Recieved letter from County Court Business Centre

deesea

Hi today I recieved a letter from County Court Business Centre with money claim link and password.
The debt is for a EGG credit card that I had 15 years ago and defaulted on payments 10 years ago.
No payments have been made to anyone for this dept in well over 6 years and is not on any of my credit reports.
Please advise me as to do I admit to knowing of the dept and defend it on the basis of it is no longer recoverable as would be statute barred?
Do I still have to deal with the court to get this resolved?

National_Debtline

Hi deesea and welcome to the forum.


Yes, you will need to respond to the forms to get this resolved - if you don't, the court will simply end up granting the judgment against you as they don't investigate the claim on their own initiative.


For now, I would complete the Acknowledgement of Service and return this to the court in order to give yourself an additional 14 days to reply to the claim.


It may prove to be a simple case of completing the defence form to argue that the debt is statute barred, and if so the onus would be on the claimant to prove you wrong i.e. they would be expected to supply evidence of payments and/or written acknowledgements you have made within the past six years. Even so, I would get that extra 14 days first so you can make sure you know exactly what to do.


Some fact sheets you may find useful:


Replying to a claim form:


https://www.nationaldebtline.org/EW/factsheets/Pages/replyingtoacountycourtclaimform/Page-03.aspx


Time limits for recovering debt:


https://www.nationaldebtline.org/EW/factsheets/Pages/25%20EW%20Time%20limits%20for%20recovering%20debts/Default.aspx


Dennis
@natdebtline

deesea

Many thanks for your quick reply

deesea

Would this be a appropriate defence for my case ?

1: I received the claim xxxxxxx from the Northampton County Court
on Dec 15 2015

2: Each and every allegation in the Claimants statement of case is
denied unless specifically admitted in this Defence.

3: This claim is for a Credit Card agreement regulated under the
Consumer Credit Act 1974.

4: The Credit Card agreement regulated under the
Consumer Credit Act 1974 is not on the credit report for the
defendant as a creditor or account.

5: The Claimants statement of case states that the account was
assigned from Egg to Arrow Global ltd on Feb 28 2013. The
Defendant does not recall receiving notice of this assignment.

6: The Claimant states the agreement they are acting on dated from
Feb 1 2005 and was assigned to the claimant on Feb 28 2013. As no
payments or contact between the defendant and the Claimant or Egg
has taken place within the passed 6 years would render this claim
as Statute barred under s5 Limitation Act 1980.

7: As Statute Barred The Financial Conduct Authority state in CONC
7.15 that a firm must not attempt to recover a statute barred debt
where they haven’t been in contact with the customer during the
relevant period.In this case to be 6 years.

8: It is denied that the Claimant is entitled to the relief as
claimed or at all.

Statement of Truth
The Defendant believes that the facts stated in this Defence are
true.

rizla_king

probably, but I would pop over to this forum and ask to be sure http://www.legalbeagles.info/forums/forumdisplay.php?f=105 defending such claims is what they specialise in

sourcrates

You could actually condense it into this :


"The lender has allowed time to pass without receiving any payment.
Under the Limitations Act 1980 the time limit in simple contract debts is six years,
this limit has expired, therefore recovery is barred under the above act.
The claimants claim is denied"


Statute barred is a full defence In itself.

deesea

Once this defense is filed should I contact the collection agency or it's acting solicitor to get agreement details or to inform them that this dept is statute barred and no longer enforceable by court action.
Or should I let the court deal with this first and contact them after ???

sourcrates

deesea wrote: »

Once this defense is filed should I contact the collection agency or it's acting solicitor to get agreement details or to inform them that this dept is statute barred and no longer enforceable by court action.
Or should I let the court deal with this first and contact them after ???

Once an account is SB, nothing can undo that.

You have nothing to lose by writeing to them, informing them of the accounts status, and that you intend to defend on that basis.

Most important is to file your defence, correctly, and ontime.

deesea

Case update

After filing my defense on the grounds that the dept for the loan was over 6 years old their solicitor has now sent me a copy of an EGG statement stating my last payment was on 30th November 2010 so would make this dept 5 years and 2 months.

What would be my next step ? as they are asking me to withdraw me defense in 14 days or they will apply to have my defense struck.

rizla_king

deesea wrote: »

EGG statement stating my last payment was on 30th November 2010

...was it?

deesea

I have my bank statements on there way to me from November and December 2010
so will hope that it does not appear on them

But if it is do I have any other options ??