CCJ claim form help

We_Are_The_Mods

Hi all,

Any help or advice with the following would be great.

I will be considering BR in the not too distant future but I have a CCJ claim form to deal with that I don't want to ignore as I'd like the best outcome possible.

All my other creditors have accepted my letter explaining my current situation and the offer of token repayment, except for Nat West who I owe a considerable sum to (£20k unsecured)

They refused my offer and passed it on to a Recovery Solicitor who has filed for a CCJ, the claim form arrived this morning.

What is the best way to fill it out to give me the most time? I need to keep my house for a month or two yet, is there any chance of them pushing for a sale or anything? can I attach a sheet to the admission form detailing that the house isn't worth much more than the mortgage and that pursuit of a sale would be fruitless?

It says I can ask for 28 days to get together a defence, what happens if I ask for this and don't do anything? can I send the admission form in towards the end of the 28 days stating I couldn't afford a defence solicitor or something?

Sorry for all the questions, never had a CCJ before and I'm still not exactly sure what they mean

Matt.

peachyprice

If you don't want to keep the house you can let the CCJ go through and they will get a charging order on it eventually, it usually takes 3-4 months.

If you would like to keep the house then you have to respond otherwise the debt will become secure against the property, and although as long as it isn't made final before your BR date it won't be valid, it can be a pain to get removed.

I would imagine with a debt of £20k, and you owning the house, it's a charging order they're hoping for.

We_Are_The_Mods

3-4 months would be fine, I'm looking at renting a flat and just handing the house back ( I owe roughly £35k in total and there is approx £5k in the house)

I was worried that once I'd filled in the form and returned it they could kick me out within a month or something, 3-4 would give me plenty of time to arrange a flat.

So I should just fill in the admission form and wait for the result?

We_Are_The_Mods

I've just sent off the admission form to the claimant with an offer of £1 p/m, anybody any idea what happens next?

Tinytim

Have you actually posted the admission form?

We_Are_The_Mods

yes, it went out earlier. why?

Tinytim

If you hadn't sent it, I would have suggested saying that you were going to defend the whole claim. This would have given you another 14 days in which to submit a defence. To do this, you would formal request certain documents from the claimants which almost certainly would not arrive in time. You would then submit an "embarrased" defence stating you could not submit a proper defence as the documents had not been provided. The case would then be transferred to your local court and you would be sent an allocation questionnaire. One of the questions on the AQ asks if you want a stay of one month to allow negotiation. Following the end of the stay, a court date will eventually be agreed which would in all probability be several months later.

We_Are_The_Mods

I see, thanks for that.

So what are my likely options going to be now? ideally I'd like to hold off any hassle until I have moved out and secured a rental flat, then I can go down the BR route.

fatbelly

You'll get some sort of order from the court. It may be a 'forthwith' order i.e pay the whole lot in one go.

As you are looking for delaying tactics you should then apply for a redermination at your local court. You can do this by letter or N244. It will probably take a couple of months to get a hearing date.

Factsheet | Replying to a county court claim form

fermi

Should it come back with a forthwith judgement (pay all now!) or at unreasonably large instalments, as fatbelly says, you can ask for a 'redetermination'.

If you get a letter to the court asking for this within 14 days of the judgement then it normally won't cost you anything.

After the 14 days it needs a form and a fee (£35 I think) to apply for a 'varied' order instead.

There is a template for the redetermination request, so if you should need it just shout.

We_Are_The_Mods

The template would be very handy, consider me shouting for it