Backdoor Lowell CCJ for Card debt - Now Warrant of control

[dizzyblonde1966]

Hi guys,

Im hoping someone will be able to help me , 2 issues really, first one is he has no idea what its for and secondly its in the wrong name

 

These are the details

 

One of my friends has received a notice of issue of warrant of control with a total of £172.25 to pay with a further £230 balance outstanding ,

The notice was issued in in the county court business centre and the creditor is lowells

 

Does that mean its a business debt they are chasing or a personal debt ? he has never had a business and doesnt have any personal debt that hes aware of

 

The is genuinely the first he has heard of any debt, and he doesnt know of any ccj"s ,

 

However as well as those issues which he will now have to get to the bottom of,

they have used his middle name instead of his first name on the warrant of control , which is very odd,

cause surely if there was an old debt he has forgotton about ,

surely it would be in his original birth name as thats still his official name,

 

He is known to his friends under his middle name as he prefers that name ,

but on all his official documents ie his passport.licence , bank account etc hes known as his birth name

 

Hes really worried the bailiffs will call and take his belongings before he can get to the bottom of this

 

He doesnt have funds to pay for a set aside,

 

Does he have to fill in form N245 and apply for feee exemption or does he just call lowells and question what its all about and why the name is wrong etc

 

Any help much appreciated

[dx100uk]

no northants is the std court for consumer credit 'debt'

 

so bailiffs have been involved

hence the warrant

hence the 'fee'

 

first port of call would be to call northants bulk and findout what this is all about

if its genuinely not his debt tell them so

 

might be an idea to go get his credit file

make sure all his old addresses show.

noddle below is free

 

 

dx

[Bailiff Advice]

Hi guys,

Im hoping someone will be able to help me , 2 issues really, first one is he has no idea what its for and secondly its in the wrong name

 

These are the details

 

One of my friends has received a notice of issue of warrant of control with a total of £172.25 to pay with a further £230 balance outstanding ,

The notice was issued in in the county court business centre and the creditor is lowells

 

Does that mean its a business debt they are chasing or a personal debt ? he has never had a business and doesnt have any personal debt that hes aware of. The is genuinely the first he has heard of any debt, and he doesnt know of any ccj"s ,

 

However as well as those issues which he will now have to get to the bottom of, they have used his middle name instead of his first name on the warrant of control , which is very odd, cause surely if there was an old debt he has forgotton about , surely it would be in his original birth name as thats still his official name,

 

He is known to his friends under his middle name as he prefers that name, but on all his official documents ie his passport.licence , bank account etc hes known as his birth name

 

He's really worried the bailiffs will call and take his belongings before he can get to the bottom of this. He doesnt have funds to pay for a set aside,

 

Does he have to fill in form N245 and apply for feee exemption or does he just call lowells and question what its all about and why the name is wrong etc

 

You have raised a number of different point and I will attempt to answer as many:

 

In the first instance, he must contact either the court or Lowells to find out what this relates to. There should be contact details for Lowell on the documentation. If he does speak with Lowells he should not admit to the debt over the phone as it is possible that the debt is statute barred.

 

The debt itself may be for only a small amount of money but unless your friend is either able to pay or to have the judgment set aside he need to know that this judgment will be on his credit file for 6 years. If he did not know about the matter then the correct course of action is to apply on an N244 to 'set aside' the judgment.

 

The N245 is to 'vary the court order' and apply to have the debt repaid over a short period of time. Either application carries a court fee. If your friend is in receipt of certain state benefits he may qualify for exemption from paying the court fee. He needs to look at the court form EX160.

 

On the matter of the wrong name...it is best to wait to see the outcome from his phone enquiries.

 

Please do post back once he has made the relevant enquiries.

[dizzyblonde1966]

Thanks guys, much appreciated

I will get back with more info once we have it

[dizzyblonde1966]

Hi Guys,

Bit of an update,

 

It appears that this is a debt from about 8 years ago for a credit card

He has not acknowledged it or paid anything on it for at least 8 years, hence the reason he had forgot all about it ,

It turns out a ccj was granted last year as no defence was submitted , ( he never received any paperwork)

The first he has heard is this warrant,

 

The debt would have been stat barred,

 

I have just done a few quick calculations re his income etc , and its very unlikely he will qualify for fee exemption to set aside the judgement , so he will have to pay the court fee . is it £155 ?

 

The dilemma now is, does he borrow the money from family/friends and pay to have the ccj set aside,

If he wins the set aside, does he get the court fee back? as the fee to have it set aside is not much cheaper than the debt itself of £230

 

Or does he borrow the money /try and arrange a payment plan with the bailiffs to pay the debt and the bailiff fees and then go about trying to reclaim it all back ? or does that undo his stat barred/no paperwork received defence

 

Hes really worried the baliffs will come knocking and hes got children in the house and he doesnt want to face a confrontation in front of them,

[Bailiff Advice]

Well done for finding out so much about the debt.

 

There are experts on here that can answer your queries about the debt being statutue barred and they will no doubt look in during the day.

 

On the letter is there a date by when payment should be made?

[citizenB]

Can you confirm that the debt was statute barred at the time the claim was issued.

 

If he makes any payments, it wont undo the fact that it is statute barred, however, he will have a hell of a time getting his money back.

 

I will alert others on the site team with more knowledge, however I would think what you would need to do is to download the N244 form and make the application to set aside based on the fact that.

 

1: - no papers were ever received.

2: - that at the time of the claim being issued, the debt was statute barred and the company would have been aware of this.

[dizzyblonde1966]

Hi guys,

Thanks for quick response

 

Yes the debt would have been stat barred at the time of claim issue

 

The warrant letter is dated 29th June and says total to pay before 13th July is £172.25 (which im guessing is the bailiffs fees)

 

with a balance outstanding after payment of the warrant of £230

 

 

 

Thanks

[dx100uk]

if he is lucky he might get his fee back if theres proof it was SB'd by the time the claimform was issued

and ofcourse have nothing to pay even the bailiff fees.

 

 

the debt did not exist

[typical Lowell trick to issue to an old address

then magically find the real one when its bailiff time

 

 

you need to complain about this , that might get the set aside fee waived too.

 

 

I think its happened a couple if times of recent on here

[citizenB]

Here you go. I have added the Statute Barred defence at the end for you.

 

Set a side is a must....if he can agree with lowell to consent then there is no hearing and the fee would be £55. It is important to tell Lowell the reasons and make them aware that the debt was statute barred before they litigated....and even if they refuse to consent then a hearing will go ahead. A draft defence of statute barred needs to be attached to the N244 ...and costs requested within the application.

 

 

Statute Barred defence

 

 

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 Act 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:

 

 

[ploddertom]

You could speak to Lowells first telling them it is SB & you want it Set Aside. If they refuse then put simply apply for Set Aside & also claim Court costs & out of pocket expenses for the day - travel, earnings lost although this has a maximum ceiling, etc.

[dizzyblonde1966]

Thanks guys, much appreciated

will keep the thread updated of progress

[dizzyblonde1966]

Here you go. I have added the Statute Barred defence at the end for you.

Statute Barred defence

 

You could speak to Lowells first telling them it is SB & you want it Set Aside. If they refuse then put simply apply for Set Aside & also claim Court costs & out of pocket expenses for the day - travel, earnings lost although this has a maximum ceiling, etc.

 

Got a bit of an update,

looks like no option but for set aside ,

going to file it in court tomm, (sorry for the long post, but its quiet humorous in parts )

 

Spoke to bw legal today who acted on behalf of lowells, to see if they would consent to a set aside/suspend the warrant

without the unnecessary hassle and extra expense of filing an n244 set aside application

 

I Spoke to a lady employee after my friend had passed all his security/data protection and passed the phone to me ,

she wasnt very helpfull, although she claimed she was trying to help (by claiming it wasnt stat barred ) more on this later

 

At one point she sought advice from a senior member of staff, and still came back saying they were refusing consent

 

she confirmed the account was defaulted in feb 2009

The account was assigned to Lowells in 2011

 

I advised my friend had received no paperwork/court claim and was applying for a set aside, a

nd that in any event the account was stat barred and if he had received the paperwork that would have been his defence he would have used

 

I advised the name on the court warrant was also wrong,

she tried saying it was just a spelling mistake,

so I advised her that 2 totally different first names is not simply a spelling mistake

 

she claimed it will be for my friend to prove its not him on the warrant under the wrong name

and she still isnt consenting to suspend the warrant ,

 

 

I asked why is it our responsibility, its their mistake not his,

so why couldnt she simply get the correct name details from their client lowells,

she still didnt want to admit it was the wrong name and said that wasnt an option (or words to that effect )

 

I asked if she had any info on his last payment on the account, she said she didnt have that info

 

She said she could see on their notes/file though that my friend had returned a missed call in April 2014

and went thorough data protection and admitted laibility on the phone,

(my friend claims he never spoke to anyone )

 

I pushed her for more info,

I asked what his exact words of admission/liability were,

she said she didnt know as she didnt have that info in front of her,

to which I replied so why are you claiming he admitted liability then if you dont know what was said?

 

she replied with well there is no note saying hes disputing it,?

how bizzare,

since when did that become an admission,

in any event it would have already been stat barred in april 2014

 

 

thats the gist of it so far,

I was hopimg they would consent ,

but they wont,.so now its going to cost him £155 to file the n244,

 

How does he go about claiming it back, hes left with no option but apply for the set aside as bw legal didnt want to help resolve

 

My friend has spoken to the bailiff and advised of the set aside being submitted tommorrow,

who was really nice on the phone and said no problem

and advised him that as soon as he has filed the set aside application tommorrow

can he ring back so he can check with the court that he has applied for a set aside ,

 

So at least my friend hasnt got the worry of the bailiffs coming now,

but he does want to seek costs from BW legal /lowells for them giving him no option

but to file the n244 and the cost associated with it

 

Can someone please advise accordingly

Thanks

[ploddertom]

List the fact you are claiming the fee back - if successful in both 3 & listed again in 10 on the Form. If I can make a suggestion it may be a good idea to ask someone to have a look at your Form before you submit it.

[dx100uk]

and just for your ref

you CANNOT ack a debt over the phone.

 

 

dx