PowerOfCats UE Diary

[PowerofCats]

As expected. Letter of claim arrived for Debt 1 too.

After speaking with Gerry yesterday at JCS I'm going to continue to sit tight and await next steps.
My intention is to instruct JCS should I receive court paperwork.

[PowerofCats]

(deleted)

[Sparkles]

It looks like Sparkles thought you got defaulted in Feb 2019 - but that's when it dropped off your file.

Yes i didn't read it properly and thought that's when you had defaulted.

[PowerofCats]

Two statements of account arrived today for the MBNA debts.
Haven't received one for ages and lost paperwork so not sure how often L1nk normally send them? This seems to be dates from May 2024 so just under 6mths. I thought they were yearly but couldn't be wrong. Overthinking but wondering if it's a precursor to next steps... We'll see

[PowerofCats]

Diary updated

Money claim court docs received for debt 1 and debt 2.
JCS instructed and will be handling here on out

[Dottir]

Shame. If I read this correctly you ignored a letter of claim and then got a claim. I realise you took advice from Gerry but as these were pre 2007 it is still a shame you received a claim.

[MisterK]

I may be missing something but it seems to me that these ought to be statute barred as of September or October 2024, assuming that you haven't done anything that would reset the SB clock since the last payment you made in September 2018. The date they dropped off the CRA files is not as relevant as the date for settlement that the original creditor gave when they issued the default notices (in 2013). So if there had been no resetting of the SB clock in the 6 years since the date for settlement then I think that they would have become SB as of some date in 2019. If you reset the SB date during those 6 years by making payments then they would become SB 6 years after the most recent reset which looks like September 2024.

I'm very happy to be corrected on this if I'm wrong, but that's my understanding.

[Dottir]

I may be missing something but it seems to me that these ought to be statute barred as of September or October 2024, assuming that you haven't done anything that would reset the SB clock since the last payment you made in September 2018. The date they dropped off the CRA files is not as relevant as the date for settlement that the original creditor gave when they issued the default notices (in 2013). So if there had been no resetting of the SB clock in the 6 years since the date for settlement then I think that they would have become SB as of some date in 2019. If you reset the SB date during those 6 years by making payments then they would become SB 6 years after the most recent reset which looks like September 2024.

I'm very happy to be corrected on this if I'm wrong, but that's my understanding.

You know what, I think you might be right. If so waiting 25 or so days from the LoC then sending a SB letter would have stopped everything. No claim no costs etc.

[PowerofCats]

Morning

Yes, when I spoke to Gerry about the LOC I pointed out my statute barred date and he said that the majority of dates that we (debtors) have recorded are rarely reflective of what is held by the creditors and erroneous payments can be added.
Interestingly the date on the court form from when the creditor is claiming interest to present is 4 days after I sent a CCA in Jan 2019 with the statutory £1... My gut tells me they incorrectly applied this as a payment or similar

It was very tempting to reply to the LOC myself but I was worried about doing something incorrect and screwing up the process!

It's a LOT of money instructing a solicitor. More than I thought to be honest, but if successful then it'll be worth it.

I have everything crossed...

[PowerofCats]

Shame. If I read this correctly you ignored a letter of claim and then got a claim. I realise you took advice from Gerry but as these were pre 2007 it is still a shame you received a claim.

Yes, I think the creditors have incorrectly worked on the Jan 2019 dates. I'm currently not in a good headspace to deal with this all solo, so it seemed instructing JCS was the best route for me. I will be accurately and honestly feeding back my experience for others who might be in this situation and need professional help.

[PowerofCats]

I may be missing something but it seems to me that these ought to be statute barred as of September or October 2024, assuming that you haven't done anything that would reset the SB clock since the last payment you made in September 2018. The date they dropped off the CRA files is not as relevant as the date for settlement that the original creditor gave when they issued the default notices (in 2013). So if there had been no resetting of the SB clock in the 6 years since the date for settlement then I think that they would have become SB as of some date in 2019. If you reset the SB date during those 6 years by making payments then they would become SB 6 years after the most recent reset which looks like September 2024.

I'm very happy to be corrected on this if I'm wrong, but that's my understanding.

You're quite right.
Last payment sent to Stepchange the start of Sept 2018. Technically they pay the creditor within 14 days, so by the end of Sept 2018 it would have been received by the creditor but I work on Oct 2024 being my SB date 'just in case '

Only contact with creditors since then was CCA request in Jan 2019 and a digital SAR May 2019. Neither of which can be 'counted' as acknowledgement of debt and were sent using AAD templates.

No payments made by me to the account, no contact in any way shape or form.

[MisterK]

Hopefully it will all be over quite quickly as a clear win for you so that your costs are minimised. In addition, it's possible that JCS will be able to get your costs (primarily the fees that JCS will charge) paid by the claimant although that might be dependent upon the size of the claim and which level of the legal system is involved etc. JCS will know and no doubt do what they can. If you do manage to get all your costs covered then little will have been lost. If it does indeed turn out to be a clear case of statute barred then it seems logical to me that it ought to be possible to strongly assert that the claim should never have been made in the first place and therefore it's not right that you should be out of pocket by having to defend it.

As per Dottir's suggestion above, I suppose the right time to send the SB letter would be after the claim arrives and before deploying JCS as this would give the claimant an opportunity to withdraw at no cost to themselves. Then if they then don't withdraw you could engage JCS a little later and will have then been easily able to prove that they had been informed of the SB status. This would seem to be powerful ammunition in the event of an application for costs (should that be possible). But that's not to say that you don't have a clear case for the award of costs as it stands.

Well that's my view but we'll see what happens. I don't have expert knowledge and so I'm in no position to advise, I'm just learning like you. Please keep us all informed if you are able to do that, this is likely to be of interest to others.

[Dottir]

Morning

Yes, when I spoke to Gerry about the LOC I pointed out my statute barred date and he said that the majority of dates that we (debtors) have recorded are rarely reflective of what is held by the creditors and erroneous payments can be added.
Interestingly the date on the court form from when the creditor is claiming interest to present is 4 days after I sent a CCA in Jan 2019 with the statutory £1... My gut tells me they incorrectly applied this as a payment or similar

It was very tempting to reply to the LOC myself but I was worried about doing something incorrect and screwing up the process!

It's a LOT of money instructing a solicitor. More than I thought to be honest, but if successful then it'll be worth it.

I have everything crossed...

I get that sometimes we are not in a good place. From my years of reading these forums what Gerry said may be true but is usually easily disproved.

It is done now so you are in good hands but for other readers maybe try a SB letter. You could write something along the lines of

'I am unaware of the account you mention but from my records I know that any accounts I may have had would all be time barred under the limitations act and therefore I will not be paying or engaging in correspondence. If you believe this to be incorrect then please provide full details of the last payment date, amount snd source'


Then it puts the onus on them to prove it and if it was say a £1 CCA fee you could respond with proof that it was just that.


My fear, and something I have said before is that by not responding to a LOC , it might be more difficult to gain costs even if it is a slam dunk of a winner.


I am however very hopeful that your accounts are SB and Joanna can get them dismissed with little effort and minimal cost although you have said it is not cheap.

[Sparkles]

When you say a LOT are you talking hundreds or thousands? I'm just curious as I have a debt that may one day need help from JCS but I have never been able to get any idea what it might cost.

[Ballister]

Mine was £700 plus VAT for a claim over £5k. There were also costs which I got refunded