Lowell and BW (Lloyds)

[senac]

I am new on here, (registered last night) and hoping that somebody can offer me some advice.

 

Some history first to see where I am coming from.

 

Since 1996 I had banked with Lloyds TSB, I was self employed and

in 2005 started experiencing financial difficulties which resulted in me taking on their credit card.

 

 

The situation got so bad that I ceased self employment but had 2 bank accounts and the credit card which they all defaulted me on.

 

After some reading on here I realised that the bank charges and "late" payments on the credit card could be challenged

and started to do so by the following.

• Served them with a SAR notice covering all accounts, twice as they never complied with the first one
  
• Served them with a Data Protection Notice
  

This did cause them to hawk these "debts" to most of the DCA's, which were usually dealt with by ignoring them,

and if a second letter arrived then sending a letter asking for an original copy of the terms and conditions.

 

However it seems that the de-merger of Lloyds TSB has changed their mindset, leading me to my current predicament.

 

I think that I urgently need help with the credit card element, they have a debt figure of £3211.36

 

• On 23rd July Lloyds TSB wrote me to say that they were assigning the debt to Lowell on 24th June, and advising me that "I am contractually obliged to please" contact Lowell. However this account was still in dispute with them.
  

• On 22nd July Lowell wrote to me for the first time with the opening line of "your debt is still outstanding"
  

• On 23rd July Lowell, wrote to me advising that they were the account owners and "before selling your account to us, Lloyds checked and found no reason why this should remain unpaid". Unfortunately, as I had received 2 letters from them on subsequent days I opted to ignore these.
  

• On 5th September they wrote again with the same paragraph of 22nd July. I admit that I did not read further, if I had then I would have read the paragraph "Assessing your credit file" where they stated that they had obtained a copy of my credit file and could see that I am a homeowner (Joint mortgage with my wife, in year 6 of an IVA as we could not remortgage for a yr 5 settlement)
  
• 
  
• On 16th September, they wrote their last letter saying that they had tried on a number of occasions to resolve this matter, and as I had not provided a genuine reason why I had not contacted them that they would instruct BW legal or another firm to contact me. This as where I made my fatal mistake, having received threatbots from other DCA's working on Lloyds behalf (Moorcroft, Apex, IQor to name a few) I totally ignored this.
  

Yesterday I returned home from work to find a scrap of paper which had been pushed through my door from a process server working for BW Legal.

 

 

Last night I did the following

• Found this site, read lots of posts,registered on here, so that I can post.
  
• Completed an information handling complaint to the Office of the Information Commissioner 1.10 am this morning
  
• Requested a "true copy" of the credit agreement, in accordance with s77/78 of the consumer credit act 1974. This was sent via e-mail to Lowell and cc'd to the e-mail address on BW Legal's site. 8.08 am this morning
  

Tonight at 7.11 pm the process server turned up again, and served me with the documents. Although on reading them I notice 2 worrying things

1. The paperwork is dated 25th September
   
2. They have my name wrong, they have my correct first name, then a middle initial which is the same letter that my forename starts with ( I have no middle name), the surname is correct.
   

So I know that I have had use of a credit card, but am frustrated by the following

• I only used it to buy essentials, as I could not use my current account due to the bank charges levied on it, which despite requests, Lloyds have never paid back.
  
• They (Lloyds) have never complied with a SARN, which would allow me to see if all charges applied were relevant. (Some were for payments made in branch before my due date not hitting the account until after it)
  
• They have not complied with a Data Protection Notice on my accounts with them.
  
• I am fearful that they will also use the same tactics for the current account details they hold.
  

I know that I will need to defend this, within 18 days

• How do I do this.
  
• Does the 18 days start today, tomorrow as the document was served at 7pm, or on the 25th September as the SD is dated on that date
  

Sorry for the ramble, hope that all information is there, thanks in advance for any help.

[wendyboats]

Hi senac, and welcome from wendyboats

 

Give it a while and you will receive help and advice, i know how you are feeling and you want help asap, but sometimes the best help comes in time, and some who give it are not always viewing here daily.

 

So chin up and i'm sure some of the great guys on here will reply to your thread.

 

Kind Regards wendyboats

[unclebulgaria67]

You have 18 days from the date the SD was served on you to apply for the set aside.

 

What is the actual history of the date noted on the SD ? Approx date when you applied for the account, how did you apply for it, when did you stop making repayments, did you receive a default notice and if you did, do you have a copy ?

 

You mention possible disputes with Lloyds, but you don't appear to have followed these up, using Lloyds official complaints procedure. Always wise with financial services companies to follow their complaints process and to refer to the FOS if necessary.

 

If you have an IVA, have you spoken to the people administering it, as they will need to know about this.

 

If you owe some money, but not necessarily the amount they are claiming, there is nothing to stop you offering token payments, while saying there are matters that need to be looked into. This should go in your favour, that you are willing to make payments, but that you want to investigate the debt.

[senac]

Unclebulgaria, Thanks for that,

 

It is my wife who is in the IVA, and had to take it into year 6 as we could not re-mortgage in yr 5 due to not enough equity in the house.

 

I will refer this to the financial ombudsman as well, for their non-compliance to my statutory requests.

 

Although I still need clarification on the following

• Does the fact that I disputed this with Lowell before the papers were served, make any difference
  
• As I need to defend this, how do I do so
  

[unclebulgaria67]

Any disputes before the SD will be very helpful. You will need to evidence these disputes on the set aside that you complete. The SD form received should explain the set aside process. You can do this at your nearest County Court that handles insolvency.

 

Lowells are using the SD/bankruptcy as a blunt debt collection tool, when really they should be using the normal CCJ route first. If you manage to get the SD set aside, which will stop bankruptcy being used, they may then look to go down the CCJ route at some point.

 

If you want help with the set aside arguments, you will need to supply more info on this debt, as I asked previously.

[senac]

Good evening all, I am hoping that you can offer me some help, as the situation has moved on since the last post of 5th October.

I did submit a defence on the following points.

• That the alleged debt was in dispute with Lloyds and that they should not be transferring a disputed debt
  
• That this had been assigned to Lowell without any notification to myself bedofehand
  
• That I had requested a true copy of the credit agreement before the SD had been served by BW legal
  
• That Lowell had agreed to place the account on hold for 60 days to give them the time to produce the original copy, Their letter said that they may take longer than 12 days (this still has not been produced as of 26th November.
  

 

I have now received the documents back from the court advising of a hearing date, I am hoping that on that date BW will not turn up. However if they do, what are my next steps.

 

Also I am not sure if it is relevant, but the name that they seem to have on their records and subsequently the court documentation is incorrect

 

Any help is appreciated, and if I need to give more information, please clarify what would assist to enable any caggers to give me advice.