Court claim form, what to do?

A question about : Court claim form, what to do?

Hi guys,

First post and to be honest I'm bricking it!

Yesterday I received what appears to be a notice from Northampton county court that a Ј6600 MBNA debt has been sold to Arrow Global Guernsey Ltd and that Drydens Fairfax Solicitors have applied for a CCJ.

First a bit of background.

I divorced in 2005. As I was a bit of a plonker all of the debts from the marrage were in my name. These came to around Ј45k. My ex really knew how to spend and I was too much of a wuss to say no! As I was on a good wage I agreed to keep the debts for the benefit of my kids, who were resident with my ex. I maintained the minimum payments until 2009 when my contract was not renewed (no redundancy). After a couple of months on the dole I got a new job on a much lower wage.

Unfortunately I was not able to keep up the payments on my debts. I have Ј25k loan secured on my house, which I am paying Ј350 for. I have been forced to default on the remaining Ј20k. I informed my creditors of my position and cooperated as best I could. I offered to make token payments, which was refused by MBNA.

Fast forward to today.

As far as I know I have not received any letters from Drydens Fairfax regarding this. To be honest I may have done but after so many letters and with debts being sold on they tend to become a blur! I am a single father, as I have my two daughters (17 & 15 yrs), I have a reasonably well paid job but a big mortgage, secured loan, very high utility bills (old drafty house with minimal insulation) and have a daily 80 mile round trip for work. Simply put, I cannot afford to make any substantial payments and I'm worried about what the court may impose.

I'm doing the usual Internet trawl for advice and information and hopefully will get in to Swansea or Port Talbot CAB next week. Any suggestions on what else I should do and what I can expect?

Thanks in advance.

NovemberMike.

Best answers:

• Hi. Firstly I'd try and get copies of all 3 of your credit reports to see what's what. Secondly presuming you do infact owe the money (which scary letters doesn't always mean they have the right person or the right debt) check how long it was since you made a payment or wrote to them regarding the debt. If there was a period of 6 years where no payment or acknowledgement of the debt then you can defend the court form on the basis of the debt being statute barred (ie they are out of time to collect on it).
  Presuming that you owe the debt, and it's not stature barred then you will end up with judgement going against you (Northampton is basically the bulk processing centre for CCJs where people aren't expected to defend them ,if you wish to defend you can get a hearing at your local county court). The judgement will normally be forthwith, you will then have 28 days to pay up (to avoid the CCJ going on your file).
  If you can't pay in full then the best thing to do would be to draw up your SOA (full budget) and then write to the court requesting a redetermination (I believe that is the term it might be a ( variation order)and the court will look at your situation and make an order for x amount per month (depending on your figures).
  You should be able to get help on the actual court process from the courts. They will say they can't help with legal advice etc but if you say, I have a CCJ against me, how do I apply to pay installments they should direct you to the appropriate form (and you should be able to find out the fee for this as well).
  Have a look on National Debtlines website as there are some really great factsheets on pretty much all aspects on debt which may be a little clearer than me
  With regards to the other debts then after your main essentials (including an amount for clothes, entertainment, christmas presents etc) you split your 'spare' money in a fair way between your creditors.
  To draw up a budget (SOA) I recommend the SOA at makesenseofcards.com website.
  Best of Luck
  df
• Hi Novembermike, thank you for your query regarding court claim form.
  Firstly I would suggest that you get specialist debt advice as soon as possible. You can find the opening times of your local Citizens Advice Bureau at www.citizensadvice.org.uk and it is worth noting on there that Port Talbot have a debt drop in surgery on Fridays between 9-12 which you do not have to have an appointment to attend. I would suggest that you prepare for you debt appointment by completing a detailed income and expenditure, gathering the most recent correspondence from each of your creditors and original credit agreements if you have it, the court paperwork and proof of your income, value of your home and mortgage/secured loan details. You need to be aware there are very strict deadlines when responding to a county court summons and if you are unable to get some assistance in time you can complete the acknowledgement of service to give you an extra 14 days to respond. You need to be aware if you do not respond to the summons you are at risk of enforcement action which could be in the form of a warrant of execution, a charging order or an attachment of earnings. You can find more information about county court action and enforcement at www.adviceguide.org.uk.
  Hope this is of assistance.
• I have heard of a lot of similar claims from Arrow Global in the past month or so.
  For example on the CAG legal forums: ---> Search result for Arrow Global
  There may be areas, charges, documents, assignment etc that allow you to dispute the claim in some form, or at least mitigate the court action and settle without a CCJ.
  As said, do not ignore the forms. Complete the acknowledgement of service and seek advice.