Hello again. Slighty worried and in need advice......again

debtman2007

Hoping one (or more) of you kind souls can offer me some advice.

Got home from work today and had a letter from Restons solicitors. Basically they are acting on behalf of HFC who i have been paying through my DMP with CCCS since Nov 07.

They state that £26 a month will take 7 years to pay off and is unacceptable to their client. I must contact them with a better offer or opt for a voluntary charge on my home or legal proceedings could begin without further notice. Now my grandad always told me never to volunteer for anything, something he picked up from his army days during the war i think
Anyway, what sort of reply should i send. My CCCS review was in March and my payments increased only slighty. i can not afford more than £26 as they are one of 10 other creditors.

I have already CCA'd HFC some time ago and the paperwork was sent to me promptly.

This is for an unsecured loan. I will phone CCCS tomorrow to discuss. i have never receive any letters from a solicitor before (only in house ones) so this is quite worrying.

Any ideas what my next move should be?

Thanks

elfen

Ignore the letters and phone CCCS. Tell the DCA cos you're in a DMP the letters now go to CCCS not you (sure I've been told this is the case)

MrsTinks

Call CCCS in the morning - in order for them to get a charge on your house they need to take you to court and get a CCJ which you would need to default on I think before they will consider putting on a charge on your property...
Often the "legal" letters are simply another subsection of a company and they are designed to try and scare you... please don't let them bully you

debtman2007

Thanks for teh replies. gets a little worrying sometimes

Nargleblast

A recent TV programme about debt collectors showed someone from a debt collection agency phoning people in debt. Later on the same person was sitting at a different desk in the same office, still making calls to debtors, but this time claiming to be from a firm of solicitors acting for the DCA! Do as others have said - pass all this carp on to CCCS.

debtman2007

Phoned CCCS yesterday and they took teh details and will send the relevant paperwork on to Restons. She seem keen to get me to sign up to teh voluntary charge. Im not so keen though.

have to wait and see what happens

Useless_with_wonga

Hi,
This is bull isn't it? You are paying. What do these people want?Anyway rant over.
The exact same thing happened to me. I was in a DMP all going well for 9 months then out of the blue the exact same thing.
I know that DMP don't prevent the creditor from taking legal action but you have to ask why when there is clearly no need.
I base this argument on the fact even when they take you to court for the CCJ they are still only going to get the same monthly payment as they are now through your DMP because it has been worked out that this is the sum that you can afford to pay them:rolleyes:
However what they want to do is secure the debt so they can balance their books and fudge their figures
I agree do NOT agree to a voluntary charge. If they want a Charging Order let them follow the correct procedure and take it to the county court.
They only want the voluntary charge in order to save them the hasle and expense of taking you to court. In my opinion it would be a bad decision to allow them anything on a voluntary basis. Why on earth would you voluntarily allow them to secure the debt. They can't have it always they loaned you it on an unsecured basis with no mention of the fact they could later seek to secure it should you default. There are lots of arguments you can use to defend a Charging Order.
The cold truth is that despite your DMP they will nearly always get a CCJ as you have defaulted on the contract that you had with them.
This is the first step toward them aplying for a Charging Order. I suspect that despite your installments via the DMP they will apply to the court for a fortwith payment(Basically pay it all by X date)
Obviously you can't therefore you default on that instruction through no fault of your own hey presto they then go back to the court and they are granted the Charging Order by virtue of that fact.
It's not right and in my opinion it's unethical and amoral. Still you may apply to the court to allow you to pay in installments and can hope that the court agrees to that. If that transpires you would think that you would be safe from a Charging Order application however unfortunatly that is not the case.
If it gets that far my advise would be to oppose and defend the application. Attend at the hearing and put your case forward to the Judge despite popular belief the creditor does not always win;)
Definatley do NOT allow them a Voluntary Charge, Defend, Defend, Defend. You are paying what you can afford thats it end of story. Look up Charging Orders here and on the net the defences are all set out choose the ones that apply to you and use them.
Mercantile Credit Vs Ellis is a stated case that might be of particular interest to you.
DO NOT AGREE TO A VOLUNTARY CHARGE...........Call their bluff you have nothing to loose.
If they go for it let em the worse that can happen is they get a Charging Order.....So what provided you keep up with the payments as ordered which will be £27 or whatever it was you said you were paying nothing else will happen ( unless you want to sell or remortgage anytime soon) but don't just give them it.
Besides if you defend and win you come out in a better position in any case if you loose it really isn't that much worse so why give in to bully boy tactics.
In reality the fact that you have numerous other creditors works in your favour in terms of defending an action from this creditor.

Deep_In_Debt

I agree with the above postee - it's wrong that they should be allowed to turn unsecured debt into secured debt so easily.

If they do get a CCJ, would have to default on that before they can go for a CO.

Also, by doing this, they are treating your other creditors unfairly. You are paying all you can afford and they can see that and so will the courts.

debtman2007

Ok so hopefully going through teh courts it will be agreed i maintain my £26 monthly payment and they can only go for a CO if i default on this.

thanks for teh help

Useless_with_wonga

In theory yes, however be mindful of them asking for a forthwith judgement (basically pay it all now) you need to fight to get the CCJ on installments in order to protect your position and stand a chance of thwarting a CO application.

debtman2007

Ok, so had this from the Solicitors today:

'On consideration of the balance due to your offer of repayment is insufficient to halt the commencement of legal proceedings'

That doesn't sound good to me. What can i expect to happen as the next step now?
Worried again