Lowell Solicitors Letter of Claim - Shop Direct account

[LR712]

Hi,

 

First time that I've ever posted so bear with me.

 

I have recently received a letter of claim from Lowell Solicitors stating the following.

 

"We have not heard from you regarding your Shop Direct account and are instructed by our client, Lowell Portfolio I Ltd, to commence Legal Action and issue a Claim against you in the County Court Bulk Centre (CCBC) in respect of this debt.

 

You must contact us or make arrangements to pay within the next 14 days or a Claim will be issued without further notice to you. If a claim is issued you will become for futher Court Fees, Solicitor's costs and interest which are estimated below:

 

Current Balance £3171.33

Estimated Interest £253.71

Estimated Court Fee £185.00

Estimated Solicitor Costs £80.00

Estimated Total £3690.04"

 

Then goes on to say about failure to respond may result in a CCJ.Any advice on what should i do?

 

Thanks

[citizenB]

Righto, so this is a letter to say they are considering legal action against you and not an actual claim, yes ?

 

Do you know what this is about ?

 

Have you received previous communication from Lowell or their agents ?

 

This would be way of a Notice of Assignment, advising the account has been sold/assigned to Lowell.

 

Did you receive a Default Notice from Shop Direct?

 

When did you cease payments ?

 

It would appear that there is a debt outstanding to Shop Direct. They have now sold the delinquent account to Lowells who are now chasing for this.

 

If you can answer the questions above, we can advise on how to move forward with this.

[LR712]

Thanks citizenB.

 

Righto, so this is a letter to say they are considering legal action against you and not an actual claim, yes ?

Yes

 

Do you know what this is about ?

I do remember having a shop direct account some years ago.

 

Have you received previous communication from Lowell or their agents ?

I have received a debt chasing letter from Lowell Portfolio recently.

 

This would be way of a Notice of Assignment, advising the account has been sold/assigned to Lowell.

 

Did you receive a Default Notice from Shop Direct?

Not that i can remember.

 

When did you cease payments ?

Not sure, just checked my credit file for the below.

Opened: 6 Oct '08 with an initial balance of £3,027

Defaulted on 19 Feb '13 with a default balance of £3,027

 

Does this help in any way?

 

Thanks

[citizenB]

Well it does look as though you might owe this and unless you have a good reason for not making the payments, eg a dispute that went unresolved - or the sums involved, you might need to get in touch with Lowell and come to an arrangement to pay.

 

At the moment you have over 3 years before this becomes statute barred - if you end up with a Judgment against you, then you are going to be looking at a further 6 years of having your credit file trashed.

 

Was there any Payment Protection Insurance or default penalty charges added to the account that you might be able to reclaim ?

[LR712]

I honestly can't remember if there was PPI or default penalty charges.

 

The only paperwork I have are the last two letters mentioned above.

 

I didn't really use the account, but I know my ex used to buy things from Kays.

 

Does the statue barred date run from the default or last payment, I'm still trying to find out when their was a last payment.

 

On the report the balance from 2008 is the same as default in 2013, does this mean there were no payment made between this time?

 

Any further help would be greatly appreciated.

 

Thanks

[Bazooka Boo]

From the last payment or written acknowledgement.........(SB)

 

If the balance is the same in 2013 as it was in 2008, then that might suggest there have been no payments yes, it would also suggest that the account was terminated around 08, hence the failure to add interest and further charges.

Definitely needs further investigation and research before you get cash cowed by lowlifes.

[LR712]

Thanks Bazooka Boo,

 

What should i do next?

 

Should i ignore them?

 

Thanks in advance.

[citizenB]

If you ignore them, they will for sure issue a claim.

 

Unless you can find out some other way, you need to telephone the original creditor and establish when the last payment was made to the account - if it was in 2008, then quite frankly they should have defaulted the account sooner than 2013 and you might well have a statute barred defence should a claim be issued. But, you need to be absolutely positive when that payment was made.

 

You could send a CCA request to Lowells and a SAR to the original Creditor - this might show if there were default/penalty charges added and might also indicate when the last payment was made.

[dx100uk]

looks like no payment made ever

so its SB'd...

 

 

but I wouldn't be telling that to the fleecers

 

 

let them issue a claimform and let the judge have a laugh

 

 

you sure that defaulted date is getting read correctly

and is not the updated date you are reading from the CRA file?

 

 

dx

[Sidewinder]

Aside from the possibility of it being SB, if it was Shop Direct then there will be umpteen penalty charges from Shop Direct AND NDR acting as DCAs for the account pre-termination. They just loved to apply two penalty charges per letter and let it run over a few months just to bump the value up before defaulting the account.

[LR712]

Hi, sorry for the lack of response but I have been trying to track down when the last payment was made.

 

I can't find any emails relating to this and I changed my bank a couple of years ago so I can't track back through any statements.

 

Would I be allowed to upload a snapshot of the account from my annualcreditreport, if all personal details were blanked out.

 

Thanks

[dx100uk]

ofcourse you can

 

 

simply PDF it

 

 

follow the UPLOAD

 

 

dx

[LR712]

Ok thanks.

 

Here it is.

[renegadeimp]

Looks like it could well be Statute Barred, and lowells have simply gotten greedy. With that initial letter they sent, im 99% sure they know its a lemon debt but are trying to scare you.

 

Give the Original Creditor a ring and ask them when the last payment was made.