Help please.....Claim form received from court

Coupon-mad

Did it stay stayed? If so, hooray!

Prinndogs

Sadly not, thanks for checking in. I received the papers yesterday and as such, it's going all the way. Hopefully it will all work out in the end although i'd appreciate any help anyone can offer. I will post links to the directions questionnaire below. Speaking of which, I've looked at some threads for filling this out, but where it comes to the part where you select your chosen court, is there any particular thing I should put here for the reasons I want it to be in my home town at all please? I will endeavour to search the site in more depth but have just returned from a trip away to find this on my doorstep and I only have until the 28th to respond. Anyway, here is their questionnaire:

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Many thanks

Coupon-mad

Prinndogs wrote: »

DECEMBER:
BW have not responded to the defence and so the claim has been stayed. It will cost BW £100 to open it back up again so I’m assuming this matter will now fade away into oblivion.

Not wanting to count my chickens and all that but thanks very much to everyone who helped. Should I now contact BW for confirmation they are discontinuing the claim?

JANUARY:
I received the papers yesterday and as such, it's going all the way. Hopefully it will all work out in the end although i'd appreciate any help anyone can offer. I will post links to the directions questionnaire below.

I would not assume that a letter dated 19th December with no fee attached (it says 'no fee attached' in a box about that) was accepted to unstay the case. Unless BW Legal paid £100 electronically to unstay it.

Ring the court tomorrow and ask, is it still stayed, and if not, why is it unstayed and did BW Legal pay the required fee?

I am a cynic and wonder if BW Legal sent that just before Christmas to you, in the hope of you just paying them and hoping you didn't know that the claim was even stayed...

Out of interest, for other cases behind yours and not yet at court stage:

I notice BW Legal are regulated as a debt collector by the FCA and I think we need to start reporting their misleading tactics in their pre-court debt letters, which we haven't been doing thus far.

System

I notice BW Legal are regulated as a debt collector by the FCA and I think we need to start reporting their misleading tactics in their pre-court debt letters, which we haven't been doing thus far.

The relevant part of the FCA guidance with regards to their debt collecting is CONC 7. You can see it here

https://www.handbook.fca.org.uk/handbook/CONC/7/?view=chapter

Please read the definitions in 7.1.1 to see if it applies to these activities.

Prinndogs

Hi Coupon Mad, I have received a directions questionnaire of my own from the court with a covering letter saying this is now a defended claim etc. Can I take that to mean they have lifted the stay? I will of course call them tomorrow to follow it up regardless.

KeithP

Prinndogs wrote: »

Can I take that to mean they have lifted the stay?

Why not login to MCOL and see what that says?

Coupon-mad

IamEmanresu wrote: »

The relevant part of the FCA guidance with regards to their debt collecting is CONC 7. You can see it here

https://www.handbook.fca.org.uk/handbook/CONC/7/?view=chapter

Please read the definitions in 7.1.1 to see if it applies to these activities.

(4) a firm with respect to debt collecting.

That guidance must apply, when BW Legal are acting not regarding litigation, but just before that, when acting in a debt collecting capacity (harassing people to pay by text, phone or email).

Otherwise, BW Legal would not be FCA registered. If they never acted with respect to debt collecting they would have no need to ever be in the FCA.

They must be answerable to the FCA for their actions when demanding monies prior to court stage.

Proper solicitors that only deal in conveyancing, wills/probate, etc., (and give no financial advice) are not in the FCA, are they?

Prinndogs

Hi Keith, I had my phone stolen a while back and like an idiot I had all my log in details stored on there and there's no way of resetting anything at all so I'm reliant on calls to Northampton for any updates etc

System

They must be answerable to the FCA for their actions when demanding monies prior to court stage.

It's the type of debt and how it arose that is key. It has to have arisen from some form of credit arrangement to be of interest to the FCA. In 7.1.1 (4) it describes it as "a regulated activity of the kind specified in article 39F of the Regulated Activities Order."

The FCA replaced the OFT in part. The OFT banned Roxburghe and it's directors from certain activities due their behaviour. http://www.dpcregistry.co.uk//roxburghe-uk-ltd-stripped-of-ccl.htm

These activities which included

* sending debt collection letters which misrepresented debtors' legal position
* misleading and otherwise inappropriate behaviour by HFO and Roxburghe agents during phone calls to debtors
* failing to properly investigate disputed debts
* failure to respond appropriately to the concerns of regulators, including the OFT.

The OFT added the rider "'We expect businesses in the debt collection sector to behave with integrity and treat their customers fairly and transparently."

All very heartwarming but we see the same behaviour from debt collectors who do the same. They do this as they sit in a unregulated part of the industry. And if you want to know how profitable this behaviour is, check the accounts.

Hopefully the Greg Knight bill will go some way to dragging them up to a reasonable standard but we'll see. So far, the debt collectors have been able to box in the DVLA.