Tower Capital claimform

[venomex]

Hey all, new to the forums need some advice.

 

Good olde Tower Capital have just sent me a claim for a CCJ. However I need to check if I can defend against it.

 

1) A defult notice was issued, but the amount which was "typed" on the default notice was crossed out in pen and a new amount hand written in - which was higher then the balace we were expecting.

 

2) The claim has been made for the above amount, however my surname is spelt incorrectly (Extra letters)

 

3) They have said on the claim no contact has been made since December but we can prove we have written to them and called them. They also have claimed no payments been made since September, but we have cleared cheques paid to them since this date - so this is incorrect as well.

 

other then we owe money to them

everything else seems to be wrong?

 

 

They have not been in contact at all since February, when I asked a manager to call me back and nobody did.

 

 

I know they kinda have a rep for slightly......incorrect paperwork but not sure if this counts

- I am not looking to have the debt taken off

- the debt is for 2400 (well on the defult it was 1496 which was scribbled out and the 2400 put in place) for a £1000 loan taken 8 years ago at 149% interest....

 

 

...(Which we were told was nothing to worry about and was normal.)

[rebel11]

Hi ven

 

Welcome to CAG

The guys will advise as soon as they are available.

[venomex]

Thanks

 

FYI the POC of the Claim are:

 

"Unpaid Personal Loan Agreement number XXXXX

 

Mr xxxxx xxxxx and Mrs xxx xxxx Have made no payment against their above account since 22 September 2010

 

Despite our attempts to contact Mr and Mrs xxxx, they have failed to respond and therefore a Statuary Notice of Default was issued and sent to them on 2nd December 2010

 

Mr and Mrs xxxxx have not responded to the Statuary Notice of Default and we therefore seek the courts assistance in order to recover the monies owed by Mr and Mrs xxxx"

 

We have had zero letters or phone calls from this date, we have written to them. The claim has our surnames spelt incorrectly and the Notice of Default was "typed" then amended by pen to a new amount, which is what the claim is for.

 

Thanks

[venomex]

Right done some research on this: using your site and the old Law books

 

I am right in thinking a Notice of Default is not the same as a Default Notice? If this has not been issued, would this claim be invalid? Also, they have put it in joint names, however the loan was mine and my wife never signed anything and it does not appear on her credit report at all?

[venomex]

Right - again a bit of an update, sent the form of the the court to say I was defending this, on the same day sent a letter to Tower asking them for details on the agreement (Copy and paste the c?.14 letter under the sticky) to which they have responded.

 

However the copy of the agreement is missing my signature and date and the sig from the lender. Also the loan amount total to repay is much lower then what we have paid. They also have included "Re structuring loans" which jumped our debt from 1400 to 5300, which we have been paying. However no paperwork or details on the restructuring. Also, they have included £150 in fees for calls and emails but no details on when these were made.

 

Advice? Is this enforceable?

[sillygirl1]

STOP - this is not to be treated via the default notice route. I have defended claims for Tower Capital on behalf of other Caggers with success. What you need to do in answer to their POCs is

 

1. Clearly state how much you borrowed and when, (both of you can't have borrowed the same amount so therefore this is flawed.....)

2. They are not allowed to charge more than is reasonable atttempts to contact you - did you respond by email - this is the way to get these companies, send email after email as evidence you want to negotiate in writing so you have a clear record.

 

You need to remind the court that this is a short term loan with onerous interest and the onerous charges therefore make the contract unenforceable. You can also ask the court for mediation over the fees (has been done with Tower Capital before and they caved in, not wanting to go in front of the judge).

 

Trying to rely on the default notice scenario will get you nowhere - this is a slightly different kettle of fish.

3.

2.

[venomex]

Cool, thank you!!!

 

tbh I was wondering about that, we have paid so far around 3x the amount borrowed due to restructring loans we never asked for, or signed for. Even the copy of the agreement is undated and unsigned by my wife.

 

Also, it makes sense tbh about what you said about the amount being asked for - on the "Statutory Notice of Default" the figure printed on the form, which was cross out in pen, was for half the amount, yet they are claiming the same amount from both of us. They have offered us a compromise of paying 2k by the end of the month to avoid a CCJ, however I still want to fight it.

 

Excellent advice - thank you. If you can give me anymore please do

[sillygirl1]

What you MUST do is acknowledge the claim online, if you haven't already done so, I assume this is via Northampton County Court? State that you are defending PART of the claim and you will be filing a defence asap.

 

DO NOT leave this to the last minute otherwise you WILL get a CCJ by default and have to go down the set aside route - which will cost more.

[venomex]

We did not acknowledge online, but via post well before the deadline (Deadline is this week) (Internet was playing up had to send it back via snail mail.) - I worked it out we have till the end of this week to file the defense online (Interwebs working again!)

 

Thanks again

[sillygirl1]

I won't be avialable tomorrow or Thursday until later if you want help with the defence, keep it simple and do not fall into the trap of putting in lots of legal case stuff, you won't be able to argue them in court effectively and the other sides team will stitch you up on that. By keeping it simple and stating the facts the court has little room to do much, either throw it out (has been done before with Tower,), ask for particulars to be amended (again has been done with Tower, they didn't amend and discontinued) or ask for mediation (has been done with another company who accepted original loan sum as full and final payment - which had already been paid to the court!).

[venomex]

Here is what I have so far for the defence (using what they have sent us):

 

In April 2004, we took a loan out with Tower Capital.

 

 

Our original loan was for £3,288.24, with 37.30% interest added from day one (The application form supplied states £1875.60 added however according to our account £1959.56 was applied.) as well as £100 administration fees.

 

 

Also £340.92 was added as “payment protection insurance” however this was neither asked for or wanted at a rate of 35.24% apr.

 

 

The total amount at this time was £5688.72.

 

 

We have paid so far £5410. However we have noticed the loan has been “restructured” with out our consent or knowledge and no evidence has been supplied to us in regards to these restructing loans, which has added £1637.35 of intrest to our account (According to there own records)

 

 

They have claimed, since 2010, £809.36 in default charges.

 

They claim they did not have the correct number for us, however they have used these out of service numbers 27 times. We received, to our recollection, one call in October 2010 asking us to increase our payments. We received no email – however our email account has not changed since 2004. This amounted to £135 since Sept 2010.

 

 

We were never informed or told of the £25 per missed transaction and we have no documentation where this is concerned and no terms of conditions supplied when requested via letter on 31st March 2011.

 

 

The Particulars of Claim issued on the claim form are factually incorrect. The Claimant is stating that both myself and my wife owe £2725.43 each, however, if this is a joint account then the amount owed per person would be £1362.71 and as such the form is incorrect.

 

 

We requested for copies of the original agreement to be sent to us, however the copy we have received is missing a legible signature from either myself or my wife.

 

Regular payments were made on this loan from 23rd June 2004 to 22 September 2011 (see appendix 1 attached - which will list dates and amounts). The company restructured this loan without notifying us of any reason, and therefore this restructuring should be deemed unfair and rescinded by the courts.

 

The company have been less than transparent about any commissions they have earned, and any DECREASES in interest rate have not been passed back to the customer.

 

 

We are disputing the following:

 

• Restructing intrest of £1637.35
  
• The payment protection of £524.88
  
• The Contact Attempts of £135
  
• Missed instalements penlties of £325
  

 

 

Our total amount we are disputing is £2622.23 of the fees,

 

 

This leaves a total of £103 which we do not dispute.

 

 

We also move that the current claim is struck out as the amount being claimed on the case is incorrect per person.

 

 

We are willing to enter mediation in regards to any outstanding monies owed to the claiment

 

The deadline is Tuesday next week (28 days after Service) so any help would be appricatied - also as a FYI they have just written to me and have offered us to drop the amount to £2000 to be paid by end of April.....however looking at what they have sent me......

Edited April 13, 2011 by venomex
Added extra information

[sillygirl1]

Did this loan go into a joint account, if so you only borrowed the ONE amount. It sounds a large amount for Tower Capital, they normally do Payday loans of £150.

 

Did you pay a broker fee to anyone on this to be 'introduced' to Tower Capital?

[sillygirl1]

What have Tower Capital sent regarding this? I am around today on and off and not around Thursday due to travelling.

[venomex]

Hi,

 

This was taken out in 2004, before they started Pay Day loans - basically if you could prove u had money coming in they would lend to you. The £3288.24 was a consolidation of a previous loan taken out but no details have been sent to me about that so had to run with what I got - that loan was taken out back when they were based in Parkstone not Bournemouth.

 

Tower have sent me a cover letter breaking down the amount then copies of the payments made to the original account, then 3 new "Restructuring" loans which we never asked for. Basically it looks like they cleared the balance of one loan and added further interest waited a year then restructured it again. So over the years I have had 4 "loans" with them, but really should have been one.

 

The money was given by cheque to be paid in. Is the one amount correct on the POC as I thought it would have to have been split 50/50? If it is no prob will amend that bit.

[sillygirl1]

When was the last payment made by you on the account, was this before restructuring or after as this could be another angle to use.....

[venomex]

Last payment was in September, the last restructuring was in March 2007, but extra reschedule interest was added yearly from then onwards - however up until September we made payments every month.

[sillygirl1]

Clearly now we have a situation to use in your favour, amend the defence to include the payment history as follows

 

Regular payments were made on this loan from xxx to xxx (see appendix x attached - which will list dates and amounts). The company restructured this loan without notifying us of any reason, (did the interest rate increase here or don't you know?) and therefore this restructuring should be deemed unfair and rescinded by the courts.

 

The company have been less than trasnparent about any commissions they have earned, and any DECREASES (keep that in caps) in interest rate have not been passed back to the customer.

[venomex]

Hi I have amended the defence and added

 

"Regular payments were made on this loan from 23rd June 2004 to 22 September 2011 (see appendix 1 attached - which will list dates and amounts). The company restructured this loan without notifying us of any reason, and therefore this restructuring should be deemed unfair and rescinded by the courts.

 

The company have been less than transparent about any commissions they have earned, and any DECREASES in interest rate have not been passed back to the customer."

 

In regards to interest rate no nothing was said to me over the years of the rate lowering, however the cover letter states that this was applied from April 09. Also, looking at it again, I have been charged another documentation fee in 2006 but I signed nothing....

[sillygirl1]

You now need to add at the top of the defence

 

WE xxxx and xxx are litigants in person with no recourse to legal advice and are defending this claim on the basis laid out below. We would remind the courts that 'save as to costs' should not be applied to this vexatious and litigatious case.

 

This should then go to the court, the client and the client's solicitors.... send everything from now on to all three parties, you would be surprised as to how many cases have been lost due to paperwork only going to the client or its solicitors and not being disclosed. Send it recorded or registered to make sure you have details of when you posted it.

[venomex]

Thank you will amend and send it today

[sillygirl1]

Good, the sooner you get this off the less chance of them getting a judgement by default...

 

Keep us posted on any developments, do NOT sign a Tomlin Order should they ask you to do so, get back here straight away should they try this trick.

[venomex]

Right just a quick update:

 

Received my Notice to Transfer Proceedings doc this morning with the allocation questionnaire, which I am filling in.

 

Just a quick question, it says about a Small Claims Mediation Service - Is this worth doing or not as we are disputing the amount?

 

Thanks again for the support and advice so far :)

[sillygirl1]

YES to Small Claims Mediation, they will NOT want to go in front of a judge and they will look very silly telling the mediator that they CANNOT accept part payments... (it happened in a case earlier this year).

 

It is a good idea to send the AQ to all parties, and ALL emails and other correspondence go into a file to show the mediator.

[venomex]

Cool ty for that - will get the forms off asap and tick the mediation box

[venomex]

Quick Updates

 

Got a Notice of allocation to small claims track today - They have requested from them a legible copy of the original form and our documents. I take it then Tower have refused mediation......

 

No date fixed yet so will let you guys know

 

Thanks again for the help