HL/Sigma- Claim Discontinued-Wasted Costs Order? [Skem's Story]

[SkemDosser]

Just thought I'd get this going to update things.

 

Background: along with a good number of other people on here, back in July I received a claim form from HL/Sigma for £299 + costs- an arbitary claim for interest only since their purchase of the debt in Dec 11. The account was an old M&S personal Reserve which entered dispute Dec 08, about £3k outstanding.

 

I have now received an N279 Notice of Discontinuance from HL informing me the client no longer wishes to proceed with the claim and the court will be duly notified. With the usual exemplary help of the site team and fellow community on here I personally pursued the following strategy:

 

1] sent a CCA request straight away to HL. They eventually responded with an illegible app form and nothing else of any standing. This put the account into dispute again with HL. I then sent in a CPUTR request- no response at all to that.

 

2] Acknowledged the claim and submitted CPR 31.14 and 18 requests. Received no response from them at all regarding these either.

 

3] Submitted a succinct defence based on the excellent one Andy provided on here.

 

4] Offered HL the opportunity to discontinue in a letter, pointing out the lack of any kosher paperwork to back up their claim, the fact that their claim is an abuse of process anyway under s35 of County courts Act 1984 Division of courses of action and, to boot, in all likelihood an invailid claim anyway under the County Courts [interest on judgments] Order 1991 rule 2[3][a].

 

5] Submitted a complaint to the SRA regarding above and a letter to the Court Manager outlining similar.

 

The upshot has been, eventually, a Notice of Discontinuance which is a good result, as I was fully expecting a drift into a stay and then the palaver of applying for a strike out etc. My personal circumstances may have helped- I'm on a low income and don't have much in the way of assets which I repeatedly made clear to them- but nonetheless hopefully encouragement for others dealing with this batch of claims The whole exercise is clearly a fishing trip to see what they can shake out of the system- the trick is for us who are empowered enough to see this exercise for what it is, to wind it all up as expediently as possible in our favour.

 

Now I've got to get together a wasted costs order. Does any one have any idea what the best strategy for this is please? Is it best to first approach the claimant directly with a Bill of Costs and see what thier response is, before going through the Court? New territory for me this...

 

[estimated costs about £450 at the mo' plus postage and printing etc]

[42man]

Skem i'm no expert on these but these links might give you a bit more insight

 

http://www.consumeractiongroup.co.uk/forum/showthread.php?134172#post1805020

 

http://www.consumeractiongroup.co.uk/forum/showthread.php?163222#post2171743