Lowell Solicitors - old debt

Posycat

I need some advice ASAP please as I need to get back to this company in the next couple of days.

My partner received a letter on 21st May 2018 from Lowell Solicitors entitled 'notice of pending CCJ' and advising that Lowell Portfolios (their 'client') had issued legal proceedings in the form of a county court claim, and a CCJ would be entered in to on 31st May if he did not contact them to make payment.

I called them on the 31st May and gained permission to talk to them on my partners behalf. I asked them a number of questions and advised them that my partner had said he hadn't received any letters/forms from the court or previous notification of this action being taken. They advised that they have been sending letters to him to various addresses since 2013.

Long story short, the debt is from an old 02 contract and when I asked when the date of default was, I was told the 15th May 2012. At which I asked them surely then that means the debt will have been written off, as it had just past the 6 year make. The adviser said that because they had already entered in to court action on 3rd May, this 'resets' everything so it won't go off his record after the original 6 year period. I asked for time to look in to it, they said I could have 14 days and no CCJ would be obtained before then,

Everything I read online states that after 6 years the debt is 'status barred' unless he has made a payment, acknowledged the debt in writing or gained a CCJ for it within the 6 year period. So my question is, does the fact they have started legal action by issuing a claim to the court before the 6 years are up, count? Or would they have to have already obtained the CCJ before the 6 years for the debt not to have been declared 'status barred'? I need to know if they actually have grounds to obtain a CCJ here or if they are using scare tactics!

We are on a low income at the moment having just had a baby and this debt has come out of the blue, and not one we were expecting or really in a position to pay. So if it has been written off, we need to know so we can go back to them with this. If it hasn't, we need to avoid him getting a CCJ and make arrangements with them.

Thanks in advance!!!

[Deleted User]

Statute barred.

Acknowledgement of the debt can only come from action taken by the debtor.

sourcrates

Not the default date thats important, its whats termed the cause of action date, in this case, the date of the last payment made, which is likely to be before the date of default, that is important.

If legal action has already been started, has he received a claim form ?

If so defend on the basis that its statute barred, stay off the phone.

Posycat

Thanks - how do I find out the last date of payment?

He said he hasn't received any, Lowell say they have been issuing letters and the court claim will have been sent to this address but he said he hasn't had this. They have a claim number for the court on the letter they sent notifying us of a pending CCJ.

If it is statute barred, does this mean that it will come off his credit report now and that they can't obtain a CCJ?

National_Debtline

Hi Posycat and welcome to the forum


There are a few points to clarify here. If a debt is statute barred it does not mean it is automatically written off, but it does mean your partner would have grounds to defend a county court claim if the debt was statute barred at the point the court papers were issued.


For this type of debt to be statute barred there must have been 6 years (starting from when court action could first have been taken) where your partner has not acknowledged the debt in writing, no payments have been made towards it and a county court claim has not been issued.


If it turns out the debt is not statute barred your partner can make an affordable offer to repay the debt, even if that is only a token amount. He should contact Lowell and ask them if he can respond to the claim online, or if not, can the court papers be issued to the correct address so he has the chance to respond. I'd also advise contacting one of the free debt advice agencies for more help on how he should deal with this.


Best wishes


Susie
@natdebtline

Posycat

National_Debtline wrote: »

Hi Posycat and welcome to the forum


There are a few points to clarify here. If a debt is statute barred it does not mean it is automatically written off, but it does mean your partner would have grounds to defend a county court claim if the debt was statute barred at the point the court papers were issued.


For this type of debt to be statute barred there must have been 6 years (starting from when court action could first have been taken) where your partner has not acknowledged the debt in writing, no payments have been made towards it and a county court claim has not been issued.


If it turns out the debt is not statute barred your partner can make an affordable offer to repay the debt, even if that is only a token amount. He should contact Lowell and ask them if he can respond to the claim online, or if not, can the court papers be issued to the correct address so he has the chance to respond. I'd also advise contacting one of the free debt advice agencies for more help on how he should deal with this.


Best wishes


Susie
@natdebtline

Hi Susie,

Thanks for your reply - I've been trying to get through to National Debtline with no success all day funnily enough! You guys are clearly very busy!!

When you say at the point at which court papers were issued - they have said they issued a claim to the court on 3rd May, no CCJ has been obtained yet, and the date it should have been statute barred would have been the 15th May - could you just clarify for me please, if they have started legal proceedings does this mean that the debt was not statute barred? Or would they need to actually obtain the CCJ before the 15th not just get legal action started?

From what you have said, I'm getting the impression that they have got the court claim forms in just before the cut off date and therefore the debt can't be declared statute barred, am I right?

Thanks,

Rosie

sourcrates

As i said above, the default date is not the date the clock runs from.

Its the date of the last payment, or written acknowledgment by the debtor, which is likely to of been up to 6 months earlier than the default date.

Therefore Its likely to of been statute barred before they started there claim, so that would be a full defence.

If he still can, he should defend the case on the basis the debt is statute barred under sec 5, Limitations act 1980, as time has run out to collect on this account.

The ball is then firmly in Lowells court as they then have to prove it isnt.

Posycat

Hi,

I'd really appreciate further advice on this, having just spoken again with Lowell.

I asked if the default date was definitely the 15th May 2012, they said it was. I then said that it would need to be the last payment date, he said that the 15th May 2012 WAS the last payment date to 02 for the amount of £68.88 and because they had issued legal proceedings on 3rd May, the debt is not statute barred. I asked if they could send proof of the last payment date, they said they wouldn't be sending out any more correspondence now the claim forms have been sent and that they are telling me over the phone, which is all they are willing to do.

I queried if they could go for a CCJ now the 6 years had passed, and whether just them making the application to the court was enough to prevent the debt being statute barred. He said that they could and it was.

I kept trying to get me to start a payment plan with them for my partner, I said that I wasn't convinced by all this as my partner told me last night that he had gone overseas in the March 2012 and had cleared his bank account, so doesn't think the direct debits would have gone out of the account after then. I asked what we should do as we hadn't received the court forms and I wanted the chance to dispute this, so he directed me to money claims website.

So my question is - can Lowell give information that isn't completely accurate - he seemed a bit like he was playing on words. So could he have actually said that the last payment date was the 15th May when it wasn't? Can they refuse to prove in writing the last payment date? (he said they would gather their evidence for the courts should it come to that, but that we should avoid this by entering in to a payment plan with them now. And again, can just starting legal proceedings before the 6 years are up halt the debt being made statute barred? Without obtaining the CCJ within the 6 years?

Thanks in advance, any advice would be really appreciated as I don't have long to get this all sorted - desperate to avoid a CCJ against his name but equally are really not in a good financial position to pay this debt now I'm not working and at home with out 6 week old baby.

Many thanks,

Rosie

sourcrates

Oh Rosie i did tell you to stay off the phone to Lowell.

All they want is their money, you shouldn't be asking there advice or opinion.

Just answer this, can you still defend the claim ?

If so enter your defence as statute barred, worst that can happen is you lose and have to pay it off at an affordable rate.

Its extremely unlikely the date of default coincided with the date of the last payment, just does not happen that way.

As i said its likely to of been months before that.

Lowell have a reputation for been less than honest at times. They will say anything on the phone that they would never put in writing .

You should only ever deal with debt collectors in writing.

Posycat

I know! And you're right of course but I just needed to check that the date they were giving was the default date or the date they have for the last payment - they seemed to be saying it was both so it's hard to know whether they are just saying whatever they need to to get the payment or if it is true.

They've put a 7 day extension on it, which seems odd in itself that they can keep postponing court action, I would have thought the court would have a finite amount of time to deal with these things. They've said we can put a claim in online, as we didn't receive the claim forms, using the court claim number.

If we do the claim, and lose, can we then just set up a payment plan with Lowell without them entering in to judgement against my partner then? I thought once we start going through the court it will either end in us winning or them issuing a CCJ. That was the impression Lowell gave me anyway.

Thanks for your advice.

sourcrates

If you lose, he gets a CCJ.

But i think Lowell are full of it, and if you put in a statute barred defence, they will discontinue.

Just my opinion based on what i know of them and what you have said.

If you want to avoid a CCJ at all costs, set up the plan now, but dont trust Lowell not to go ahead anyway, you cannot trust them.

I would advise you fight it, but its your choice.