HFO Services issuing court claim form

[burt999]

Hi All....

 

 

I owed about £2000 to Barclaycard approx 3 years ago and have been bounced between various agencies to the point i stopped communicating with them.

 

Latest one is HFO Services Ltd, who have put in a Claim Form with Croydon Court through Turnbull Rutherford Solicitors for the amount plus interest. They use the terms 'The Claimants claim is for monies due under a Credit agreement', but do not say with whom.

 

I'm assuming Barclaycard have sold the debt on? Is this legal?

 

Advice please? I have about 9 days to reply.

[stan5131]

Ok. You need to send a CCA request to HFO. You will find template letter on this site. You need to enclose £1 postal order and send by recorded delivery (very important). Then send SAR request to Barclaycard including £10 and also send by recorded. SAR template letter is also on this site.

 

This will put the debt in dispute and give you time to claim back your charges. It could be that the charges and interest are more than the debt therefore wiping out the debt. At the very worst, the debt will be significantly reduced.

[burt999]

ok. Cheers Stan. In the mean time, what do i do with the Court form?

 

And the charges are not significant. perhaps £200 over the original debt.

[stan5131]

What exactly is the court form? Are they applying for a CCJ?

[burt999]

What exactly is the court form? Are they applying for a CCJ?

 

 

Yes its a full on Croydon County Court Claim Form. I was a bit surprised to have received it as i always thought the company i owed monies too should put in the claim. I'm not disputing the amount, just the claimant.

[stan5131]

OK. Get the CCA and SAR sent off tomorrow. Then write to the court saying that the amount is now in dispute and that you have sent a Consumer Credit Act Request to HFO and a SAR to the original creditor and that you believe the debt is mostly and possibly wholly made up of unlawful penalty charges. Until this information has been received, you are unable to properly prepare your defence.

[burt999]

OK. Get the CCA and S.A.R - (Subject Access Request) sent off tomorrow. Then write to the court saying that the amount is now in dispute and that you have sent a Consumer Credit Act Request to HFO and a SAR to the original creditor and that you believe the debt is mostly and possibly wholly made up of unlawful penalty charges. Until this information has been received, you are unable to properly prepare your defence.

 

 

Final question Stan. If I do above actions (even though i dont personally dispute the charges really, cos i do owe Barclaycard, to be fair), what do you expect the response to those actions will be?

 

 

And I'm assuming i should send all by recorded delivery.

[stan5131]

If you defaulted on your payments and it was then passed to debt collection agency, there will most certainly be charges. Once defaulted, the agreement ended and they cannot charge interest after that. Debt collection agencies are also know to add on their unlawful fees. It is your right to check the basis of their claim. If no charges have been applied to this account, then congratulations! You are the first person to have defaulted and not been charged penalties!

 

Do you know exactly how much was owing when you defaulted, and how much you have paid?

[stan5131]

Also, dca's are well known to attempt taking debtors to court without the proper documentation ie a copy of the original agreement and deed of assignment of the debt. Without this documentation the debt is unenforceable and they have no legal right to be taking you to court.

[burt999]

Not at all. Hence the SAR to check, i guess. I wasnt aware Barclaycard could sell their defaults on though, to the point of the the 'buyer' taking the debtor to court.

 

My other concern is that the Claim Form doesnt even specify the nature of the debt and who i owe money to. Makes you wonder if Barclaycard could issue a similar claim later on.

[burt999]

Also, dca's are well known to attempt taking debtors to court without the proper documentation ie a copy of the original agreement and deed of assignment of the debt. Without this documentation the debt is unenforceable and they have no legal right to be taking you to court.

 

ahhh you type quicker than me.

[stan5131]

HFO will have bought the debt and are now the legal owners. However, on purchasing the debt, they should have all the proper documentation or they are in breach of the Consumer Credit Act. Barclaycard have not sold the default, more the debt. Dca's buy debts for as little 6p in the £1. HFO are known to add on hundreds of pounds of charges.

 

I think you may be suprised when you get your SAR back.

[stan5131]

ahhh you type quicker than me.

 

 

80 wpm lol

[burt999]

HFO will have bought the debt and are now the legal owners. However, on purchasing the debt, they should have all the proper documentation or they are in breach of the Consumer Credit Act. Barclaycard have not sold the default, more the debt. Dca's buy debts for as little 6p in the £1. HFO are known to add on hundreds of pounds of charges.

 

I think you may be suprised when you get your S.A.R - (Subject Access Request) back.

 

 

Apologies for asking again Stan. the SAR is likely to be what I owe Barclaycard or, what HFO paid for the debt?

[stan5131]

SAR goes to Barclaycard. You will get back a full set of statments going back six years. This will show all the charges on the account, and the final amount owing before being passed on to HFO or whoever.

 

CCA goes to HFO. They have to send you a copy of the agreement, deed of assignment and a list of transactions and charges.

[stan5131]

How long did you have the Barclaycard for? Do you remember what year? If it was longer than six years, did you make any late or missed payments or exceed your limit beyong six years? If so, ask for a complete set of statements since you opened the account.

[stan5131]

I have known people who thought they would have £1,000 of charges, then when worked out, it was about £4,000 including the interest. I am never suprised to find that many people dont even know they have been charged.

[Laiste]

Hi Burt,

 

I can understand that you were probably more than a little surprised and shocked to receive the Court claim and are wondering what you should do. I know that Stan is trying to help but he has given you incorrect information.

 

You absolutely have to file a defence to this claim, otherwise if you don't, the claimants will simply apply and get, judgment by default once the time for you to submit your defence has passed. It is in no way sufficient for you to simply write to the Court and state this matter is disputed. Your defence must counter each point of their claim and not by simply stating the money is not owed. If it is not owed you must substantiate that with reasons. If you do not address each point of their claim, it will be assumed by the Court that you admit liability, for anything unchallenged.

 

You can at this stage file an acknowledgment of service, which is self explanantory. So if you got it yesterday, you have 14 days to do this. At that point you can take a further 14 days to file your defence, so 28 days in total.

 

It is not necessary for you to send a CCA and DPA request and it would be unwise to do so. Now that this is the subject of legal action, you can simply send the claimants a letter, requesting all that you require and giving them 14 days to provide it. Personally I would do this after you have filed your defence (trust me). All parties to a case are legally obliged to furnish info requested (provided its a reasonable request) that is relevant to the case. This is under the disclosure rules. So, if you did as I suggest and they didn't comply, you would send a letter to the Court with an application notice, stating that you are unable to file a counter-claim until the claimants furnish the info. You would ask the court to compel them to comply. The Judge might give them 7-14 days, if they failed to comply at that point, the Judge would probably throw out their case. So in terms of getting info, its much better to do it this way, it takes less time and if they don't comply you may get their case chucked

out!

 

In terms of the counter-claim, if you cannot file one due to a lack of info, then you would simply file it with an application notice, not forgetting (under any circumstances) to ask the court's permission to file the counter-claim in due course. You would simply explain in an accompanying letter, why you are filing it late. I filed a counter-claim in a case 4mnths after the other party started action, it was accepted because I was waiting for info and at that time I was new to things so went down the CCA DPA route, without needing to! You must always politely request things however, whatever you ask for is read by a Judge and they expect deference! Whatever you do, don't get on the wrong side of a Judge! So when in doubt, always ask for permission to do something!

 

So ask for a copy of the agreement, a deed of assignment (proves the debt's been sold) statements for the lifetime of the a/c. If you were pestered by B/Card and this company, ask for details of all calls made to your home/work numbers, frequency of calls (dates, times etc) any notes about discussions had with them, the tel numbers also for all depts involved in pursuing you, you get the picture... Get as much info as possible to build a case against them. If they've engaged in harassment, that is both a civil and criminal offence and you can claim compensation. You might even want to report them to the Police, when you've got the evidence!

 

Whatever you do don't leave this situation, if you fail to file a defence, they will win and you will have to pay up, that's the way it works, I'm afraid!

 

I hope this is helpful for you!

 

Laiste.

[blackrain]

Laiste, I shall bookmark this in case I am ever in this situation. Good advice.

 

Two questions (without hijacking the thread I hope). Stan said once the account is defaulted they can't charge interest which I also believed. However I have been defaulted by Barclays and they are charging me interest daily still.....

 

Secondly, he also mentioned DCAs are well known for taking people to court. I always believed it was fairly rare still. I'm assuming in this case it is because Burt999 stopped communicating completely with them?

[no fear]

hy i have sent cca letter to hfo with £1.00 postal order for the statury fee they left a telephone message saying that the £1.00 was unacceptable for payment ?

[Glenn UK]

no fear i presume you used a template letter from the forum giving them time to comply?

 

If so i would write back to them today, by recorded delivery confriming that the payment was for the CCA request and the lvel is set by statute. Are there any issues over acknowledgement of the debt?

 

are they after you to get you to acknowledge the debt at all or is it something which is current?

 

Glenn

 

Blackarain

 

they can charge interest until they choose otherwise in effect.

 

I cannot say whether its common or not, all i know is i have been threatened quite a few times and never been taken to court. i guess its a matter of how you deal with them largely as to what they do.

 

JMHO

 

Glenn

[no fear]

h

they sent me a letter of intent thats when i sent the cca letter

[room101]

Hi folks,

There is some excellent advice on these pages and I really appreciate the time and effort people give to helping each other out an otherwise daunting and tricky situation. Indeed, it seems the best way to handle these DCA's is to be aware of the official process that need to be take and not to be tricked into an awkward spot.

 

That bring s me to my question which is very similar to burt999's.

I was contacted at work today (don't know how they obtained my number) by a chap called Joshua from HFO services. He informed me that I had defaulted on my Barclaycard credit card back in 2004 and that the current outstanding amount had reach little under £3000. Now, I do remember having a Barclaycard and I do remember I hand an outstanding amount. However, I though the amount outstanding was in the region of around £500. Joshua seemed unable to confirm the original amount that was passed on by Barclaycard to HFO.

He then offered me the following options 1) pay off the full amount now and receive a 13% discount or 2) agree an amount I can pay each month (he suggested 20%) and by agreeing to this he would freeze my interest but I would have to pay off the ful amount i.e. no 13% discount.

 

I am fully prepared to put right what I have done wrong (and put to bed the nightmares I've been having) but I am reluctant to part with near £3000 without substantial evidence showing the money owed is clearly (and legally) justified.

 

I informed Joshua that I needed time to contact Barclaycard to follow up the details. He has told me that I need to contact him tomorrow afternoon (Saturday).. is there any coincidence that Barclaycard credit department is closed on the weekends?

 

Any help any of you might have would be warmly welcomed. I have considered making myself bankrupt as I have no valuable possessions (car, house, etc...). I just want to do whats right and get this debt out of my life!

[welshmammy]

I am having my own problems with HFO at the moment, I have just found out that HFO Services, Turnbull Rutherford Solicitors and Ontrak Investigations are all part of the same company.

I was given a form by HFO that reads as follows:

It is our aim to work with you to clear your account as quickly and as efficiently as possible, and to that end please take careful note of the following charges which can be levied and are payable by you under your original terms & conditions of your original agreement.

Copy Invoice/Statement £15.00

Dishonoured Cheque Payment £15.00

Dishonoured BOS Payment £15.00

Cancelled BOS/Direct Debit £15.00

Missed Instalment Payment £30.00

Re-arranged Broken Payment £30.00

Additional interest from 12%p.a.

Office Trace Fee from £50.00

Field Trace Fee from £100.00

Personal Visit after broken promise £150.00.

Can anyone tell me are these fees legal?

Don't mean to hijack your thread, it is just HFO are evil and threatening and I would like to let everyone involved with HFO know about them.

[no fear]

had a call from hfo on saturday he said i had been wrongly informed about sending cca letter and he would be passing on to litigation dept?