WFAC want their fee after 6 years

lilihari1234

WFAC has filed a claim, dated 04 April 2022, in County Court Business Centre in Northampton demanding their fees, including interest, in relation to a PPI claim with Barclaycard that resulted successful in January 2016. The cheque that I received from Barclaycard was cleared on 20 January 2016. In March 2016 WFAC had instructed a Debt Collection Agency to act on their behalf to try and retrieve their fees. Their first letter demanded that I paid the fee in full by 31 March 2016. Given that the Limitation Act 1980  says "the action to recover any sum recoverable by virtue of any enactment shall not be brought after the expiration of six years from the date on which the cause of action accrued". I wonder if the clock starts running from the date the Barclaycard PPI claim cheque was cleared on 20 January 2016, or the date when WFAC instructed Debt Collection Agency to contact me in writing, a letter dated 17 March 2016?


On the other hand,  on a side note, in 2017, 2018, and 2019, WFAC went quiet concerning the Barclaycard PPI claim fees. However, they kept contacting me concerning an outstanding  PPI claim with Alliance and Leicester Building Society. They kept sending me letters asking me to sign the letter of authority to deal with the A & L PPI claim, which I ignored completely and never responded to any of their correspondence. Nevertheless, in 2019 I received an e-mail from WFAC containing two attachments, namely the letter of authority with my signature and the date, which in fact I had never signed at all. Basically, my signature from a letter of authority I had signed in 2015 was scanned, copied and pasted by WFAC on the letter of authority dated 2019. Ever since I have not heard from them at all until recently, when they instructed a legal firm to notify me that they would initiate court proceedings and charge me interest on the outstanding unpaid fees from 15 June 2016 until 31 March 2022. 

Dazed_and_C0nfused

Do you mean they provided the service you agreed to in respect of the Barclaycard claim and you haven't as yet paid that fee?

If so why do you think it is acceptable to not pay the fee relating to the Barclaycard claim?

penners324

Pay the fee now before a ccj is awarded 

Alpine_Star

Their current T&Cs are silent on when their fee becomes due (which would be the point of cause of action) but if you have a letter from a debt collector demanding payment by 31 March 2016 and proceedings weren't issued until 4 April 2022 then I can't see how it wouldn't be statute barred. The 6 year limitations is an absolute defence.

sourcrates

The cause of action date would have been when they were entitled to take legal action to recover the debt. 

With a debt such as this, its not always clear cut when that would be, its easier to determine with a CCA regulated debt, as a court has set a precedent for this, notably the default date, but that doesn't apply in this case.

I would expect it to be covered in the agreement that you signed, as that would be the document they will be relying on in court, you can request a copy, if you don`t have one.

If you take the date that full payment was demanded to be made on, by the DCA, as being the cause of action date, then you have a statute barred defence to the claim, however a court may view that differently, it would depend on the agreement you had with them.