Need Hep county court claim

rughead121

Hello and thanks for reading.

I have received a claim form from Bryan Carter for an old debt that is at least 11 years old.
I have not made a payment or acknowledged this debt since 2002.

About 8 months ago I sent a 'prove it' letter. and the sent me a huge print out that showed no payments ever made since 2002. They also sent the original agreement with Capital One.
I then sent a letter saying the debt was Statute Barred and heard nothing else for a few months but the standard threat-o-gram letters started again last month which I just filed in the log burner.

Now today I have received a county court claim for 1693.94. Not bad for an original debt of just over £200

I really need some help here, how should I respond?

matttye

Did you keep the printout that showed no payments since 2002?

You can just respond to the court claim simply saying that you're defending the case on the basis that the debt is statute barred. It's then up to Bryan Carter to show that it's not statute barred.

If you have that printout, then you should be able to counter any so-called evidence they have of it not being statute barred.

I think they're either trying to scare you or get a judgment in default, so make absolutely sure you respond!

fermi

Well you would acknowledge service of the claim online saying that you wish to defend, and then later once you have worked out the wording you would file a defence based on the debt being statute barred.

If you need help with the wording then the legalbeagles or CAG legal forums may be able to help.

rughead121

Thanks for the reply

Yes, I kept the printout. So do I just write on the defence form 'Statute barred' and send it back to the court?

Be gentle with me ~ never done this before

fermi

Well, you would expand a little on that to spell out the situation and the relevant law you are relying on, but basically yes.

matttye

rughead121 wrote: »

Thanks for the reply

Yes, I kept the printout. So do I just write on the defence form 'Statute barred' and send it back to the court?

Be gentle with me ~ never done this before

Something like

"I wish to defend this claim on the basis that the time limit under which action can be brought has expired. Section 2 of the Limitation Act 1980 says,

'2 Time limit for actions founded on tort.

An action founded on tort shall not be brought after the expiration of six years from the date on which the cause of action accrued.'

I have not paid or acknowledged this debt in writing since 2002; some 11 years ago. The enforceability of this debt is therefore time barred by statute."

Like fermi said run it by CAG or LegalBeagles.. they have more experience with this sort of thing than I. I would think something like that would suffice though. The County Court is used to dealing with Litigants-in-person and I should think they're used to claims being written in plain English rather than legalese

fermi

Would most likely be section 5 of the Limitation Act I think? But same principle applies whichever.

rughead121

Thanks Matttye and fermi.

Thats really good info, I will head over to legalbeagles and see if those nice people can help me out.

I have thanked you both for your help

matttye

fermi wrote: »

Would most likely be section 5 of the Limitation Act I think? But same principle applies whichever.

I may be wrong but I thought non-payment of debt was a tort.

Like you say it's probably section 5 that applies here.

fermi

Whether it is also that or not may be debatable, but non payment of a contractual debt is certainly covered by s5.

http://www.nationaldebtline.co.uk/england_wales/factsheet.php?page=25_liability_for_debts_and_the_limitation_act

Standard SB letter is:

/we would point out that under the Limitation Act 1980 Section 5:

“An action founded on simple contract shall not be brought after the expiration of six years from the date on which the cause of action accrued.”