Open University has demanded oral!!!

QuantumSuccess

My younger brother ran up a debt of £400 with the Open University. He had one of their budget accounts to pay for his studies. He paid half of it and then fell ill and was unable to keep up payments. He has bladder cancer. He fell behind with his payments and the Open University obtained a CCJ against him for the debt. He is on ESA and undergoing chemo. After he's paid his bills he has between £1 and £3 of disposable income left per week.

Open University demanded that he repay his debt at £50 per month. He simply does not have the money so he told them he could not afford it until he's (hopefully) well again and back at work. They responded by serving him a notice to attend an Oral Examination at the County Court.

What happens at these Oral Examinations? Will they rule that he has to pay money he simply does not have? My Aunty is trying to step in. She claims that the Court will rule that my brother only has to pay a nominal fee due to his lack of income. She has offered to pay £300 directly to Open University as a settlement offer and then let my brother pay her back when he's back at work. So far the Open University lawyers are claiming the matter is out of their hands. They did say that if my family coughs up £650 (they've now added £250 in fees) they will contact the Court to cancel the Oral hearing.

Any advice?

king100

Go the the oral examination, let them get their £1 per week.

Was he informed of the court date?

If not he can sign a stat dec and that gets rid of the the CCJ.

What amount is the CCJ for?

kazwookie

The OU has / had a bursery / hardship fund at one time, maybe make enquiries about this, and see if they will halt the ccj (if you can do such a thing)

QuantumSuccess

The original debt was for £400. Suddenly it has jumped to £650

The solicitor's firm is Geoffrey Leaver. So far they have been nothing but rude.

king100

The creditor may also request you to attend court to give evidence on oath about your income, expenditure and assets. This is called an order to obtain information from judgment debtors (or information order). It was previously known as oral examination.
You are allowed a chance to respond to each of these actions and to ask the court not to impose the enforcement measures.
If you fail to respond to the court papers, further action may be taken against you. In certain cases, failure to respond to court documents may result in you being held in contempt of court, for which you can be imprisoned, although this is rare.
Never ignore the courts, always respond to court papers and seek advice if you are worried

king100

Ok so you had a CCJ for £400 and the court stated that you need to pay £50 per month to pay off the debt.

As far as I am aware the solicitors cannot add £250 charges to the debt unless they have been back to court and added that to the CCJ.

Check this out.

dancingfairy

When the CCJ was awarded your brother probably should have gone back to court and made an application to pay in installments if it was demanded in one go - it's not clear whether this was done or whether it was just the OU asking for installments or what?
Is your brother actually fit to attend questioning? There must be a procedure where a person is not actually fit to attend an OE and arguably yoru brother might not be well enough to attend. Obviously if he can attend then he has to.
They can be used to ask whatever questions the creditor wants I believe - generally concerning how much is in bank accounts, what bank accounts are in existence, what assets the debtor has - ie whether a car can be taken, whether a house can have a charging order put on it etc, whether they can approach a workplace and get money taken off at source from payroll - that's generally the purpose - to try and establish if someone is telling the truth and to try to determine the best way for the creditor to get their money back.
I would phone someone like National Debtline for advice. I would also possibly phone the court and see what can be done if someone is unwell - obviously suffering from cancer and having chemo/radiotherapy can make someone pretty unwell but you would need to find out what the correct procedure in such situations is.
It might also be worth informing the creditor that such action at the moment is inappropraite due to the state of your brothers health as credtiors have a duty to behave in an appropriate manner and if advised (with proof) that the debtor in question is unwell then taking court action may not be appropriate and they may cancel the action.
df

QuantumSuccess

dancingfairy wrote: »

When the CCJ was awarded your brother probably should have gone back to court and made an application to pay in installments if it was demanded in one go - it's not clear whether this was done or whether it was just the OU asking for installments or what?

The Judgement said that he had to pay £50 a month in installments. OU's solicitors now say that is their standard thing and it's not means-tested.

dancingfairy wrote: »

Is your brother actually fit to attend questioning?

No he's not. The stress alone is making him even worse and he's not got the strength to even leave the flat at the moment, let alone attend court several miles away.
There must be a procedure where a person is not actually fit to attend an OE and arguably yoru brother might not be well enough to attend.

dancingfairy wrote: »

I would also possibly phone the court and see what can be done if someone is unwell - obviously suffering from cancer and having chemo/radiotherapy can make someone pretty unwell but you would need to find out what the correct procedure in such situations is.
It might also be worth informing the creditor that such action at the moment is inappropraite due to the state of your brothers health as credtiors have a duty to behave in an appropriate manner and if advised (with proof) that the debtor in question is unwell then taking court action may not be appropriate and they may cancel the action.
df

Response from Geoffrey Leaver re my brother's cancer "that's not my problem." Followed by, "the case is out of our hands now. Goodbye."