Erudio/Shoos SPC Claim - old Student Loan

[Anon888]

Hi,

 

I'm looking for advice regarding a court claim being made against me by Erudio regarding an old student loan.

I've received a claim through the Scottish Simple Procedure process for almost £4000 regarding a loan taken out in 1999.

The original loan would have been for approximately £1800 to my best recollection.

 

I can't say for certain at the moment (will need to call SLC to verify) when the last time I deferred was

- it was a long time ago and I've no recollection of sending anything at all to Erudio at any point, nor was I aware that they required a deferment form as well.

 

I had been paying off my other student loans taken out a few years after this one (04, 05 and 06) through my earnings to the SLC even though I was under the repayment threshold at the time, and I've only earned over the repayment threshold for just over the past 2 years. I was happy enough for paying them off in this manner so I had never felt the need to continue to defer with the SLC, and never really paid much attention to the statements sent by Erudio as I'd incorrectly assumed that they would be paid through this manner as well.

 

At this point, I have recently received a letter from the SLC stating that my loan repayments are coming to an end very soon, but it would appear that this hasn't made any payments towards the loan that Erudio have taken over.

 

I've been reading through the topics posted over the past couple of weeks for and reading about others in similar situations to try and ascertain the best plan of action.

 

Particulars of claim: (copied directly from the claim, account numbers and monetary values redacted)

 

Name the issuing court: Edinburgh Sheriff Court

 

Who Is The Claimant: Erudio Student Loans

 

Who Are the Solicitors: Shoosmiths LLC

 

What type of action? (Simple/Ordinary): Simple

 

Section D1:

1.The claimants are a finance company which inter alia operates the business of debt purchasing. By virtue of a debt purchase agreement ("the Agreement") between claimants and Student Loans Company ("the Original Owner") dated 22/11/13,

 

2.the claimant acquired title to and was assigned the right to payment in respect of all debts and other monetary claims of any nature due at the date of agreement, and in particular in relation to the the contract hereinafter condescended upon. The said assignation was intimated to the defendant by way of written notice on or around 22/11/2013.

 

3.The agreement between the respondent and the original owner upon which this action is based was regulated under the Consumer Credit Act 1974. Further information in relation to that agreement is contained in section D$, where we set out the sums due and the basis upon which they fell due. As at the date thereof, the sum due in terms if the said agreement amounts to £xxxx.xx.

 

Section D4:

 

1. The said contract agreement between the Original Owner and the respondent is a regulated credit agreement in terms of section 189 of the Consumer Credit Act 1974. It is also regulated by the relevant Education (Student Loans) Acts and related regulations. It is dated 26/10/1999, and relates to a Student Loan Agreement with the account number xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx.

 

2.The said agreement required the respondent, following completion of their course of study, and upon meeting certain conditions relating inter alia to their income , to make payment of the sums due by the way of consecutive monthly installments. The said installments were required to commence in the April following the respondent meeting certain income criteria and were to be based upon a percentage of the respondent's income over the said threshold amount.

 

3.It was a term of said agreement that a failure to meet any installment on a due date would render the account in default and would entitle the claimant to serve a notice of default on the respondent requiring the respondent to remedy the breach within 14 days which failing the claimant would be entitled to demand repayment of the loan in full.

 

4.On or around 22/04/2019 the respondent failed to make payment of the sum which had fallen due and the said account thereby entered into default.

A default notice was issued to the Respndent on 22/04/19.

The Respondent failed to remedy the default following upon service of the said notice and the account was terminated in accordance with that notice.

The account remains in default. The sum due in thereunder is due and payable now.

 

5.As at the date hereof, the sum due in the terms of said agreement amounts to £xxxx.xx.

In terms of the Agreement, and the written notice hereinbefore condescendedupon, the right to receive payment of the sums due in terms of the said account vests in the Claimant.

 

Date of raised claim [or court stamp date from writ] :- 23rd Jan 2020

 

Last Date Of Service [or from form 07]:- 17/02/2020 - this was delivered before then.

 

Last Date For Response [or from form 07]:- 09/03/2020

 

What Documents are listed in Box E2:[or in your form requesting the same?]

A copy of the credit agreement, statements of account and notice of assignation will be produced in any defended process to follow hereon.

 

Is the claim for ......an Overdraft, credit card, loan account, HP Agreement, Catalogue or mobile phone debt? :- Student Loan

 

 

BOX D5 what has the claimant stated: IN FULL or [Pleas in law from the writ] I want the court to order the respondent to pay me the sum of £xxxx.xx

…..

 

from your knowledge: answer the following:

 

When did you enter into the original agreement before or after 2007? After 2007, started the course approx 1998, loan taken out 26/10/1999 as per the info they gave me

 

Has the claim been issued by the original creditor or was the account assigned and it is the Debt purchaser who has issued the claim.:- Debt purchaser (Erudio), Shoosmiths LLP

 

Were you aware the account had been assigned – did you receive a Notice of Assignment? Not to my recollection although I was aware that Erudio had been sending statements regarding a student loan

 

Did you receive a Default Notice from the original creditor? Possibly but not to my knowledge

 

Have you been receiving statutory notices headed “Notice of Default sums” – at least once a year ? Possibly but not to my knowledge

 

When was you last payment:- Uncertain, will need to confirm with SLC if payments made towards this loan, no payments ever made to Erudio to the best of my recollection

 

Why did you cease payments:- Was paying off student loans through earnings, never realised that this one was being treated seperately

 

Was there a dispute with the original creditor that remains unresolved? Not to my knowledge, SLC had taken payment through my earnings even though I was below the threshold as I hadn't deferred but I was happy to proceed with this.

 

Did you communicate any financial problems to the original creditor and make any attempt to enter into a debt management plan? No

 

From the previous advice given, I'll get the CCA request done and also the CPR 34.14.

The amount claimed seems very high and I've got no breakdown of how they have come to this figure.

I've also been reading through the threads about how to set out the defence

- the PercyPercy thread is of particular interest as there are similarities between the two, as I never gave any paperwork sent to me due attention and have ended up in this situation as a result.

 

Thanks in advance, and I'll supply additional info as quickly as possible if required.

 

 

[AndyOrch]

Hi and Welcome to CAG

 

 

I have moved your topic to our Scotland Financial Legal Issues Forum.....please continue to post here to your thread.

 

Have  a read of the locked sticky  threads above yours on the process of defending a Scottish claim.

 

Andy

[dx100uk]

were you resident in Scotland when you started the course and studied in Scotland.

there is no need for CCA/CPR (no CPR in Scotland) yet if at all.

 

you don't need to call slc

there will be no payments being made to the old style loan(s) from your repayment of the new style one to SLC you are currently paying off.

your last deferment would have been prior to sale to erudio  

 

the debt is statute barred

 

 

dx

 

[brassnecked]

The Statute Barred Defence will be the one to use then if indeed as DX says the clock ran down to SB

[Anon888]

Hi,

 

Thanks for the prompt replies and advice, it is very much appreciated.

 

Yes, I was resident and studied in Scotland at the time. I've been reading through the stickied threads for advice on how to respond and I'll use the information within to put together a relevant defence on the forms which I will send promptly. Post 3 on the What To Do - Simple Procedure thread seems to be the most relevent info on the defense.

 

I've downloaded the Simple Procedure Response Form and have been filling in the details.

 

For section D1 I've copied and pasted the information as is, albeit with a minor edit to remove the part that says I've requested verification as this hasn't been done yet.

 

For Section D2 I've omitted the first part, again as I haven't yet sent any CCA/Verification request, but included the section regarding being unaware of any default notice. This is the section where I'm looking to expand upon a few points - the statute barred defence (unsure of how to word it specifically for the form), the validity of the inflated figure that they are requesting (which is also mentioned in D1), and also to state that SLC have written to me confirming that my loan repayments are coming to an end. Let me know if any of these points are unncessary.

 

I've also found a copy of the Stature Barred (Scotland) letter in the CAG library. Would the correct procedure be to fill this out, amend as necessary and send this to Shoosmiths?

[dx100uk]

no need to do any of that.just

 

simply fill in the form ...

 

enter the details you need to in section A

answering A5 by post

B1 tick

C3 tick

 

in D1 enter the following : [by copy and paste from here]

 

 1 The Claimant's claim was issued on (insert date).

 2 The Defendant contends that the Claimant's claim so issued is a claim in contract and is statute barred pursuant to the provisions of The Prescription and Limitation (Scotland) Act 1973, Section 6 

 If, which is denied, the claimant contends that the Defendant is in breach of the alleged contract,
 in excess of 5 years have elapsed since the date on which any cause of action for breach accrued for the benefit of the Claimant.
 under Scottish laws the debt is now extinguished
 .
 3 The Claimant's claim to be entitled to payment of £x or any other sum, or relief of any kind is denied.

 

in D2 enter:

 

The Debt is Statute Barred.

 

ends 

. 

[Anon888]

Okay, I'll put those in instead - it's short and to the point which is good.

 

Just to clarify for the elimination of any possible error, which date would the Claimant's claim date would be for point 1 in D1?

 

• Date of raised claim [or court stamp date from writ] :- 23rd Jan 2020
• The date the default notice was issued:- 22/04/19
• The date of the original debt purchase agreement by Erudio :- 22/11/13

 

Thanks again.

 

[dx100uk]

raising of the claim.

 

dx