Letter from a court at an old address, for a debt - What to do????

Skintandscared

Help! Basically, long story short, my OH visited his old address where his parents live last night, and he had loads of letters. Included in this were various debt recovery letters from Lowell (despite him currently repaying debts with them, so they have his current address!) dating back as far as August, and one from the Court dated 25th November saying Brian Carter Solicitors LLP are taking him to court on behalf of a Lowell debt (old catalogue) for under £400.
What should we do now??? He works in finance, so if he gets a CCJ registered he could lose his job, but also we were never informed of these debts, Lowell have his current address and he's paying them other debts, so stumped why they sent this to his old address, he's been off the electoral register at the old address for years so we have proof he had no knowledge of these letters.

Help! I'm very worried!!! :(:(

sourcrates

Hi,

He could apply to the court to have the decision set aside, as papers were sent to the wrong address, but there would be a fee for this, (£150+) and they could re-issue it again, at his current address.

Another option is to pay the CCJ within 28 days, and it will then be satisfied, and will not appear on his credit file.

Or,

You could negotiate an amount with Lowell to settle it as above.

Edit, last option worth a try as this may not of gone before a court yet !!!

redux

Maybe the old address was told to Lowells by the firm instructing them about that account, and Lowells didn't correlate with other records. Or maybe the instructing firm knew the new address but messed up.

It might be worth asking about that though as a prelude to negotiating settlement or staying the case while you discuss it.

As sourcrates suggests, maybe the case hasn't yet been presented in court session.

National_Debtline

Hi

If the case has already gone to court and if your partner can’t use any of the options suggested by sourcrates and redux he could potentially try to arrange a Tomlin Order instead. A Tomlin Order is a type of Consent Order where the terms are agreed by both parties and approved by a court, but it wouldn’t be registered as a CCJ. He would probably need some legal advice to set one up.

James
@natdebtline

Skintandscared

Hi all,

He had a court pack sent, so as far as we know it hasn't gone to court yet (not 100% sure though!) -

I e-mailed both Lowell and Brian Carter Solicitors informing that:
1) They were corresponding at an old address, DESPITE Lowell sending me a letter on 22nd October, 2015 at our CURRENT ADDRESS regarding this debt, refusing our offer to set up a direct debit (!!!) as it had been sent to Fredrickson International.
2)That if the debt goes to court, my OH will lose his job, so they will then receive nothing/something very minimal, if it goes that far.
3) We offered to pay this debt via payment plan, at a reasonable amount according to our income, but they refused this direct debit being set up and didn't give us any opportunity to discuss this.
4) We sent a letter to Fredrickson International as soon as we received the letter on the 22nd October, explaining we had offered X amount to Lowell, and heard nothing back. We assumed they were referring us back to Lowell.

Have I done enough??

Skintandscared

PS I also mentioned the Tomlin order in the e-mail, in terms of setting one up.

rizla_king

Also ask on http://www.legalbeagles.info/forums/ as they can often help on the legal side once court claims are under way or gto

sourcrates

As it's less than £400 are you not able to scrape it up from somewhere ?
I realise it's Christmas, and i know you have other debts, but if it means the potential loss of a job, I would stop paying the other non essential debts, in order to sort this one out, as it's just become your priority debt !!

It's likely you won't hear anything till the new year now, then you would have another 28 days grace to clear it without it been registered.

Is that something you could possibly do ?

redux

Given they've messed up responses to your previous correspondence, I wouldn't put all trust in your email today.

It sounds like time to phone up start complaining, court, solicitor, agent, Lowells, the lot

I'd be trying to clarify who is issuing the instructions, then demand a letter from them agreeing a settlement offer, posted but also copied by email first, and pay up.

Then if they still mess things up more and drag you into court they haven't got much ground to stand on.

But I would hope that if you discuss with the court that these parties have been bungling correspondence with you at two addresses, the court office might agree to stay the case until after Christmas.

fatbelly

If the issue date is 25 November you are still in time to acknowledge service, which you should do.

It buys time.

Then putting a defence in will delay things further

If by any chance this is a pre-april 2007 catalogue agreement then there is a good chance of unenforceability under s127(3)cca

legalbeagles have a dedicated Lowell/BC forum.

Skintandscared

I am filling in the form, acknowledging that we admit the whole amount, and are willing to pay in installments - Will it still go down as a CCJ if it goes to court??? I am confused!

I cannot afford the £400 or i'd pay it off asap