Court summons...for £170?

scbnottz

Hi there.

Apologies if this has been posted in the wrong place.
I am a new user to the site and am not familiar with it.

I am just wondering if I could get some advise?

Basically, I split up with my partner 3 years ago. I had credit agreements in my name which were taken out for her. She stopped paying these when we split up resulting in me defaulting (lesson learned the hard way)

I have been chased by several companies for this money.

I receive tens of phone calls a day and just dont answer my phone to numbers I do not know anymore.

I have received letters informing me that my account has basically been passed from pillar to post and I dont even recognize who is supposed to be claiming for who anymore.

When I split up with my ex, I decided to return to university so am currently a full time student. This obviously has an effect on my employment prospects as I am simply not available for full time jobs.

I spoke to a debt charity who suggested a debt relief order may be advisable and for me to attempt to make a list of my creditors and amounts.

This has been difficult to do after 3 years as some companies harass me daily whereas some I have not even heard from since.

This morning I awoke to find an official looking letter claiming to be from Brian Carter solicitors mentioning Northampton County Court.

Now I treat this this the same as all the other 'Scare tactic' letters I have received. I mean these guys have been texting me twice a day threatening to send 'Bill' the debt collector to my property...

I moved back in with my mother after my split so I dont actually have a property or any goods and my student status means I dont have any income other than my student loan which just about covers my expenses at university.

I tore the letter up and threw it in the bin....but then something told me I should look into this...

So, here I am wondering what to do.. The amount claimed is for £179.00 to JD williams as part of a catalog.

I remember ordering from here but also remember that none of my items actually turned up and I had to phone them back to inform them that the gifts were Christmas presents and were now not needed as Christmas had passed.

They agreed to refund the amount on my account but it seems they never did.

Can anyone advise me on what my next move should be as I am worried about what to do.

Its not like I have any money. I am looking for a job to fit around my studies but have had little luck so far.

Any advise would be massively appreciated.

many thanks

molerat

Was it a letter threatening court action or was it stamped court papers, makes a lot of difference to the urgency and action you need to take ?

forgotmyname

Unless you receive genuine court paperwork with a reference. Then its all

WE MAY... If you have no assets and no income then there is little on offer for them.

I had a load of we may do this and we may do that from them. They did nothing.

The best ones are we may send an authorized collector to your door. I was so tempted to write back and say i spoke to my nanna from the grave and she says she did not authorize a visit. So your authorized person is no authorized at all.

Then the we will send bailiffs in and take your posessions. Not without taking me to court and me losing and then not paying you wont.

At the time i would have loved them to take me to court. Pay for my bankruptcy please.
Although it didnt get that far in my case. I was willing to go that way to get rid of them.

They cannot take what you dont have.

scbnottz

Hi there and many thanks for the responses.

I have just dug the letter back out but have never been great a jigsaws so my best attempt to place it back together shows:

It seems to have been a 'response pack' of some sort (N9CPC?)

It has a claim no, a claimant (Lowell Portfolio) and names me as a defendant.

It has a stamp which claims to be from Northampton County court (CCBC?)


it asks me about my income, my children and other details and asks me to return the form to Brian Carter Solicitors.

When I spoke to a debt charity, they told me that it is highly unlikely that a court would summon me for such a small amount and that as I have no disposable income, the judge would recognize this and as I have been honest about my finances and am being honest about being unable to pay, that the judge would basically reiterate this to them.

hope this helps you to help me :-)

Many thanks. much gratitude for your help.

Kind Regards

molerat

It seems that these are genuine stamped court papers, YOU ARE being taken to court and need to respond using the forms that you have destroyed. You cannot ignore this as if you do they will get a judgement against you by default which will prevent you from getting credit and may prevent you from getting some jobs.

The Claimant issues a Claim through the Claim Production Centre (CPC) - further details regarding the CPC can be found on the Bulk Centre web site. When the Claim form is sent, the Defendant has 14 days to respond to the Claim from the date of service (5 days after the date of issue) before judgment by default may be entered. This information can be found at the top of your Claim form.
If you send an Acknowledgment of Service, you then have 28 days after the date of service to send your Defence or Part Admission. If you agree to the full amount then complete the N9A form and send this directly to the Claimant. Submitting an admission response may result in Judgment being entered against you.
All of the above information can be found in your Claim pack.

As to what you can do to get copies of this, someone else will hopefully be along to point you in the right direction but I suggest you contact the court pretty damn sharpish.

http://www.justice.gov.uk/courts/northampton-bulk-centre/ccbc/frequently-asked-questions

Tixy

Agree with molerat - this is a court claim form.

Factsheet on replying to it here - http://www.nationaldebtline.co.uk/england_wales/factsheet.php?page=20_replying_to_a_county_court_claim_form

Ignoring it at this stage is not advisable. If you were going to enter a DRO soon then it probably doesn't matter a great deal if they do obtain a CCJ against you. However if you are not going to apply for a DRO(or not for some time) then ignoring it would mean a default judgement and mean the whole amount becomes due immediately.

You need to respond to the form, if you explain your financial circumstances to the court they may well only order a token monthly payment to be paid.

scbnottz

Many thanks for these replies guys. its been great help to me.

So I guess my next step is to get a new copy of the form I was sent.

I am going to phone Brian Carter solicitors and request this..

Im not sure about what to do with it though..

The goods they are charging me for never actually arrived and a phone call to them confirmed this. The house I was asking for delivery to (my exes mothers house as I was working at the time and nobody would have been in to sign for it at my address) to have a bad history with deliveries according to JD Williams and so the package was never sent out.

How would I go about disputing this debt and seeing exactly what they claim I owe them for as surely the fact that they refused to send goods to the address I requested, it should be clear that no goods were ever received as nobody would have signed for it?

Many thanks for your time and patience.

Kind Regards

Tixy

Once you have a new copy of the court form - you then need to decide how to complete it.

Either you agree that you owe the debt and complete the admission section - or you dispute that the debt is owed or dispute the balance and fill is the defence form.

If you dispute that the debt is owed because you never received the goods then you would presumably defend against it and then compile whatever evidence you have to support your defence.

This extra link also may be of use to you http://www.adviceguide.org.uk/wales/debt_w/debt_action_your_creditor_can_take_e/creditor_takes_you_to_court_for_debt.htm

matttye

For future reference even if you don't do anything about the correspondence you receive, you should file it away in case you need it in the future.

Airedale_Pete

This morning I too received a 'summons' from Lowell Group purporting to have been issued by Northampton County Court and enclosing 'Defence and Counterclaim' papers.

This is the latest in a l o n g line of correspondence from this firm dating back to before 2009, that being the year that Lowell purchased the 'debt' from Capital One, not the year that the alleged debt originated.

There is no debt. I did used to have an account with Capital One but I made a conscious decision to close it long before 2009 and I shredded the credit card at that point. Early in the process of this 'debt' being alleged, Lowell Group or some other cowboy outfit telephoned me threatening court action. I told them I have proof that the 'debt' doesn't exist and INVITED them to take me to court, whereupon I shall produce my proof - but not until then.

The 'summons' which arrived this morning carries no date of hearing. In order to constitute a summons, it HAS to include a hearing date AND be served either personally, by registered post or by recorded delivery. This unconvincing document arrived by snail mail. It is a rather poor quality print-out of a copy of a summons generated by Northampton County Court and it has NO legal foundation whatsoever. I will ignore it along with all the other threats.

What they don't know is that I am a retired police officer. I am well used to appearing in court and I know what a summons should look like.

Anyone who has received a similar looking document from Lowell Group, relax and await the next communication from an obviously desperate and very shady bunch of chancers.

magpiecottage

If you do not have a debt with Capital One you should complain to both Capital One and Lowell.

If it is from the court, you should respond to the court denying the debt and confirming you have received no evidence supporting their claims against you. Otherwise they court can simply issue a judgment against you by default. This is all done on line and, as I found out when I sued somebody earlier this month, very easy for them to do.