Lowell Portfolio and Bryan Carter solicitors taking me to court over 02 debt.

[mocster1985]

Hi all I am new to this so please bear with me.

 

Other than this case I am in good finacial standing with no debt or credit issues.

I have been sent court summons from Northhampton CCBC from Lowell Portfolio ltd fronted by Bryan Carter "Solicitors"

 

The summons came on 29th October

I have roughly under 14 days to respond.

I am in the process of writing to Bryan with a CPR 31.14

but I understand I have to respond to the Court first?

 

Also I am out of the country till January so this is a royal pain in the posterior so to speak. Any advice will be gratfully carried out.

 

As background I payed my 02 contract fully every month and at the at the allotted time[12 months] I asked to cancel the contract . They agreed.

 

They then took out 160 pounds without asking as a cancellation fee.

This wound me up and I rang to get my money back.

After a while they returned it. Twice....

 

They realised mistake later but I had moved and didnt know about it.

This brings me to present day with me getting debt letters from moorcroft then lowell.

Now court.

 

They are taking me to court on the agreement of providing finance,goods or services .

I had payed contract fully with out debt up to this point.

 

 

This is somthing I have ignored rather then dealt with.

Bryan is claiming 39 pounds interest and a 50 pound fee which brings it to 270 pounds.

 

Please advise

 

ps the contract was in 2010.

 

[mocster1985]

Hi everyone. Please advise I am a bit stuck.

[unclebulgaria67]

You can acknowledge online and say that you will defend in full. The CPR 31.14 may be rejected because as I understand it, this should not be used for small court claims cases. You can send them a Part 18 letter asking questions.

 

The court claim gives you 14 days to acknowledge and then a further 14 days to enter your defence information. If you use the maximum time allowed, I cannot see there being any court hearing until January. When you respond, you should add that at the time the claim form was issued you were not resident in the UK and will not be returning to the UK until January.

[mocster1985]

Thanks for the reply. Is there a letter in that you request information and if the soliciters do not reply within a set amount of days the case is void?

I would rather avoid going to court. Also what is the letter you send to solicitors with a pound asking for all documentation. Does this apply?

[mocster1985]

Hi there I looked it up I will do that.

[citizenB]

Can you please let us know the date of issue on the claim form - top right hand corner of the claim form, then we can let you know your timeline, which follows..

 

Date of Issue + 5 days for service = ??? + 14 days to acknowledge claim = ??? + 14 days to submit your defence = ???

 

As this is a mobile phone issue, you will not be able to ask for an agreement as there wont be one.

 

You can still use CPR31.14 in order to obtain statement of account - notice of assignments.

You would use CPR part 18 in order to obtain information only.

 

If you could also let us know the content of the claim - the reason they have issued this, then we can advise what information/ documents that you can request.

 

You will find templates in the CAG library.. http://www.consumeractiongroup.co.uk/forum/forumdisplay.php?406-Legal

[mocster1985]

So the issue date on the form is 29th October 2013.

 

The claim is from when 02 wrongly took 160 pounds out of my account without permission then put it back twice. In a nutshell. I had moved house and realised later . By that time I was getting debt collection letters . Would it be better to just pay it? Also if it does go to court will I have to pay more costs?

[citizenB]

Righto,

 

Date of issue 29 October + 5 days for service = 3rd November + 14 days to acknowledge = 17 November + 14 days to submit defence = 1st December.

 

This is under £10,000 so would be heard as a small claim or even referred to mediation. Costs are limited so, no, there wont be a huge bill for costs.

 

For claims this small, they are almost certainly being used to scare people into paying.. after all, who wants a County Court Judgment against them for under £200.00 !! I would suspect your credit files are already trashed because both the Mobile phone company and Lowells would have been reporting negatively to it.

 

If you do not believe you have a defence then by all means settle the debt - you will, I think have to also pay the costs on the claim form.

[mocster1985]

I have never been in debt and have also had no problem getting contracts or credit cards in the last few years. I am not sure how the credit rating works.

 

I was just wondering wether to go to court. I have a feeling that Bryan Solicitors has no evidence. If I send the letters am I right in thinking that if he sends no evidence it will not go to court?

 

Also this matter was out of any credit agreement I had with 02 as it was down to a mistake on their part rather then me not paying my bills all of which I have done.

 

Thanks for help btw

[Ganymede]

They overpaid you and you kept £160.00 you knew you were not entitled to.

 

Not sure what Defence you can submit...

[mocster1985]

Hi if there is an Admin reading this could I get the first post deleted?

 

Thanks

[BRIGADIER2JCS]

Unlikely to be any defence to this, paying it prior to the hearing and avoiding a judgement seems the logical course.

[mocster1985]

Hi there. Is it possible to get my first post on this thread deleted? I have looked but cant find the option.

 

Also thanks for the reply all duly noted.

[BRIGADIER2JCS]

Hi there. Is it possible to get my first post on this thread deleted? I have looked but cant find the option.

 

Also thanks for the reply all duly noted.

Is there a reason for this please.

I have reported this for attention.

[citizenB]

mocster, I have sent a private message to you.

[mocster1985]

Hi Citizen B I received your message. How do I reply?

[BRIGADIER2JCS]

Reply to message button

[mocster1985]

I dont have sufficient posts to reply I think. It wont allow reply's.

[honeybee13]

I dont have sufficient posts to reply I think. It wont allow reply's.

 

Hello there.

 

You should be able to reply to site team even if you don't have 30 posts.

 

My best, HB

[mocster1985]

Hi there thanks for reply. There is actually no reply button on inbox

[mocster1985]

Hi there . I was wondering if anyone has used non compliance of Cpr 31.14 as a defence in order to get the case struck out. I am due to put my defence on the 31st Dec. I have received no documents from Carters or any correspondence explaining why. Using practice direction 4.4 a which states that

 

Examples of cases within the rule

2.1

The following are examples of cases where the court may conclude that an application falls within rule 4.4(1)(a) –

(a) those which set out no facts indicating what the application is about;

(b) those which are incoherent and make no sense;

© those which contain a coherent set of facts but those facts, even if true, do not disclose any legally recognisable application against the respondent.

2.2

An application may fall within rule 4.4(1)(b) where it cannot be justified, for example because it is frivolous, scurrilous or obviously ill-founded.

2.3

An answer may fall within rule 4.4(1)(a) where it consists of a bare denial or otherwise sets out no coherent statement of facts.

2.4

A party may believe that it can be shown without the need for a hearing that an opponent's case has no real prospect of success on the facts, or that the case is bound to succeed or fail, as the case may be, because of a point of law (including the construction of a document). In such a case the party concerned may make an application under rule 4.4.

 

http://www.justice.gov.uk/courts/procedure-rules/family/practice_directions/pd_part_04a

 

Further to my original explanation I made a mistake and do not owe this money. It was sorted back then. I have all bank statements to prove this but would rather tryto get the case struck out.

[mocster1985]

Can I file this application before entering a defence? And would I just email the court or do I need a n244? Thanks

[mjt2013]

Just to clarify having read through your thread, you now say "it was sorted back then". How was it sorted? Your earlier posts stated that they mistakenly paid you twice and imply you kept the money. Apologies if I missed the explanation because I was just skimming the thread to get an idea of the issues.

 

What disclosure do you want? It sounds like you know exactly what this case is about. If you were to apply to strike out you would need to be able to justify it.

 

You've referred to the practice direction but what specific bit do you think is relevant? Personally I don't see how any of that is relevant to a failure to effect disclosure.

 

To answer your later questions, you can apply to strike out before entering a defence if you wish. You should complete Form N244. I would strongly suggest you don't though, the case has not been allocated and therefore the SCT costs rules don't apply. I don't really understand what your grounds for striking the claim out are and I can only see your application failing at the moment (although of course an explanation may change that). If you fail you'll probably end up paying more in the costs of the application than the claim is worth.

 

I have to echo the earlier advice in this thread; I really think you should make efforts to just pay the debt. Based on what you've said so far I really don't see how you can avoid it.

[mjt2013]

By the way, if the case was "sorted" then that should be your defence. Just explain how it was sorted out so the money was repaid.

[mocster1985]

By the way, if the case was "sorted" then that should be your defence. Just explain how it was sorted out so the money was repaid.

 

That is my defence and I have all relevent documents.The query was due to not being sure that if I won it wouldnt just be sold to another debt company hence not even bothering with defence and applying to get it struck it struck out due to non compliance of my CPR letter.

 

Also why would I not contest a case where a solicitor has taken me to court with no legal documentation as well as charged me for his time when this hasnt been to court? I am still not sure what this about hence the CPR letter. And non compliance....If you send a CPR letter you should be prepared back it up hence asking about 4.4 and lack of actual documentation to bring a case to court. Thanks for the advice though I will just file my actual defence and see what the court says. Would it be considered rude if I asked for it to be struck out at the end of my defence ?