Helping a friend in need with Court

mdj1

Hi All

Friend of mine has just told me she's got a court date this Friday. It's for an outstanding debt circa £20k with Nationwide, they've been chasing her for years and just wont take any advice from anyone.

What really pee's me off is that my friend now has MS, she can no longer work, even though she would love to and they just keep on harrassing her. Anyone who knows anyone with MS will know that it plays havoc with your memory and day to day functioning.

Nationwide have no soul!

To be honest I can't wait to go to court with her on Friday and tell them what low life scum they are.

I know for one they will never ever see a penny from me deposited in any of their accounts!

chalkie99

It will be a County Court I assume .

The judge will just want the facts of the case from both parties and, frankly, ranting at the court is not going to help anyone, least of all your friend.

I would just advise staying cool and be prepared for the judge not to allow you to speak at all.

There must be a reason your friend has borrowed this money and the lenders have obviously tried to obtain repayment before starting this action. Always two sides to a story.

ryanm198

chalkie99 wrote: »

There must be a reason your friend has borrowed this money and the lenders have obviously tried to obtain repayment before starting this action. Always two sides to a story.

+1 Agreed.

Its a horrible situation, but if you borrow money you should be prepared or take preparations to pay it back. If they have been chasing her for years could she not have set up some level of reduced payment?

Maybe she could offer to set up a small payment to nationwide every month, this gesture could go a long way and show that shes not just cutting them off completely.

Hope it all works out for her.

chesky369

If your friend is on benefits, no court will agree to Nationwide being paid from them. What they will expect is to come to an arrangement for a regular payment of say £1 per month for as long as it takes (obviously forever in her case). I'm surprised your friend hasn't gone to citizens advice with this way before now, it's normal everyday stuff to them.

Emmzi

it'll be their solicitor and he won't care what you think, and the judge won't care for hystrionics.

now. does she have any assets? house? shares?

iolanthe07

tell them what low life scum they are.


Why are they low life scum? They just want their money back, which is not unreasonable - £20K is a lot, after all. Presumably your friend didn't have MS when she took out the loan - hasn't she paid anything back at all? Ranting at Nationwide in court will do your friend no favours, believe me.

PNPSUKNET

mdj1 wrote: »

Hi All

Friend of mine has just told me she's got a court date this Friday. It's for an outstanding debt circa £20k with Nationwide, they've been chasing her for years and just wont take any advice from anyone.

What really pee's me off is that my friend now has MS, she can no longer work, even though she would love to and they just keep on harrassing her. Anyone who knows anyone with MS will know that it plays havoc with your memory and day to day functioning.

Nationwide have no soul!

To be honest I can't wait to go to court with her on Friday and tell them what low life scum they are.

I know for one they will never ever see a penny from me deposited in any of their accounts!

Why should they not get their money, if they owed you would you want it back?

redpete

mdj1 wrote: »

Nationwide have no soul!

They're not meant to act as an alternative Sickness Benefit provider.

There is protection against people being harassed unreasonably by creditors, if this can be proven then the judge might be sympathetic; if you are able to then get facts (frequency of contact, times and dates, copies of letters from your friend to the Nationwide explaining the situation and asking calls to stop...) rather than rant. If this really has gone on for years though the MS probably can't be taken as a full excuse for not paying off the debt.

KingElvis

Ranting in court like a loony will just see you in contempt and in trouble.

If you are allowed to speak (unlikely) then remain calm, concise and on subject.

dancingfairy

Hi - it would help if you could explain whether she has been making any payments at all to them. Has she send a letter and possibly proof recorded delivery to them asking to have the debt written off or to reach a settlement?
Has she sought any advice from her local CAB or National Debtline or other as to whether bankruptcy would be an option?
You really need to advise her to do these things if not.
df

mdj1

Thanks for the advice guys. Don't worry I won't be ranting in court, my mum was a clerk at the same court for 9 years, although retired now and she would kill me if I did!

May be some more details would have helped.

I will be her McKenzie Friend, I will be able to speak on her behalf if she starts to get confused or upset as she has a mental illness. All I will be doing is putting her side of the story to the judge.

She took the loan out many years ago (it was £20k now £15) and did make regular payments in the begining, but then she fell ill and gradually got worse and worse meaning she could work less and less, not that she didn't want to work, infact she still would if she could.

Being able bodied and then being dealt a crippling mental illness is awfull; She refused to claim any sort of benefits for nearly two years as she didn't want to be a sponger. It's only in the last six months or so that shes really got to grips with her illness and admitted what she can and cant do. Even when we made her claim benefits she lied to the hearing panel making out she was better than she actually was as she felt there where people who needed it more than her. It's people like her that deserve benefits, work most their lives, pay their taxes and NI then find themselves not able to cope through no fault of their own.

She has been to the CAB many times, Nationwide have tried to take her to court several times and it's never come to hearing for one reason or another. She's made several offers to them of reduced payments all of which have been declined when every other lender has accepted.

Now, in all fairness I sat down with her the other day and we went through her SOA and now she's getting the benefits she's entitled too she could afford to pay a few pounds a month, although not a lot. She does have a house, although with mortgage and Nationwide could put a charge on that, although from reading all the previous paperwork it looks like they tried before and it got struck out by the court.

We will be in court tomorrow with a letter from her neurologist telling them how bad she really is, to be honest it's not the sought of letter you would like to read about yourself, it doesn't have a happy ending! It just annoys me that a company like this can take someone to court after seeing all the facts already, what do they really think they are going to gain?