Lowell - Old Orange Debt - Court Order

stefan127

I am helping my brother get back on track with his finances (it's not one of those stories, haha, I have great credit :P). He is useless, gets finance in other people's name and doesn't think of the consequences... but that's not the issue here.

He recently received a court order applied for by Lowells who purchased debt from Orange. He opened it a day before he needed to respond so filed an Acknowledgement of Service online to get extra time - the order is genuine as it's on the MCOL website and he phoned the court to check.

It's for an old mobile contract from 2006/7 with Orange. Orange are absolutely useless and can't tell him anything about this other than "it's not with us any more". I think they have changed systems with the EE merger and their customer services is terrible.

He has constantly disputed this debt, not made any payments to it and the court order was only filed on June 18th 2015 (so around 8 or 9 years after the bill in question). The issue is a tariff dispute which was corrected at the time but the bill in question, for whatever reason, not sorted out.

His credit report shows that there's a default with Lowells from 2010 but the court order shows they bought the debt in September 2014 so that's a bit strange already.

There is no longer a record of the Orange debt on his credit report so either it's been "overwritten" with the Lowell default or dropped off as it's older than 6 years.

He has until this Friday to respond to the claim.

Any advice? Shall I respond for him to say it's statue barred? If he gets a CCJ that's him screwed for 6 years isn't it?

I feel like his debt is mine and I'm a bit fed up but I have no real option other than to sort his mess out as no one else will.

stefan127

Oh, and Lowell have told him that if he doesn't pay £500 now (the debt is just over £700 on the court letter) or £150 a month he will get a CCJ and if he tries to defend it he'll have to appear in court - is this a false threat and they just want the money? Do you actually appear in court for a CCJ for low level debt?

I wonder if the fact that they have filed for a CCJ means they are confident this debt is owed? Part of me thinks they filed for it thinking he wouldn't respond and it would be granted automatially, which he hasn't to any other letters from them regarding this.

fatbelly

From what you've said it's statute barred.

At the risk of overloading them (hell of a lot of court claims at the moment) legalbeagles are best set up for this sort of thing

http://www.legalbeagles.info/forums/forumdisplay.php?105-Received-a-Court-Claim

Tell him to stop talking to Lowell.

stefan127

Thanks, I'll look at that.

It would be much easier if he could go to CAB, a local debt charity of StepChange but he has just started a new job and isn't able to get the time off so soon.

stefan127

For anyone interested, Lowell have proceeded with the action and it's at the last stage before a decision is made whether it's a valid case or not. The n180 form had been sent off and we're waiting to see if it enters mediation.

The defence was a statue barred one but Lowell (well their solicitors Bryan Carter) are continuing with it. They do this, though, and are constantly asking to get in touch to arrange it out of court.

From researching this Lowell are vultures at the moment, buying old debt for pennies and hoping for the best that the defendants keep ignoring them and end up with an automatic CCJ.

rizla_king

Lowells are pond scum. So yes.

ghostfinder

would a CCA request help in this situation ?

Marktheshark

The best results from this have been by calling them out, reject mediation as it is not law based and they start from a position of you will pay and end with you will pay and it costs money, not even useless..
Take them on, steam roller them to court with a Statute barred defence.

They will try to get you to agree to pay a reduced amount right up to the court hearing and even in the waiting room.
Hold your nerve go to court and have a typed list of expenses to attend court £90 and demand you are re-reimbursed for your costs by the judge.

Also have a second list of extraneous expenses made up of every hour you have spent dealing with this costed at £18 per hour plus stationary.
This is separate to your attendance expenses, state clearly that brining a case to court they know to be statute barred is a frivolous waste of courts time and your own time and demand to be paid the cost of your time in preparing the case.

fatbelly

ghostfinder wrote: »

would a CCA request help in this situation ?

No, it's not a consumer credit act debt.