I have court paper N39 just served on me..help

divadeb_3

I have a debt of 41,000.00 after my house was repossessed in 1995. I have made some payments but I stopped when my hubby was made redundant in 2007. I asked for a reduced rate and they sent me an income expenditure form and I filled it in and sent it back. I rang them after a few weeks and they said they never got it. I filled another 1 in and sent it back, rang them a week later and they said they never had it but would check other departments and get back to me. That was well over a year ago and I heard nothing until last night when a chap came to my house and served me with court papers. I am beside myself with worry and feel sick and have not slept. My hubby is on a 3 month trial at his new work place and does not want to ask for time off to go to court. Can I ring the people I owe the money to and make an offer to pay every month or is it to late ?? I cant bare the thought of going to court, the date is set for 1st April of all days. All help would be great, thanks Debbie:eek:

wannabe_sybil

divadeb wrote: »

I have a debt of 41,000.00 after my house was repossessed in 1995. I have made some payments but I stopped when my hubby was made redundant in 2007. I asked for a reduced rate and they sent me an income expenditure form and I filled it in and sent it back. I rang them after a few weeks and they said they never got it. I filled another 1 in and sent it back, rang them a week later and they said they never had it but would check other departments and get back to me. That was well over a year ago and I heard nothing until last night when a chap came to my house and served me with court papers. I am beside myself with worry and feel sick and have not slept. My hubby is on a 3 month trial at his new work place and does not want to ask for time off to go to court. Can I ring the people I owe the money to and make an offer to pay every month or is it to late ?? I cant bare the thought of going to court, the date is set for 1st April of all days. All help would be great, thanks Debbie:eek:

Don't panic at the rest of what I am going to write.

You cannot ignore the N39, because the next stage in the process is to apply for a warrant of committal. Don't panic. The N39 is a process where you give a statement of income and expenditure to an officer of the court. You could try ringing the court and asking the date to be moved, or asking the creditor to ask for the date to be moved, or whether they would accept you filling in the form at home.

IMPORTANT Whose name is on the papers? If it is you, then it is you that have to attend. If it is your husband then it is your husband who has to attend.

Going to court for N39 is not like court trials on tv. You are likely to be in a stuffy cubby hole with a clerk, not a judge, going through a list of questions. Some clerks are decent people, many years ago I used to be one. They are usually too busy to be horrible to you.

It is if you 'refuse' to have the form completed then you are considered to be in contempt of court and that is not good. So you must try and sort this out.

Also, this is a bump so that I hope someone more knowledgeable will be along soon.

divadeb_3

Thanks for the reply, me and hubby was served with papers for court as the mortgage was in joint names. I was going to ring the court and ask if hubby was ok not to come, and explain new job etc. I have been told just to go to court and say hubby was a dentist or something. Will they need loads of bank statements as there are a couple of small payment(less than £180 for both) that I get as I clean and iron for a couple of my friends and I dont want them to know about them. I was going to say I dont work. We also get family credit, will they want to know about this? thanks for reply, I feel abit better now.:D