Link Financial

[batman1956]

We are at the moment in a very stressful situation with link financial. GE money have apparently sold on a debt to them even though we had an agreement for payments We were never told by any of the parties that the debt had been sold and were shocked on 26th march to get a very abusive phone call from link for payment in full Basically because as far as i was aware i didnt know who link were i told them to sod off. The very next day i recieved court papers for this debt which had been prepared by the court on 12th march.In the meantime we had made the agreed payment to GE (12th) Ge confirm this payment has been made. Meanwhile link continued to phone until i told them to stop. They refuse to accept any monthly payment saying they want the amount in full and threaten to lift the car and sell it. I have written them a CCA request and recieved a letter back saying that they will request it from GE I have also written to ge and complained that they have transmitted my data without my prior knowledge (without reply) What else can i do?

[cups]

You don't really have to do anything else at this time as the account is in dispute. Link will probably not have the documentation that you want as they never do have it. They are a bunch of chancers and will make all kinds of threats. I have CCA'd them and they haven't got the agreement. I haven't heard from them for months. Once you stand up to them and let them know that you are aware of your rights then they will probably back off.

 

Try and take it easy and let's see what they come up with.

 

Regards

 

Cups:)

[batman1956]

The court papers that we have had say that there will be a hearing in early june have they not jumped the gun a bit by issuing proceedings when they have no documentary evidence of the debt being theirs anyway

[cups]

I am sorry but I misread and thought that they had threatened court action, if they have done so already they have really jumped the gun. You made need to put up the details of the court action as there are often time limits that you have to adhere to. Maybe you could PM a site helper to get one of them to point you in the right direction,,maybe tomterme may take a look.

 

You are in the right place to get the help you need,,sorry to have misread your info,,

[batman1956]

Been reading another link thread and it seems i need to send a CPR letter to them What is this, what do i say in it and what is the time scale for them to comply.

[DocH]

Hi, this is the CPR (Civil Procedures Rules) request for information:

 

Claimant -v- (YOUR NAME)

Claim Number: (CLAIM NUMBER)

 

 

Dear XXX

 

REQUEST FOR INFORMATION

 

I have received a recent court claim from your organisation. In order to file a defence and counter claim I require some information. Given that this matter is now the subject of legal proceedings, you are obliged to disclose under the Civil Procedure Rules, the information and documents detailed below.

 

The information must be furnished within fourteen days of the receipt of this letter. If you fail to comply, this will be reported to the Court, a copy of this letter will be provided as evidence to the same and an Order enforcing your compliance will be sought.

 

1. A true copy of the executed credit agreement and any terms and conditions that applied to the account at the time of default and at the time the account was opened.

2. All records you hold on me relevant to this case, including but not limited to:

 

a. Transcriptions of all telephone conversations recorded and any notes made in relation to telephone conversations by your company, or by any previous creditor

b. Where there has been any event in my account history over this period which has required manual intervention by any person, I require disclosure of any indication or notes which have either caused or resulted in that manual intervention, or other evidence of that manual intervention in relation to my account formerly held with *********.(AMEND TO THE COMPANY NAME)

c. True copies of any notice of assignment and/or default notice or enforcement notice that you or the original creditor sent me, with a copy of any proof of postage that you hold.

d.Documents relating to any insurance added to the account, including the insurance contract and terms and conditions, date it was added and deleted (if applicable).

e. Details of any collection charge added to the account; specifically, the date it was levied, the amount of the charge, a detailed financial breakdown of how the charge was calculated, and what the charge covers.

f. Specific details of the fees/charges levied by any other agency in respect of this account and a detailed breakdown of said fees/charges and what each charge relates to and on what date said fees/charges were levied.

g. A genuine copy of any notice of fair use of my data as required by the Data Protection Act 1998

h. A list of third party agencies to whom you have disclosed my personal data and a summary of the nature of the information you have disclosed.

i. Copies of statements for the entire duration of the credit agreement.

 

3. Any other documents you seek to rely on in court.

 

 

I will require this information within the next fourteen days. I must advise you that if the information is not forthcoming, it will be reported to the Court that you are trying to frustrate proceedings and denying me the opportunity to file a defence and counter claim.

 

Yours sincerely,

 

XXXX (type, don't sign).

 

The above is an excellent letter written by pt2537, one of the resident experts. You should get this off by Special Delivery as soon as possible. Don't sign the letter just print your name.

[batman1956]

Many thanks, my next problem is i have never had a notice of assignment, who should send this GE or link and what basically should it say. I have only had a reply from link to my cca request saying that my cca is not held by them and they will request it from ge but it may take more than 12 days.

[DocH]

When did you send off the letter requesting a copy of the CCA?

 

Can you post up on the thread a scanned copy of the N1 County Court Claim Form with all your personal details and any account numbers removed. The experts will want to see this to be able to properly advise you.

 

You should have received a Notice of Assignment from both GE and Link - it would tell you what duties and rights have been passed from the original creditor to the DCA.

 

What documents, if any, did you receive with the claim form?

[batman1956]

The cca request was sent on 27th march and was signed for. Sorry but i cannot scan the documents as my scanner is defunct. No notice of assignment has been recieved from anyone although ge have sent me a letter at my request stating that link now hold the debt (this was recieved about 10 days ago) The claim form was sent with a form to list my income and outgoing plus particulars of their claim but no proof of their ownership of the debt. I have done the CPR letter and intend to post it tomorrow. Do i also write to the court explaining that until i get the necessary documents i am unable to prepare my defence or indeed acknowledge any debt to link

[DocH]

We were never told by any of the parties that the debt had been sold and were shocked on 26th march to get a very abusive phone call from link for payment in full The very next day i recieved court papers for this debt which had been prepared by the court on 12th march.

 

Which court issued the N1 and did it come direct from the court? Have you sent off your acknowledgment of service yet. There is a very tight time frame for acknowledging service and submitting your defence. Can you let us know the date you need to submit your defence by please. Who is listed as the claimant - Link Financial or GE.

 

Do you have a digital camera. If so you could photo the document and upload it to somewhere like photobucket, and link it here to the thread. If not, can you type up on the thread here the Particulars of Claim, exactly as they appear on the claim form. It is very important for the experts to see this.

 

Do i also write to the court explaining that until i get the necessary documents i am unable to prepare my defence or indeed acknowledge any debt to link

 

If you don't receive any of the documents before you need to get your defence off, then you'll be submitting what is called an 'embarrassed defence'. If you have a look in the debt forum there are plenty of examples of these written by pt2537.

 

The cca request was sent on 27th march and was signed for.

 

Okay - its kind of a mute point now, as they will need to supply a copy of the CCA under the CPR request.

 

We also need to get this thread moved to the Legal Issues Forum where it will get a better response. I'll ask a Mod to move it.

[batman1956]

ok here goes the n1 came directly from the court and i am sending back the acknowledgement today the claimant is link. It is my intention to involve my local trading standards as i feel i am getting out iof my depth. The paticukars of the claim are

 

the claimant claims the return of the goods and payment of the unpaid balance of the sums due and payable under an agreement and/or associated agreements made between the defendant and xxxxxxxx in writing and assigned to the claimant. the defendants have failed to make payment as requiredby the agreements and to comply with the notices served by the claimant and/or assignor

 

1 date of agreement

2 parties to the agreement

3 agreement number

4 the defendant and where the agreement was signed

5 the goods (incorrectly described)

6 the total price of the goods

7 the paid up sum

8 unpaid balance

9 default notice served by first class post(never recieved)

10 right to demand delivery og goods accrued

11 unpaid balance of the total price includes £100 admin fee

 

the agreement terminated upon the failure of the defendant to comply with the terms of the agreement the claimant demanded the return of its goods but the defendant failed to surrender the goods

 

and the claimant claims

 

1 an order for delivery of goods

2 £xxxx

3 costs

 

it then has a statement of truth which is signed by link

 

I must make it clear that i have NEVER had any written demand for the return of goods

[DocH]

Can you confirm that this is definitely a Consumer Credit Agreement? As they are asking for the goods to be returned it sounds as tho' it could be a Hire Purchase Agreement.

[batman1956]

sorry yes it is a HP agreement

[DocH]

Okay. As this is outside my experience I've asked for a Mod to take a look.

[batman1956]

Thanks i need to file my defence in the next 3 days and dont know what to do or say

[ukaviator]

Hi Batman1956

 

What was the HP for?

 

Nowadays Hire Purchase and Conditional Sale agreements usually relate to cars although they are sometimes seen for furniture and white goods. They are different from ordinary credit agreements because under Hire Purchase and Conditional Sale agreements you do not own the goods until you have paid off the agreement. With Hire Purchase and Conditional Sale agreements, if you do not keep up with the payments it is possible for a creditor to repossess the goods.

 

This means you cannot sell the goods yourself without the creditor's written permission. If you sell the goods without permission, it can be a criminal offence.

 

If you fall behind with your payments on a Hire Purchase or Conditional Sale agreement, the creditor may be able to repossess the goods. Look at your agreement. There will be a box "Repossession: Your Rights" telling you how much you need to have paid to stop the creditor taking the goods back without a court order or your consent. This should be a third of the total amount payable under the agreement.

 

If you have paid a third or more of the total amount payable, the goods become "protected goods" and the creditor must go to court for an order for the goods to be returned unless you consent to the repossession. They cannot just come round and remove them.

 

There is still a chance that you can keep hold of the goods as the court has the power to agree to this as long as you can pay the debt back in reasonable instalments. If you have paid a third or more of the amount payable under the agreement or the goods are kept on your premises, and you do not consent to their repossession, the creditor will ask the court to send you a claim form asking for the goods to be returned. This is called an application for a "Return Order". Notice of a hearing date with a district judge is included. This hearing will be in your local county court.

 

Form (N9C) with the claim details is needed. Fill this in and send it back to the court within 14 days. You must fill this in if you want the court to suspend the Return of Goods Order and allow you to keep the goods. You need to offer to pay the debt back in monthly instalments that you can afford.

 

Send the form back to the court, not the creditor. The court will send a copy of your form to the creditor. If the creditor accepts the offer the hearing will be cancelled. If the creditor does not accept the offer the hearing will go ahead.

 

You must attend the hearing. The court will decide at the hearing whether they will suspend the Return Order and what monthly instalments you should pay from then on. If you do not fill in the admission form there will be a hearing anyway. If you don't go to the hearing the court will probably grant the creditor an order telling you to return the goods. If the court has already made an Return Order and you still wish to keep the goods, it is possible to apply for the order to be suspended.

 

I hope this gives you a clearer undersytanding of what is likely to happen. It has now become a damage limitation exercise, and i think this is the only option you may have.

[batman1956]

About 75% of the balance has been paid and the arrears started because GE refused to send payment slips. We kept in contact with them and had an agreement to pay back the balance at the monthly payment plus £50 They eventually sent the slips after a 4 month delay on 15th december 2007 and then sold the debt to link on or around 25th december 2007 At no time were we aware of this and recieved no notice that the balance had been sold The first contact i had with link was on 26th march 2008 and then the court papers arrived the next day. In the meantime a payment was made to GE on 12th march which they have confirmed but link say that i has not been forwarded to them.The court papers say that they applied for repossession on 29/10/2007 but this is clearly not the case. When i spoke to link on 26th march i offered to pay the same agreement that had been negotiated with GE ie the monthly installment plus £50 but they refused and say that they intend to go to court. The hp is for a car

[nicklea]

There is one defence that you do have. The fact that you didn't get a Notice of Assignment.

 

Can I just check - is the claim form only in their name or are they joint claimants with GE MOney?

 

If they are the only claimants then they have to send you the Notice of Assignment either by personal service or by recorderd delivery. If they haven't done this then they don't actually own the debt (even though they think they do!)

 

So, this is a complete defence against any claim from them. However there is nothing to stop them serving notice on you properly and then starting legal proceedings again - how likely they are to go through all of that who knows?

 

It is s136 of the Law of Property Act 1925 that allows debts to be assigned:-

 

136 Legal assignments of things in action

 

(1)Any absolute assignment by writing under the hand of the assignor (not purporting to be by way of charge only) of any debt or other legal thing in action, of which express notice in writing has been given to the debtor, trustee or other person from whom the assignor would have been entitled to claim such debt or thing in action, is effectual in law (subject to equities having priority over the right of the assignee) to pass and transfer from the date of such notice—

 

The important thing in the bit above is "of which express notice in writing has been given to the debtor" because section 196 says that any notice must be personally delivered or sent by recorded delivery to be effective:-

 

"(3) Any notice required or authorised by this Act to be served shall be sufficiently served if it is left at the last-known place of abode or business in the United Kingdom of the lessee, lessor, mortgagee, mortgagor, or other person to be served, or, in case of a notice required or authorised to be served on a lessee or mortgagor, is affixed or left for him on the land or any house or building comprised in the lease or mortgage, or, in case of a mining lease, is left for the lessee at the office or counting-house of the mine.

 

(4) Any notice required or authorised by this Act to be served shall also be sufficiently served, if it is sent by post in a registered letter addressed to the lessee, lessor, mortgagee, mortgagor, or other person to be served, by name, at the aforesaid place of abode or business, office, or counting-house, and if that letter is not returned through the post-office undelivered; and that service shall be deemed to be made at the time at which the registered letter would in the ordinary course be delivered."

 

By the Recorded Delivery Service Act 1962 a letter sent by recorded delivery is equivalent to a registered letter.

[ukaviator]

I would file a counterclaim for the return of any charges and late payment fees etc applied to the account if it's GE Money who still hold the debt.

 

As Nick says, if they do not have the legal paperwork, then the account should be passed back to GE Money, and a claim made for the charges. I bet there is a few hundred quid there to claim back there.

[batman1956]

Wow thats a lot to take in but thanks guys. There has definately been no notice of assignment and the claim is by link financial ltd. So i have written to them a cpr letter aasking for all relevant paperwork etc.etc. and intend to weite to the court an embarrassed defence (NOW I KNOW WHAT IT IS) My next step then should be to try to get GE to take back the debt on grounds of non compliance of paperwork I assume?

[batman1956]

Just checked the papers from the court and there is no form N9c in there so i assume that this means that they have not applied for a return order. As stated before i am willing to pay off the balance at the monthly sum plus £50, but link want their pound of flesh and then some more even though up to now they have no proof thay the debt was legally assigned to them. I am confused about how i deal with all the issues with this. Basically i have a couple of points for defence ie the notice of assignment not being recieved and the fact that there was never any written request for return of goods( which now it seems that because the great proportion of the debt has already been paid any attempt to reclaim the car should have been done through legal channels)Also i am waiting for the reply to my cpr letter which could take a while. Help please with my next step

[batman1956]

I have sent in a 4 point defence

1. No compliance with the cca request within specified period

2. No notice of assignment from either party

3. The fact that the majority of the balance was paid there could not have been an attempt to repossess the car without court intervention

4. Still awaiting documents under civil procedure rules

 

In other words they have not given me any proof that they are the legal owners of the balance and as such i acknowledge no debt to them.

[ukaviator]

Any news Batman?

[batman1956]

Nope nothing no reply to my cca request no reply to my cpr letter the case is still some time off. I will post any news if and when things develop.

[rudy1]

Hello batman bit ahead of you, today found out the judge has decided an allocation hearing. I have had no agreement, deed of assignment or statements to prove this is even my debt but it still seems to be proceeding. Asked for the documentation of 29th Febuary should be fun meeting link in person.