Lowells DCA - Littlewoods Catalogue

chris9478

Hi All,

I'm just after a little bit of advise re a debt to a catalogue.

In November 2009 I split up with my husband and had to move from our marital home to rented accommodation with the children. After being with him for 15yrs (since I was 17) I struggled to cope. My mother helped with the day to day running of the house, children ect and took over my finances. I was and still am in a lot of debt which I'm now dealing with myself.

I managed to get myself sorted and then got made redundant in August last year. While trying to get straight with my finances I wrote to all my creditors and asked for copies of the original credit agreement, statement of terms and conditions and a record of all transactions on the accounts.

Since splitting with the ex I have barely paid anything towards my debt but have maintained communication with all creditors explaining my situation.

Some of my creditors have been understanding and accepted small payments and stopped interest etc but I'm having trouble with Littlewoods via Lowells.

I honestly don't recall when I opened the catalogue account or when I last made payment to them!! They were unwilling to accept my offered amount and were insisting on minimum payments in the hundreds of £'s.

When I wrote to Lowells (June 2011) asking for the information (as above) they replied saying Littlewoods were searching their archives to find it and my account had been put on hold until they could. In January 2012 I received a letter from Littlewoods saying the had sold my debt to Lowells and all communications must be made to them. I again sent my request for information letter and got the "Littlewoods looking in their archives... Account on hold blah, blah blah". This has happened three times now.

Three weeks ago I got a letter from B&W Legal who have been instructed by Lowells to recover the debt. They have threatened me with Bankruptcy and appointing an Official Receiver to manage my money. I rang them explaining as above and his reply was obviously you owe the money or you wouldn't have rang us!!

Firstly, I don't acknowledge the debt. I don't believe I owed them this amount (this is why I requested a record of all transactions). Secondly, of course I rang... They threatened to make me bankrupt!!!

Anyways, what I'd like to know is:

1) With Littlewoods/Lowells not providing the info (inc CCA) as requested, can B&W actually take me to court or is the debt unenforceable?

2) The marital home has a joint mortgage with myself and ex on it. I haven't lived in the house for over 3yrs and my ex lives there with his gf, her two kids and their baby. If I was taken to court, would he be forced to sell the house in order to pay me my half of the equity?

They are asking for £3500+ and I don't believe it was anywhere this amount!!

Sorry for the long post but I'm getting nowhere with either companies and feel like I'm just engaged in a dance with them... going round and round in circles!!!!

rizla_king

The dispute over the amount and debt, and them not providing a CCA would give you excellent grounds to oppose anything they tried.

I would go and ask for help on this forum http://www.legalbeagles.info/forums/forumdisplay.php?251-Lowell-Group-Financial-Debt-Purchase-Specialists

They have a good record for defeating Lowells and opposing anything like bankruptcy they might try.

chris9478

Many thanks for your reply. I've been on the legal beagle site as suggested and now have an idea of where I'm going!!

sourcrates

Hi,
I have had great success with Lowells over a shop direct catalogue account, long story, but broken marriage, less money, couldn't afford repayments etc etc, anyway, Lowells are not very good at obtaining the correct paperwork when these accounts are sold on, I have a wonderful template letter which has worked a treat, I had a £2600 debt wiped clean away as they did not have the correct paperwork to prove I owed the debt, now im not advertcating that everyone shouldn't pay what they owe, but I have "been through the mill" in recent years with DCA`s and an IVA, and in my mind if they cant follow the rules, why should I ?.

happy_bunny_2

Most catalogue debts taken out pre April 2007 are unenforceable. They simply never bothered to get you to sign agreements.

No response usually backs it up. Shop direct used to respond with a copy if a current agreement and said you would gave signed similar, but drivel, it's not an appropriate response to a CCA request thus unenforceable.

fatbelly

Chris has given a vital bit of info in 'the other place' that she omitted here.

She was issued with a Statutory Demand in early October and ignored it.

chris9478

Apologies... It was an accidental omission!!

Jon1Burd

Hi, I received great advice see "Red Debt Old Debt" on this forum, my situation was different to yours but I was adviced to send them a "prove it" email, today I received an email from Lowells saying they've cleared the debt in a goodwill gesture.
This debt was old and I'm not sure it was actually mine in the first place but I think they realised I sought advice and couldn't be bothered to continue chasing me, I have no other explanation as to why they just wrote it off.
In my dealings with these people before they have NEVER just given up.
That letter will at least buy you some time.

sourcrates

The thing I`ve found with catalogues is everytime you add a purchase over around £100, it creates a new CCA agreement for that item, especially if you get it on buy now pay later deal, now littlewoods sent me loads of these agreements asking me to sign and return, but I never did with any of them, but they still sent the goods anyway, and never repeated there request for a signature or any paperwork, herein lies the problem (for DCA`s) as an account can be made up of a number of items purchased in this manor all with there own agreements, if they don't possess a signed agreement for each item, how can the debt be enforceable ? my gut instinct says it cant be, as otherwise, why would DCA`s like Lowell's cave in so easily ? I sent one "prove it" letter and the response was the debt was wiped out and the account closed, this was on an internet account opened in 2008 online, but debt was made up of fairly pricey items each sent with an agreement that went unsigned, I was as shocked as anyone when they told me it was written off as I was about to make a payment arrangement with them, but was disputing charges added hence the "prove it letter" I cant think of any other realistic reason why they would wipe out the debt, can anyone else ?

chris9478

I don't recall signing and sending back a new CCA every time I purchased something. Maybe Lowell couldn't provide the paperwork which is why they opted for the solicitors route!!

Still fairly unsure of where I'm going with this but I managed to wangle another day from the solicitors before I have to respond... Hopefully I'll have a flash of genius during the night!!

rizla_king

chris9478 wrote: »

I don't recall signing and sending back a new CCA every time I purchased something.

Littlewoods also used to have normal running credit accounts. One CCA at the start, then you spend on the account without needing a new agreement each time. You obviously had that type.