Lowell, CCJ by default - Even after CCA and CPR Request

LisaCaravan1978

Hi

I'm hoping someone can point me in the right direction! I received a claim form for a CCJ from Lowell. I went online and did the acknowledgement of service on 12/05/2017.
I immediately then sent (by recorded delivery) a CPR and a CCA request - both on 12/05/2017. Received a response from Lowell a few weeks later saying the court action was on hold whilst they recovered the information.
I today received a Judgement for Claimant (in default) letter from the court?! Dated 28/09/2017 ...
HELP!

GDB2222

It’s not up to Lowell to stay the proceedings. What did you receive from the court? You ought to have had notice of a hearing etc. Did you get these?

ciderboy2009

If you only sent an acknowledgement of service to the court and not a defence then the CCJ has (technically) been granted correctly.

The AoS just gives you an extra 14 days to file the defence - if you didn't have all of the information from Lowell then you should have at least filed an "embarassed" defence.

Now that Lowell have got the judgment they're unlikely to agree to set it aside even if it is their fault (they'll say that they sent something to you or something along those lines) so your only real option will be to file an application to set aside the judgment (you will need to pay a fee for this).

You will probably need to file a draft defence with the application so make sure that you've got that all sorted asap.

National_Debtline

Hi Lisa and welcome to MSE,


Ciderboy2009 is correct, that unless you filed a defence the CCJ could proceed. You could do a set aside application, however, I would recommend that you get legal advice before you do this. A set aside application is £255 (unless you are on certain benefits of a low income, then you may get some of this fee waivered), but the bigger issue is if you lose you can incur legal costs of the other side. So you need legal advice about what your defence is.


However, if you decide not to apply to set aside the CCJ and instead accept the judgement you can either pay it in full or apply to vary it. If you pay the judgement in full within one month of the judgement date it will be removed from your credit file. If you are unable to do this you can vary it using an N245 at the cost of £50 to pay instalments you can afford to help avoid any enforcement action.


Laura
@natdebtline

LisaCaravan1978

No, I had absolutely nothing through

LisaCaravan1978

Thank you. I filed a defence saying I had sent a Cca etc to Lowell.

MEM62

LisaCaravan1978 wrote: »

Thank you. I filed a defence saying I had sent a Cca etc to Lowell.

That's not a defence.

sourcrates

LisaCaravan1978 wrote: »

Thank you. I filed a defence saying I had sent a Cca etc to Lowell.

If you defend a claim, you must defend it on the basis of either the balance been incorrect, or the debt isn’t yours to begin with, or some other good reason.

You cannot enter a defense of sending a CCA request, as said above, that is not a defense, and that’s why you have had a judgement by default.

StopIt

You'll have to apply for a set aside now.


It costs £255, and you'll need to put a defence n with the set aside application.


It is crucial that you get legal advice to make the defence valid in court. The CCA request is part of the procedure of getting a defence, which is an unenforceable debt because of failing the requirements of the CCA request.


The defence at the time should have been that you do not recognise the debt and Lowell have not provided evidence that the debt is valid, along with the CCA request.


When you received the claim pack from Lowell, what detail of the debt was included. Was the CCA request even valid if they had provided the correct paperwork in the claim?


Lowell would have then been required to bring this evidence to court, and you could have defended the claim in person at court. Instead, because the defence wasn't valid, the claim went through in default.

chappers

GDB2222 wrote: »

It’s not up to Lowell to stay the proceedings. What did you receive from the court? You ought to have had notice of a hearing etc. Did you get these?

No but they could have withdrawn the claim.
Did they ever send you the information from your CCA request ?
The fact you have something in writing from them may cut some sway, but either way you will have to still apply to set the judgement aside.
The information you receive or received as a result of your statutory requests will probably determine the likelihood that any set aside application will be successful

Car1980

Often nobody will read the initial defence on the claim form and the case will be allocated to the small or fast claims track.

But if your initial defence was so poor as to be struck out, it would say that on the judgment that comes through the post.

In any case, no CCJ is entered in the record if the money is paid within 28 days.

This sounds more like your defence never got to the court? Do you have proof of posting or evidence you responded onlime?