CL Finance Late Compliance To CCA Request.

[offtherails155]

On the 23rd of March 2011 i received a letter from Howard Cohen Solicitors stating

'Notice of pending legal action' dated 21st March 2011.

 

This is a company i admit to paying £80 a month for the last couple of years.

 

By my own admission I had some personal problems a few years ago and my finances got out of hand,

i paid the £80 a month not because i knew i owed it, but because there was a chance i owed it and i was very naive.

 

I am hopefully a little less naive now and after viewing various forums i decided to stop paying them and see what they did.

 

Anyway so i replied to the letter recieved in march using the standard CCA request letter.

 

On the 6 April i recieved a statement that covered the last 4 months, not a full statement.

 

It did have the alleged amount outstanding on it.

 

On the 8th April i recieved a letter stating that they did not have a copy of the agreement on site and they had referred my request to their client.

 

I heard no more til today, letter dated 7 July 2011, when a copy of the original agreement did arrive, complete with my signature dated 17-10-03

and a copy of the terms and conditions.

 

 

fair play, they are acting within the law and if its my debt then after seeking advice i shall accept it and pay it.

 

My question is this..... would i be right in thinking that they could be in a lot of trouble for taking the amount of time that they did to supply the CCA?

 

i have kept all correspondence from them and also have copies of the letters i sent to them.

 

Any advice would be greatly appreciated

 

.thank you

[maroondevo52]

Thread moved.

[firstship]

Hi.No they will not be in trouble for taking so long in supplying the signed agreement,T&Cs etc,after 14 days you could have sent an account in dispute letter and withheld payments,but this area of CCA these days is very much in favour of the creditor.

 

You have put your hands up to the debt so I suggest you pay them what you can honestly afford each month

 

Who is the OC,? have there been any charges made,?what type of debt CC/Loan/Bank a/c?

 

Regards FS

[offtherails155]

just another thing to add. having reread the copied paperwork they have sent me it appears to be an application form and agreement form. it was for a credit card so im not sure if this makes a difference?? it says 'APPLY TODAY TO RECIVE THIS GREAT OFFER'. i thought it had to supply details of credit limit etc....as i say i am not disputing the amount if i legally owe it, but filling an application form in is surely not a guarantee of acceptance and thus may in reality prove nothing!!! as i say i was having a lot of personal problems and probably applied for 10 cards!!! not smart i now know, but at the time id have done anything!!cheers

[offtherails155]

thanks for your reply. the credit card application form is to natwest, yep i had an account with them, but do not believe it was ever in arrears and i havent banked with them for years so i have no statements left from that time. i moved 7 years ago so as you can imagine i dont have statements going back beyond that time. in fact i dont have my statements going back beyond around 2007 long after i stopped using natwest. the company i was paying to is CL finance and the solicitors they are using are howard cohen. i may not be the cleverest person but i am pretty sure that they are probably part of the same company!!!not that it makes any difference.

[offtherails155]

read this and it states, if i have read it correctly, that they CANNOT use a photocopy anyway. (page 20. section 2.17) it states that it needs to be a TRUE copy(a reconstituted copy is acceptable) nOT an EXACT copy (photocopy, microfiche or carbon copy). i know all of this sounds like im trying to wriggle out of it, im not. its just after reading a lot of forums trying to find information it sees that these companies pray on ignorance and id just like to be sure before i admit any liability. im sure if the shoe was on the other foot they would do the same to me!!! if you add www onto the link below you will see the page i found the above .oft.gov.uk/shared_oft/consultations/OFT1175con.pdf

[dx100uk]

are you indicating that there was a period of 6yrs

when you either paid nowt or took nowt

 

dx

[offtherails155]

no, by my own admission i have made payments of £80 a month up until january of this year. i never questioned the amount and just made a monthly offer, but i am pretty sure i also never actually acknowledge owing the debt if that makes sense? i got a threatening letter asking me to pay x amount a month and i paid it.

[offtherails155]

one hundred percent definitely have not used any credit card in 6 years, this card or otherwise. actually that is purely guesswork on my part so seeing as i am asking for accurate advice i would have to say that i cant confirm i havent used a credit card in that time. its definitely more than 5 years though. im guessing you are angling at statute barred?(is that the correct term) im also guessing that by making payments to the debt company, my legal debt or not, i have shot myself in the foot with a very large gun!!!

Edited July 11, 2011 by offtherails155

[dx100uk]

no

if a period of 6yrs existed

then it matters not you started repaying it

 

NOTHING can unbar a debt, not even a JUDGE.

 

so they found a cash cow to fleece

 

you've just woken up,

 

STOP PAYING THEM.

 

if you think 6yrs did exist

 

dx

[offtherails155]

thank you for your help. is it worth sending them a SAR request? worst case scenario it delays me having to pay them for a while, but hopefully will show up some more information. im also keen to ask them for what the OFT consider a TRUE COPY. and also query the lack of an exact credit limit. there is just a space for the applicants signature. it had a reference number, a few serial numbers dotted around, NATWEST and my name and address printed on it, the rest was all filled in by my handwriting(its awful and unmistakably mine!!). i probably already stated this but i have dated it 17-10-03 and someone at the bank has stamped it right at the top on 21-10-03 and they have also printed thier name there. am guessing that constitutes a signature on thier behalf. apart from the fact that it obviously came direct from natwest it looks like the sort of form i used to get through my door weekly and also fell out of every magazine i picked up for a time!!!

[citizenB]

Yes, send a subject access request for all information that the bank has in respect of any and all accounts you have ever had with them.

 

Creditors are playing silly b*ggers at the moment and finding all sorts of reasons for not supplying the information within the statutory time which is 40 calendar days from when they receive your request.

 

One of the reasons they give for not supplying is the lack of signature. Do make sure you either use a tamper proof signature strip or sign over a grid of

 

XXXXXXXXXXX

XXXXXXXXXXX's that are in a lighter colour than the pen you are using ..

 

HTH

[citizenB]

As far as signing documents by the bank.. it is apparently accepted practice that they can use a stamp

[hillards]

thank you for your help. is it worth sending them a SAR request?!

In my book you should SAR the original creditor, and not the debt collection company. NatWest may say they no longer have any record of the account, but they may be able to provide printouts of your account to show what the debt consists of. If there are charges for an overdraft, or for bouncing direct debits, then you may be able to claim those back.

 

I would want to know the original balance from that SAR, and then get a full statement of account from Lewis Group (aka Howard Cohen, CL Finance and other names they use) to see how much you have paid over the years and how much they have slapped on to the account to finance their staff Christmas party and so on.

 

It sounds like they have not been able to find a signed CCA document, but an application. Some people have managed to negate the requirement to pay their debt with this, but I'm no expert in that area.

 

If you took the account out in late 2003 and have been paying for 'the last couple of years, then it's possible there wasn't a period of 6 years where you made no payment so the stat barred option isn't going to work.

 

Cohen have a habit of going to court and trying to get a judgement by default so be prepared to make a defence if they issue proceedings.

[firstship]

There had to be 6 clear years when you did not make any payments or acknowledge the debt.

 

An SAR being Natwest will only produce 6 years of statements so it would be worthwhile you obtaining at least 2 missing years 2005/2006 you have 2007 onwards,is this correct?

You will then determine payments and maybe charges etc this will also confirm 6years SB or not

 

CL etc producing Agreement/Application Form T&Cs even though you doubt little areas of the Agreement,in a Court of Law the Judge will accept those items along with proof that you used their money

and made payments,little chance of winning this as it stands.Unless you are 100% sure the SB is safe as indicated by dx100uk.

 

Regards FS

[offtherails155]

thanks for everyones help and info. i think i am going to send a SAR and as long as the information backs up what they have already sent me then i will make them an offer and commence paying it off. am guessing any court will say they have acted 'unfavourably', but not 'illegally'. which on its own makes no real difference and just ends up costing more money for no benefit. whilst i am awaiting a SAR response do they have to hang fire on everything and wait til they have complied before taking anything further?

[BRIGADIER2JCS]

Yes, better to have all the data in front of you I think.