BW Legal chasing a payday loan from 2013

swiftzy

Hello this is my first post, if its not in the correct section please move the thread.

Details:

Received a claim? Yes
Issue Date: 8th August 2019
Have you Acknowledged the Claim?: Filed a dispute to the court
Total Amount Claimed : £1200
Claimant’s Name: PRAC Financial Limited
Solicitors Firm: BW Legal
Original Creditor: MEM CONSUMER FINANCE LIMITED
Original Debt : PAYDAY LOAN
Particulars of Claim:

The claimant's claim is for the sum of £856.55 being monies due under a loan agreement regulated by the Consumer Credit Act 1974 between the Defendant and Instant Cash Loans Limited t/a Payday UK under account reference xxxxxxxx and assigned to the claimant on 09/12/2016, notice of which has been given to the Defendant. The Defendant failed to maintain the contractual payment under the terms of the agreement and a default notice has been served and not complied with. The claim also includes statutory interest pursuant to section 69 of the County Courts Act 1984 at a rate of 8.00% per annum (a daily rate of £0.19) from the date of assignment of the agreement to 07/08/2019 being an amount of £184.68.

Is the debt Statute Barred (have you had any contact with the creditor or claimant over the last 6 years?): YES
List any letters you have sent (eg: CCA/ CPR ): CCA REQUEST
Any Other Information or Background Details:
1. They have replied to my letter of request.
2. Original agreement does not have my signature only my surname and the date
3. I was not in the country at the time/date of agreement- I have a flight ticket from 19th July 2013 (3 days before agreement was signed)
4. The agreement was signed 22/7/13. The due payment date was 31/7/13.
5. Defence filed to the court:
5a. "The debt is time barred under the Limitation Act 1980 section 5 in that the last payment or acknolwedgement of the debt was made over 6 years ago and no further acknowledgement or payment has been made since that time. The claim is denied.
5b. The Defendant puts the Claimant to Strict Proof that they owe the alleged debt to the Claimant and unless the Claimant produces evidence to the satisfaction of the Defendant and the Court of the Defendant's indebtedness to the Claimant within 7 days of the service of this notice, the Defendant shall make application to the Court to strike out the Claimant's claim.
6. I received the court letter on my return from holiday and had to reply immediately as i was on day 15 already. I read that Northampton County Court allows up to 19 days so i should be within that time.

So I am looking at my defence being 1. time barred, 2. i was not in the country, 3. there is no signature on the agreement

Is this likely to be successful? I have had no contact with them at all prior to this. I lived abroad from 2013-2018.

Willing2Learn

Hi,

I'm not a debt counsellor, so I might be wrong with my assessment.

• What was the date of default for the account? The default date is the cause of action and is when the six year Statute Barred clock starts ticking.
• A true copy of a credit agreement does not require a signature.
• I do not feel that the fact you were out of the country can be considered a defence.

Wait for other posters to comment though, as their knowledge will be greater than mine

Edit: And welcome to the forum

swiftzy

Thanks!

• Where can i find the cause of action date?
• I didnt know that about signatures, how can they possibly prove to Strict Proof that it was me taking out the loan? I have requested my bank statements from July 2013 to see if this was ever transferred to me (As I have no recollection of this at all)

Willing2Learn

swiftzy wrote: »

Original agreement does not have my signature only my surname and the date
I was not in the country at the time/date of agreement- I have a flight ticket from 19th July 2013 (3 days before agreement was signed)
The agreement was signed 22/7/13.
I have requested my bank statements from July 2013 to see if this was ever transferred to me (As I have no recollection of this at all)

Hold on a second. Are you saying you have evidence that you were out of the country when the agreement began? Then that should be your defence, that the account is not yours and you therefore dispute the debt.

swiftzy

Hold on a second. Are you saying you have evidence that you were out of the country when the agreement began? Then that should be your defence, that the account is not yours and you therefore dispute the debt.

Yes that's correct. I flew out to China for work purposes. I have a flight ticket, work emails from the Chinese HR company, am searching for details of my contract for the job, and have requested a bank statement details for that month as I am sure this debt was not taken out by myself. Hence I find it fishy that there is no signature on the agreement.

I think this comes under my defence 5b Strict Proof from the Claimant that the debt was indeed taken out by myself.

Should I send my defence and documents to BW Legal, or save that for court?

Is there a standard template that I could modify to use for this defence?

Terry_Towelling

You're going to need to be a bit more definite about things in court, than you have been here. Notwithstanding your defence submission, saying you have 'no recollection' of the loan could be interpreted as simply meaning you have forgotten you took it out.

Do you know how they traced you? Are you living back at the same address as before you left in 2013? If so, was there no correspondence about the loan sent to that address?

Stephenmac

I think for myself reading posts. You did take out the loan. Nobody is flying to China. Nobody. Man up and pay back the loan. If you are that desperate, tell them you get JSA of £72 per week. They will take back £5 per month, then write it off. But dont come on here and insult our intelegence

swiftzy

I think for myself reading posts.

I have the e-ticket.

How could I possibly benefit from the advice I am seeking here if I lie to the forum. If nothing else it would be a massive waste of my own time.

If you have nothing to contribute then please get out of my thread.

swiftzy

Do you know how they traced you? Are you living back at the same address as before you left in 2013? If so, was there no correspondence about the loan sent to that address?

I am back now living in my parents place and picked up the court claim. This is a different address to where the loan was taken out (an apartment where I used to live). If there was any previous correspondence then I am assuming my parents threw it out. I received a CCJ in 2015 for something else, without my knowledge, so am assuming parents have just been throwing away all such letters.

Notwithstanding your defence submission, saying you have 'no recollection' of the loan could be interpreted as simply meaning you have forgotten you took it out.

I agree- it is my defence that this loan was not taken out by me. I am pulling my bank records from that month to show that no money went in.

How can they possibly prove it was me taking out this loan, is my question i guess? How does any company prove it?

Declan1992

The credit agreement will show what account and sort code the money was deposited into? If that is yours, I’m afraid it’s your loan.

I’m dealing with them myself at the minute and they’re not the easiest to deal with if I’m honest. They got me about 3 months before my statue barred with a County court claim so I made an arrangement with them to pay.

If you took the account out in July 13. It’s safe to say your barred date is probably around October this year maybe November if you made no payments from loan issue

nic_c

Don't assume the application date to be relevant for Notice of Limitations, it will be the default date that is relevant and usually upto around 6 months after the account was opened if no subsequent payments were done to the loan. Have you checked your credit file?

If you don't believe you took out the loan, this should be your main plank of argument. It could be fraud (if they had your address at application date) rather than mistrace (if the application address is one you have never lived at) as you stated it was taken out at a former address. Was that an address you were residing at or had you moved out by then?