Charging Order/House Sale Panic

Why_oh_why

Firstly, I must apologise if it seems like I flit in and out of this forum and that I ignore any advice that is kindly offered to me. I am very shy and find it hard sometimes to respond (it has taken me a week to get up the guts to write this). I wanted to post this on here because you all seem so knowledgeable and CAB have been useless and the solicitors in question are refusing to talk to me.

I received a letter from Yorkshire Bank solicitors last week to say that they are taking me to court on 26 August to get a charging order for my credit card debt (about £9700).

My current situation is that we are about to accept an offer on our house on Monday. If we accept the offer there will not be enough money to pay the 2 mortgages (Yorkshire Bank standard mortgage and Paragon secured loan) PLUS the charging order for the credit card. This then means that we are stuck with a house that we cannot afford to pay for - therefore, noone is going to get any money and we will probably have to go for bankruptcy. OR we pay off what mortgage we can but then can't afford to rent because we still have mortgage payments to make (in effect making us homeless).

If the charging order isn't accepted, we will be able to pay the 2 outstanding mortgages and then we would be able to offer an increased monthly payment for the credit card debt - currently should pay £50, could probably increase to £100.

I totally accept that I am in breach of the agreed payments - we have really struggled to pay the mortgages and all of our focus has been on trying to get those paid, so we have basically forgotten about everything else.

My questions are - I am about £200 in arrears, should I pay this (I can just about manage it seeing as I cant afford to pay full amount for mortgage), will it make any difference to the courts? I know it isnt within the agreed terms but at least I would be up to date with payments.

Is there any chance that the court would not allow the charging order - because of my reasons above (i.e. refuse order YBCC get an extra £50 per month, accept order and they get nothing)?

I haven't had any official paperwork from the courts yet. Should this be a concern?

When I phoned the solicitors to try and explain the situation with the housesale, they wouldn't take any notice of me - is it worth me trying to speak to Yorkshire Bank Credit Card direct?

Thank you very much for looking :-)

Lodge

Just to get a clearer picture of your situation with Yorkshire Bank, you say you are £200 in arrears and you are "supposed to pay" £50 per month, so are you saying you have made NO payment for FOUR months?

I assume the £50 is a Payment Arrangement you had with them as it seems very low to be a minimum payment amount on a £9700 balance?

If you have not paid for 4 months have you kept them informed of the situation?

Why_oh_why

Lodge wrote: »

Just to get a clearer picture of your situation with Yorkshire Bank, you say you are £200 in arrears and you are "supposed to pay" £50 per month, so are you saying you have made NO payment for FOUR months?

I assume the £50 is a Payment Arrangement you had with them as it seems very low to be a minimum payment amount on a £9700 balance?

If you have not paid for 4 months have you kept them informed of the situation?

No, haven't made any payments since April.

The £50 is a CCJ payment agreement, most that we could afford.

Stupidly, no, I have had no contact with them until I received the letter.

Lodge

Okay, thanks for the info.

During the four months did they contact you at all to find out what was going on?

In hindsight even sending a token payment of a pound would have shown the Courts of your intention to pay something towards your debt.

I wish you all the very best and look forward to hearing the outcome.

Hope it works out okay for you.

Best Regards.

D.

Lodge

Just wanted to bump this one to the first page.

Can anyone else offer the Original Poster any advice?

delboypass

misread..apologies

If you go bankrupt, both of you would have to do it as the morgage will be in joint names..

Lodge

bumpety bump!!!

LilacPixie

pass. my first reaction was you only have there word that they are taking to you to court as you have not received court papers. If i was you i would pay the £200 and then if/when court papers received defend it. I don't really have much experience with CO and solicitors only DCA's so take my advice with a pich of salt.

Also give NDL a call and look at there websites. I'm pretty sure they have a factshhet on CO's

chevalier

ok the first thing is to check that the firm that have written to you are really solicitors. Some debt collection agencies, will put letter heads on their letters to basically fool you into thinking that they are from solicitors when they are not.

Secondly I would speak to the original creditor to see if they know what is going on. If you have been issued with a County Court Judgement for £50 AND YOU HAVEN'T BEEN PAYING IT, then this is not good at all. This may be why the 'solicitors' or whoever are apparently applying for the charging order. I would also talk to your mortgage company because they have a vested interest in getting their money back. They might be able to help.

You mention that you have sold your house, have you exchanged contracts yet? If so then you need to ask the solicitor who is doing your conveyancing what problems this charging order might have with regards to the sale.

Sorry I can't be more positive.
chev

Why_oh_why

Thanks for the responses.

I have done some digging around and it is definitely going through the courts - so it isn't just a threat.

I have spoken to Yorkshire Bank direct but they have said they don't have the details any more so I must speak to the solicitors. I have tried today but unfortunately there system is down and will need to try again tomorrow.

I am just getting so confused at the matter - we have accepted an offer on the house but don't know whether that should be cancelled. We are trying to get hold of the estate agents to fully explain the situation so at least the buyers are aware of what is going on.

I will write to the courts (and copy the solicitors) to plead our case.

barnaby-bear

Why_oh_why wrote: »

We are trying to get hold of the estate agents to fully explain the situation so at least the buyers are aware of what is going on.

:eek:
so at least the buyers are aware [STRIKE]of what is going on.[/STRIKE] you are distressed sellers over a barrel and they can drop their offer....