Student Loans - County Court

noddyboffin

I started a 3 year degree course in September 1997 in Manchester and although I never took a student loan out for the first year I did take loans out for the 2nd (98-99) and 3rd (99-00) year.

After graduating from University in 2000 I worked in a lot of low paid jobs that have never met the level at which I needed to repay the debt. As I moved house after university and never informed the student loans company they reverted to my home (Mother’s) address and started sending letters there. After about a year they stopped sending letters until recently when I received a letter at my new address in Yorkshire. It seems they have tracked me down and in there letter they said I needed to repay the whole amount £3,600 or they would send it to the county court. I never responded to the letter and have now received a letter from Pontefract County Court with a “Notice of Application for Attachment of Earnings Order. I am now above the earnings level that I need to repay the amount but as I have a family and commitments this could screw up my finances completely

As my course started before 1998 can I claim it as statute barred ?

How should I proceed when contacting the court ?

What is the minimum that I could say I want to repay them, could I get away with £50 ?

Any help appreciated

Thanks

Robert_Sterling_3

You appear to have not complied with the conditions of the loan.
Now that you owe £3,600 you are asking if £50 would do.
My guess is that they would require more than that.
A county court judgement will not help your situation.

iolanthe07

Why didn't you respond to their letter or tell them of your changes of address? I really hope you cannot get out of paying this back. Why should you?

fermi

noddyboffin wrote: »

As my course started before 1998 can I claim it as statute barred ?

Possibly. Assuming, as seems likely, that these are the old mortgage style loans.

It also depends upon whether there was a period of six years where the debt was not acknowledged by you in writing or by making a payment before the date the CCJ was granted.

Link: Factsheet | Liability for Debts and the Limitation Act (England/Wales)

Student loans

Student loan agreements are simple contracts and this gives the Student Loans Company (SLC) six years from the date you last paid or acknowledged the debt to go to court to enforce the agreement. There are two sorts of student loans and different rules apply depending upon when you took out the loan.

Old style student loans

Old style or 'mortgage' student loans are consumer credit agreements. Payments cannot automatically be deducted from your wages. The SLC has to go to court before they can enforce the debt against you. This means that the Limitation Act can apply if you have not paid or acknowledged the debt for over six years.

WARNING Asking for the loan to be deferred could count as acknowledging the debt and start time running again.

New style student loans

From September 1998 new style or 'income contingent' student loans include rules to say that repayments will be automatically deducted directly from your wages or through your tax return if you are self-employed. This means that the SLC are still allowed to take money from your wages for a loan over six years old as they do not have to go to court to do so.

Even if you conclude that the loans should have been "statute barred" when the CCJ was made, the fact that it has been made complicates the issue.

You would need to get enforcement proceedings stopped and attempt to get the CCJ "set aside" on the basis that at the date of the CCJ it was statute barred and so an order should not have been made.

This is not guarenteed.

A judgement can be set aside, but there must be "reasonable" grounds for this.

How to set aside a judgment in the county court

When will the court agree to set aside a judgment?

The county court rules set out when you can apply to set aside a judgment. For example:

• an order was made against you in your absence, in certain circumstances;
• there may be an error in the judgment;
• you want to put in a defence and did not have the opportunity to do this;
• the proceedings did not follow the court rules.

When must the court set aside the judgment?

The court must set aside the default judgment if you:

• have paid the whole amount owed (including any interest and costs) before the date the creditor entered judgment;
• sent back the acknowledgment of service form within the time limit;
• put in a defence within the time limit; or
• sent in the reply form within the time limit asking for more time to pay.

The court must set aside the judgment in these circumstances, even if you do not have a defence.
There is no time limit for making an application on these grounds.

When is it up to the court to decide?

The court may agree to set aside the default judgment even if you did not send in a reply form within the time limit if:

• the court thinks you have a real chance of a successful defence to the claim ; or
• the court thinks there is some other good reason why the judgment should be set aside.

There is no time limit for making an application on these grounds but the court will look at whether you made the application 'promptly'.

Talk to the court and a free advice agency such as National Debtline ASAP.

National Debtline Tel free: 0808 808 4000

They will talk it through with you and help you work out if any of the above applies to your situation.

Krasnoludek

Wow - I thought people came on here for help, you should be banned for your nasty comments.

Shame on you - Iolanthe - hope you arent allowed on these boards again

K

iolanthe07

Are we supposed to give virtual cuddles to people who have shamelessly walked away and cynically avoided their debts? What about responsibility and facing your obligations? Other students have to pay back their loans, why not the OP? My comments were not nasty - they were realistic and honest. As far as I know the debtsfreewannabe board is the only touchy feely one where you can't criticise.