Thank you all for your help here. I've just received a notice of discontinuance in the post from Lowells, they finally accept that they're not entitled to help themselves to my money!

That was in August 2013.

Is that correct even though no default notice was issued and this is a mobile phone debt?

I sent the standard SB letter by email and by recorded delivery yesterday, woke up to this in my inbox from Lowell: I'm thinking that they're throwing their toys out of the pram a little and the statement they gave isn't the proof that we'er asking for... sounds like they know they can't win this and are relying on intimidation/begging. Shame about that

They've had another go today - same little begging letter as before pretty much so I won't bother posting it in full here but they've decided not to bother putting in the Tomlin order option. Gotta love the "If a settlement cannot be reached within 14 days from the date of this email, further action may be taken against you." Emphasis mine. It "may" be taken? I'm pretty convinced it won't. Would it be worth another SB letter or do I just ignore it as there's nothing they can do here?

Thank you for the reply - I'm half expecting them to either drop the whole thing or to spring the "We had to tell the court that you don't want to pay so we're going to restart proceedings" idea given the language in the consent order that I signed with them. Going to read up and prepare to defend in case they fancy playing that game. It'd be nice if they would actually play by the rules for once...

I've had a new threatogram today over email referencing the SB letter for everyone to have a laugh at: Client Name: Lowell Portfolio I Ltd Our Reference: XXXXXXXXXXX Claim Number: XXXXXXXX Balance: £XXX.XX Thank you for your email. We note that you believe the account to be statute barred, and as such, you consider that we should not pursue the debt any further. However, the default date for the account was on 13 February 2014 and as by issuing a Claim within 6 years of this date we are satisfied that the Claim is not statute barred and are entitled to bring proceedings to recover the sums outstanding. As previously mentioned, our client is willing to settle the matter amicably to avoid further legal action which would incur further costs and fees. My client proposes the new following options for settlement. 1. A lump sum payment of £XXX.XX (Lower than previous suggestion) in full and final settlement of the Claim or 2. Entering into a Tomlin Order agreement for the full balance. A Tomlin Order is where both parties agree to a monthly instalment amount which will put the case proceedings on hold. The agreement will have to be signed by both parties and then sealed by the Court to make it binding. However, if you default on these payments outlined in the Tomlin Order, a County Court Judgment may be entered against you. The Court charge a £100.00 fee in order to seal a Tomlin Order, which will be added to the outstanding balance should you wish to accept. Please find the enclosed draft Tomlin Order and if you wish to accept this, please sign, date and return to us. We will notify the Court tomorrow the current status of the Claim as still unresolved due to lack of response from you to our settlement offers. Please provide us with your intentions within 5 days from the date of this email. Should you require assistance you can obtain independent legal advice from a solicitor of your choosing. If you wish to speak with 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 0113 335 3334. Yours sincerely, Lowell Solicitors Darwin House 7 Savannah Way Leeds Valley Park West Leeds LS10 1AB I guess that this is just as worthless as before and the lower "offer" amount is them knowing they're in a corner and just begging for some free money?

Hi, Apologies for the reopening of the thread, however I have an update. The set aside was granted as per that consent order. I've had a new email from Lowell Solicitors today: Client Name: Lowell Portfolio I Ltd Our Reference: XXXXX Claim Number: XXXXXX Balance: £XXX We refer to the above matter and to the Order dated 10 August 2020. Our client is willing to resolve this matter amicably to avoid further legal action which would incur further costs and fees. My client proposes the following options for settlement. A lump sum payment of £XXX in full and final settlement of the Claim or £481.10 to be paid in monthly instalments of £XX. We are also willing to consider any further sensible payment proposals to pay the debt within a reasonable timeframe. The accepted methods of payment are as follows: On our website - https://lowellsolicitors.co.uk/. Please confirm the reference of your account in order for the payment to be allocated correctly. By bank transfer to our Bank Account (Natwest, Sort Code: 60-00-01, Account Number: 39543749 and Payment Reference: 226707966) Calling us on 0113 335 3338 and making the payment over the telephone. Upon payment being received in cleared funds, the Claimant has instructed us to notify the Court the case has been settled and close the account. If a settlement cannot be reached within 14 days from the date of this email, further action may be taken against you. Please contact us on 0113 335 3338 or email complexteam@lowellsolicitors.co.uk. If you are at all unclear, we recommend that you seek independent legal advice. Free legal advice is available from the Citizens Advice Bureau. We look forward to hearing from you. Yours sincerely, Lowell Solicitors ....................... Should I ignore this and let them head back to court where I defend with the standard SB defence or is this one of the very rare times when phoning them could help things?

Thank you, will send it back now

I have received a hearing date for the 11th of August, to be conducted over the telephone. The court has asked for skeleton arguments to be emailed to them as well as a phone number for them to ring me on on the day. I've received an email from Lowells too stating that they want to consent to a set aside and a stay on legal proceedings until the end of October, they're still claiming that it's not SB'd because of the default date. They've sent the attached for me to sign and return to them. Do I sign it and if so does that potentially remove the need for the hearing (if they send it to the court, I'm still preparing for it regardless as I don't want to be caught out here) Consent_order.pdf

Thank you Andy, The N244 is in and I've had a letter back saying that the case has been transferred to my local court who will get in touch with me with a date and time for the hearing. I've been reading up and it seems that the hearing is essentially an opportunity for both sides to put their point across, are there any real gotchas that I need to know about with these types of hearing?

Thank you, I've started filling in the N244 form and have a couple of questions: For 3: What order are you asking the court to make and why? I have "To set aside the judgement for £xxx.xx as I had no opportunity to defend this case because I wasn't aware of it." - Would you include anything else there like the claim form being sent to the wrong address? Do I want a hearing? (I'm guessing yes here) 9: Who should be served with this application? I've seen conflicting advice, some saying Lowells and some saying to leave it blank as they'll get it anyway. 10. What information will you be relying on, in support of your application? The evidence in the box below and then copy and fill in the blanks for the defence that @dx100uk put above? Would it be worth me redacting information on the form and uploading it before sending it? Thank you all on here for helping me navigate this and making it as easy as possible. Hopefully I can get this in, pay the fee and then work on the next steps.

Hi all, just a short update - received the results of the SAR to Lowells, they give the last payment date as 02/08/2013, and the apparent defaulted date as 13/02/2014, so over 6 months later. There is no default notice in any of the SAR results from either Lowells or Three? With that being the case should I work on the above defence or would it be better to go with the one that dx100uk posted and state that the default was over 6 months after the last payment? Thank you for all your help.

Hi all - I have a reply back from the new SAR with the added line in: Are we looking at something like: 1 The Claimant's claim was issued on dd/mm/yyyy. 2.The date last payment made was the dd/mm/yyyy 3.There was no Default notice issued in respect to the claim. 4.Therefore the Defendant contends that the Claimant's claim so issued is a claim in contract and is statute barred pursuant to the provisions of section 5 of the limitation act 1980. If, which is denied, the claimant contends that the Defendant is in breach of the alleged contract, in excess of 6 years have elapsed since the date on which any true cause of action for breach accrued for the benefit of the Claimant. 5.The Claimant's claim to be entitled to payment of £x or any other sum, or relief of any kind is denied.. as a defence and a set aside request here?

Thank you, adding that now, then I'll print it off and send it tomorrow.