Lowells Solicitors

leedsgd

There's probably a few posts on this but just wanted some advice.

I have received a letter from Lowell solicitors that claims i owe about £800 to O2 from a contract in 2009/2010.

I've moved house a couple of times so this is the first I know about it but lowells claim they have a CCJ for the amount and are demanding payment of £50 a month.

Another forum I saw recommended writing to them to ask for proof of the CCA and send a £1 postal order which I did, however i just received a response saying that as the case has been to court and the court were satisfied they have no burden to prove the CCA. As I wasn't aware of the original case and have no recollection of the debt I'm not sure what to do. I am currently a full time university student so funds are tight.

Someone else recommended I contact Northampton County Court Bulk Centre to try and get the judgement set aside, I've found a few numbers for them but they all seem to be dead.

Can anyone help? just started a new relationship and don't want people knocking at my door.

sourcrates

Hi,

Good old Lowell, unfortunately they are 100% correct, once a debt has had court action taken against it, the requirement to provide proof no longer applies, they are only required to send the claim form to your last known address (something which is hopefully changing).

Your options now are limited, in order for a successful set-aside application to happen, you need to have a reasonable defense, examples being, either its not your debt, or the amount is incorrect, or some other valid reason.

Also a set-aside application costs £255.00, (remission is available on the fee for low income earners) you are also expected to apply within a reasonable time frame, so if its been years since judgement, you may be wasting your money.

Much better to follow this advice :

About getting a court order changed

If your creditor has taken court action against you for a debt, they may have got a county court judgment (CCJ) or other court order against you. The court order means that you have to pay back the money you owe to your creditor, either in instalments or in full by a certain date.
Once you've got a court order, it's really important to keep to the terms of the order. However, it's possible that your financial circumstances could change and you can no longer afford to keep to the terms of the court order. This could happen if you lose your job or fall ill, for example.

If your circumstances change, it's always best to try and get the court order changed rather than falling behind with payments. If you do nothing, your creditor can take more serious action, and depending on the kind of debts you've got, you could end up losing your home or having your possessions taken away.
This page tells you what you need to think about if you want to apply to get a court order changed, and how the process works when you've made your application.
When can you ask to change the court order

If you can't afford to keep up the payments ordered by the court, you can ask to change the terms of the order to fit in with what you can afford to pay. This is called an application to vary the order.
Depending on your financial situation, you could apply to the court to pay off the debt in smaller instalments. Or you could say you can no longer afford to pay anything at all. For example, if you have lost your job and money is being taken from your wages to repay the debt, you could ask the court to change the type of order you've got.
You’ll have to give details of your financial situation when you make the application.
How to apply to change a court order

How you apply to get a court order changed depends on how much you can now afford to pay to clear your debts.
If you can afford to pay something

If you have some money and can afford to pay the debt off in instalments, you need to fill in court form N245 to apply. This is called an application for an Instalment Order.


You'll have to fill in your financial details on the back of the form and say how much you can now afford to pay. Return the form to the court, with the fee for the application. You may not have to pay the fee or you might get it reduced if you're on a low income.
If your creditor agrees to the new offer, the court will make a new order setting out what you offered. There won't be a court hearing.
If your creditor doesn’t accept your offer, court staff will decide what you should pay, according to guidelines produced by the Court Service. They will then make an new order.


If you can’t afford to pay anything at all

If you can’t afford to pay anything at all, you should apply to get the order changed using court form N244. This is a general application form. You'll need to explain on the form why you now can't afford to make the payments.


You'll also need to send in a separate financial statement to show why this is the case. This is a statement showing how much money you have coming into your household, how much you spend and how much you have left over to pay back what you owe.
Put in as much detail as you can to explain your reasons and attach any evidence you have which explains your situation.

National_Debtline

Hi leedsgd


Welcome to the forum. There are a couple of things wrong with making a Consumer Credit Act (CCA) request on this debt. Firstly it's a mobile phone debt and not regulated by the CCA. Secondly it is correct that a debt collection agency (DCA) does not usually have to comply with a CCA request once a CCJ has been made.


What you can choose to do though is ask Lowell to prove the debt is not statute barred. Statute barred means a DCA has run out of time to take court action against you. This would usually apply if there had been 6 years without a payment being made, without you acknowledging the debt in writing and without them obtaining a CCJ.


By sending the statute barred sample letter they will have to prove one of the things above did happen (and therefore the debt is not statute barred). If they say they obtained a CCJ, they will then need to prove it. You can find the sample letter here https://www.nationaldebtline.org/EW/sampleletters/Pages/Time-has-run-out-to-recover-the-debt-%28sole-name%29.aspx. Send it by recorded delivery and see what their response is.


If the debt is not statute barred and they have a valid CCJ you will be able to apply to the court to set up an affordable payment plan. Get in touch with one of the free debt advice agencies for more advice on that. Good luck with it all.


Susie
@natdebtline

fatbelly

If they've genuinely got a ccj on this, they won't respond to a statute barred letter. They will just say that you should have raised this at the time. Order of attack:

1. Have they actually got a ccj? Get the claim reference either from them or your credit report. If it's more than six years ago, post again.

2. Email Northampton on ccbc@hmcts.gsi.gov.uk and ask them for the particulars of claim and a copy of the judgement.

3. Consider set-aside if you have a defence. If you want an instalment arrangement they're already offering one so you might as well just get on with it. They are not going to enforce this if they're getting £50 per month.

Rachchap

What happens if Lowell haven't got a CCJ and its just a default and Lowell will not give me any paperwork they just keep saying the dont have to

fatbelly

Rachchap wrote: »

What happens if Lowell haven't got a CCJ and its just a default and Lowell will not give me any paperwork they just keep saying the dont have to

If they have got a ccj, they can tell you the court and claim reference

If they can't tell you the court and claim reference then they don't have a ccj, at least not one they can enforce.

Whether you pay them would be up to you. They can't expect you to pay them just because they say so. There has to be some evidence that you do owe them something.

sourcrates

Rachchap wrote: »

What happens if Lowell haven't got a CCJ and its just a default and Lowell will not give me any paperwork they just keep saying the dont have to

Although CCJ`s don't become statute barred, after 6 years, if they have not enforced the judgement, they must go back to court in order to do so, the court may not allow them to take further action, as they have had plenty of time to do so already.

As Fatbelly says, if that is the case, that's why they are been selective in what they tell you.