County Court claim issued by Restons/Cabot/Argos

[irot]

Hello all,

 

First of all, I would like to just say yes, it is a debt I should have paid, and it's a crappy defence but I was a student who desperately needed a bed to sleep on at the time.

 

I took out an Argos card sometime in 2005/2006 (the date on the County Court claim says 09/01/2006) and subsequently moved (several times - I was a student for quite some time), got married, forgot about it. Recently, I had been receiving letters from various different debt agencies, in my maiden name, for this debt, which is £253.55. I ignored them as I believed it to be time barred.

 

So, last week I received a County Court claim, which turned out to be genuine. I hastily submitted a generic defence stating that the debt was time barred.

 

Today, I received a letter from Restons Solicitors, who appear to have taken the debt from Cabot Financial, who took the debt from Argos.

 

They claim the last payment received towards the account was on 01/03/2009, which is within six years. I knew that there was no way that was accurate, so checked my bank account - luckily I've had the same account for some time. There is no payment anywhere near this date. My records are available back to August 2007 and there are no payments whatsoever.

 

They have asked me to withdraw my defence or they will strike it out and seek an order that I pay the client's legal costs on an indemnity basis.

 

My question is, how do I deal with this now, since I can't submit any further defence online through MoneyClaim? Could I write Reston's direct, or is that inadvisable?

 

Any help would be greatly appreciated.

[AndyOrch]

Hi irot and welcome to CAG

 

Ignore them they respond to everyone with a phantom payment when a Statute barred defence is submitted and then threaten strike out summary judgment costs and they will shoot your dog if you do not withdraw.

 

Just proceed.

 

Andy

[irot]

Hi Andy,

 

Many thanks for your reply. I'll do that! I just wobbled slightly as they said in the letter they noticed I didn't submit specific details of the defence. Incidentally, what happens now I've submitted my defence? I just wait for the CC to review it?

 

Thanks again.

[AndyOrch]

If you could type out detail of the claim..particulars/ claimant/ and the defence you submitted (verbatim less any identifiable data).If CCBC Northampton have processed it then it must be acceptable

[irot]

Particulars of claim:

 

The Claimant claims payment of the overdue balance due from the Defendant(s) under a contract between the Defendant(s) and Arg Card Services Ltd dated on or about 09/01/2006 and assigned to the claimant on 02/11/2007 in the sum of 253.55. Particulars - account no, Date: 30/06/2014

Default balance 253.55

Post Refrl Cr NIL

TOTAL: 253.55

 

My defence was the following, with added details (ie amount) where appropriate:

 

1 The Claimant's claim was issued on (date).

 

2 The Claimant contends that the Claimant's claim so issued is a claim in contract and is statute barred pursuant to the provisions of section 5 of the limitation action 1980. If, which is denied, the claimant contends that the Defendant is in breach of the alleged contract, in excess of 6 years have elapsed since the date on which any cause of action for breach accrued for the benefit of the Claimant.

 

3 The Claimant's claim to be entitled to payment of £x or any other sum, or relief of any kind is denied.

 

I BELIEVE THAT THE CONTENTS OF THIS DEFENCE ARE TRUE.

 

Signed:

 

 

 

The letter I received was:

 

Dear Madam

 

RE:

 

We write in respect of the above matter.

 

The Court has served us with a copy of the Defence you filed whereby you dispute your liability to the Claimant on the basis that you believe the Claim is statute barred under Section 5 of the Limitation Act 1980. We note, however, that you have provided no information/evidence of when you believe the limitation period commenced, nor have you provided any details of when you believe you last made a payment towards the debt or when you last acknowledged your liability for the debt.

 

In any event, the information we have received from our Client is that the last payment received towards your account was on 01/03/2009 which is within 6 years of these proceedings having been issued. In the circumstances, we entirely disagree with your assertion that the Claim is statute barred and therefore believe your Defence has no prospect of success.

 

In view of the above, we now invite you to withdraw your Defence by completing the enclosed Form N9A and returning it to this office within the next 14 days. In the event that the Defence is not withdrawn, our instructions may be to make an application to strike out your Defence/for Summary Judgment and to seek an Order that you pay our Client's legal costs associated with that application on a contractual (indemnity) basis.

 

We look forward to hearing from you further.

 

Yours faithfully,

Restons Solicitors.

 

 

They didn't actually enclose form N9A either.

[AndyOrch]

Excellent...its not for you to prove it Statute Barred but for them to prove its not....ignore the above and sit tight...you can bring the above to the courts attention how they are trying to miss lead you with false information and phantom payments to overcome the Statute of Limitations.

 

Yours is the 4th I have seen in 2 weeks.

[irot]

Wow, companies are really trying their luck! How would I bring this to the court's attention - just post them a copy of the letter with the case reference? There doesn't seem to be an option to submit any more documents or details through the moneyclaim.gov website.

 

Thanks again!

[AndyOrch]

You dont need to do anything at this stage irot.You have submitted your defence they have considered....they know that you have caught them out and therefore created the phantom payment...hence the above letter to test you.If you do nothing they either have to inform the court they wish to proceed(which they would be silly to or even perjure themselves or they leave the claim stayed.

 

Should they wish to proceed then you will bring the above to the courts attention within your Witness Statement showing proof of no payments from your account history...therefore they would be rather foolish to continue....sit tight.

 

Andy

[panther12]

I've seen quite a few responses from Rectums but that takes the biscuit.

They are the ones bringing this action and for them to prove their case and to show it's not SB.

 

I note they only say that their instructions "may be" to make app to strike out.

They're normally more cock-sure of themselves and say we "WILL" so looks like they know they haven't a leg to stand on and are just testing you and have no intention of making an application.

 

If you're 100% it's SB and the payment date they quote is BS I would be turning the tables.

If they don't go ahead with their idle threats and you don't want this hanging in limbo with the claim stayed, you might want to consider inviting them to discontinue otherwise you will be making your own application to lift the stay to get the claim kicked out + costs.

[irot]

Thanks for the advice again guys - will let you know when I hear anything more