N39 and summons to appear in court

clairus99

let me try and give you the short version of this...

in around 1998 i joined a gym (uhoh) and quelle suprise i got into debt and stopped going. but of course i still had the debt of £1500 (had quite a few in those days).

i wasnt in regular employment so i fell into problems and eventually the gym went bust anyway so i figured that that was the end of that.

another firm bought the debt it seems and i promised to pay £50 a month, which was naive of me because i immediately had problems paying it. they then put a garnishee order on my bank account, the first of which i knew about it was the money not being in my account. we argued for a bit and they said the court could stop the order. i called the court they said they couldnt. as a result i couldnt trust that company with my bank details any more lest i go again with no money for food, rent, transport, etc.

i heard nothing for about 5 years when i got an N316 (?). more accurately, this company sent me a photocopy of part of it, saying they were going to file it unless i pay up. i was out of work at the time, and offered a pitiful £10 a month. yes it's nothing but i figured no matter how skint i was i could pull a tenner out of somewhere. i said i would add more if/when i could but this was the minimum i could guarantee. with a bit of tooing and froing they basically refused.

i heard nothing then for about 6 months when i got something from the courts to say that an N39 was being issued and would duly be served. i understand now that this is only issued if i do not turn up to court after the N316 - which i never received, so how could i turn up? at the same time, i did ask the company to help me with the fare to get there - which they didn't respond to.

the next thing i heard was about 6 months or so later when i received a copy of an order saying that because the company were unable to physically serve the summons on me (didn't seem to me that they tried), they could put it through the door. this was at least a year ago.

well, that summons came through the door on saturday, a couple of days after a copy came from the company.

i have googled this thing to death and cannot find any experiences from people or any firm information that allows me to work out what to expect on the day. i gather i will either fill in a form and/or ask questions as to my finances.

well, i'm a mature student in my final year who has just been diagnosed with depression. i am on prozac and can barely study, let alone get a job at the moment. i have some heavy financial commitments that eat up all my student loan and i basically live off my partner (he pays the bills and buys food bless him). i can say now that i dont have assets that cover £1500 if they send in the bailiffs, unless they take my partner's stuff. that isn't going to help our relationship as this debt has nothing to do with him and was incurred before he came around.

i need to know what to expect on the day and whether i need to see a solicitor (i'm guessing yes) and how to go about getting one.

i need to know the worst case scenario - personally and morally i do not believe that this debt is worth all their chasing but if the court tells me to pay, i won't argue it.

i need to know, if a bailiff is involved - do i have to be here (as opposed to my other half dealing with it, i can't take the stress of it frankly) and can they take my partner's stuff? what about stuff on hp? what about stuff on hp that have been given away as christmas presents? what about stuff on hp that is being bought by someone else (my dad is paying for a tv i got in my name through the catalogue)?

if anyone is able to help with any aspect of this, you will be giving me some peace of mind. anything is such a battle at the moment, and this could not have come at a worse time.

wannabe_sybil

N39 is a request to attend court to give a financial statement. Roughly income, expenditure etc. It is purely an exercise in information gathering. One example is that if you were in full time employment they may apply for an Attachment of Earnings Order, if you own a property then they may apply for a Charging Order.

Absolutely worst case scenario, don't panic when you read the next bit, if you continue to REFUSE (not fail) to fill in the form you could go to prison for contempt of court. However, you have a chance to fill in the form now, or if you fail to do it now then you will be brought into court to speak to the judge and if you REFUSE to complete the form then and only then could you be in big trouble. DON'T PANIC.

Normal procedure is that you attend, the other side may not even be there, and a clerk not a judge will go through the form with you. If you take in stuff like statements etc they may want to see them.

You may find it useful to take along someone from the CAB if you find the thought of it too stressful,

Is there still a problem with the fare to get to court? If so, give the court a ring as they will know the procedure for getting your fare paid if it is possible.

This may be an attempt to get the information to get another garnishee on you.

There will be more knowledgeable people along in a moment, but an N39 is not really a good thing to ignore, but it is not as complicated as you may fear and I think perhaps you need to speak to one of the debt charities just in general to help you sort your money out, feel a bit more in control and that will do wonders to help you out of your depression.

Good luck.

RAS

Hi

If you ring CCCS or NDl or go to CAb, they will help you fill in the form. See here.

http://www.moneysavingexpert.com/loans/debt-help-plan#help

You may also find your student Welfare Officer or Student Finance people able to help you out.

fatbelly

An N316 is the form that a creditor uses to ask for an'Information Order'

The N39 is the one served on the debtor to order him/her to attend for questioning.

Just getting this straight in my mind

You fill out an EX140 at court and sign to say this is true on that date.

You're right - there is little information about this process on the web. It gets a mention in this ND factsheet, which is worth reading. This also points to the orders that the creditor will be considering:

bailiffs - if you have assets
attachemnt of earnings - if you earn
charging order - if you own property
3rd party debt order (old garnishee order) - if you have money in the bank

On the last one, there's nothing to stop you changing your bank the day after the information order. That's what I'd do!

penguin83

The bottom of the N39 will have a bit more info about what documents you need to take with you to the appointment as well x