Lowell Solicitors - old debt

National_Debtline

Posycat wrote: »

Hi Susie,
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?

Hi Rosie


If a court claim was issued (in this case 3rd May) before the debt became statute barred, even if a CCJ has not been made, you will not be able to defend the claim on the basis the debt is statute barred I'm afraid. The 6 year period starts running from the date court action could have been taken to collect the debt. With a mobile phone debt this will be from the date the bill fell due. Any subsequent payments or written acknowledgements after this date would restart the 6 year period again.


As it sounds like Lowell have made the claim online I would advise your partner to log on and check the particulars of claim. This will give him the information Lowell are basing their claim on.


If your partner has already missed the 14 day deadline to respond it is possible for Lowell to use their discretion to allow your partner extra time to deal with it. If your partner decides to defend the claim it is advisable to try and seek legal advice, he could incur further costs if the defence is not successful. Try googling Law Centres and Law Clinics to see if there is any free legal advice available in your local area. If you have home insurance that sometimes includes free legal advice, or some local solicitors may give you an initial free, short session.


You can find more information on responding to a court claim here https://www.nationaldebtline.org/EW/factsheets/Pages/replyingtoacountycourtclaim/replyingtoaccj.aspx
and disputing a claim here https://www.nationaldebtline.org/EW/factsheets/Pages/countycourtdisputingthedebt/disputingaccj.aspx


Best wishes


Susie
@natdebtline

sourcrates

We so far only have Lowells opinion on this matter.

I've never known an account default the same day as a payment was made, that simply makes no sense at all.

The fact is we do not know the date the last bill became due for payment, and i certainly wouldn't rely on what Lowell tell you.

Try and find out the particulars of the claim online, because the actual bill due date may of been up to 28 days prior to the default date, which would mean they were out of time.