lowell CCJ re: Cap1 card - now Warrant

[AndyOrch]

The relevant CPR with regards to your redetermination

 

https://www.justice.gov.uk/courts/procedure-rules/civil/rules/part14#14.7A

[renegadeimp]

I understand you have a CCJ, but why wasnt it contested.

 

Have you reclaimed what you can from the OC?

 

Also if the debt is subject to a COurt judgement, then you can apply to the court for a variation so you can pay according to your means.

[Ds3Sport]

I have a CCJ because I followed the advice on CAG to contest it.

 

At each stage of proceeedings I was told that Lowell were bluffing, didn't have a case and so on but they did.

 

I went to court and my defence was thrown out. I was ordered to pay the full amount of just over £5k to Lowell plus £600 costs.

 

That is not the fault of anyone here of course.

 

I should have gone with my gut and settled when they offered me a two grand reduction but I was assured this was a sign of them not being confident of winning.

.which it wasn't.

it's history.

 

I have a CCJ and the court even after hearing I had no money ordered me to pay £70 per month.

 

How on earth does that make any sense to anyone?

 

I was also told I could only apply for a variance within 14 days and that period has passed.

[renegadeimp]

If Lowell offered a reduction that large then they were bluffing. You just had a poor defence. They knew it so rubbed their greedy hands and filed a claim

[Ds3Sport]

I had a poor defence because there wasn't one. I went with everything I was advised to do here on CAG. Lowell were not bluffing and giving people advice that they are and which could lead them into a CCJ is just plain wrong.

 

IF you have a cast iron "legal" case then definitely defend and take it all the way to court if necessary but if you do not have a very good "legal" defence then don't go there.

 

Lowell even made me an offer before we went into the court room which although would not have reduced the amount by much, they would have taken off the court costs and reduced my monthly payment to £50, I would have still been better off than I am now. I now have a CCJ, have to pay back over £5k plus £600 costs and at £70 per month which I definitely cannot afford. Even were I in a position to pay off the whole amount now it would still remain on my credit file for the next 6 years, all be it showing as settled.

 

There is a LOT of good advice and information on this forum but advising people to defend without a common sense reason to do so can just lead to more misery for people.

 

I laid out all the details on the forum and followed the advice at each stage and every time I was told that Lowell were bluffing, that they had no case, that the judge would throw it out etc and ALL of that was wrong. Even after the first time I went to court and Lowell didn't turn up I was told on here to expect a letter saying they had dropped the case. No, I received a new court date for six weeks later and Lowell did turn up.

 

The judge agreed with me that it should never have come to court and that Lowell should have accepted my original offer of £50 per month just after the debt was bought by them. He listened to my defence and agreed with many points but in the end it came down to the simple fact that Lowell had provided all the documents requested, had followed the correct legal procedure and it was proven to his satisfaction that I did owe the amount claimed. Hence I ended up with a CCJ and a £70 per month bill

 

If you DO owe the money AND you can get away with paying just 50% of it through a mediated offer then take it and move on. That is what I should have done but we live and learn...hopefully

 

None of that reflects badly on CAG by the way. I was given advice but it was up to me to make the decisions and I am the ONLY one to blame for the outcome so I want that to be very clear. Everyone needs to take responsibility for their own actions.

[renegadeimp]

I had a poor defence because there wasn't one

 

Theres always a defence when it comes to lowell. They do not chase legit high value debts. They go for low ones which are the likes of PDL's etc. The high value ones are ones nobody will touch until they get their greedy hands on it.

 

You may disagree but its the truth

[Ds3Sport]

I do disagree. There was no defence. Read the original thread all the way through to the end and you will soon see that. Just because you want there to be a defence doesn't mean there is one. I might not like it but they didn't make up the debt. It was money I had spent and money I should have paid back. The fact that Capital One dealt with the situation badly in the first place doesn't negate the fact that I owed the money. Lowell had ALL the documents going back to the end of 2004 and the judge was satisfied with that. They also followed all the correct legal procedures. My defence If you can call it that was all centred around technicalities on how the debt was dealt with and following advice given on CAG on how the original agreement was missing terms and conditions etc...which it wasn't.

 

Were there a REAL legal defence I would not have a CCJ. A 'moral' defence is meaningless in court.

[dx100uk]

Theres always a defence when it comes to lowell. They do not chase legit high value debts. They go for low ones which are the likes of PDL's etc. The high value ones are ones nobody will touch until they get their greedy hands on it.

 

You may disagree but its the truth

 

its all in this thread

we tried our best

 

https://www.consumeractiongroup.co.uk/forum/showthread.php?402888-Lowell-claimform-old-CAp1-card-debt

 

dx

 

nothing to see here now move along please.......

[renegadeimp]

Ahh thanks dx. I see what happened Moving along...

[renegadeimp]

Ahh thanks dx. I see what happened Moving along...

[dx100uk]

post copied from another thread to here

 

dx

[Ds3Sport]

I chalked up a CCJ in favour of Lowell back in Sept 2017. Total was just over £5000 and the court ordered me to pay £70 per month even though I had no income at the time...I did fully explain that but they said a lower offer would mean the debt would take too long to pay off. How that helps I don't know. None of it makes sense to me. Anyway, I made the first two payments by simply not paying anything else but then got chased for council tax who were threatening to take me to court and send the bailiffs around. 

 

I did write to Lowell and explain the situation and have to say they were pretty good about it and put the account on hold. I didn't hear anything more from them until today 16 months later!

 

This morning a Notice Of Issue Of Warrant Of Control dropped through the mail box. It says:

Quote

To The Debtor: You have not made payment under the judgment as you were ordered. The creditor has therefore asked for a warrant to be issued to the bailiff to seize and sell your goods. Unless you pay the amount due to the county court before 08 April 2019 a bailiff will call and may remove your goods for sale at public auction. This may mean you will have to pay further costs. 

It then lists Total to Pay as £212.25 (including fees on this warrant) and Balance Outstanding (after payment of this warrant) £5,089.61

 

So, what I am a little confused about here is what happens if I manage to pay the £212.25 before the 8th April and what is that money for? 

 

There is another slip of paper attached which has HM Courts & Tribunals Service on it and says:

Quote

IMPORTANT NOTICE. A Bailiff have been instructed to visit your property to remove goods to the value of the attached notice. To prevent this you should call now. Then it explains how to pay by credit card etc. Following that there is another paragraph that says Please be aware that the court may contact you for payment. If the court does not receive payment within 10 days the warrant will be passed to the Bailiffs to execute the warrant.

 

I should add that both myself and my wife are now on Universal Credit and my wife is ill and receives a disability payment. We are just about to finish paying arrears on the council tax and that was a struggle. Now this lands. We also owe over £1200 to OVO for gas/electric and over £600 for water. Seems to be an endless cycle of debt

 

All advice much appreciated.

 

[London1971]

GP / consultant note from your wife's care team or doctor, over to Lowell, with a list of medications and side effects will be a good start. Speaking from experience this tends to get them off your back. Be aware that Lowell are proud members of the CSA, and it's against their own code of practice, (see section 3). collection from vulnerable people.

 

https://cdn.ymaws.com/csa-uk.site-ym.com/resource/resmgr/docs/code_of_practice/code_of_practice.pdf

 

 

[Ds3Sport]

16 minutes ago, London1971 said:

GP / consultant note from your wife's care team or doctor, over to Lowell, with a list of medications and side effects will be a good start. Speaking from experience this tends to get them off your back. Be aware that Lowell are proud members of the CSA, and it's against their own code of practice, (see section 3). collection from vulnerable people.

 

https://cdn.ymaws.com/csa-uk.site-ym.com/resource/resmgr/docs/code_of_practice/code_of_practice.pdf

 

 

Thanks for that info. Will fire off an email to Lowell and see what happens. 

[London1971]

Send a letter by post.  

 

 

[Ds3Sport]

Post takes time and no guarantee they will even acknowledge receipt. They have however always answered emails but I will do both just to be on the safe side. 

[London1971]

OK,

 

But make sure you have a Doctor's note enclosed. 

 

 

[AndyOrch]

Submit an N245 with your I&E and make an affordable monthly offer £10 or there abouts you can only pay what you can afford..get it on legal footing... its irrelevant how long it takes to clear....Judges from another planet strike again.

 

 

There is a fee of £50 unless you qualify for exemption. 

 

 

 

Regards

 

Andy

[Ds3Sport]

Thanks again for the help. 

 

Apparently our Universal Credit income is about £200 over the limit to get assistance with the N245 Application fee so will have to stump up the £50 for that.

 

Also having filled in the N245 it seems that our outgoings exceed our income by approx £70 per month and that is if we don't take into account the things we should be paying but have not. Arrears on Gas, Electric and Water being the big ones. 

 

So that leaves me with the question of what can I put in box 11, offer of payment? To offer anything we would need to not pay something else. Any advice?

[London1971]

What about money set aside for emergencies? Surely that's 50 per month, that is perfectly reasonable to put in outgoings. I'd offer them 10 quid or 5 quid whatever you can afford.  

 

What about trips to the hospital if your wife is sick?

 

Prescriptions?

 

Please do also send what I told you to, Lowell will back off big time.

[Ds3Sport]

We don't have money set aside for emergencies. If we had money we would have been paying Lowell and not ending up in this situation.

 

As for my wife we have a surgery literally around the corner and the hospital is just a couple of roads away. She doesn't need the hospital and is on some quite strong medication at the moment, which helps a lot but means she can't really do a lot. DWP assessed her and have concluded she is not fit to work so at least that is something. Prescriptions are free although problematic as she needs a certain brand and it always needs to be ordered weeks in advance. 

 

I will definitely send a letter to Lowell. At the moment we owe a total of £4543 for rent, gas/electric and water. We have an amazing landlord and despite being three months behind...we held off signing up for benefits as long as possible and just sold everything we had to pay the bills, she has been brilliant about it all. I was trying to find a solution but at three months behind we just had to go to benefits. Even though we still owe three months rent at least the payments are now steady and we can try and pay off the arrears over time.

 

Anyway thanks again for your help.

[London1971]

In your situation they should not be hassling you. It doesn't matter whether you have money set aside or not. It's perfectly legitimate to put in an i & e report that you set it aside for emergencies.  Do that and you only have 20 left over

 

You are on the edge, I have been there , my wife was ill, we were 5 k behind council tax, 4k behind on Heating and electricity, plus always owing rent, every month.  This is why I am so strongly trying to help you, 

 

Nobody is really seeking to put you on the street, Lowell are low life's but even they will back off in your situation you just need to let them know about it.

[AndyOrch]

If the I&E reflects a negative...offer a £1 a month

[Ds3Sport]

All our other creditors have been pretty good and have accepted a £1 per month token payment. 

 

I will send out the letters tomorrow but should I continue with the N245 or just contact Lowell and go from there? 

 

Thanks again for all your help. It makes things a lot less stressful when there are people out there who have been through this stuff and can offer advice.

 

 

[London1971]

Hi,

 

I think you should do both the N245 and letter to Lowell

 

You're chronically ill wife, and yourself are on the verge of being made homeless, and having your electric cut off, you need to make this point and show evidence. That's what I would do.

 

Ohh and right now the Council Tax should back right off now.  How much are you paying them per month?

 

I had the Ctax suspend payments for a year.  Eventually I had to pay it back of course but only when things had improved.