Cabot/Reston claimform - old Citi card 'debt'***Claim Discontinued***

[groatgrabber]

Hi All,

 

Some Background...

 

I had a Citi card some years ago,

things went pretty difficult for me financially and I was paying £1 a month to them.

Eventually Citi stopped taking the payments and that was the end of that.

 

In 2011 I received a letter from Cabot saying their client Opus Credit Card had transferred this account to them and I should pay them.

I sent several letters to Cabot at the time trying to get information about the account and stating I had never held an Opus card

but no further information was forthcoming, the last letter I sent was August 2012.

 

Fast forward to 22nd December 2014 and I receive a claim from from Restons on behalf of Cabot

stating they are claiming overdue balance due from me under a 'contract' between me and Opus dated on or around 31st October 2008.

 

 

I have no doubt the claim was made at this time of year in the hope it would not be received in time for me to respond

and I would therefore end up with a judgement due to not responding.

 

 

I sent a defence in stating that I had not heard from the claimant in over two years and that I had never held an Opus card,

no Judgement has been made and no court dates set.

 

 

I have since found out on the internet that Citi sold the card business to Opus in November 2010,

which does not agree with the date they claim I took out the Opus card.

 

Since then I have received a couple of holding letters from them stating they are attempting to get a copy of the agreement.

 

 

Today I received another letter from them stating they are still waiting for the agreement

but wish to settle the matter amicably and have offered to reduce the £2920 balance to a far smaller £2550 if I pay a one off payment (neither is affordable),

they then go on to suggest a Tomlin Order as an alternative method of paying.

 

 

It might just be my opinion but amicable doesn't cover sending court claims on top of Christmas having not contacted you for over two years.

 

So what next?

 

 

Send a S77/78 letter and use that as a holding pattern while I explore my options further or should I just pay them?

 

I've had no notices of assignment from anywhere that I know of and the only default notices were from Cabot in 2011/2.

 

Can someone offer some advice please.

[dx100uk]

so the claim is stayed

until/unless they find the signed CCA [fat chance for a citi card of that date]

and the correct T+C's it remains stayed.

 

 

they can send all the letters they like

 

 

the next move is theirs

pay the fee and file to lift the stay.

then the court will write and tell you so.

 

 

till then, its hamster fodder they'll send you

or they might just discontinue the claim.

 

 

for completeness

 

 

can you post up the defence you filed [minus pers info] and anwer these questions

and post the Q&A back to this thread..

 

 

http://www.consumeractiongroup.co.uk/forum/showthread.php?419198-You-have-received-a-Claim-What-you-need-to-do.-**UPDATED-December-2014**

 

 

dx

[groatgrabber]

Hi Dx,

 

Claim below:

 

How much of the claim do you dispute?

 

 

I dispute the full amount claimed as shown on the claim form.

 

 

Do you dispute this claim because you have already paid it?

 

 

No, for other reasons.

 

 

Defence

 

 

1. There is no contract between myself and Opus Credit Card, I

have never held an Opus card and have no intention of ever doing

so.

2. The last contact I have record of between myself and Cabot

regarding this alleged account is 19th August 2012, there have

been no communications either way since then and no therefore no

opportunity to resolve this matter prior to the claimant wasting

the courts time with a frivolous suit.

 

 

 

Signed

 

 

I am the Defendant - I believe that the facts stated in this form are true

24/12/2014

 

 

 

I will answer the other questions in my next post.

[groatgrabber]

Name of the Claimant ? - Cabot

 

Date of issue – 22/12/2014

 

What is the claim for

The Claimant claims payment of the overdue balance due from the Defendant(s)

under a contract between the Defendant(s) and Opus Credit Card dated on or about Oct 31 2008

and assigned to the Claimant on Apr 28 2011 in the sum of 2920.25

 

PARTICULARS a/c no 000...........

 

DATE ITEM VALUE

28/11/2014 Default Balance 2920.25

Post Refrl Cr NIL

TOTAL 2920.25

 

What is the value of the claim? - £3105.25

 

Is the claim for a current account (Overdraft) or credit/loan account or mobile phone account? - Credit Card

 

When did you enter into the original agreement before or after 2007? - Probably, don't know for sure and have no documentation

 

Has the claim been issued by the original creditor or was the account assigned and it is the Debt purchaser who has issued the claim. - Debt Purchaser has Issued the claim via Solicitors

 

Were you aware the account had been assigned – did you receive a Notice of Assignment? - No notice of assignment that I recall, only letters from Cabot demanding payment.

 

Did you receive a Default Notice from the original creditor? - Not that I can recall.

 

Have you been receiving statutory notices headed “Notice of Default sums” – at least once a year ? - No, there was a gap of over two years between last letter and claim

 

Why did you cease payments? - They were set up on a direct debit and that stopped being claimed by Citi.

 

What was the date of your last payment? - Unknown, Definitely before November 2010 likely to be mid to late 2009

 

Was there a dispute with the original creditor that remains unresolved? - No

 

Did you communicate any financial problems to the original creditor and make any attempt to enter into a debt management plan? Yes, was paying £1 per month to Citi.

[dx100uk]

pop off to noddle listed below and get your credit file

 

 

that should tell you when you took the card out.

 

 

dx

[groatgrabber]

According to Noddle the account was taken out on 31st October 2008

[WelshMam2009]

According to Noddle the account was taken out on 31st October 2008

 

Are there any closed accounts on Noddle that correspond to the same date?

Is the Citi card debt shown on there?

[groatgrabber]

No, there are no others for the same date and the Citi Card is not there

[letsgetitsorted]

I also had a claim from Restons, that has been stayed for quite a few months now, occasionally i will get a letter from them with an offer of reduced payment, or even a letter asking me to withdrawer my defence. now i just ignore them and wait until i get something from the court to say otherwise....in 6 months time the debt will become SB anyway....was also a credit card with hefty fees and charges and an iffy agreement.

[dx100uk]

cant become sb'd if a claimform was issued.

the clock stalls on the date on the form

 

 

dx

[dx100uk]

Are there any closed accounts on Noddle that correspond to the same date?

Is the Citi card debt shown on there?

 

 

so they could put forwaed a recon agreement

strange they've not done so

 

 

dx

[groatgrabber]

Probably for the same reason Cabot didn't back in 2011 when I asked for information, they don't have any.

[AndyOrch]

Can only reconstitute if they have the original data to hand.

[groatgrabber]

So do I need to do anything at the moment? I haven't yet sent a Section 77/78 letter, is it worth me doing so?

[dx100uk]

If you have not sent the claimant a CCA request then won't hurt to do so

 

DX

[groatgrabber]

I'll get that done then.

 

Thanks

[groatgrabber]

As it turns out I sent them a S77/78 request on 30th June 2011,

 

 

I have just finished going through my files on this.

 

 

So in four and a half years they have not been able to provide a copy of my credit card agreement.

 

 

They keep sending letters in the hope I will be daft enough to pay this off to protect my credit file, it's a bit late for that unfortunately.

 

I am tempted to write to the court with a copy of the letter I sent in 2011

and ask them to strike out the claim

but not sure whether the request would count as grounds for a strike out. Any suggestions?

[AndyOrch]

No ...you must submit a defence by the date stated.

 

Andy

[dx100uk]

opps wrong thread sorry

 

 

dx

[dx100uk]

defence due by 4pm tomorrow

 

 

dx

[dx100uk]

post 41 here is useful

adapt to your details mind!

 

 

post it here first before filing

 

 

http://www.consumeractiongroup.co.uk/forum/showthread.php?438725-Claimform-Cabot-Restons-old-CITI-card-debt

[groatgrabber]

Hi Dx,

 

My intent is to submit this as a supplement to the defence seeing as the claim was lodged in 2014.

 

 

It looks like this claim was in the same batch of claims that Restons put through as the member who wrote this defence originally.

 

 

On going through my files I found the S78 dated 22/06/2011 that I sent and also a CPR 31.14 from 16/01/2015 that I sent to the solicitors straight after the claim.

 

 

On all letters I used a script font to 'sign' the letter so that my signature cannot be forged to a set of T's and C's. Not that it should be because there never was an Opus account to my knowledge.

 

Thanks so much for the help with this.

 

--- Letter Starts---

 

Dear Sir or Madam,

 

Re: Claim Number XXXXXXXX

 

I am the defendant in this case. Please find below additional supporting information and statements in support of the registered defence regarding the above referenced claim.

 

Particulars of Claim

 

1. The Claimant claims payment of the overdue balance due from the Defendant(s) under a contract between the Defendant(s) and Opus Credit Card dated on or about Oct 31 2008 and assigned to the Claimant on Apr 28 2011 in the sum of 2XXX

 

 

2. PARTICULARS a/c no XXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXX

 

3.

DATE ITEM VALUE

28/11/2014 Default Balance 2XXX

Post Refrl Cr NIL

TOTAL 2XXX

 

Defence

 

1. The Defendant contends that the particulars of claim are vague and generic in nature. The Defendant accordingly sets out its case below and relies on CPR r 16.5 (3) in relation to any particular allegation to which a specific response has not been made.

 

2.Paragraph 1 is denied with regards to an amount due under an agreement referred to in the Particulars of Claim ('a contract'). The claimant has yet to provide a copy of the agreement as per the Defendant's section 78 dated Jun 22 2011 and remains in default of said request. Further, the defendant has never held an account with Opus Credit Card as made clear in the registered defence.

 

3. Not only has the defendant never held an account with Opus Credit Card, the defendant remains unaware of any legal assignment or Notice of Assignment allegedly served in 2011 or any other year by either the Claimant or Opus Credit Card .

 

4. It is therefore denied with regards to the Defendant owing any monies to the Claimant, the Claimant has failed to provide any evidence of assignment/balance/breach requested by CPR 31. 14, therefore the Claimant is put to strict proof to:

 

(a) show how the Defendant has entered into an agreement with the Claimant; and

(b) show how the Defendant has reached the amount claimed for; and

© show how the Claimant has the legal right, either under statute or equity to issue a claim;

 

5. On receipt of this claim the defendant requested by way of a CPR 31.14 request copies of any documents referred to within the Claimants particulars to establish what the claim is for. With regards to said CPR 31.14 request the defendant has received three letters from the Solicitors acting for the Claimant, the latest dated Jul 26 2015, informing the defendant that they are awaiting documents from their client. Subsequent letters received from the Claimant’s Solicitor show no reference to the aforementioned requests.

 

6. As per Civil Procedure Rule 16.5(4), it is expected that the Claimant prove the allegation that the money is owed.

 

7. On the alternative, as the Claimant is an assignee of a debt, it is denied that the Claimant has the right to lay a claim due to contraventions of Section 136 of the Law of Property Act and Section 82A of the Consumer Credit Act 1974.

 

8. By reasons of the facts and matters set out above, it is denied that the Claimant is entitled to the relief claimed or any relief.

 

 

Yours sincerely

 

 

--- Letter Ends ---

[groatgrabber]

yesterday I sent the letter to Northampton County Court as above and then today I receive a letter from Restons with a Notice of Discontinuance.

 

Looks like this is pause for now at least. Looking at my credit file the first recording of default by Cabot was March 2011 so just another year for statute bar to fall into place. Same goes for the other alleged account they are chasing.

[Still_surviving]

Do not assume that the default date on your credit file is actually the date that your account was put in default - often there can be many months between the default notice being issued and a default being registered with the credit agencies.

 

There was seven months difference on two of my accounts, and many others have had big differences between the two dates.

[groatgrabber]

You're right, I'm sure it will be earlier but the only recording of this account on my experian / noddle file is from Cabot and their record starts in March 2011 with the account already being in default. At least if I work from that I have a provable basis to work from.