**DISCONTINUED** How long can a claim remain open and next actions if any

[edk83]

Hi All

A debt collector of JD Willaims served a claim for £2500 on my wife on the 15/09/2014.

The catalogue account was opened by her when she was 17 (under age) and was mainly used by her next door neighbour. The last payment made to the account was over 7 years prior to the claim and no contact or payment was made thereafter.

We exchanged letters with the solicter back in 2014 stating that our position was that the alleged debt was statue barred and we would not be paying. We also entered this into the defence and it was recieved on the 13/10/2014.

Since then the claimant has failed to provide any further evidence against our defence and we have not recieved any further letters until today. They basically just state they believe the debt is owed in full and will accept 50% blah blah.

My understanding of the money claim system is that after the defendant enters thier defence the case is sent to one of the track systems and we should have been sent a notice of proposed allocation.

Nothing has been recieved in over 18 months and the case is just sitting with the last document being the defense.

Just before I send a letter back to the debt collector saying our position has not changed since they have not provided any evidence to support thier claim on a credit agreement that they entered into with a minor :P

Is there any way we can get this case struck out or dropped or even progressed?
Ps I dont fancy paying £255 to send a form in!

Thanks in advance!

[edk83]

Re: How long can a claim remain open and next actions if any

Just relised this is the welcome forum, will repost in the court claim forum.

[R0b]

Re: How long can a claim remain open and next actions if any

Have you contacted the court to see what is going on? It sounds like the claim may have stayed for some reason.

It might be a case of pying to strike it out, a good bargain for a tenth of the damages you allegedly owe.

[nemesis45]

Re: How long can a claim remain open and next actions if any

Hi All

A debt collector of JD Willaims served a claim for £2500 on my wife on the 15/09/2014.

The catalogue account was opened by her when she was 17 (under age) and was mainly used by her next door neighbour. The last payment made to the account was over 7 years prior to the claim and no contact or payment was made thereafter.

We exchanged letters with the solicter back in 2014 stating that our position was that the alleged debt was statue barred and we would not be paying. We also entered this into the defence and it was recieved on the 13/10/2014.

Since then the claimant has failed to provide any further evidence against our defence and we have not recieved any further letters until today. They basically just state they believe the debt is owed in full and will accept 50% blah blah.

My understanding of the money claim system is that after the defendant enters thier defence the case is sent to one of the track systems and we should have been sent a notice of proposed allocation.

Nothing has been recieved in over 18 months and the case is just sitting with the last document being the defense.

Just before I send a letter back to the debt collector saying our position has not changed since they have not provided any evidence to support thier claim on a credit agreement that they entered into with a minor :P

Is there any way we can get this case struck out or dropped or even progressed?
Ps I dont fancy paying £255 to send a form in!

Thanks in advance!

Just for info, The Limitation Act 1980 relevant 6 year period is put on hold on the date a CC Claim is issued, for a debt to become statute barred is must be stat barred on or before the claim is issued.

Even when a debt is SB in England & Wales it still exists and remains collectable ( Debt is extinguished in Scotland after 5 years) a " creditor" should cease to pursue a SB debt once they have informed the creditor in writing that the debt is SB.

You can write to the claimant or their solicitors suggesting as they can't enforce the debt they should discontinue in order to save costs and court time.

nem

[edk83]

Re: How long can a claim remain open and next actions if any

I think I will contact the court on Tuesday and ask them what the current state of play is. Online it just shows the last document being our defence and nothing further so not sure if it's stayed.

While £255 is not a bad result for a £2500 case I still feel that it's a bit much to strike out an £80 claim, is there anything to stop them just claiming again?

The last payment date on the account is over 7 years from the date of the claim in 2014 therefore we have used statue barred as our defence providing statements to prove. I was tempted to also mention the credit agreement that they are claiming on is void as well as she was under 18 when it was entered into, don't really see the need to open that can of worms though if statue barred stands.

We have written to the claimant many times stating that our position is that the alleged debt is barred and they should back down as they are not going to get a payment. Each time their response is that there position is that the debt is payable but they are unable to provide any evidence to suggest that our defence is not valid.

My feeling is that if they had any evidence to go to court then they would have done so already and would not be offering to settle now for £1250. The catalogue account was opened by my wife's next door neighbour / ex best friend years back she basically used her to get credit, there was also a mobile phone contract that my wife got for her neighbour that was never paid for either. She now realises that she was taken for a ride and has to face the consequences for being so nieve.

I'd be happy to go to court on this one and defend the case as barred, also I may argue that the creditor failed to perform adequate credit checks before entering into the agreement, date of birth on the copy of the agreement they supplied is incorrect although signed by my wife at the time. Might not be wise as it could be admission of a criminal act even if it did invalidate the credit agreement?

[edk83]

Re: How long can a claim remain open and next actions if any

Ok so from reading other threads I believe that after entering our defense the claimant has 33 days to respond. It's a bit past the now so I'm guessing it must have been stayed. Speaking to a barrester have been advised that we don't really need to do anything as not our responsibility to do so.

The offer letter after 18 months is probably just a file review.

I have also been reading about applying for it to be struck out at the claimants cost, is this possible?

[edk83]

Re: How long can a claim remain open and next actions if any

Another thing, the claimant is Cabot Financial Uk ltd. I have been reading that their recent claims are not vaild due to them not having a licence to be a creditor? Can anyone explain this and does it apply to the date that our case was claimed?

[edk83]

Re: How long can a claim remain open and next actions if any

Just had a notice of discountenance through from the claimant

[nemesis45]

Re: How long can a claim remain open and next actions if any

Just had a notice of discountenance through from the claimant

Good result EDK !!

nem