Help - Asset Link Capital sending me to court!

[pupstermum]

Please, please could someone give me some advice as soon as posssible?: I received a letter on 29/12/07 from Assetl Link Capital saying they had purchased a debt from First National Consumer Finance. I had absolutly no idea what this was for : I have a mortgage but have never ever owed money, had a store/credit card or any debt. I telephoned and found out it was for a conservatory I had built at my old house in 2002. I had puchased a conservatory from Anglian windows for £11700 and was persuaded to take out a finance agreement because it was interest free for the first 12 months (even though I had adequate funds to pay in full ) and was assured the balance could be paid without penalty. As agreed payments were made on the 3rd of every month for 12 months, and after the 12th payment, the balance was paid in full. No further correspondence was ever recieved.

A few months later I sold this property and moved out on 14th/11/03 to my present address. My bank account has never changed and mail redirection was set up for 24 months.

I have discovered that Asset link claim I still owe for the conservatory and upon request received a statement from them detailing the payments I paid.

LOAN: £11700

Charge: £45

6/8/02 deposit £1755

1st payment £277.22

10xmonthly payments of £232.22 = £2322.20

1 final payment £7390.58

TOTAL Paid £11745.

 

I know it may seem strange but once payments were completed and I moved house I did not keep a copy of my agreement.

Now I have requested to see this but Asset Link say they cannot get hold of one. Anglian windows willnot speak to me about it.

No one has ever, ever contacted me about this - my new address was readily available. I never received any correspondence during the time my direct debit went out that interest was accruing monthly.

There was no correspondence after the conservatory had been paid for infull, and the direct debit was completed saying that interest had been added.

Infact - there does not seem to have been any attempt to contact me for almost 5 years.

Meanwhile I gather interest is still being added on and I have been summoned to court - all this has happened in the last 2 weeks. I feel at a loss at what to do and extremely frightened. I feel that I have either been conned by a rogue finance agent or some computer error has been made - but now I have received a court summons I am terrified.

I sent a defence letter in yesterday withthe form, basically saying similar to the above. Please please could someone helpme - I dont know what to do next. Thank you.

[rory32]

Can you please post the particulars of claim and what you have sent as your defence.

[pupstermum]

The Claim form Calain no. f7X160015

northampton

says The Defendants are indebtedto the claimant under the terms of a credit agreement dated 23/4/02 and assigned to the Claimant. The Agreement is regulated by the Consumer Credit Act 1974. the agreement provided that interest would be payable before adn after a judgement. The right to proceed for subsequent interest is reserved. Default occurred in payment and the loan was called in under S.87.

This is signed Asset Link Capital (no1) ltd. The amount claimed is £2216.35 plus court fee of £75.00 totalling, £2291.35

 

In my defence I sent a letter which began with me stating the particulars of the claim, and underneath saying DEFENCE: ......denies that a default occurred.

I then wrote that the first time I heard anything about this was from a letter dated 29.11.07, and that I telephoned upon receipt of this to ask what it was regarding, and asked to see the original document. The next correspondence was this court summons.

They also sent details of the transactions (my direct debit payments) with their interest added on each month..

At the date when I received a settlement figure of £7390.58 which I paid in full, the interest totalls £1,188.54. It then continues to increase each month - continuing I presume even now.

I sent this form back via registered post on friday.

I am still astounded that noone told me about this. I feel a fool for not keeping any documents - but the rep who sold me the conservatory was a super lady, and it was such a reputable company. Conservatory finished, payments finished - everything seemed fine. Never heard a thing. Sold the house and moved here. The awful thing is, that I was perfectly able to pay for the conservatory in full - this was the first time I have ever had a finance agreement in my life. Do you think there is anything I can do?

[rory32]

Do you think there is anything I can do?

There is actually quite a lot that you can do. The first thing is to send a request under the Civil Procedure Rules for information. Template shown below.

In the matter of

XXX vs (defendant)

Claim Number XXX

In XXX Court

Soliciters Address

DATE

YOUR ADDRESS

 

 

Dear X

 

RE: REQUEST FOR INFORMATION MADE UNDER CPR PART 18

 

I have received the Court claim filed by your Company. To enable me to file a defence and counter-claim, I require specific information regarding the account to be provided forthwith. 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 by the (DATE). 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.

 

IN RESPECT OF EACH ALLEGED DEBT CLAIMED, I REQUIRE:

 

 

1. A true copy of the executed credit agreement and any terms and conditions that applied to the account at the time of any 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. A transcript of all transactions, including charges, fees, interest, repayments and payments and both the original amount of the loan and any repayments made to it the account.

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

c. 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.

d. True copies of any deed of assignment and/or default notice with a copy of any proof of postage that you hold.

e. 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).

f. 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.

g. 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.

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

i. 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.

j. A copy of all account statements for the duration of the agreement.

 

 

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

4. A copy of your complaints procedure, as required by the Consumer Credit Act 2006.

 

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,

 

 

XXX (Type, don't sign your name).

[rory32]

We will be amending your defence to strengthen it. You will need to pay for this (from memory it is £35). What was the date by which you had to submit a defence - if you had just acknowledged the claim you would have been given another 14 days to submit a defence.

 

There is no set time period for requesting info under the CPR, it is just defined as reasonable. Normally reasonable would be considered anywhere between 7 and 10 days, but we might have to reduce the amount of time to supply these documents depending on when the case is to heard and an amended defence submitted. Basically if they don't supply the info the judge will either give them an extension to supply the documents or throw the case out.

[rory32]

The CPR letter needs to be sent by special delivery, next day guaranteed.

[Goldlady]

I wonder on what basis they have issued proceedings if they no longer have a copy of the agreement - ie what paperwork do they propose to rely on in court to back up their ridiculous claim?

 

When we submitted a full defence we didn't have to pay anything by the way.

[pupstermum]

I can't find the words to say how appreciative I am of what has been posted - I feel a bit stronger!

 

the issue date is 18 December 2007 making the 'date of service' 23rd December. I think I have read correctly that I have 14 days from this date (23rd) in which to submit my defence. I have already sent one letter though.

Forgive me if I haven't understood your advice, but do you think I should send the letter as per your template, (thread 4), first, followed by another (for which I understand there is a fee); or have I misunderstood that?

Can I just say again, how grateful I am for your advice - particularly at this time of year.

[B3rty]

Dont

[rory32]

Forgive me if I haven't understood your advice, but do you think I should send the letter as per your template, (thread 4), first, followed by another (for which I understand there is a fee); or have I misunderstood that?

 

Send the letter in post#4 first by special delivery. Give them 7 days to send the information. We don't need to amend your defence just yet, we first of all need to wait and see if they can send any of the documents. If they can't (which is likely) we will amend your defence to reflect this and ask for the case to be thrown out. This will be done on an N244 form. We may also ask them for a statement of truth depending on their response to the CPR request, at which point they will probably just withdraw the claim.

 

Try to not worry about this and enjoy your Xmas

[shane5408]

Hi Pupstermum,

 

try not to worry to much, especially at this time of year. I know it can be very worrying when one receives a claim against them but in the majority of cases like these the creditor is hoping the debtor is not aware of their rights and will simply 'bury their head in the sand' so they can get judgement by default. They will not expect you to defend, and will get a pretty big shock when they see the letter Rory posted earlier! As Rory mentioned there are several options we can look at to resolve the situation

 

Oh and just to clarify there is no fee to file a defence, the £35 mentioned earlier was in relation to an application to ammend your defence (N244) at a later stage should you need to.

 

 

kind regards,

shane

 

 

____________________________________________

All advice is offered freely & without prejudice

 

 

If my post has been useful to you please click the scales

[pupstermum]

Thank you. Very much indeed.

[Goldlady]

I have had one claim withdrawn after submitting a defence with the help of the wonderful guys on here. Quite often these people will run a mile if you try and complicate their attempt to get a judgement by default by having the nerve to enter a defence. Spoils their day:D

[pupstermum]

Hello there

 

It is now 13th January and I posted my letter as advised recorded delivery on 23rd December - and as yet have not received any reply atall. I ended my letter with "I must advise you that if the information is not forthcoming, it will be reported to the Court ............file a defence and counter claim".

May I ask for advice on what step to take now? Should I send a copy of my letter to Northampton County Court?

Thankyou

[pupstermum]

Hello there

 

It is now 13th January and I posted my letter as advised recorded delivery on 23rd December - and as yet have not received any reply atall. I ended my letter with "I must advise you that if the information is not forthcoming, it will be reported to the Court ............file a defence and counter claim".

May I ask for advice on what step to take now? Should I send a copy of my letter to Northampton County Court?

Thankyou

vbrep_register("1324682")

[Goldlady]

Have you responded to the summons?

[pupstermum]

Yes. I put in a 'defence' letter (#3) - have not heard anything back from the court.

 

However, yesterday I did receive a letter from Asset Link saying that they had received my letter (23rd December 2007) and were going to request the relevant documents from the archives of the finance company. I suppose I just have to wait and see what they come up with - and guess that this 'interest' is being added on each month and there is nothing I can do about it. Scary.

[pt2537]

Hi there,

 

ive been helping on another thread an i noticed how similar the response that link sent was, im not sure but it may offer some help

 

 

http://www.consumeractiongroup.co.uk/forum/general-debt/123052-help-needed-please-4.html

[pupstermum]

Hi Pupstermum,

 

try not to worry to much, especially at this time of year. I know it can be very worrying when one receives a claim against them but in the majority of cases like these the creditor is hoping the debtor is not aware of their rights and will simply 'bury their head in the sand' so they can get judgement by default. They will not expect you to defend, and will get a pretty big shock when they see the letter Rory posted earlier! As Rory mentioned there are several options we can look at to resolve the situation

 

Oh and just to clarify there is no fee to file a defence, the £35 mentioned earlier was in relation to an application to ammend your defence (N244) at a later stage should you need to.

 

 

kind regards,

shane

 

 

____________________________________________

All advice is offered freely & without prejudice

 

 

If my post has been useful to you please click the scales

Rory, do you suggest sending this N244 form which you mentioned? II feel a bit stuck.

Thanks

[pupstermum]

Send the letter in post#4 first by special delivery. Give them 7 days to send the information. We don't need to amend your defence just yet, we first of all need to wait and see if they can send any of the documents. If they can't (which is likely) we will amend your defence to reflect this and ask for the case to be thrown out. This will be done on an N244 form. We may also ask them for a statement of truth depending on their response to the CPR request, at which point they will probably just withdraw the claim.

 

Try to not worry about this and enjoy your Xmas

Rory, do you suggest that I send this N24 form which you mentioned? I feel a bit stuck as to what to do now.... thanks

[pupstermum]

Hi Pupstermum,

 

try not to worry to much, especially at this time of year. I know it can be very worrying when one receives a claim against them but in the majority of cases like these the creditor is hoping the debtor is not aware of their rights and will simply 'bury their head in the sand' so they can get judgement by default. They will not expect you to defend, and will get a pretty big shock when they see the letter Rory posted earlier! As Rory mentioned there are several options we can look at to resolve the situation

 

Oh and just to clarify there is no fee to file a defence, the £35 mentioned earlier was in relation to an application to ammend your defence (N244) at a later stage should you need to.

 

 

kind regards,

shane

 

 

____________________________________________

All advice is offered freely & without prejudice

 

 

If my post has been useful to you please click the scales

I am really stuck as to what to do next with this Asset Link situation and wondered if you could advise me. I think I need an N244 form - but am not sure how to get this or what to do?

[Goldlady]

N244 is on the HMCS website under forms. What exactly have you sent to the court so far?