Charging Order confusion

r-world

I wonder if anyone can help me with this (sorry it's a bit long-winded):

One of my creditor's (Direct Legal) has applied for a charging order against our house after trying to get me to pay the amount owed to them (c.£3k) in full via county court which I told them I was unable to do. They are by no means the creditor to whom I owe the most debt. I have been in a DMP with Payplan for almost 2 yrs and have been giving them monthly instalments.

I contacted National Debtline after checking out the facts re charging orders on their website. They told me that I must send objections in writing to Direct Legal and the court before the hearing date on 2 Feb. My main objection is that I have not defaulted on any instalment payments to them and ND have said that if this is the case, the creditor is not allowed to apply for the order. I am all for the objection but when I contacted Payplan to double-check that no instalments have been missed, they told me that they weren't going to make any objection to the court and that ND should not have told me to go this route as I would need to hire a solicitor etc. and that any objection would be outside of Payplan's remit.

I've rechecked ND's website and the info they sent me and there's no mention of having to hire solicitors to object to the charging order but can someone confirm this is the case? As you can imagine, getting thru to ND's phoneline is virtually impossible. I'm also a bit annoyed that Payplan are so willing to rollover on the charging order application. :mad:

Any advice would be great.

AGB863

You do not have to have a solicitor to be at the hearing as the advice you have been given is correct, but i would have the support of someone like the CAB, if they are prepared to be there.

As for paypal's statement ,I'm not sure with out reading their terms and conditions as to why they would not want to be involved.

r-world

I have to say I've always wondered how accurate the info is that some Payplan staff give out. Sometimes I can just hear uncertainty in their voices which doesn't fill me with any confidence. The fact that they've contradicted ND does make me question some of their actions..

IN_LIKE_EVERYONE_ELSE!

2 Questions:

Have they landed a CCJ in connection with the debt?

And if they have;

Have you been paying the CCJ?

If there is no CCJ in connection with the debt they cannot place a charging order, they are threatening you. CCJ first leading to charging order.

If there is a CCJ and you have not paid it they can land a charge over and above the other creds, the CCJ is your opportunity to pay something back to them.

Bossyboots

There is another member here who has also run into charging order difficulties and they too are involved with payplan. I have to say I am beginning to question whether it is in fact they who are making errors although the OP does say that the creditor confirms all payments have been made.

It also says in the literature on the Court Service website that a charging order can only be granted if there is a default on the original judgement. http://www.hmcourts-service.gov.uk/courtfinder/forms/ex325_0405.pdf

I think these firms try it on because chances are in a number of cases they will get away with it although what the court are doing entertaining the application is anyone's guess.

(Mind you, if our local county court is representative of them all, I have to wonder how anything gets done. My friend is chasing up a divorce petition which remains unissued for nigh on three months!!)

r-world

2 Questions:

Have they landed a CCJ in connection with the debt?

And if they have;

Have you been paying the CCJ?

If there is no CCJ in connection with the debt they cannot place a charging order, they are threatening you. CCJ first leading to charging order.

If there is a CCJ and you have not paid it they can land a charge over and above the other creds, the CCJ is your opportunity to pay something back to them.

Yes, I did get a CCJ from them in the end but all instalments have been paid and up to date albeit I'm only able to pay them about a tenner a month. Another thing I'm worried about is that if this charging order goes thru, will it open the floodgates with my other creditors who could all apply for charging orders? :eek:

Help!

r-world

I have to say I am beginning to question whether it is in fact they who are making errors

do you mean Payplan?

Even though I have some doubts about them I'm also scared to kick up a fuss - after all, they are helping me out of huge self-made hole.

IN_LIKE_EVERYONE_ELSE!

Got any equity?

r-world

Got any equity?

There is some in the house but my husband is really not keen to use it to get a loan esp. when he's seen the state I'm in with all my debts.

I'm trying to scrape togther some money to see if I could ask Direct Legal for a F&F settlement and bypass the whole charging order altogether.

Bossyboots

r-world - yes I did mean payplan

Was the judgement for £10 per month or were you ordered to pay the full debt immediately. If you have paid less than the court ordered then technically you have defaulted but if you are paying money each month the court may accept that and not make a charging order.

r-world

I was ordered to pay the debt immediately so I called the court to explain this wasn't possible and they sent forms to fill in for instalments which Payplan did on my behalf. There was no mention by the court that I defaulted for not paying the full amount owed at that time.

I only found out the other day that Payplan's original instalment amount of £8+ was not acceptable to DL so they revised it to £10+ with a variance(?) order. Next thing I know this charging order application appears.

RW


BTW thanks for the link.