Help needed please! CCJ's GE money via LINK.

[deb4tlj]

Hello.

My husband and I purchased double glazing from the Coldseal company on a finance agreement in 2004.

 

The payments were made regularly from my husbands bank account until June of this year when my husband became ill and had to take early retirement from work.

His pension was not sorted out until this month and subsequently the window payments were not made.

 

We did contact the company - GE Money Lending

- and they were initially most helpful and told us not to worry.

 

However, this morning my husband and I both received CCJ's from the Northampton County Court.

GE Money Lending have apparently sold the debt to a company called Link Financial.

The original amount of the loan was for £2900 over 7 years.

The DCA are now demanding that we pay £3675.86 plus £85.00 court fee!

 

My husband has been rendered disabled by major back surgery and his small works pension

- he's only 61 so therefore no state pension yet

- and my £9000 a year is the only money we have coming in.

 

Coldseal became defunct not long after we had purchased the windows so therefore their so-called 10 year guarantee is worthless.

GE Money Lending had included payment protection on the original finance agreement even though we had specifically stated we did not want it.

 

Our copy of the original finance agreement is totally blank except for mine and my husbands signatures at the bottom.

We have refused to answer any phone calls from the DCA and are contemplating our next step.

 

Any advice or help would be most appreciated!

[pt2537]

Hi There

 

Welcome to the CAG,

 

since they have actually filed court action against you we need to get the ball rolling as soon as possible,

 

who has issued the claim against you?

 

you need to send whoever issued the claim this letter

 

 

 

In the XXXX County Court

Claimant -v- (YOUR NAME)

Claim Number: (CLAIM NUMBER)

 

 

Dear XXX

 

REQUEST FOR INFORMATION

 

I have received a recent court claim from your organisation. In order to file a defence and counter claim I require some information. Given that this matter is now the subject of legal proceedings, you are obliged to disclose under the Civil Procedure Rules, the information and documents detailed below.

 

The information must be furnished within fourteen days of the receipt of this letter. If you fail to comply, this will be reported to the Court, a copy of this letter will be provided as evidence to the same and an Order enforcing your compliance will be sought.

 

1. A true copy of the executed credit agreement and any terms and conditions that applied to the account at the time of default and at the time the account was opened.

2. All records you hold on me relevant to this case, including but not limited to:

 

a. Transcriptions of all telephone conversations recorded and any notes made in relation to telephone conversations by your company, or by any previous creditor

b. Where there has been any event in my account history over this period which has required manual intervention by any person, I require disclosure of any indication or notes which have either caused or resulted in that manual intervention, or other evidence of that manual intervention in relation to my account formerly held with *********.(AMEND TO THE COMPANY NAME)

c. True copies of any notice of assignment and/or default notice or enforcement notice that you or the original creditor sent me, with a copy of any proof of postage that you hold.

d.Documents relating to any insurance added to the account, including the insurance contract and terms and conditions, date it was added and deleted (if applicable).

e. Details of any collection charge added to the account; specifically, the date it was levied, the amount of the charge, a detailed financial breakdown of how the charge was calculated, and what the charge covers.

f. Specific details of the fees/charges levied by any other agency in respect of this account and a detailed breakdown of said fees/charges and what each charge relates to and on what date said fees/charges were levied.

g. A genuine copy of any notice of fair use of my data as required by the Data Protection Act 1998

h. A list of third party agencies to whom you have disclosed my personal data and a summary of the nature of the information you have disclosed.

i. Copies of statements for the entire duration of the credit agreement.

 

3. Any other documents you seek to rely on in court.

 

 

I will require this information within the next fourteen days. I must advise you that if the information is not forthcoming, it will be reported to the Court that you are trying to frustrate proceedings and denying me the opportunity to file a defence and counter claim.

 

Yours sincerely,

 

XXXX (type, don't sign).

 

 

 

send this via special delivery as its vital they get this as a matter of urgency and that you have proof it was recieved

 

i will be back shortly to add some more advice

 

Regards

paul

[deb4tlj]

Thank you very much Paul. The claim has been filed by Link Financial the DCA that GE Money Lending had sold the debt to. Do we need to do anything as regards the CCJ iself?

[pt2537]

The claim form will need to be acknowledged,

 

now then, were is the claim form from, does it mention Northampton County Court Bulk Center ?

 

there should be a court Stamp on there, if its issued via northampton then you should be able to use Money Claim Online the courts online service to file you acknowledgment of Service

 

the letter i have posted requests that they disclose the documents and if they fail all you can do is file a defence highlighting the failure

 

Can i ask, what the Particulars of the Claim are? obviously dont post any personal details but it helps to know what they are actually claiming,

 

many DCAs dont even know how to present a correct set of particulars so it would help to know what they have said minus the personal details

[deb4tlj]

The claim form is indeed from the Northampton County Court Bulk Centre. I am currently filling in the acknowledgement of service online - should I tick the "defend all of this claim or defend part of this claim" box? Also, what is "contest jurisdiction" box? I am a little confused and perturbed by all of this and do not want to make any silly mistakes.

 

Particulars of the claim are as follows;

 

The Defendant(s) are indebted to the Claimant under the terms of a credit agreement dated 12/02/2004, and assigned to the Claimant. The Agreement is regulated by the Consumer Credit Act 1974. The agreement provided that interest would be payable before and after a Judgement. The right to proceed for subsequent interest is reserved. Default occured in payment and the loan was called in under S.87.

 

The above is verbatim from the CCJ.

[pt2537]

OH

 

Well,a very informative set of particulars (NOT)

 

Oh dear, right then here we go

 

You have 14 days from the date of service to file your acknowledgment of service so there is no need to do it this minute i would wait and calm down a little as its quite stressful receiving a claim

 

i can under stand how you are feeling but please try not to worry at this stage

 

we need disclosure of the documents per the letter i posted before we can look at what they are basing their case on

 

Many DCAs have been known to use Mcol as a quick and easy method of churning out claims by the bucket load

 

some people will pay up under fear of the claim and others will not kjnow what to do and will not respond allowing these DCAs to file for default judgment

 

however, the particulars you have posted are not sufficiently particularised to comply with the civil procedure rules Part 16 so this on its own is a basis to ask for their claim to be thrown out

 

they should have enclosed a copy of the credit agreement and other documents to the claim form so their case as it stands is very weak

 

however we must wait to see what they disclose

 

have you had a notice of assignment saying the debt has been sold?

 

also have you had a default notice?

 

Regards

paul

[deb4tlj]

Re; have you had a notice of assignment saying the debt has been sold?

My husband recalls a phone call perhaps some 10 days ago from Link Financial from one of their agents asking him for £3760 to pay it off straight away. If we didn't have the money to pay it off immediately it was recommended we went around "friends and relations" and borrow it! We have not received anything in writing whatsoever about the debt being sold. Unfortunately this phone call was not recorded - however future ones will be!

 

Re; also have you had a default notice?

We have not received a default notice although in a letter from GE Money Lending dated 3rd October this year they state that they had served a Default Notice against us and were demanding the arrears of £305.46. My husband was in hospital during the month of October so this letter was unfortunately overlooked.

[deb4tlj]

Our copy of the original finance agreement is totally blank except for mine and my husbands signatures at the bottom.

 

Having just dug out our copy of the original finance agreement we have now discovered that our signatures do not show on the copy.

[pt2537]

Hi deb4tlj

 

 

ok well a default notice needs to be served and be in the correct form to allow them to demand money outstanding by way of a breach of contract

 

the Notice of Assignment needs to be in written form also, a telephone call to say you owe them money is not sufficient

 

it is not unusual for personal copies of loan agreements to not have a signature on them

 

however, lets worry about what forms they have when or should i say if they send anything

 

Regards

paul

[deb4tlj]

So we should just send the CCa via recorded delivery tomorrow and just wait? What should we do as regards the acknowledgement of service form online?

[pt2537]

Hi there

 

Send the letter i posted in post number 2 in the morning to link financial as they are the claimants in this case and they have the duty to disclose the info. Send it via Special delivery

 

The Acknowledgment of service must be completed within 14 days of service. by all means you can fill it in and get it out the way, i would hold fire for a few days to see if anything comes through the post relating to this claim from link

 

the most important thing at this stage is the letter needs to be sent

 

Regards

paul

[deb4tlj]

Okay, the letter will go off first thing and I will probably fill in the acknowledgement of service form on Monday. I want to take this opportunity to thank you for all your help and advice - you and this forum are an absolute treasure!!!!!! I will repost on here when and if I receive anything from Link Financial. I'll be able to sleep tonight thanks to you.

[pt2537]

No problem,

 

just so you know, and to put your mind at rest,

 

if they fail to supply any documents requested in the letter,i will happily draft a defence for you that basically says they have failed to disclose any cause for legal action,they have failed to disclose information requested and i will ask for their case to be thrown out for disclosing no grounds for legal action

 

then the decision will be up to the judge as to what he does

 

there are a great deal of knowledgeable people on the CAG who we can call on for help so youre in very safe hands:)

 

im sure the question was in the back of your mind as to what if they dont comply with the letter

 

well if they dont, they are only shooting themselves

 

i hope this puts your mind at rest

 

Kind Regards

paul

[deb4tlj]

It most certainly does. Thank you once again.

[deb4tlj]

Having read a number of highly informative threads on the forum do I need to have the jurisdiction changed? We live in Hull and there is no way on earth I can travel to Northampton if the need arises as my husband is disabled. I have already filled in the acknowledgement of service thingy online.

[pt2537]

hi, the claim should automatically be transfered to your local county court.

 

this will happen when you file a defence, the defence will be sent to the claimant by the court and the claimant will then consider if it wishes to continue with the claim.

 

 

if the claimant decides to continue ,since you are individuals the claim will be transfered to your local court

 

i hope this helps

 

regards

paul

[deb4tlj]

Thanks Paul. I want to make sure we get everything right.

[deb4tlj]

I've read elsewhere in the forum that a CCA should be accompanied by a cheque for £1.00 for the fee payable. Should I have sent the fee with the above letter?

[pt2537]

Hi,

 

no it shouldnt.

 

the above letter is not a CCA request, far from it.

 

iti s a request for disclosure under the civil procedure rules. so no need to send any fee, you are entitled to the documents the other party is relying upon under the CPR

 

so no panic you dont need to pay

[deb4tlj]

Thanks Paul - don't know what we'd do without you.

[deb4tlj]

A quick update;

 

We sent the above letter to both the Southwark office and what appears to be the HO for Link Financial in Wales, both via recorded signed for. Royal Mail website tells us that;

Your item with reference DW214959932GB was delivered from our SOUTHWARK Delivery Office on 11/12/07 .

 

And that the one to Wales;

Your item with reference DH948028988GB was delivered from our CAERPHILLY Delivery Office on 14/12/07 .

 

Which letter should we start the "countdown" from? And is it calendar days or working days? Thank you so much for your continued help.

[pt2537]

hi,

 

the Southwark one? was this the address on the claim form which came through from the court?

[deb4tlj]

The address for the claimant on the CCO was

Link Financial Ltd

Camelford House

89 Albert Embankment

London SE1 7TP

 

so we sent the first letter off to that address, however, upon checking the CCO it also says "address for sending documents and payments (if different)

Link Financial Limited

5 Trecenydd Business Park

Caerphilly

Mid Glamorgan CF83 2RZ

so we have also sent the same letter to this address. Hope we've done the right thing. :-|

[pt2537]

The address for the claimant on the CCO was

Link Financial Ltd

Camelford House

89 Albert Embankment

London SE1 7TP

 

so we sent the first letter off to that address, however, upon checking the CCO it also says "address for sending documents and payments (if different)

Link Financial Limited

5 Trecenydd Business Park

Caerphilly

Mid Glamorgan CF83 2RZ

so we have also sent the same letter to this address. Hope we've done the right thing. :-|

 

 

Hi there

 

Dont fret,

 

its fine,well start the clock ticking from the point where the first letter was delivered

 

after all we live in the age of technology so im sure they can email,fax and phone the relevent departments who can answer your letter so thats their problem

 

regards

paul

[deb4tlj]

Thanks Paul - you're an absolute Godsend! Is it 14 working days or calendar days? Know I've read this somewhere on the forum but there's so much to read!!!!!