Court Summons from Howard Cohen / GE Money

[Laiste]

Hi all, below is the defence I gave to Robert for his daughter the other day.

 

DEFENCE

 

The Defendant denies that he is liable to the Claimant as alleged in the Particulars of Claim or at all. It is averred that the Claimant having failed to serve a Notice of Assignment on the Defendant as required by section 136(1) of the Law of Property Act 1925, does not possess any legal right to issue a claim demanding monies allegedly owed. Under the aforementioned Act, the absence of a Notice of Assignment precluded CL Finance from instigating these proceedings and continuing with the same. The Defendant puts the Claimant to strict proof that a Notice of Assignment was received, as averred in the Particulars of Claim. Accordingly, the Defendant does not know the case it has to meet and the Particulars of Claim neither disclose any cause of action with any reasonable prospect of success and/or are an abuse of the process of this Court and, in compliance with the Civil Procedure Rules can and should be struck out pursuant to part 3.4 of the same. Furthermore, the Defendant contends that the Claimant’s conduct in issuing the claim is vexatious and amounts to unlawful harassment pursuant to section 40 of the Administration of Justice Act 1970.

 

In respect of that which is denied, on the 2nd June 2007, a request was made under section 78, running account credit, of the Consumer Credit Act 1974, to obtain a copy of a credit agreement that the alleged debt refers to. It was sent by guaranteed delivery to the Claimant’s Solicitors, with the statutory £1.00 fee enclosed. It was received on the 5th June 2007, which gave the Claimant twelve working days from receipt of the request, to provide said document, which is stipulated in Regulation 2 of The Consumer Credit (Prescribed Periods for Giving Information) Regulations 1983. In response to the request, a letter was received with an accompanying document from the Claimant’s Solicitor dated the 26th June 2007, received on the 30th June 2007. It is denied that the document furnished is a copy of a credit agreement as averred by the Claimant. The Claimant has provided an application form which is not a credit agreement within the meaning of sections 60 and 61 of the Consumer Credit Act 1974. Accordingly, having failed to produce a credit agreement within the requisite timescale or at all, the Claimants are in default of said request under section 78(6)(a) of the Consumer Credit Act 1974. The Defendant further avers in respect of that which is denied, that the document furnished is a breach of section 59(1) of the Consumer Credit Act 1974.

 

The Defendant denies that there has been any failure to make payment in accordance with the alleged contract. The Claimant has failed to produced a copy of a properly executed credit agreement and in the absence of such an agreement, which conforms to sections 60 and 61 of the Consumer Credit Act 1974, the Defendant avers that no agreement has ever existed for there to have been any failure to make said payment.

 

It is denied that the Default Notice received is legally enforceable, as it did not comply with section 88(1) of the Consumer Credit Act 1974, as to form and content, and has therefore been registered with Credit Reference Agencies unlawfully.

 

The Claimants are not entitled to claim interest at a rate of 26.478 per annum, as they have not established a legal right to issue a claim or proven that any debt exists. It is the Defendant’s position that the Claimant’s claim is entirely unmeritorious and should be struck out for the aforementioned reasons.

[yaffsimone1]

Robert1168,

 

How did you get on with this, i see you filed the defence of the 6th July. what kind of response have you had? Did Cohen's file thier response to your defence in time?

[Wonkey Donkey]

Damn - what happened next?!

[hillards]

Damn - what happened next?!

They discovered that the butler did it after all...

 

Hmmm, many years ago I applied for a job with Lewis Debt Recovery in Cleckheaton. I was shown around the office and it was explained that I would be required to telephone people who owed money and ask them to pay. The on-site 'solicitors' were called Howard Cohen. From what I could tell, they just loaded the printer with different paper.

 

I've now looked up CL Finance and found this C L Finance, Debt Collection Agencies in Cleckheaton - ThomsonLocal.com - if you swap to an ariel view and zoom in it points to a bush on some scrap land, which may or may not be a plush office block now.

 

The interesting bit is that the Lewis office I went to is just up the road, if you look at the green park bit with trees round and draw a line through that to the big gas tank you cut through the building.

 

Do I take it that Lewis is now CL then ? Hmmm, I looked deeper:

The Lewis Group Ltd

Lawrence House, Riverside Drive,

Cleckheaton, West Yorkshire, BD19 4DH

 

C L Finance

Lawrence House/Riverside Dr,

Cleckheaton, BD19 4DH

 

All part of Cattles, who also own Welcome Finance. And, if I look at Google Earth, there is actually a building on that site now.

 

Oh, and I declined the job - when I listened to some calls being made I realised I was not that sort of person.