I have a partially drafted defence, but I'm away for work now until Thursday evening. I should have some time to make final changes before posting on Friday. In the meantime, if anybody has any suggestions, please post as I will be able to read the thread and make short comments on my mobile.

Thanks for bumping middenmess. I'm currently drafting a defence. I'm going to concentrate on the agreement being unenforceable due to absence of prescribed terms. However, I also want to make a further case for unlawful rescission based on the account being assigned 2 days before the remedy date on the DN. I have also notices couple of anomalies in the Part 18 response: 1. para. 8 states "The Defendant defaulted on the Agreement on several occasions. Individual Notices of Default are contained within the Statement of Account". I believe that the author has confused the term "Default Notice" with "Notice of Default Sums". Does anyone have a good comparison of these two terms so that I can expose the claimants ignorance of this? 2. further to the above, para 9 states that a termination notice was issued to the defendant and a copy is attached. The only two documents attached are a copy DN and a letter addressed to me from MBNA stating that the account has been assigned - dated 16 August 2010!!

Bump I need to draft a defence by the end of the week. Any suggestions?

I'm no expert on settlement negotiations, but I would do it all in writing and state "WITHOUT PREJUDICE SAVE AS TO COSTS" clearly at the beginning of all correspondence. I also think its a good idea to say that you can raise the sum if they agree to the terms, rather than imply you already have the money available to you. I would also look into whether there is any benefit in making the payment via a third party i.e trusted friend or family member makes out the cheque on your behalf. Good luck and don't let them bully you into anything.

Seen these before on both my MBNA accounts - they often refer to them as 'rolling purchase agreements' "The Seller and Buyer have agreed, upon the terms and subject to the conditions of this Agreement that the Seller shall offer, during the Term of this Agreement, to assign Receivables arising on Charged-off Accounts to the Buyer and the Buyer shall accept such offers" To me, this isn't a contract for the assignment of specific accounts on or at a specific date - its a framework agreement for the supply and purchase of accounts over a period. In itself, this is not evidence of the assignment of any specific account. There must be a separate record of which individual accounts were sold, the date of sale and the amount.

Nothing is going to prevent them winning the case other than what you do. You have to counter their claims with facts and argument. The agreement may well be unenforceable, but the judge isn't going to decide this for himself. This isn't easy, but its by no means hopeless either.

The Claimant cannot move the claim forward without making an application to the court to strike out your defence. This will need to be supported by evidence - usually in the form of a Witness Statement with any important documents exhibited to it. You will get a copy and will have the opportunity to provide your own Witness Statement in opposition. It will be decided at a hearing. The CPR does specify rules that pleadings should adhere to. However, the courts don't tend to enforce the rules on their own initiative - the parties need to apply to the court to request it to act. I did caution against being too quick to enter an embarrassed defence in post #3. That said, I don't think you would be significantly better off at this stage had you filed a full defence. I would fully expect the claimant to apply for summary judgement anyway.

I believe that the claimant also needs the courts permission to amend their Particulars of Claim. Although they can provide additional information in the form a CPR response or witness statement - both need to be verified. These sort of vague PoCs seem to be a good tactic for claimants so long as the courts allow them to get away with it. Most of the claims they issue will result in an admission or default judgement anyway, so there is really no incentive for them to fully particularise the claim - heaven forbid that that might require someone actually looks at the case before they send the data to Northampton! Have you had the allocation questionnaire yet? Claims over £5K are normally allocated to the Fast Track I think you next step might be to use the AQ to tell the court that you haven't been provided with the information you require and ask the court for special directions. The judge may or may not take this into account when allocating the case and providing orders for how it should proceed. Alternatively, there might be a Case Management Conference at which you tell the judge what additional information you need and why. Not sure if this will prevent the claimant from making an application to strike out the defence though. If your defence is struck out they will be able to obtain a judgement against you, so its imperative that you oppose the application. They will support their application with a witness statement - you will need to draft your own WS that responds to each and every allegation raised by the claimants.

No, I do not believe that Hillesden have a consumer credit licence. I also don't see how the assignor can terminate the agreement after it has assigned it. It must have been terminated before it was assigned on the 22nd - before the remedy date on the DN. Any more views on how this can be defended?

Louis, did you receive a response to your part 18 request and was this verified with a statement of truth? If so, then this will be taken as part of the claimants particulars of claim Your defence at post #16 does look a little vulnerable because of its brevity. Probably would have been a good idea to state what attempts you have made to clarify the claimants PoC e.g part 18 request etc. You could also have made an outright denial that you had either requested or received any 'banking facilities' from Hillesden. Who, incidentally, don't appear to be licenced to provide them! If you don't deny an allegation made by the claimant, then the court could infer that you admit it. This is why you often see statements like "unless otherwise stated here, the defendant neither admits nor denies any allegations made in the particulars of claim and puts the claimant to strict proof thereof" etc. I suspect that DLC are not bluffing and they will indeed make an application to strike out your defence as soon as the case is allocated. They will probably supply a witness statement setting out their claim in more detail. You will need provide your own witness statement in opposition to this and argue you case to the judge on the day. Primarily, you will need to convince him/her that your defence should not be struck out and that you should have leave to amend it based on the details supplied by the claimant - you could also use the opportunity to ask for any other documents or info that you think you need from the claimant, although the court may decide that this should be part of standard disclosure if its a fast Track case. You also need to kick up a fuss over the claimants poor PoC and their lack of co-operation after the claim was issued. Sadly, it seems that claimants are frequently allowed to get away with this kind of thing.

Thanks for the recent posts. I've been away for a few days, but found this on my doormat today: --------------------------------------------------------------------------- RESPONSE TO THE DEFENDANT’S REQUEST UNDER CPR 18 --------------------------------------------------------------------------- [see my original request at post #50 ] 1) The outstanding balance relates to monies due under a regulated agreement, in writing, dated 24 June 2000 made between Bank of Scotland plc and the Defendant (“the Agreement”). The debt was subsequently assigned to MBNA Europe Bank Ltd, the Assignor. 2) A copy of the Agreement was supplied to the Defendant on 5 September 2009. [see post #6] 3) A copy of the Agreement is available for inspection in the event that the Defendant has failed to retain the copy sent as above. 4) The Claimant is not a party to the original agreement. 5) On 23 December 2008, MBNA Europe Bank Ltd agreed to assign debt to the Claimant on a rolling purchase basis. Copies of the key pages of assignment were sent to the Defendant on 3 August 2010. Due to the commercial sensitivity of the complete assignment, a full text will not be available for inspection. All legal and beneficial interest in the monies due by the Defendant, being £7771.81 was transferred to the Claimant on 22 April 2009. 6) a) As above b) As above. c) The Defendant was notified of the assignment on 23 April 2009. d) The notice of assignment was sent by first class, Royal Mail post. 7) The Defendant failed to make payments in accordance with the terms of the agreement. 8)The Defendant defaulted on the Agreement on several occasions. Individual Notices of Default are contained within the Statement of Account. a) The amount of arrears at default varied. Please see notices included within the Statement of Account. b) As above, please see Notices contained within the Statement of Account. c) As above. d) The Default Notices are contained within the statements which were sent to the Defendant by way of Royal Mail post. 9) The Defendant failed to discharge the arrears and the agreement was subsequently terminated by the Assignor. Please see attached copy Termination Notice. 10) The Agreement was terminated on 24 April 2009. 11) A Statement of Account was sent to the Defendant on 3 July 2009. A copy is available for inspection in the event that it has not been retained. The Claimant believes the facts set out above to be true. Signed: xx Position: Litigation Executive, direct legal & collections. ------------------------------------------------------------------- There were two documents attached to this response: 1. A Default Notice dated 7 April 2009 with a 'remedy before' date of 24 April 2009 2. a 'Termination Notice' dated 16 August 2010 ! They have previously supplied a copy of the 'rolling purchase' contract that is dated 23 December 2008. However, there is nothing that identifies this particular account as having been sold I need to file a Defence by 13 September 2010

I still haven't received a final response to my Part 18 request and the defence needs to be filed by 13 September. Their interim response is not verified with a Statement of Truth, so I don't see how I can be expected to respond to it in my defence. My intention is to write to Applins asking for a final response by return, or at least by the end of this week as I need 14 clear days to prepare my defence. If they fail to respond, I will have to enter an embarrassed defence and make the court aware of their failure to comply with the part 18 request. Any other suggestions?

You will have to pay for an application, unless you are exempt e.g. on benefits etc. I think its £40 for an application without a hearing. The guidance notes on the court service website will tell you. You may be able to have the cost of the application awarded to you as the claim has not yet been allocated to a track. Either way, you will have to pay the fee to the court up-front There are other options though... I think car is correct to say: I considered making an application myself. However, I took the view that the judge might not look sympathetically on me applying to the court without having at least tried to contact the claimant to resolve the issue - in this case to provide a fully particularised claim. Instead, I wrote to Aplins requesting what I thought I could best expect the judge to order anyway i.e. to provide further information and agree to an extension to the deadline for filing a defence. I did this by way of a letter and a formal Part 18 request. For details see my thread. This way you can ask the questions that you want to tie them down on. They have agreed to an extension and have sent me an interim response to the part 18 request. Once I have the final response I will post it on my thread. I'm not saying that this is the right way of doing it, but it is another option. There is more than one way to skin a cat! car2403 also makes a good point that it wouldn't be good to spoon-feed you all the info. As I've said before, you need to really understand what you are going to do as you might have to explain yourself in front of a judge.

DLC have written to agree my request for an extension. They have also provided an 'interim' response to my part 18 request. This isn't endorsed with a statement of truth. Should I remind them that their response forms part of their statement of case?

You mention 'compensation' in the OP. Is this a personal injury claim? If so, I think the small claim limit is £1K as opposed to £5K in money claims.

Search for the forum for 'Aplins' and you will find other threads with identical or very similar, but equally as vague, POC. In my case, I have sent them a Part 18 request in order to clarify their POC. However, other suggestions are to enter an "embarrassed" defence or apply for a strike out. Personally, I would be wary of being to quick to enter an embarrassed defence. You could probably outright deny the claim as I doubt that you have ever requested or indeed received 'banking facilities' from Hillesden. Here is a link to my case http://www.consumeractiongroup.co.uk/forum/legal-issues/266553-bos-mbna-hilisden-dlc-3.html Also, have a look here http://www.consumeractiongroup.co.uk/forum/debt-collection-industry/213405-hillesden-securities-ltd-dlc-4.html#post3069678

Don't be surprised if you get a Count Court Claim for for this debt. Search the forum and you will find some other threads where Aplins have indeed started action on behalf of Hillesdens.

Shazza, Make sure you acknowledge service of the claim. The clock is ticking and you have only 14 days to enter a defence. If you acknowledge service, you get a further 14 days. You can do this easily on-line at MCOL. Read as much as you can here on CAG, but make sure you understand what action you are taking. Don't take anyones advice as the last word - there is no professional advice here and its given without warranty or comeback if it turns out to be bad. I cant stress enough how important it is to fully understand the letters that you send. If this plays out you might have to explain yourself in front of a judge and a hostile solicitor/barrister for the claimant! I'm not trying to put you off. If it were me, I'd definitely defend this claim, but I'm not you and neither is anyone else. Don't do anything you don't understand and aren't comfortable doing. best of luck, bert

I don't think CPR 31.14 will get you anywhere with those POCs. Aplins are using some very vague 'cut and paste' POCs for Hillesden debts that don't actually mention any documents that you could request under 31.14. I am in exactly the same boat and have decided to request an extension for filling a defence (CPR15.5) and have made a request for further information under CPR Part 18. I suspect that Aplins/Hillesden are issuing batches of claims through Northhampton expecting to get admissions or default judgements. If you defend, they will probably ignore you unless they think you know your onions and they will apply for Summary Judgement at the earliest opportunity. If you are interested, my thread is here http://www.consumeractiongroup.co.uk/forum/legal-issues/266553-bos-mbna-hilisden-dlc-3.html Also, as you are now in litigation, it might be an idea to request that the moderators move this to the 'Legal Issues' board. Click the red triangle.

Thanks CitizenB, I have sent the CPR 18 request with a covering letter asking for an extension. Will keep the embarrassed defence in the bag in case they don't respond.

I've taken out the bit about section 31.14, but put it in the cover letter. I don't want to confuse the Part 18, but I want them to know that I will request the documents anyway, so they should served them with the response. I saw the reference to PD 16 in an example Part 18 on a law book, so I reckon thats OK. If they respond to my request, they cant hide behind the exemption for Northampton electronically issued claims. To be honest, I don't think they will respond. I just need to be able to demonstrate to the court that I have attempted to get clarification.

Any comments? I really need to send this today as I have had the clam form for nearly a week.

Edited - duplicate post

Thanks Unclebulgaria, but that part 18 request seems to be against what is advised in the CPR18 vs CPR 31.14 thread. I've read up a bit on CPR18 requests and Ive re-drafted mine as follows: ---------------- IN THE NORTHAMPTON COUNTY COURT CLAIM NUMBER: XXXXXXX Between: HILLESDEN SECURITIES LTD -Claimant and LITTLEBERT -Defendant CPR PART 18 – REQUEST FOR FURTHER INFOMATION OF THE PARTICULARS OF CLAIM Made by Littlebert to Hillisden Securities Ltd dated xx July 2010 In a claim form dated xxx the claimant states the following as their Particulars of Claim: "The Claimants's [sic] claim against the defendant is for the amount due and unpaid at todays date under a regulated running monthly credit account." The claim form states the amount claimed as £xxxx.xx Paragraph 1 Of “...regulated running monthly credit account.” Requests 1. Please state if the account was established by way of a written agreement. 2. (If the account was established by written agreement,) please identify the document or documents in which it is constituted, and serve copies in accordance with Practice Direction 16, paragraph 7.3. 3. (If the account was established by written agreement,) please state if the original document is available for inspection. 4. (If the account was established by written agreement,) please state if the Claimant is named as a party to the original agreement? 5. (If the Claimant is not a party to the original agreement,) please state if the Claimant claims to have been assigned rights under the agreement? 6. (If the Claimant claims to have been assigned rights,) please state the following: a. The date or dates of any legal assignment or assignments; b. The parties to any legal assignment or assignments; c. The date or dates on which any Notice of Assignment was served on the Defendant; d. The method of service for any such Notice of Assignment. 7. Please state if the claimant alleges that the Defendant defaulted on obligations set out in a written agreement? 8. (If it is alleged that the Defendant defaulted,) please state the following: a. The date of default; b. The amount of arrears due on default; c. The date on which any Default Notice was sent to the defendant; d. The class of postage used to send any Default Notice. 9. Please state if the Claimant alleges that the defendant failed to remedy a default? 10. (If it is alleged that the Defendant failed to remedy a default,) please state the date at which the agreement was terminated. Of “...the amount due and unpaid at todays date” Request 11. Please state how the amount claimed was calculated including details of every payment credited and charge debited to the account since the making of any agreement until the date of the claim. TAKE NOTICE THAT YOU ARE REQUIRED TO ANSWER THE ABOVE REQUEST WITHIN 14 DAYS OF SERVICE OF THE SAME Prepared by the Defendant Littlebert of Little House, Little Lane, Littleville LB2 XXX Dated XX July 2010

Subbing. I'm struggling with the same POC from Aplins for Hillisden on a former MBNA account. http://www.consumeractiongroup.co.uk/forum/legal-issues/266553-bos-mbna-hilisden-dlc-3.html