Safeloans issued Court Summons - please help

[loofyllis1972]

In response, they HAVE issued a court claim, but this was followed up by an email saying that they WOULD be issuing... they appear to be operating out of some parallel universe as they sent me, two days BEFORE the original payment was due in December, a letter headed 'letter 2' that told me I was in default and referred to their letter of two weeks previous! I had only just taken out the loan then!

 

What is the difference between regulated and un-regulated then?

 

And the payment was due to be made over three consecutive months, not all in one go at the end of the month as per most payday loans. Does this make a difference to my defence?

 

Thanks again.

[AndyOrch]

 

What is the difference between regulated and un-regulated then?

 

Thanks again.

 

Hence the link I have posted Loofy

 

Andy

[sillygirl1]

It makes no difference to your defence, they are using court as a first line method of debt collecting, as they are not regulated they are not allowed to do this.

 

The defence above should be written out, and post it here and others will add what is necessary. I just do a basic one as you would be stuck if you went to court and they started arguing Carey v HSBC or one of the Rankine cases.... this is pure exploitation and needs to be stopped.

[akania]

Ok I have a similar situation. i recevied yesterday a letter from Safeloans which was titled Pre Court Issue Final notice. Basically telling me that a defualt will be noted on my account within the next 30 days and if I dont pay the 'reduced amount' within 14 days they will issue a court summons and a county court claim will be made against me.. The supporting paperwork actually looks like its from a court they have titled it NOTICE OF INTENTION stating that they are the claimant. It acutually does look like court paperwork. AND theyve offered to reduce the sum if i pay it now by about 50 quid.

 

Sorry to hijack just thought id ask and show that your not the only person getting these.

[renegadeimp]

They cant do that. Theres a procedure that needs to be followed. Too many PDL's try to imitate court paperwork. I had it myself years ago, however, its all about the wording on it.

 

Report them to the OFT and FOS for bullyign and harassment as they are NOT allowed to do this to you.

 

If you can, scan it into your computer and upload it to the forum.

 

You could even start court proceedings yourself or let them start it, then you can submit a full defense and force them to appear in court in front of a judge.

 

What they are doing is normal behaviour. They are trying to scare you into paying the debt or more than you can afford as repayments. Even if it went to court and you somehow lost the case, youd still only end up with £1-£5 a month as a repayment plan. Most times though they see you submit a defense, think " Oh S*** . He knows his stuff" , then try and settle out of court.

[sillygirl1]

renegadeimp is right, so get complaining and help get this lot stopped.

 

It is very very much against the OFT guidelines on debt collecting to send out paperwork which looks like a court document.

 

Keep the documentation they have sent as the OFT may need it for evidence. You might be asked to give a witness statement and this is perfectly normal for the OFT.

[JadedGirl]

I have also received a "Notice of Legal Action" (with a claim form) from them today for the amount of £600.50. Prior to this I received a similar letter from them several days ago, and what I did was I called their number and talked with a certain Collette(that was April 4) and we agreed on a 4 month plan in exchange for throwing away that CCJ claim and to freeze the interest and charges; also, for them to send me an email confirming our discussion. It is now the 11th and I have not received any email, only a similar letter again. I've just sen them an email regarding this. I've already made £26.00 payment and the girl said it was already deducted from the £600.50. Truth to tell, I'm not going to make any payment without that email. I won't be conned and I won't be scammed!

[renegadeimp]

Do NOT call them. They will say anything on the phone just to get payment info, then they will take whatever they like and say you allowed them to. It's an all too common occurance. As you found out, they agreed on the phone, but wont confirm by email. This is a common thing with phone based agreements. You have zero proof that the agreement was ever put into place.

 

If its possible, could you scan the letter and post it here as an attachment or as part of a new thread, minus any personal info of course? WE can then easily advise on the next course of action for you.

[JadedGirl]

Yup, I will no longer call them. I think they are very good con artists/[problem]mers, really.

Here are excerpts of the letter sent to me :

 

04/04/2012

Dear Miss XXX

 

Re ACCOUNT NO: XXXXX

CURRENT BALANCE OUTSTANDING AS OF TODAY'S DATE : $600.50

 

NOTICE OF LEGAL ACTION

This is formal notice informing we are issuing a County Court Judgement(CCJ) claim against you. If we obtain Judgement against you we may seek to enforce this by the way of Attachment of Earnings Order/Charging Order.

 

County Court Judgement-What does this mean?

When a county court has ordered you to pay an amount of money(called "having judgement entered against you"), details of the judgement will be usually entered on the Register county court judgements(called 'registration').

 

If the debt is paid within one month of the judgement the registration can be cancelled. If the debt is paid after one month, it is possible to apply for the entry in the Register as 'satisfied'. Applications to cancel registration or have the enttry marked as satisfied must be made to the county court and must be accompanied by proof and payment of a small fee.

 

Attachment of Earnings Order-what does this mean?

If you cannot pay your Loan arrears, we can legally apply for an Attachment of Earnings Order against you. This means that we can instruct your employer(employer present or future) to make deductions directly from your salary to pay towards your outstanding arrears. The amounts that can be deducted from your pay will depend on how much you earn.

 

We would prefer to mediate with you to settle this outstanding debt and arrears. This action can be avoided by either settling the outstanding amount immediately or contacting us withing 14 days from the date of this letter with a suitable agreed payment arrangement.

 

Yours sincerely

SAFELOANS Ltd

 

On the 2nd page is a "claim form", which shows the breakdown :

 

Amount claimed 545.50

Court Fee 55.00

Total amount 600.50

 

 

 

PARTICULARS OF CLAIM(attached)(to follow)

The Claimant provided the defendant an agreed credit limit under a running account agreement dated 30 November 2011(short term lending), to the sum of 250. The account has no fixed furation, enabling approved sums to be drawn down up to the credit limit. Each drawdown amountplus interest will be repayable within 30 days fromdraw downdate. the repayment date was 30/01/2012 the Defendant has not given any notice to pay the Claimant early or in part and the accountis still outstanding to the sum of 545.50. The Claimant is also entitled to interest at the rate stated in the terms of the agreement. The Defendant has failed to repay the account.

 

The Claimant claims:

1. The amount of 250.00 laon amount

2. Loan charges/Interest of 295.50

3. The Claimant total claim is 545.50

4. The claimant claims statutory interest at 8% until the date of judgment or settlement, under section 69 of the County Court Act 1984.

 

I've already paid 26.00 and they claim I haven't paid a single cent. I am no loger going to call them for it turns out to be useless(plus I do not wish to incur wasted phone charges).

On the upper right side of the so-called "Claim Form" there is a claim number. Is this for real or what?

 

I would appreciate any advice on this matter. I have had several dealings with lots of payday loan companies and so far most have been helpful(except for this company and 2 other notorious companies).

 

Thanks.

[dx100uk]

can you please scan that letter up:

 

scan the required letters/agreements/sheets

as a picture[jpg] file

or convert them to .PDF

ENSURE:remove all pers info inc barcodes etc using paint program

but leave all figures and dates.

 

goto one of the many free online pdf converter websites

it would be better to upload a multipage pdf

than many single ones

or if you have PDF as an installed printer drive use that

or use word and save as pdf

open a new msg box here

hit go advanced below the msg box

hit manage attachments below that box

hit the add files button on the top right

hit select files, navigate to your file on your pc

hit upload files

NB:you can set where it goes in the post by hitting insert inline.

then hit reply button

dx

[renegadeimp]

Something doesnt feel quite right about that notice.

[JadedGirl]

I mentioned that I sent them an email reminding them that they were supposed to send an email and surprise! surprise! They replied to my email with the following :

 

 

Dear XXXX

 

We are receipt of your e mail and note the contents of your concern in regards to your outstanding loan.

There is a payment plan in place for you to make payments of £150.12 per month until the debt is repaid.

As also previously discussed it was put in place that we would not be obtaining a judgement as long as payments are maintained,there are also no further costs or interest to be added to your account,unless you default on making payments.

The date for your first payment is due on the 30th April,could you please confirm once again how you will be making your payments and what date future payments will be made.

We thank you for your kind attention in this matter.

 

 

Regards Safe Loans

 

I haven't responded as of the moment as I am quite ****ed....if I hadn't sent them an email they wouldn't be sending me an email to confirm the discussion?? How scheming can that be? And how do I know that they've deducted the £26.00 when they haven't mentioned it??

 

If you have any comments(on the letter or email they sent) or advice, I will appreciate it very much.

 

PS will try to scan the letter outside as we don't hav a printer here.

[renegadeimp]

Want me to write out a letter for you that puts them firmly in their place? I've also got a few legal tidbits should they try and add on extra charges/interest

 

Also, scanning that letter and posting it up as suggested above would be VERY helpful.

Edited April 12, 2012 by renegadeimp

[mjds]

Just a bit of info from my point of view. I had all the notice of intention letters referred to above however I have actually received the claim forms from Northampton County Court so I would expect them to follow. I have lodged my defence along with my email trail which was all ignored (my amount borrowed was £300 however they claim £778.50 having ignored all my emails and refused to provide account breakdowns). I am expecting judgement shortly so will let you know how it goes (I did use some of the terminology used earlier in this thread so thanks very much to the poster for that)One thing about safeloans is clear - they are happy to issue court forms but it can't be too long before the judges start pulling them up on their shoddy behaviour and abuse of process...hopefully I receive a decent judgementFor what its worth I did have an email from Vaneese Tucker in their so called litigation department offering to settle the £778.50 over 4 months. I'd rather take my side with a judge and see how it goes, although i still don't have too much confidence in the legal system when it comes to dealing with shocking payday loan co's

[renegadeimp]

Make sure you put a defense against all the claim and make sure you turn up to the court. Doing this will force the PDL to send a representative out. You could even apply for mediation which 99% of the time makes the PDL back off and roll over themselves in an attempt to settle out of court.

[loofyllis1972]

Just to update, I have filed the acknowledgement of service with the court, and am taking advantage of the extra 14 days to prepare my defence. In the interim, I have had a letter from 'Vanessa Tucker' offering to mediate as they don't want to go ahead with court proceedings if they can reach an agreement! I have tried to do that for the last two months! Surely they can't stop the process now anyway?

 

Am going to start preparing my defence over the weekend, but to be honest am feeling pretty downhearted and overwhelmed with it all... a lot of personal stuff going on and this is the proverbial straw...

 

If I put up my defence, can someone glance over it and tell me if I am going in the right direction? And also, will I actually have to attend court if I defend this claim? The thought terrifies me....

 

Thanks again for all your help.

[havinastella]

Your defence was already posted!

[renegadeimp]

They're trying to worm their way out of it, hopin.g you'll agree. Stick with it and force these **** into court to explain themselves. Good luck.

 

As for court, theres no need to be scared. It's not a criminal one. Nobodies going to shout at you. It's your chance to show a judge the evidence and put forward any counter to anything the other party has said. The PDL hopes you won't turn up, so they can try and get an easy win.

 

The reason the pdl is trying to settle out of court is because theyvknow they'll lose if you turn up with the evidence.

 

 

As for your defense, feel free to post it, but edit out personal info. You never know who is reading these forums.

[sillygirl1]

I would say you need to file the defence first and THEN say you want the court to mediate, that is the best way, otherwise you could end up with a judgement by default 'by accident'. This lot play a close game so make sure you cover your bases.

 

Once the defence is filed then an allocation questionnaire is sent to you, it costs you nothing to file this and it costs them £80.00... something I think they forget when they choose court as the first line option.

 

I am about this weekend if you want help but I have already suggested the defence you should file, do not fall into the trap of putting in 'legal stuff' as you will not be able to counter argue should it come to court if the other side start throwing in 'Rankine' or 'McGuffick' cases. Stick to the facts and it might get dismissed by the court as having no merit. Once it gets to AQ stage then you can ask the court for mediation with a proper mediator who will go into this case in detail - it will show them up and be a black mark against them.

 

I would write a short note to Ms Tucker stating that you are filing a defence and want to mediate via the court with a properly trained mediator, rather than be bullied by them.

[sillygirl1]

The court will not be a ful court, it will be held in a room with you, the judge and the other sides representative, that is it, please do not be terrified of the prospect, this is YOUR chance to state your case and show this lot up for the moneygrabbing opportunists they are.

[Chezmum]

The court will not be a ful court, it will be held in a room with you, the judge and the other sides representative, that is it, please do not be terrified of the prospect, this is YOUR chance to state your case and show this lot up for the moneygrabbing opportunists they are.

Hi everyone new to this

In the same boat really recieved a notice of legal action

Letter plus what looks like to be a photocopied

Letter that says claim form anyone tell me

What this is

Thanks

[freakyleaky]

Hi Chezmum. Have you got your own thread running concerning this?

If not then can you start your own thread and give some more details?

Maybe post the letter minus any identifying details?

[loofyllis1972]

Rather than get completely bogged down, I have drafted this defence. I have to confess I was somewhat confused by some of the stuff earlier on, so have tried to keep it as simple as possible, so I understand what I am arguing. Hope this makes sense.

 

On xxx date I borrowed xxx from Safeloans company which is a payday loan company, offering short term loans at 2692.8% apr.

 

On 31.12.2011 I failed to repay the full amount of the loan due but did try to come to an arrangement with the company to repay £20 per month until my situation improved. I received no response. I enclose copies of all correspondence, both received and sent, to date.

 

I admit that I am liable for the original loan amount and one months interest thereon of £229.25.

 

The additional charges and interest are not listed so I do not know how they have calculated these.

 

This is a statement of truth by xxx on 23.04.2012.

 

Should I add anything else? Does that sound suitable? Would be grateful for any advice.

[loofyllis1972]

Should I put something in about the claim being 'vexatious and litigious', or will that not really be necessary?

[sillygirl1]

Nope, that is fine, leave it at that, don't put a link in a defence as they will not be able to read it.

 

The shorter you keep the defence the less 'legal stuff' they will be able to argue back and the judge will probably look more favourably on you for not 'padding' the defence with bits of legislation which may be irrelevant to the primary facts of the claim.