CCJ threat and letters from Court "HELP!!"

SilverdaleStokie

Firstly "Hello", before I start to babble on, Im Ian (28yrs old) and trying desperately to get myself into a position where I can get money put aside to send my daughter to Uni when she reaches 18'ish (shes 5months old now lol)

I've been lurking in the forums on and off for the past few months and now need a bit of advice.

I took out my car insurance via a company called "Bedford Insurance" in 2003, they in turn had finance from a company called "Amber Select" for the insurance and I paid "Amber" monthly for my car insurance.

For some reason the insurance lapsed (I think the car was off the road following a head gasket issue) and I received calls from a company called "CARS" demanding payment of the monies owed to "Amber" for the remaining term of the insurance. At the time I was unable to make a full payment so agreed to pay £20 a month off the arrears. I asked for receipts for payments (which never arrived) and asked for a full breakdown of my account as I did not agree with the amount quoted (which again never arrived). I still have the letters from my written request for Information from September 2005. In the meantime another company contacted me in regards to the same account, who were quoting a different amount. Obviously confusion occured as I was paying "CARS" but receiving demanding letters from some other company. Stupidly enough I stopped paying CARS after about 3 / 4 payments as I was unsure of what was going on with the account and nobody could seem to clarify the situation.

Now, 4 months ago I received a letter from a company called "Geoffrey Parker Bourne" along with court paperwork (for Northampton Court) for payment of the amount owed, along with £135 costs (Solicitor's & Court Fees). So I filled out the defence paperwork and sent it off along with an offer of £30p/m to clear the debt (I have just paid a funeral bill of £2318 following the death of my father) so to pay £650+ would be near on impossible. Plus if If my initial requests in 2005 had been actioned there would be no court costs?!

About 2 weeks ago I received a "Without Prejuduice" letter from Geoffrey Parker Bourne giving me until the 30th May to make full and final payment. I immeadiately emailed Geoffrey Parker Bourne to explain that I couldnt pay £625.00 (apparently this includes payments made to CARS and also a payment I made to Geoffrey Parker Bourne last month)

Their reply is below......

If the 'without prejudice' offer of £625.00 is taken up, there would be no Judgment. So if you are to take advantage of that discount, we invite you to come up with the payment by close of business on Friday 30th May 2008. After that date, our client may exercise its entitlement to apply for Judgment upon your partial admission of liability. In the circumstances, please keep us up to date with your intentions.

I am about to email them to explain that I am unable to pay the full amount, and to say I wil be sending a cheque (£250.00) by the end of this week towards the amount.

Could anybody offer any advice??! and is it worth me quoting the
Consumer Credit Act 1974 to finally get a copy of any agreement / payments made on my account?

Thankyou in anticipation,

Ian

GeorgeUK

I would advise writing and requesting a copy of the credit agreement, Statement of accounts and notice of assignment.

There are template letters here, just add the extra requested items in with the CCA.

http://www.oft.gov.uk/shared_oft/business_leaflets/consumer_credit/oft664.pdf
The OFT giuidelines on debt collection state that:
2.2 - Unfair practices included
e. failing to provide debtors or creditors with information on status
of debts, for example, not providing requested balance statements when
reasonably requested

2.6 - Physical.psycological harrassment
c. using more than one debt collection business at the same time
resulting in repetitive and/or frequent contact by different parties
e. not informing the debtor when their case has been passed on to a
different debt collector

Most of these breaches are by CARS.
I would request the details above and wait for a reply. State in the letter again your offer of repayment as you are not in a position to make F&F, but also point out that you were receiving claims from different parties for the same debr. Are Geoffrey Parker Bourne acting on behalf of CARS?

SilverdaleStokie

GeorgeUK,

Thanks for your reply....

I beleive that Geoffrey Parker Bourne are actually acting on behalf of Amber BUT I have a sneaky suspicion that they may have something to do with CARS?!? (I may be totally wrong)

Anyway I have emailed GPB today (see below)

Dear Mr XXXX,

Following on from your email below….

I will be sending a cheque for the amount of £250 directly to Amber Select Limited towards the amount quoted.

As per my calculations, I actually owe £494.84. This is minus the £80 already paid (£50 to CARS & £30 to yourselves) and minus the £135 “alleged” charges as these would not have been incurred “IF” CARS had supplied me with the statement of account as requested in September 2005.

As it stands I have an appointment this Thursday in regards to the debt and how the account has been managed. As I previously stated I made numerous requests to CARS in regards to the outstanding amount and as per the OFT Guidelines, they should have been supplied upon request.

Information taken from ….
http://www.oft.gov.uk/shared_oft/business_leaflets/consumer_credit/oft664.pdf

The OFT giuidelines on debt collection state that:

2.2 - Unfair practices included
e. failing to provide debtors or creditors with information on status
of debts, for example, not providing requested balance statements when
reasonably requested

2.6 - Physical.psycological harrassment
c. using more than one debt collection business at the same time
resulting in repetitive and/or frequent contact by different parties
e. not informing the debtor when their case has been passed on to a
different debt collector

At the time of making payments to CARS I was also contacted by a 2nd company who were persuing monies for the same account, but were quoting a different amount.

As I previously said, I am unable to make Full & Final Payment to the account as I have just cleared a funeral bill of £2318 (following the death of my father) and also having to support a 5 month old child.

I will also be looking at making an official complaint to the Financial Ombudsman Service in regards to how the whole account has been handled

Now this will either make them more determined to take me to the cleaners.... or they may actually show a bit of sympathy and say "well at least he wants to get it sorted". Im hoping its the latter as the last thing I want, especially in this economic climate is to have a CCJ on my account when I have already made the offer to pay

Thanks again....

SilverdaleStokie

Ive received a "Notice of Allocation to the Small Claims Track (Hearing)" from my local court in regards to the debt.

I dont understand why it still needs to go via the court route "if" Ive already made an offer to pay, plus explained that "I CANNOT" pay the requested amount straight away (due to other commitments aka mortgage, etc.).

The letter I have also received states that a "hearing fee" of £75 is to be paid by the 18th June by the claimant (I presume this is Amber / GPB?!) which obviously will be passed back onto me to pay even though I've made an offer?

Any advice would be greatly appreciated as a-they have threatened me with a Judgement "if" not fully settled by the 30th May and now b-sent me this letter re-"Small Claims Track"

Thanks in advance.

P.S. I never received a response from the email I sent, except a response from the FOS to inform me that if a complaint it to be made, download the form off their website...

MrsTinks

I'd honestly send them a "provide me with the signed credit agreement" letter and send it recorded! E-mail isn't trackable enough!
And unless you recieve official paperwork from the local courts then all they are doing is trying to threaten you.

SilverdaleStokie

MrsTine,

Thankyou for your prompt response...

The letter's I have received look official from the courts, what I dont understand is why the courts would still want to persue it even though I have "offered" and "explained" that I cannot make a full and final payment of the amount quoted?

Im just in the process of printing off the template letter that GeorgeUK pointed out to me but am a bit worried that it looks like Amber / GPB have got the wheels in motion with the courts in regards to the debt.

Blimmin'eck "lol"

tealady

Hi Silverdale. Don't worry, follow Mrs Tines advice and you won't go far wrong.
Take no notice of the threats of court action, if you get anything official from a court just shout and someone will talk you through it.

GeorgeUK

Double check the letters you have received and make sure they are not from the court. They are most likely just threats from the DCA but you will want to make sure. Have you been asked to fill in any froms? And if so, what is the Form Number or reference. Does it say what court it is from?

SilverdaleStokie

Would it help if I scanned them and put them online somewhere so somebody could confirm "if" they are official or not.

Scan --> http://i91.photobucket.com/albums/k293/HappySnapperStokie/court.jpg

What baffles me is the first letter I got from the "courts" was to say that they had ruled in favour that a judgement could be issued (if payment wasnt made by the 30th May) then the 2nd letter tells me its gone to a small claims track?!

NOTE - I have blanked out the personal stuff aka address / ref numbers.

GeorgeUK

If you scan in a document, make sure you blank out any ref number and name/address that may identify you.

It sounds as though you have already had contact from Northampton Court and entered a defence. Are you still making the payments to them each month?

I would suggest editing the title of the thread in your first post. We need to get experienced people in here that have dealt with courts on advice of what you should be doing. I think the letter may be from the court, but i don't know what's happened to the defence you submitted or where it goes from here.

Definately request a copy of the credit agreement, statement of affairs and notice of assignment as Mrs Tine advises. I'd also change this thread title so that others may be able to advise regarding the court situation.
"CCJ threat and letters from Court" or something.

Dear Sir/Madam

Re:− Account/Reference Number 4563210025897412

I acknowledge no debt to your organisation or those you represent.

With reference to the above agreement, we would be grateful if you would send us a copy of the credit agreement, notice of assignment and statement of account.

We understand that under the Consumer Credit Act 1974 (Sections 77−79), we are entitled to receive a copy of our credit agreement on request. We enclose a payment of £1.00 which represents the fee payable under the Consumer Credit Act.

We understand a copy of our credit agreement should be supplied within 12 working days.

We understand that under the Consumer Credit Act creditors are unable to enforce an agreement if they fail to comply with a request for a copy of the agreement under these sections of the Act.

We look forward to hearing from you.

Yours faithfully

penguin83

Hi Silver - it is proper court paperwork - what has happened is that you have partially defended the claim. This means that they are able to ask for judgment against you for the amount that you have admitted and the other portion of the claim is continuing as a defended claim and it will be decided in court about the part that you are disputing. The hearing fee is paid by the claimant.

Hope this explains a bit - Im in a rush at the mo as I can hear one of the kids are awake so Ill be back shortly to check it makes sense. x x