Just as FYI, I too received a letter from Lowell this morning about an alleged debt from a rented address owed to Npower from 2015 for almost the same amount.....coincidence?

Bad Moon Rising - Creedence Clearwater Revival

Another Brick in the wall - Pink Floyd

I have just (1:30pm Tuesday 29th December) collected my mail and have received a letter from the CSA. It states they are applying for a court order against me. The reaon for the order is long winded but not my immediate concern. I have been given seven days to respond. What concerns me is, the letter was written and posted on 23rd December. As the post offices are closed and no deliveries were made over christmas, I find that the order will be made tomorrow. Im sure that i read somewhere that you had to be given reasonable amount of time to respond to threats of court action, or am I wrong? Once the issue of the court case is addressed, I'll then go into the details of their claim. Please help if you can. Simon

I agree sod'em (great name btw!!) but unfortunately the details of the contract make it easy to ascertain my course of action and I would rather the other party (who watches this forum periodically) didnt know what was happening untill I was certain that there was a legal course I could take. I appreciate that this may sound vague, but I'd rather not release details on the open forum. As to posting in the correct forum, well general consumer advice would probably be the most appropriate but I need the advice super fast as I may be homeless and without net access come Tuesday, hence posting it here. Sorry Mods!! Smoothy

I urgently need some legal help regarding a contract. I would rather not go into detail on an open forum, but it has to do with a purchase and possible breach of contract and/or unfair terms. If a legal mind could pm me asap, I would appreciate it. Smoothy

You want I'll haggle for you matey?!!!! Long time and all that.......

I wrote back to nationwide, infforming them that I would accept their offer as part payment only and continue to persue the rest. Checked MCOL this morning.... So i spose now they get more time to add a defence. Especially as 28 days is up on thursday....2 days away.....

Was it sent recorded? If so take your 12 days from date of delivery. If not, then allow 2 days for delivery then 12 days. That makes it today!!!! If they havnt responded by now, i doubt they ever will! Ar you going MCOL route or the old fashioned way?!!

Thanks michael

If youve not received a reply from their solicitors, then abbey themselves must be dealing with it and therefore a schedule of charges shouldve been sent to them else how do they know what it is you are claiming for?!! It may be best if you can scan their defence and post them here (remember to remove any private info etc) Then perhaps someone more qualified can comment on your best course of action.

This is also another delaying tactic. They buy time by getting the case transferred and in doing so hope you will lose your nerve. Stick to your guns and ensure that your claim docs are watertight. Did you send the courts and Abbeys solicitors a copy of your schedule of charges? If youve done all that is expecte of you, then relax and await the outcome. IF and its a really big if, they do submit a defence, then post it here and well see just how eager they are to persue it. Try keep calm (not easy I know!!) and let them shoot themselves in the foot!!

They Have filed a defence......or intend to defend. Im in the same position with Nationwide. Their 28 days is up next thursday and their solicitors have submitted to the court that they intend to defend although no defence has been submitted. Yesterday I got a letter explaining a partial refund and not for the amount i am claiming so I am currently writing acceptance of this amount as part payment only and I shal only cease persuing the claim when it is settled in full. Im wondering if Shabbey have actually filed a defence if youve not received anything......

They all intend to defend the claim......its a time wasting exercise Lou. Stick to your timescale and its more than likely they will pay up at the last minute. Dont be too eager to press the ENTER JUDGEMENT button either. Let them have 28 days to file a defence plus a couple for good measure. All good things come to those who wait!

Thanks for the support guys. I got home today to find a lovely letter from them explaining that they have refunded my court costs of £50 and £73.50 of charges. They have also refunded £22.88 stat intrest at 8% of said charges. Total refund of £146.38. Somehow i dont think this equates to the amount I am claiming. Ho hum.......I feel a letter coming on!!!

Quick update on Nationwide claim. See here. Smoothy

Quick update...... Check the account this mornin and stone me there were 2 deposits yesterday!! One for the intrest im claiming off of them and the other for an obscure amount. Even if i applied a charge of £12 to each of my charges it still doesnt come to what theyve paid in. Odd that they should pay the amount of intrest that im claiming, but not the charges themselves. Still I'll keep a close eye on things and see how it goes. Theyve only got 7 days left to file a defence so it should all start happening in the next week.

Absolutely! I just cant understand the mentaliy of them. Theyll probably wait another 6 years and try again in the vain hope that I'll have forgotten!! I have found that in the instances that Ive sent CCA requests, most of them prefer to hand the file back to its originator thus removing themselves from any connection with the case or they write back apologizing that they are unable to comply and will not persure the matter. (that is until 6 years later when they try their hand again!

As you asked so eloquently Ruthie, I spose Id' better keep up to date! As events happen, I will update this thread. Recently, I got a lovely letter from the peeps at First Credit. The gang down their wanted to make me feel welcome and at ease and suggested I give them a call for an informal chat about some debt or other that they claim to be managing on behalf of their clients. So I decided I'd return the gesture and introduce myself with a lovely letter explaining the case of statute barred debt. Ok I'll step out of comedy mode for a minute if I may.... This alleged debt....is for £1700 to RBoS. A credit card debt no less. I thought I'd heard the last of this about 8 years ago when I told RBoS that I knew nothing about it. Then all of a sudden....contact is re-established!. So I sent them a standard statute barred letter and that was it. Nothing for 2 weeks. Then, A lovely letter came from Connaught Collections. Telling me that they were issuing proceedings for recovery of this debt on behalf of 1st Credit. So, i sent them a copy of the letter I'd sent 1st and asked them to supply a deed of assignment before i would communicate further on the subject. Didnt hear anything back. THEN......(switch to scare mode) A letter fell on my mat from Bishop Investigations treatening me with a bankrupsy order under the insolvency act. When I read this my knees were shaking and my legs went wobbly in fact I was almost in tears from laughing so hard! So....I sent them copies of other letters and asked them to provide proof of this alleged debt. Today I got 2 letters from Connaught Collections....one thanked me for the letter to them and the other thanked me for the letter to Bishop Investigations....bothe concluded by telling me they are no longer dealing with this matter and have handed the case back to 1st Credit. Aside from the fact that they have disregarded OFT advise in that they Used more than 1 company at a time in debt collection Used letters in an attempt to intimidate or scare me Constantly passed around my personal data to god knows how many people without my consent (i know its a dpa issue but i thought what the hell!) the fact that they have yet to substantiate their claim and yet still continue to persue the matter is really annoying. Still...if they carry on with these antics, I'm gonna have a huge court bundle against em!!

Hehehe is that a threat or a promise?!!

Hi Weaver! Well the reason for no more updates was because of the MIB! It seems when I contacted a creditor or 2, they knew exactly my course of action and I can only assume that theyve been reading my posts! Not only that, but it seemed that I was only posting for my benefit as nobody else excpt yourself and Un1boy had replied!! Still, if its an update youre after..... Nationwide..............................filed MCOL 12 April. Posted here. Gus........................................No further action taken (yet) debt wiped out but default remains despite my letters. Capital 1.................................Debt cleared, default removed and a new card! What a bargain! O2 Communications...................Debt cleared off but default remains (for now!) Welcome.................................They commited an offence after being in default over CCA request. Still they keep writing silly letters so i sent them SAR and all i got was a printout statement. Hmmm compliabce not their strongpoint!! So there you have it! Not much happening at the moment. That is, until 10 may when Nationwide should have filed their defence. But thanks for your interest Weaver! Im still very active on the boards, putting my 2 penneth in as and when!

Were you honestly expecting them to reply?!!!! They are a law unto themselves so its about time they were pulled into line. Go get em Stew!!!

Dont forget a nice big 14pt Bold heading I do not acknowledge any debt to your company

The trouble with personal bankruptsy, is that thos on the breadline cant afford it! How are you suppose to go bankrupt and have an official receiver take charge of all your credit problems, if you cant afford it in the first place??!! IVA's are ok but I have known a number of occasions when they just failed to solve the initial problem. So were back to the baliffs again. Vicious circle.

DirtyHarry1959, It may appear Illegal in your and our eyes, but a judge would require proof of the alleged illegal activities. Which is where the sec77,78 requests come into it. Have a look at some letter templates here and see what info you can glean. They have a statutory requirement to comply with correctly formatted requests which is probably why theyre still persuing you. If you send a CCA request to any of these companies, chances are theyll do one of 2 things. Either write back acknowledging your letter but they cannot deal with your request so theyve handed the file back to the originator or theyll send you a piece of paper which they believe satisfies your request fully but in reality is little more than a waste of paper. More often than not I have found that a number of dca's are just trying their hand and seeing if youd pay up without objection. Smoothy