reply to the letter anyway as it seems to me that the original letter was probably posted on or around the same day that they took the summons out against me. Needless to say I'm pretty ****ed off by this as there now seems no way to escape getting a judgement against my name as I can't pay the amount owed all at once, and if I admit it, then they will get judgement against me. And in addition to that of course, the original bill has just increased by about £170 as they have added costs and interest. My question is this. Has anyone before heard of situations where this company may have sent letters out too late for the debtor to respond (or indeed if it quite normal for other companies to act like this) and if this is the case is there anything that I can do about it please?