HFC/Restons/Charging Order - ***ORDER REMOVED***WON***

[Satterthwaite]

My problem with HFC/Reston’s go back to August 2006 when they caught me at a particular low ebb coupled with not knowing what to do.

I was on a DMP with CCCS, I missed one payment which resulted in receiving a claim form issued at Northampton by Reston’s.

 

The default balance was £9913.78 but they also added a collection charge of £1652.62. Interest at £3225.74 then subtracted Post Refrl Cr at £827 which gave a total of £13965.14 then court fee and solicitors costs brought it to £14305.14.

To be honest I just ignored everything which resulted in a CCJ and then a charging order.

We received a letter 3 days before Christmas from Reston’s demanding payment in one week, of a new total of £14732.00 the trouble that this caused at home was horrendous. I did actually manage to get them to agree to let me carrying on the DMP.

 

It is only recently that I have started to tackle things and have been made aware of what can be done.

 

I have CCA’d HFC and what I received does not constitute an agreement.

I then followed this up with a SAR, all they sent was six years worth of statements, so I wrote back pointing out they had not fulfilled my request.

They wrote back requesting I send proof of my identity then they will action my request.

I thought this was ridiculous and told them so.

I sent a SAR to Reston’s, there reply was unequivocal, they did not have any agreements, statements or T&C’s and referred me back to HFC.

Because I want to try and sort this out without giving HFC any excuses I sent a SAR with ID to HFC.

After another reminder from me I finally received a bundle from HFC.

Curiously there was no copy of the “agreement” no default letter and no mention of Restons involvement.

 

If anybody could help with any advice on what I should do next and whether I have a chance of overturning the CCJ and CO which is ultimately what I hoping to do.

Thanks for reading.

[FunkyFox]

Hi, I would be very interested in the opinions of some of the experts on here regarding your question as I have a very similar situation where I was unable to deal with the mess I was in due to a breakdown. I now have a couple of charging orders going through and would like to know if its possible to treat a debt as unenforceable after the CCJ?

 

Thanks in advance.

FF

[Satterthwaite]

Ttt

[sequenci]

Hello there.

 

Welcome to the forum, thanks for drawing this thread to my attention!

 

Restons seem to be a very aggressive creditor and I'm sorry to learn of the stress caused by their actions.

 

Regarding a possible CCJ set-aside one thing that instantly comes to mind is that the debt has a large collection charge applied to it. My guessing that their right to apply this charge may not actually exist within the original agreement and even if it did, it is likely to be unlawful (same argument as bank/credit card charges etc). I'm going to bring this thread to the attention of some of the other site-helpers/mods to see if we can offer further advice.

 

Best wishes,

 

Seq

[Satterthwaite]

Thanks for such prompt attention, I really need to try and sort this out as it has caused a lot of problems at home.

[sequenci]

When was the CCJ entered? When was the Charge made final?

[Satterthwaite]

The CCJ was 22/9/06 and the Final Charging order was made on the 13/12/2006.

[Satterthwaite]

Can they just add on all that interest?

 

I have just read this at nationaldebtline.co.uk

INTEREST

 

If the creditor has taken the debt to the county court, they may be able to add extra interest once a charging order is made. Interest cannot be added if:

• the debt is for an agreement regulated by the Consumer Credit Act. This includes most ordinary credit agreements, including bank overdrafts;

[sequenci]

Statutory interest cannot be added to a regulated judgememt debt

 

Contractual interest may be added providing there was provision for it in the original agreement, do you have a copy of it?

[Satterthwaite]

I have never received the original terms and conditions.

[Satterthwaite]

What is a collection charge?

How do they arrive at the figure?

In my case it is £1652.62

[Satterthwaite]

This is a copy of the original "agreement"

[Satterthwaite]

Had a look round and found the answer to my question,

A collection charge is basically the original debt plus 16.3% to cover the expenses of passing it on to Restons,

[Satterthwaite]

Quote from the OFT debt collection guidelines.

 

2.9 >> Charges should not be levied unfairly

 

Examples of unfair practices are as follows

 

2.10a >> claiming collection costs from a debtor in the absense of express contractual or other legal provision

 

b >> misleading debtors into beleving they are legally liable to pay collection charges when this is not the case, e.g when there is no contractual provision

 

c >> not giving an indication in credit agreements of the amount of any charges payable on default

 

d >> applying unreasnable costs

 

e >> applying charges which are disproportionate to the main debt

 

I found this posted by sequenci.

[Satterthwaite]

I have never received a default notice.

I have had a look through everything that I have been sent by HFC as a result of my SAR and there is no copy of a default notice.

[Satterthwaite]

On my Experian account information it shows I was defaulted by HFC in Feb 2005.

[polly55]

subscribing

[sequenci]

Had a look round and found the answer to my question,

A collection charge is basically the original debt plus 16.3% to cover the expenses of passing it on to Restons,

 

I can't view your agreement due to the fact that my PC blocks images at work. Is there any mention of this collection charge within the agreement?

[Satterthwaite]

There is nothing on the so called agreement that refers to a collection charge,

It does refer to terms shown overleaf but i have never been given a copy of the reverse.

 

Also in the small print it refers to this being an application,

" I authorise you to obtain such information as you may require concerning statements made in this application"

 

They did send me a copy of terms and conditions effective from August 2006, my application was in 1993 and the default was registered 28/2/2005 so i do not see how they are relevant.

[sequenci]

They have not complied with your CCA request as they have not sent all the relevant info, naughty naughty! You should certainly be in a strong position to challenge that collection fee for sure.

[interweb]

moved this to a new thread.

 

thnx

[Satterthwaite]

I have gone through all the statements and there are total charges of £234 all though some of them date back longer than six years,

Can I still refer to the ones over 6 years as part of my claim to overturn the CCJ?

Also can I claim interest.

Thanks

[Satterthwaite]

O K I need to start to try moving this along,

 

reasons I see for overturning the CCJ in no particular order.

 

1) No CCA agreement

2) No Default notice.

3) £234 of Charges

4) Adding Collection Charge without an agreement

5) Adding interest without an agreement

 

If any body else has any ideas could they please post them

 

I am going to attempt to put something together over the weekend to put to my local court, N244?

 

Thanks

[robcag]

Hi S

 

I'm in a similar situation to you regarding a HFC/Restons CCJ + CO just over a year ago (but still not made my application for a set-aside yet).

 

Regarding your points 1) and 2), in addition did they fail to send a LBA?

 

I'm thinking this could strengthen a possible argument that they brought the claim unlawfully (or is it illegally ), as they were not entiled to do so having failed in those 3 points.

 

I look forward to seeing the details of your submission if you post it!

 

Cheers

Rob

[Satterthwaite]

Rob, Thanks for that, I do not recall receiving an LBA