Small claims court help

simster69

can someone help please me and my spouse split up after 5-6 years together when we met she had credit cards i think it was 2 but not sure i am sure she liked using them but me personally i don't use them it can all get a bit much very fast. anyway over the years my ex kept saying she would cut them up but never did and as far as i know nothing was purchased for either myself or for the home using the cards but in July we split up and i moved into my own property i said i would help as much as i could with the finances although that would be subject to my personal finances being met first and if i could afford to, but about 3 days ago got a court letter from the small claims court for £1500 for her credit card bills? can she do this? the problem i have with this is that approx 2 years ago i landed a job with a company van and this left my car being parked up so i put her on the insurance and she drove it around to work and friends etc. then she pointed out that it was getting old and we could do with upgrading to a new car at first i agreed as i thought she wanted to buy her own car ( which she did ) what she didn't tell me was she wanted to part-ex my car for the deposit anyhow i felt she was being a little underhand and after a few days we talked and she said she would pay me back for the car if she could use it as a deposit which i agreed but since the split we talked about the finances which i brought up my car and the fact she never paid me one penny back her answer was that the car was a family car but like i pointed out i borrowed her the money raised from the car and the fact the new car was only registered to her my point is would i be able to counter claim with this?

arcon5

What does the particulars of the claim state? Lets establish exactly how she has calculated you owe her £1500, as it may be easier to defend it than counterclaim it.

simster69

Hi thanks for the reply the money claimed i think is half of credit card bill.....that's only a guess of course i'm not 100% sure where that figure has come from? but also after looking at the claims court website it also states the prices and £1500 would cost £70 court fees so maybe its a sum based on the financial situation??

simster69

status update i have now applied for an aos (acknowledgment of service) which allows me 28 days to prepare my defense problem is i don't know how to defend this as i cannot acquire any evidence what do i do????? HELP

hcb42

simster69 wrote: »

can someone help please me and my spouse split up after 5-6 years together.

When we met she had credit cards I think it was 2 but not sure. I am sure she liked using them but me personally i don't use them. Anyway over the years my ex kept saying she would cut them up but never did and as far as i know nothing was purchased for either myself or for the home using the cards.

In July we split up and I moved into my own property. I said I would help as much as i could with the finances although that would be subject to my personal finances being met first and if i could afford to.

About 3 days ago got a court letter from the small claims court for £1500 for her credit card bills? can she do this?

The problem I have with this is that approx 2 years ago I landed a job with a company van and this left my car being parked up so I put her on the insurance and she drove it around to work and friends etc.

She pointed out that it was getting old and we could do with upgrading to a new car. At first I agreed as I thought she wanted to buy her own car ( which she did ). What she didn't tell me was she wanted to part-ex my car for the deposit. I felt she was being a little underhand and after a few days we talked and she said she would pay me back for the car if she could use it as a deposit which I agreed to.

Since the split we talked about the finances and I brought up my car and the fact she never paid me one penny back. Her answer was that the car was a family car but like I pointed out I loaned her the money raised from the car and the fact the new car was only registered to her my point is would I be able to counter claim with this?

I have had to break that up to try to understand it....

Couple of things spring to mind:

• If the car is in her name, and the debt is in her name only, c'est la vie.
• What exactly did you agree regarding the credit card repayment, and the car deposit?
• How much was your old car worth as part ex....?
• What exactly is the court case for, how is this £1500 made up?
• Utlimately if you agreed she would repay you, this is a valid defence
• Can you not agree this out of court, why is she bringing this case now??
  

bris

Your not liable for her credit card bills, you dont need much of a defence, just ask her to explain in front of the judge why you should be.

You can still counter claim for the car just to mix it up a bit. The judge may just dismiss both as lack of evedince may go against both of you so an easy decision would be to maintain the status quo.

Hintza

I agree with bris but you might as well as for a copy of the CC bills. I wonder if she could provide them?

arcon5

Although you're not liable for her CC bill, if the balance was used to pay for joint assets then that doesn't mean you are not liable for a proportion to her.

But that doesn't seem to be the case here.

When a claim is submitted the claimant enters a statement which basically details the case - what has she put? For example, she might have put 'owes for half of my CC bill', may have put 'purchased joint car and never paid half'. You really need to know what the case is based on to defend it properly.

simster69

thanks for your reply yes the new car was ultimately put into her name this was done on the understanding that the part ex of my vehicle £1600 was a loan from me. I stupidly do not have any proof only word of mouth hence why i haven't taken any further action and i am only considering it now because of this impending case (counter claim) maybe?

The credit cards were and still are in her name we had one discussion about 4 years ago about going joint on everything...by this i mean credit cards,mortgage bank accounts etc i didn't mind the bank accounts but i didn't want anything to do with her mortgage and definitely not her credit cards (i don't like them). None of the above happened i think she wanted me to take responsibility for the cards (put my name jointly on them) and threw the mortgage in the conversation to make me commit but i'm not very materialistic, as this was a mortgage she had got about 5 years before we met obviously while we were living together i paid my way my account was available for anything to do with the household etc but it was simply "there's the cash love" i am 100% sure that nothing of any expense in the property was bought with the cards she just kept spending on clothes (hers+her son and our daughter) but she would use it for things like food in Asda etc just because it was there.

The particulars of claim state that she wants £1500 for accumulative debts of £4000 and a tv she bought for my house £500 i assumed it stated credit card but looking again it doesn't but this is the only debt i know of, it also states that i had agreed to help her when we split but have not paid anything only maintenance for our child. Like i pointed out in the first post i did say i would help her but not at the expense of my own living arrangements (still recovering from Xmas) this was offered as we were being very amicable and of course didn't want to see her get into serious financial difficulty this was not an offer out of guilt but out of compassion.

This amicability came to a close when she text me out of the blue demanding more maintenance which in return i contacted the cms (formally csa) to calculate how much she should be paid they did this and informed her that she would be getting £43 a month less than we had agreed at the beginning of the separation. I contacted her to tell her the demands must stop but i would keep paying the original amount then she decided to stop my access there and then at which point she contacted cms and told them i would not be having contact again and therefore my daughter wouldn't be staying over and instructed them to re-calculate...this backfired by the way whoever she spoke to insisted they were not prepared to do that as it seemed she had done this for financial gain and to contact them again in twelve months (ha ha made me chuckle that) but thanks to all who are helping with this please keep the advice coming its invaluable

simster69

bris wrote: »

Your not liable for her credit card bills, you dont need much of a defence, just ask her to explain in front of the judge why you should be.

You can still counter claim for the car just to mix it up a bit. The judge may just dismiss both as lack of evedince may go against both of you so an easy decision would be to maintain the status quo.

This was my thinking too I've got over the car incident but if i can use it to maintain the status quo then yes why not

simster69

arcon5 wrote: »

Although you're not liable for her CC bill, if the balance was used to pay for joint assets then that doesn't mean you are not liable for a proportion to her.

But that doesn't seem to be the case here.

When a claim is submitted the claimant enters a statement which basically details the case - what has she put? For example, she might have put 'owes for half of my CC bill', may have put 'purchased joint car and never paid half'. You really need to know what the case is based on to defend it properly.

Hi arcon5 thanks for the reply i really am sure there is nothing paid jointly sometimes i would come home from work and be ushered to curry's for instance to collect a tv for the bedroom she had been and bought on a whim (on credit in her name) which a number of months down the line she would pay the balance on the cc. i wasn't happy about it and told her so but like she said at the time its her card or her credit.