Please help, after 10yrs am at wits end

silverseeker

Hi, I posted this on the consumer forums but have had no reply so thought I'd ask here aswell... so in a nutshell, I am helping my husband deal with the csa and have been for the past 10 yrs. We desperately need someone who knows about such things to advise on what to do as now they are seeking a final charging order on our home.

Background info: His case is clerical and started in 1997. In 1999 both he and his partner (the pwc) wrote in to ask for the case to be closed as they were back together. The csa ignored this and kept it open until 2001 charging my husband weekly maintenance and thus building arrears. According to the child support act 1991 as they were living together at the time, there would be no qualifying child and therefore no liability on my husband.

A new case was opened in 2006 under csa2. There are arrears but these have been generated due to maladministration. He has paid regularly until he had to go abroad to work for several years. He informed them and was told a nil assessment applied. Just over a year ago after several years of quiet from the csa they sent a demand for £20000 arrear payment. He instructed a legal csa specialist to act on his behalf as he was still living away. They proved to be not as able as they claimed. Last year he returned for good after being made redundent.

The csa pursued the amount of £30000 arrears even though it was already in dispute and they had contact with myself and the 'specialist'. This has progressed to the granting of a liability order and an interim charging order on our home.

Now in a month he has to go to a final court order hearing. But the amount is still incorrect and I know that the judge will not be able to question it on the day. I have been in touch with the enforcement at csa and they told me to write it all down to them which I am doing any way as he is contesting the action.

My questions are:
1. Where do I send the copy of the letter served to the csa(claimant) for the Judge to read before the court date.
2. Does he need any forms such as an n245 to put our case across.
3. As he is liable for some debt and even though there is no equity in the house. How doe he apply for conditions to be attached to the order i.e

a) No further legal action until our children have moved out of the home.
b) Implentation of an instalment order for over 4/5 years.

Thank you for reading this. And just for the record, in case it makes a difference, he is paying and has been paying for many months his weekly maintenance and an arrear payment. So he is doing all he can but they just wont stop.

CSAworkerx

When he was working away, was the company from the uk? if it was then we have jurisdiction to carry on the case, if the company was foreign then the assessment is nil.

secondly, get rid of the "specialist" they cant do anything you cannot do yourself, and they rarely know about current legislation, basically they are a rip off.

thirdly, ask for an account breakdown, see where all the arrears have came from.

if the pwc/nrp both wrote in to close the case in the 90's then the case should have been closed, are you 100% sure the pwc sent in a letter? she has the authority to close the case, not ure husband.

silverseeker

Yes the company was foreign and he was paid in that currency. He was also living there so I think I'm right in saying he was domiciled there.
He has received breakdowns for both csa1 and csa 2. It's a nightmare because the case is clerical. They also sent a record in which they acknowledge the letter sent in but five months later decided not to close the case as they had separated again. This is incorrect and my husband has it in the pwc's own words that they were living together. This is in the form of her statement used in court to sort out contact.
He has been in contact with them constantly and paid a lump sum of just under £2000 to show willing and get further action to stop after the liability order was granted but to no avail.
The arrears have gone down from £30'000 to £29'000 to now £21'000.
All he has been wanting is the correct arrear amount and then to come to an agreement on how to pay it so that it appeases everyone. But they seem determind to take him to court?

silverseeker

I am also confused about how to request an appeal or if by writing in my husband is doing just that?

CSAworkerx

Ill be brutally honest, if your case is clerical your going to know more about it than i am, considering clerical cases are not registered on Cs2 i wouldn't know how to advise you.

however, if you have evidence showing the arrears are wrong, present it in court, and also phone us and tell us what evidence you have and that you want the arrears looked at.

Crellow4

Have you lodged a formal complaint - preferably through your MP? The legal position if your husband and his ex-partner reconciled, is that the case should be closed from the date the change occurred - one of the rare situations when it's not from the date the change was reported. When he was living and working abroad was he still habitually resident in the UK? This is another area where the change is effective from the date the change happened. The problem you have with lodging an appeal is that you may not have an 'in date' decision to appeal. It is possible to lodge a late appeal against a decision which is over 13 months old, but you will need to demonstrate that you've been challenging the decision without success.

HoneyNutLoop

silverseeker wrote: »

Hi, I posted this on the consumer forums but have had no reply so thought I'd ask here aswell... so in a nutshell, I am helping my husband deal with the csa and have been for the past 10 yrs. We desperately need someone who knows about such things to advise on what to do as now they are seeking a final charging order on our home.

Background info: His case is clerical and started in 1997. In 1999 both he and his partner (the pwc) wrote in to ask for the case to be closed as they were back together. The csa ignored this and kept it open until 2001 charging my husband weekly maintenance and thus building arrears. According to the child support act 1991 as they were living together at the time, there would be no qualifying child and therefore no liability on my husband.

Do you know why they ignored the letter? By any chance, was the PWC claiming means tested benefits as a single parent at the time? Back then, single parents claiming benefits had to apply and comply with an application to the CSA or their benefits would be cut. I assume from the way you have phrased things that the case was subsequently closed in 2001. Do you know what prompted them to close it then?

A new case was opened in 2006 under csa2. There are arrears but these have been generated due to maladministration. He has paid regularly until he had to go abroad to work for several years. He informed them and was told a nil assessment applied. Just over a year ago after several years of quiet from the csa they sent a demand for £20000 arrear payment. He instructed a legal csa specialist to act on his behalf as he was still living away. They proved to be not as able as they claimed. Last year he returned for good after being made redundent.

Have the CSA said why the case was nil assessed rather than closed while he was abroad? They have to decide if he remained "habitually resident" in the UK during this period, which is not as straightforward as it sounds. Tax law and child support law have historically not sat well together in this area, so someone may not be liable for tax in the UK but still be considered habitually resident here for child support purposes (although nil assessed in that situation). Additionally, a person can be considered habitually resident in more than one country concurrently, which further complicates things. I can post links to Upper Tribunal decisions on this topic if you would find that helpful in understanding the CSA's decision in this area? Did they actually put a nil assessment in place when he was away, or are some of the arrears from this period?

The csa pursued the amount of £30000 arrears even though it was already in dispute and they had contact with myself and the 'specialist'. This has progressed to the granting of a liability order and an interim charging order on our home.

Now in a month he has to go to a final court order hearing. But the amount is still incorrect and I know that the judge will not be able to question it on the day. I have been in touch with the enforcement at csa and they told me to write it all down to them which I am doing any way as he is contesting the action.

My questions are:
1. Where do I send the copy of the letter served to the csa(claimant) for the Judge to read before the court date. To the court at which the hearing will take place.
2. Does he need any forms such as an n245 to put our case across.
3. As he is liable for some debt and even though there is no equity in the house. How doe he apply for conditions to be attached to the order i.e

a) No further legal action until our children have moved out of the home.
b) Implentation of an instalment order for over 4/5 years.

I don't know the answer to your other two questions and I'm struggling to locate any in depth guidance. If I do find any, I'll post a link. In the meantime, it may be worth asking a clerk at your local court about the forms you need to use, or if they have any leaflets/guidance about the procedure that should be followed.

Thank you for reading this. And just for the record, in case it makes a difference, he is paying and has been paying for many months his weekly maintenance and an arrear payment. So he is doing all he can but they just wont stop.

In addition to the indigo text above:

I know you said you've been speaking to a specialist. To echo csaworker's advice - be careful with this. There are precious few experienced legal experts in this area. Where this sort of thing is concerned, inaccurate advice may do more harm than no advice at all. I would do as much due diligence as you could to corroborate any course of action recommended by your specialist, especially as they have let you down before. I'm not normally one to get on the MP bandwagon, but I think in your case, with so much at stake, you should pursue any and all available avenues.