Lowell/? court claim- old Littlewoods CAT 'debt'***Claim Discontinued***

[jon1974xy]

Hi all.

 

I am in desperate need of some help I'm afraid.

 

I just received a county court claim from Lowells in regards to a debt I had with Littlewoods.

The debt goes back a few years, I stupidly bought from Littlewoods when I was out of work and desperate for clothing.

I tried my best to pay off as much as I could but then Lowells got involved and started demanding way more than I even borrowed from Littlewoods.

 

Earlier this year I emailed them a demand to show me proof of the debt,

they took over a month to do so and all they sent me was a standard Littlewoods credit agreement with my name printed on.

 

There was no breakdown of the what the debt was for.

I also argued that they took way too long to send this to me and it did not have my signature on it,

but they said none of that mattered and I still had to pay.

I asked for time to seek legal advice but today I received the court papers.

 

The debt is £1326.01 plus £70 court fees plus £80 legal reperesntives costs so the total is now £1476.01.

I cannot afford to pay this at all and I am now scared and worried sick.

 

Please could someone advise about what I might be able to do?

 

If I admit the debt will I still get a CCJ and get my credit rating ruined?

 

Can I contest the debt?

 

And if so how should I approach this?

 

The issue date on the letter is 28th of October 2016 and it arrived today

so I assume I don't have long to respond before I lose by default.

 

I suffer from very severe depression and anxiety and this is having a terrible effect on me.

I would just pay it if I could and I don't want to get a CCJ and have my credit ruined.

 

Please can anyone help?

[dx100uk]

can you fill this out please

and post the Q&A filled out back here

so we can advise properly

 

 

http://www.consumeractiongroup.co.uk/forum/showthread.php?419198-You-have-received-a-Claim-What-you-need-to-do.-**UPDATED-2016**

 

 

dx

[jon1974xy]

Thank you for getting back to me. Here are my answers:

 

Name of the Claimant ? Lowell Portfolio LTD

 

Date of issue – 28 October 2016

Date to file defence - Tuesday 29th november

What is the claim for –

 

1) The Defendand entered into a consumer credit Act 1974 regulated agreement with Shop Direct under account reference XXXXX ("the agreement").

2) The Defendand failed to maintain the required payments and a default notice was served and not complied with.

3) The Agreement was later assigned to the Claimant on 11/09/2015 and notice was given to the Defendant.

4) Despite repeated requests for payment, the sum of £1,227.79 remains due and outstanding.

And the Claimant claims

a) The said sum of £1,227.79

b) Interest pursuant to s69 County Courts Act 1984 at the rate of 8% per annum from the date of assignment to the date of issue, accuring at a daily rate of £0.269, but limited to one year, being £98.22

c) Costs

 

What is the value of the claim? £1476.01

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

 

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? Yes

 

Did you receive a Default Notice from the original creditor? I think so

 

Have you been receiving statutory notices headed “Notice of Default sums” – at least once a year ? I think so

Why did you cease payments? I simply couldn't afford to pay any more. At one point I was made homeless and I still don't have a permanent home yet.

What was the date of your last payment? Approx 2 years ago.

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, although I was unable to keep up with this due to being homeless.

 

Thank you again, I hope my answers are okay.

[shamrocker]

Try not to worry. You've done exactly the right thing by getting on here to seek help immediately. You've taken control of the situation.

 

Yes, you certainly should contest the debt. DX might beat me to it, but you need to register on the MCOL website and acknowledge the claim within 19 days of issue date. Then you must file a defence within 33 days of issue date. We'll help you with this, but you also need to have a look through other threads and of a similar nature.

 

Next is to get CCA and CPR requests running ASAP. Do that tomorrow if you can.

 

Don't worry about the process beyond the above just yet.

 

Finally, there are ways of avoiding a CCJ, but let's just worry about the above for now. Everything else can be discussed in due course, but feel free to post specific questions that may be niggling at you.

 

Sham

[dx100uk]

can we have the actual POC from the claimform as it is written please

[jon1974xy]

Hi Sham and thank you so much for your reply!

Please excuse my ignorance but what is the CCA and CPR things and how do I get started?

 

Should I go onto the court website and state that I want to contest the debt right away?

I've been too scared to even look at it all day and worried that I might do the wrong thing.

 

Also,

not that I want to go off track from the original problem but I want to give full disclosure,

I checked my credit file recently and I have other debts.

 

They are not huge amounts but one is for a mobile phone that was cut off, one for broadband, one for gas and electricity and one for water supply.

I also have an old student bank account that is overdrawn.

These are all the result of my life falling apart when I lost my job and became homeless.

 

For a long time I was homeless and sofa surfing with friends, this made it difficult to receive post, keep in touch with companies I owed money to, and if I'm honest I wasn't in any position to pay them and was too afraid to deal with them.

 

I have recently just found work and am living in a friends spare room and starting to try to address these problems which are obviously coming back to haunt me and may affect my chances of finding a home in the future.

 

Any help or advice or just a point in the right direction for dealing with all this would be greatly appreciated.

As I mentioned before I suffer badly from depression and anxiety and find all this very hard to deal with.

 

Thank you very much again.

[jon1974xy]

can we have the actual POC from the claimform as it is written please

 

What is POC please?

[dx100uk]

the Particulars of claim box on the claimform

read the original link properly

 

CCA request

CPR 31:14 goes to the claimants solicitor

 

don't sign anything

leave the £1PO blank and uncrossed.

 

get the acknowledgement done on mcol website

defend all

leave jurisdiction unticked

[dx100uk]

one for gas and electricity and one for water supply.

 

 

are these already CCJ's?

[jon1974xy]

the Particulars of claim box on the claimform

read the original link properly

 

CCA request

CPR 31:14 goes to the claimants solicitor

 

don't sign anything

leave the £1PO blank and uncrossed.

 

get the acknowledgement done on mcol website

defend all

leave jurisdiction unticked

 

 

Particulars of Claim:

 

1) The Defendand entered into a Consumer Credit Act 1974 regulated agreement with Shop Direct under account reference XXXXX ("the agreement").

2) The Defendand failed to maintain the required payments and a default notice was served and not complied with.

3) The Agreement was later assigned to the Claimant on 11/09/2015 and notice was given to the Defendant.

4) Despite repeated requests for payment, the sum of £1,227.79 remains due and outstanding.

And the Claimant claims

a) The said sum of £1,227.79

b) Interest pursuant to s69 County Courts Act 1984 at the rate of 8% per annum from the date of assignment to the date of issue, accuring at a daily rate of £0.269, but limited to one year, being £98.22

c) Costs

[jon1974xy]

one for gas and electricity and one for water supply.

 

 

are these already?

 

No. The water one I have started payments for. The gas and electric have not been in touch for a few months and no court action has been taken on either. I currently have no CCJs.

[jon1974xy]

the Particulars of claim box on the claimform

read the original link properly

 

CCA request

CPR 31:14 goes to the claimants solicitor

 

don't sign anything

leave the £1PO blank and uncrossed.

 

get the acknowledgement done on mcol website

defend all

leave jurisdiction unticked

 

Thank you. I have done the acknowledgement on the site, defend all and left jurisdiction unticked.

 

I will send the other two letters as soon as I can get access to a printer and get the postal orders.

[dx100uk]

1 PO for the CCA request only.

 

 

as for the gas water electric

might be better to start a new thread in the utilities forum.

but whatever you do NEVER NEVER pay a DCA on a utils bill.

 

 

dx

[jon1974xy]

Hi everyone. I am planning to send off both letters in the next day or so. I have been really stressed out and frightened by all of this. I just wanted to please ask what the next steps for me are after I send the letters? Do I then have to detail my defense on the court website?

 

Thank you all for your replies.

[dx100uk]

you shouldn't be waiting +10days to send those letters!!

 

they and the acknowledgement of claim ideally need to be done the day you get the claimform

you only have a total of 33 days.

 

lots of relevant defences here already get reading

pop it up and we'll check it

YOU MUST NOT MISS THE DATE.

[jon1974xy]

It's only been just under 5 days since I received the letter.

 

I also don't have access to a printer so I've had to ask a family member to help.

 

I did the acknowledgement the same day.

 

Not sure what you mean about the last part.

[jon1974xy]

Should I already be entering my defence into the court website now. Please could you link me to a defence that would be suitable for my case? I'm sorry I'm not very good at all this

[dx100uk]

Doesn't matter when you got it

No defence due till day 33

[jon1974xy]

Hi all. Today I received what I think is a rather shocking letter back from Lowell's claiming, from what I can see, that they don't have to provide any proof of the debt! I will type out the letter in full below. I would REALLY appreciate some help with what to do next!

 

Dear XXXXX

 

Thank you for your correspondence.

 

We note the contents and write to advise you that we have requested a copy of the remaining documents relating to your account through our client and will forward these to you upon receipt. Please note that this is for your information only. As far as our client is concerned the outstanding balance is due and owing and no verification of your liability to pay the outstanding balance is required.

 

Please find enclosed a copy of the the statement, agreement and notice of assignment for the above matter.

 

We note that you have returned the Acknowledgement of Service providing you with a further 14 days to respond to the claim form. Please ensure you respond to the outstanding claim within the stated timescale to avoid an application being made to enter judgement against you in default.

 

If you wish to speak to a member of our team, please telephone us between 8:00am and 8:00pm Monday to Friday or between 8:00am and 2:00pm Saturday on XXXXXXXXX.

 

Yours Sincerely

 

Lowell Solicitors Limited

 

Enclosed with the letter is a generic looking Littelwoods credit agreement with my name and account number printed at the top and a statement that my credit limit was £1000! as well as copies of some generic threatening letters that Lowells sent to me.

 

Can it really be true that "no verification of your liability to pay the outstanding balance is required."??

 

Please can anyone help with what to do next? Thank you so much in advance!

[dx100uk]

Can it really be true that "no verification of your liability to pay the outstanding balance is required."??

 

they can say what they like

we can say you owe us£10 everytime we post

 

means nothing

 

right we need to see these supposed CCA return please

 

follow upload

 

to ONE MULTIPAGE PDF

[jon1974xy]

Sorry for being thick but what do you mean exactly by supposed CCA return?

 

 

Once I know what document you mean I will have to ask someone to scan it for me as I don't have a printer or scanner, but I can do this within 24 hours. Sorry again.

[dx100uk]

you sent lowells a CCA request

this letter is in response to it I would suggest?

 

 

so its a CCA return..need to see the bog roll they've sent that claims to be the agreement and anything else they've sent too

[jon1974xy]

you sent lowells a CCA request

this letter is in response to it I would suggest?

 

 

so its a CCA return..need to see the bog roll they've sent that claims to be the agreement and anything else they've sent too

 

Okay thanks. I will get a friend to scan it with me tomorrow and upload it asap.

It's literally just what looks like a standard Littlewoods credit agreement with my name printed separately at the top.

It doesn't have my signature on if that matters at all?

 

The only other stuff they sent were photocopies of alleged letters they sent me telling me they had purchased the debt and demanding payments.

[dx100uk]

as the agreement is post apr 2007

I would suspect it was an online tick box

reconstructed agreement

[jon1974xy]

Can it really be true that "no verification of your liability to pay the outstanding balance is required."??

 

they can say what they like

we can say you owe us£10 everytime we post

 

means nothing

 

right we need to see these supposed CCA return please

 

follow upload

 

to ONE MULTIPAGE PDF

 

Hey I was just wondering if it's safe to upload the documents with my details on or if I should edit everything out first? Thank you.