Charging order hearing this Friday

MortgageChallenge2011

I was in the same boat as you and know what you are going through. Northern Rock was one of my 8 creditors, 7 accepted the debt management plan drawn up by Payplan and guess who didn't.........Mine was for a loan took out with the mortgage, when the house remortgaged I kept the NR loan as still was a decent interest rate. The loan was for £10k. They refused the offers and took to court. I was given an interim charging order. I panicked and didnt want to attend court (which I know now I should have gone and fought). I argued on the defence that a charging order should only be issued if I broke the CCJ, it fell on deaf ears. I wrote to the then Chief Exec of NR and he accepted that £14 a month was all I could pay so instructed NR solicitors to accept. The charging order was granted on basis I paid £14 month back. Did so for 2 years and thought nothing more of it. Then when looking to move house I asked for a settlement fig from NR soliciotrs, to my horror it was about £13k. Rather stupidly i overlooked the court paperwork granting them to charge interest on the outstanding balance so I was paying £14 month yet NR was adding £80 a month to the debt. I argued the case and eventually after a endless letters with NR collections they agreed on £10k to settle.

Now I realise I should have gone to court to argue why should NR have preferential treatment over my other creditors. History of payments on payment plan maintained etc. Been reasonable in contact with NR, kept them informed along the way. I should have argued that i should be issued with a CCj and then if I fail that then give me a charging order.

Go and be firm, stand your ground, raise your voice but dont shout, plead your case to the judge in a positive firm way.

Best of luck.

alias07

Thanks for your reply mortgagechallenge2011. Sorry to hear you went through so much with Northern Rock too - they're pretty lethal aren't they? Really appreciate you letting me know about the interest added after, I hadn't thought of that - I will request that it is stopped while I'm on the CCJ payments that will be decided at the hearing (fingers crossed they agree).

I must say, my initial reaction was to not attend court - felt sick just thinking about it. Totally understand why you didn't go. It's only because of the replies I've had to this thread that I feel fairly confident about attending tomorrow. Mind you, not sure I'll sleep too much tonight!

I will stand firm tomorrow, and fight my corner as best I can, but pretty resigned to the fact that the Charging Order will be granted, but at least technically it's only a restriction.

Thanks again
Ali

Sparklyfairy

Just wanted to add that when i went to court to fight my co, the judge granted interest to be charged although I pleaded with her not to grant it! BUT, the fact that it is a Restriction made me feel fine about things overall. Also, if you have a charging order/restriction etc you can ALWAYS negotiate on a full & final offer with your creditor (make sure it's not a partial settlement) & make sure the ccj & land registry are updated by the creditor when they acceptthe payment if you ever choose to go down that route..Good luck today btw - it'll be fine x

caledonian_princess

alias07, I hope today goes as well as can be expected.

Good luck.

alias07

Well the deed is done and I now have me a charging order - (Restriction!!)

Thank you to all who gave me advice and sent good wishes - it has helped so much. I was pretty nervous, but nothing like the panic I felt last week before starting this thread! It wasn't too bad at all and took all of 20 minutes. Both the DJ and NR'S sol were very polite and actually almost friendly! I did write a huge long post of the whole process to help anyone having to attend one of these hearings, but then went and deleted it by mistake! So will re-write it later or maybe tomorrow.

I still have to phone NR to agree monthly payments for some reason - I thought that would be set at the hearing - but both the DJ and the sol said I would find them more amenable to my offer now they had their CO.

Thanks again, I'm so relieved it's over with and I'm going to have a large glass of wine (or 2) this evening to celebrate!

eggbox

Sparklyfairy

I notice you say your DJ granted interest to be charged when you went to court. Was your debt for a CCA regulated loan?

Only asking as my info is interest cannot be added to CCA regulated loans??

eggbox

alias07

Personally, I would tell NR to get stuffed on any further repayment!

I have done this with the Creditor in my situation, they wrote within two days of the CO being made and I have just ignored them.

They then wrote huffing and puffing saying they would take me back to Court for further "Enforcement Action" but they have still done nothing.

I originally offered my Creditor £20pm until my business recovered to avoid a CO but they didn't want to know (unlike other creditors who accepted as low as £1pm). So my feeling is they put themselves in the position they are.

As many, many others have said on here; once the Creditor has its CO then it doesn't go for a forced sale as it knows it won't get one under the vast majority of cases. So keep your nerve and don't get intimidated any further by these tactics.

alias07

Thanks eggbox, will stick to it that the repayment stays the same.
Cheers

thechippy

eggbox wrote: »

Sparklyfairy

I notice you say your DJ granted interest to be charged when you went to court. Was your debt for a CCA regulated loan?

Only asking as my info is interest cannot be added to CCA regulated loans??

Very good point mate.

People need to remember that any loan covered by the cca 1974 CANNOT have further interest charged once judgement is made (ccj) and a c/o DOES NOT change this.

8% statutory interest only applies on debts NOT covered by the cca and I believe have to be over 5k.

He's probably allowed for the statutory interest......:(
Contractural interest can only be added UNTIL judgement is made and even then, the original contract MUST allow for this.

It MUST be remebered that a lot of judges are out there making judgements WITHOUT actually being familiar with the laws / regulations that apply to that case and often get things wrong.

Blasted disgrace if you ask me.......:mad:

alias07

I might be being a bit stupid here - but as I have to talk to NR to agree a payment, does that mean I don't have a CCJ on the loan? Doesn't seem to make sense to me - I was really surprised that after granting the CO the DJ didn't stipulate how much I should pay monthly to NR.