recieved court claim from wescot debt old

pinkie14

Hi,
i would be greatful for some help and a course of action i need to take.
i got a court claim letter today. issued from wescot stating i owe money from a company ARG (im not sure who this is). and been charged interest from 20/7/05 to 10/11/11,

i have checked my credit file and i have not outstanding monies owed or defaults.

the only thing i can think of is a catolog from 2003/4 i defaulted on. (young and stupid i dont think i payed it off when i had money problems).

i have read that this should be statue barred now but need to know what i need to put in the reply to the court and any other actions i need to do in my defence...

any help is much appreciated

chanz4

you need to find out what it is, when it was last paid etc

pinkie14

the letter is from northampton court and i dont have much time to reply with a defence, As far as im aware i have done a search and looks like ARG are a home shopping group. i havent had anything to do with them for easy 7/8 years and havnt made a payment or acknowledged them since then. and from the date that wescot are stating they must of bought the debt in july 05, how have they got a legal right to make a court claim?
any help on what to put in the reply to the court will be appreciated, do i sent a copy of a statue barred letter to wescot in the mean time?

thechippy

Yes, send the SB letter. You can use this in your defence as well. It's a complete defence in it's own right. You need to return the papers saying you're defending in full.

Once you put in your defence, they "should" withdraw.

fatbelly

I thought ARG was the company that issued Argos Store cards.

**curlywurly**

OP, whatever you do, you MUST put in your Acknowledgment of Service or Defence (whichever forms they have sent you) BEFORE the deadline noted in the court papers. It is no good just writing to the Claimant... they may ignore you. If you don't put in your Defence, the Claimant will enter default judgment against you.

pinkie14

thanks for your replys. il get on with the letter. and if ARG are for argos im totally at a loss because i have never had an argos card.

Candy53

ARG used to be Argos Retail Group, and then in 2006 it changed to HRG, Home Retail Group.

Although it was Argos the ARG was set up to deal with shopping catalogues, and also Homebase. Littlewoods seem to be the main one.

Candy.

fatbelly

Thanks Candy - I didn't have that background info. So, as Wescot are taking the action, we assume they bought this debt from ARG in July 2005.

Would ARG have owned Littlewoods in July 2005? I thought it came under Shop Direct Financial Services.

In any case, they must know that the op has not been making payment to them (we presume) so the debt would have definiely become statute barred in July this year,, and probably long before that.

Odd to try court action at this stage...

fermi

From a quick search.

[greenhighlight]"The home shopping/catalogues business of Argos and Homebase owner, GUS plc, ARG Equation (including Great Universal, Kays, Choice and Marshall Ward) was de-merged and bought by the Barclay brothers in 2003, where it became Shop Direct."

Following these disposals, and clearance from the Competition Commission, the Littlewoods home shopping business was formally merged with that of Shop Direct (the GUS plc home shopping business) in October 2005, to form the United Kingdom's largest home shopping business. The merger was in reality effected in early 2004 when work started on a business optimisation programme, consolidating various business functions[/greenhighlight]

Presumably they sold off a load of defaulted/delinquent accounts just before that?

fatbelly

So, if the op had one of those catalogues, then that is probably what Wescot is taking action on.

It's a bit difficult to use a SB defence if you don't know what the debt is!