Lowell/? Claim Form - old 3 Mobile 'debt'

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Hello there.

 

My partner received a letter this morning titled "Claim Form" in the top left corner.

 

It is regarding a debt from the mobile phone company Three.

 

The debt we think was roughly 2-4 year ago but we can not be sure.

 

We recognise this debt ourselves but at the time could not afford to pay it and buried our heads and ignored letters from them.(not proud of it)

 

We were out of our jobs and had 4 children so paying off the debt was a difficult job.

 

In hindsight we should of contacted them and told them about the situation but sadly we never.

 

The debt was never an huge amount, the letter states £326.69 initially then goes on to add some further charges.

 

Personally the letter just looks like a photocopied piece as the stamp from the county court doesn't look right.

However there is a claim no at the top so unsure

.

I can upload a image and remove the sensitive information if that is any use.

 

We are unsure about how to go about the debt in terms of repaying it, who to pay, do we challenge the debt or any other options?

 

Myself and my partner are potentially going to open a new business within the next few months

and imagine if we let this escalate it will cause damage to this?

 

Any advice would be greatly appreciate.

 

The letter was received yesterday.

 

Thank you

[AndyOrch]

Thread moved to Financial Legal Issues.

 

If you could read the following link and then copy and paste your responses here for further advice on how best to proceed.

 

http://www.consumeractiongroup.co.uk/forum/showthread.php?419198-You-have-received-a-Claim-What-you-need-to-do.-**UPDATED-December-2014**(3-Viewing)-nbsp

 

Regards

 

Andy

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Name of the Claimant ? Lowell Portfolio 1 LTD

 

Date of issue –. 01 January 2016

 

What is the claim for –

 

1.The claimants claim is for the sum of £326.69 being monies due from the defendant to the claimant under a non-regulated communications agreement

between the defendant and Hutchinson 3G UK Limited under account reference xxxxxxxxxx

and assigned to the claimant on 23/12/2014 notice of which has been given to the defendant.

 

2.The defendant failed to maintain the contractual payment under the terms of the agreement and a default notice has been served and not complied with.

 

3.The claim also includes statutory interest pursuant to section 69 of the county courts act 1984 at a rate of 8.00% per annum

(a daily rate of £0.07 from the date if the assignment of the agreement to 23/12/2015 being an amount of £25.62.

 

What is the value of the claim? £437.31

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

When did you enter into the original agreement before or after 2007? After 2007

 

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. lowells

 

Were you aware the account had been assigned – did you receive a Notice of Assignment?

We had received a few standard debt letters from Lowell regarding the debt but as stated kind of buried our heads regarding them.

 

Did you receive a Default Notice from the original creditor? Three had originally sent out some letters

but with it being a while ago that it was with Three I am not sure when and how many

 

Have you been receiving statutory notices headed “Notice of Default sums” – at least once a year ? Quite possibly but can not guarantee.

 

Why did you cease payments? Back in 2014 we couldn't pay 3 the amounts anymore and it just tallied up.

 

What was the date of your last payment? Could not tell you sorry

 

Was there a dispute with the original creditor that remains unresolved? No we just ceased payments when we struggled to afford them.

Did you communicate any financial problems to the original creditor

and make any attempt to enter into a debt managementicon plan?

As far as I was aware I called 3 up and made them aware of the situation regards struggling to pay.

They could not help me out in regards to that as we were still tied into the contract

 

Are these details enough? I can even upload a image of the form if needs be too.

[AndyOrch]

No thats fine enabled ...

 

Are you in a position to settle the debt now...possibly by way of monthly payments?

 

Andy

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No thats fine enabled ...

 

Are you in a position to settle the debt now...possibly by way of monthly payments?

 

Andy

 

Possibly so yes. However I would need the repayments to be as low as possible if that was the case

[AndyOrch]

Well you have few options .......

 

Given the point you make in your initial post with regards to opening a new business within the next few months ...the last thing you want will be CCJ for for the sake of £400.

 

You can approach the claimants solicitor and suggest a Tomlin Order...this is a consent that stays the claim subject to you sticking to the agreed payments.....no CCJ.

 

Or you can defend the full claim...on the pretense that they will not proceed to full trial for the amount involved...and this will also allow extra time to consider your options.

 

You have 33 days in total to deal with this if defending in full...19 days to acknowledge service of claim (day 1 is the date on the claim form) and if defending in full a further 14 days to submit your defence...all this can be done on line using the MCOL gov web service.

 

If you partially admit or admit the claim you will get a CCJ automatically with no room to mediate or given chance to make a payment arrangement.

 

They are your options.

 

Andy

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Well you have few options .......

 

Given the point you make in your initial post with regards to opening a new business within the next few months ...the last thing you want will be CCJ for for the sake of £400.

 

You can approach the claimants solicitor and suggest a Tomlin Order...this is a consent that stays the claim subject to you sticking to the agreed payments.....no CCJ.

 

Or you can defend the full claim...on the pretense that they will not proceed to full trial for the amount involved...and this will also allow extra time to consider your options.

 

You have 33 days in total to deal with this if defending in full...19 days to acknowledge service of claim (day 1 is the date on the claim form) and if defending in full a further 14 days to submit your defence...all this can be done on line using the MCOL gov web service.

 

If you partially admit or admit the claim you will get a CCJ automatically with no room to mediate or given chance to make a payment arrangement.

 

They are your options.

 

Andy

 

Hi Andy, I have a few questions to ask. Is it possible to question the amount in question as we can not be too sure how accurate it actually is?

 

When you say defend the full claim, what does that involve?

 

The Tomlin order, if I was to phone would it be mandatory for them to accept a payment plan or can they refuse this?

 

Finally the actual claim letter, is it a legitimate document or is it likely to be a copy using it as a scare tactic?

 

Thanks for all the help so far

[AndyOrch]

Hi Andy, I have a few questions to ask. Is it possible to question the amount in question as we can not be too sure how accurate it actually is?

 

Yes and that becomes a reason for defending

 

When you say defend the full claim, what does that involve? When you receive a court claim you have 3 options through the court.....Admit...Partially admit or Defend in full...take a read of other threads on how the process unfolds

 

The Tomlin order, if I was to phone would it be mandatory for them to accept a payment plan or can they refuse this? They can refuse.... they can refuse a monthly and insist on full payment...negotiation is the key to getting a good Consent Order

 

Finally the actual claim letter, is it a legitimate document or is it likely to be a copy using it as a scare tactic? I would not think they would risk using a false one....they would face the wrath of the Court...ring Northampton and check the claim number if you have your suspicions

 

Thanks for all the help so far

 

Andy

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If I was to defend what would I use as my defence?

 

Trying to weigh up my options before doing anything

[renegadeimp]

Have a read of the legal success forums. There are multiple threads similar to yours with defences that can be adapted.

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I shall have a better look tomorrow but other than lack of documentation is there anything else, for my case?

 

I shall have a better look tomorrow but other than lack of documentation is there anything else, for my case?

 

Can I ask if I was to defend and failed/lost do I get a ccj?

 

Also today I received a letter from bwlegal, NOTICE OF COUNTY COURT CLAIM ISSUED.

 

It states in the what you need to know section that I can call them and sey uo a affordable repayment arrangement.

[renegadeimp]

If you lose, youll get a ccj. However if you pay within 28 days after judement it wont be recorded. But if you lose, you can also pay at rate you can afford and is determined by the court, and theres nothing lowells can do.

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OK so if I lose we still get the option to pay in installments, court deciding how much? Just making sure I have that right.

 

After readibg a lot of the forums it does seem that a lot of people are successful when defending these claims but from our case it doesn't look like I have a lot of defence apart from hoping they don't have the evidence. Do you see any other potential ways to use for the defence, should we go with it?

[dx100uk]

I think you have a good chance many do....

 

 

as andy says

you could always do a tomlin...

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I think you have a good chance many do....

 

 

as andy says

you could always do a tomlin...

 

Do you see anything other than lack of evidence to use in defence?

[AndyOrch]

" Can I ask if I was to defend and failed/lost do I get a ccj? "

 

Yes but you are going to get one anyway...even if you dont defend in full...so nothing lost.

 

Andy

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" Can I ask if I was to defend and failed/lost do I get a ccj? "

 

Yes but you are going to get one anyway...even if you dont defend in full...so nothing lost.

 

Andy

 

Or like you said taking the Tomlin order would avoid this.

 

I can't think of a defence so thinking it would be a better idea.

 

Would you persoanlly suggest defend or Tomlin order?

[AndyOrch]

They wont consider a Tomlin Order unless you defend it...no need to as they will get automatic judgment

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They wont consider a Tomlin Order unless you defend it...no need to as they will get automatic judgment

 

Oh so I have to initially defend it before requesting a Tomlin order?

[dx100uk]

ALWAYS DEFEND ALL regardless..

 

then you could do a tomlin IF it looks required

 

there are more successfully defended won claims here

than those that crumbled and paid and got fleeced

dx

[AndyOrch]

Oh so I have to initially defend it before requesting a Tomlin order?

 

It adds leverage...but you can still approach them with a payment plan if not defending...but be quick as you then only have 19 days from the date of the summons.

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Apologies for the late response, had internet problems.

 

 

I have logged on tonight and clicked defend all

but have not started putting anything in the defence section as of yet as I am not 100% sure what I need to put in.

 

Do I need to check the Acknowledgement of Service section while I am there too?

 

Thanks

[dx100uk]

defend all click aos

leave juris unticked

 

 

exit mcol.

 

 

get the correct CPR 31:14 running tomorrow from the legal section of the library tab too!

 

 

dx

[enabled]

defend all click aos

leave juris unticked

 

exit mcol.

 

 

get the correct CPR 31:14 running tomorrow from the legal section of the library tab too!

 

 

dx

 

It will be the one titled LEGAL : CPR 31.14 Request - Request for information when a Claim has been issued, is that correct?

 

Need to make sure I get it correct

[AndyOrch]

It will be the one titled LEGAL : CPR 31.14 Request - Request for information when a Claim has been issued, is that correct?

 

Need to make sure I get it correct

 

Yes the other one is for current accounts/overdrafts