Marstons. HELP!!!!!!!

Emzie86

Today my hubby received a letter from marstons saying as there's been no payment arrangement been made that they are going to report it to the local authorities recommending that they make an application to the magistrates court for a hearing to consider committal to prison and that we have 7 days from the date of the letter to contact them. The letter only arrived today and is dated the 13th march.
My husband phoned them when we received a letter from the a few wks back and they said to fill out an income and expenditure form in. Now we thought this was going to come through the post like last time, well a couple of wks later (last wk) a bailiff came. I explained to him that I had lost my job and that we only had the one wage coming in and was really struggling and that we was waiting for this form to fill in. He said he shouldn't even be here then as we are waiting for the form. He said he was going to pass it back to the office explaining. Then next thing we get this letter today. My husband phoned them up and said we was waiting for this form and they said they don't send them through the post (that's bull as we've had one before) and that we need to download it from there site. Ive been on and had a look for it but cant find it on there.
I don't no what to do!!!!! any advice??? This is really stressing me out

matttye

Write to them by special delivery requesting a copy of the income and expenditure form, and say that you can't find it on their website. Send a copy of the letter to the Council for their information only.

Can you afford to pay them anything? If you have any unsecured debts like credit cards, loans, etc., these payments must take a backseat compared to a priority debt such as Council Tax.

Committals to prison are usually for those who can pay their debts, but choose not to, rather than those who are trying to make arrangements. When a committal to prison is on the cards, you will be able to get legal aid and instruct a defence solicitor, so I'd strongly advise you do that if you get a summons.

Emzie86

Right now we are even struggling to pay the rent with everything else going out. How do we handle the credit card companies to basically say sorry we aint paying you till we've got last years council tax out the way? I should start my new job in a couple of months but till then things are extremely tight

matttye

Emzie86 wrote: »

Right now we are even struggling to pay the rent with everything else going out. How do we handle the credit card companies to basically say sorry we aint paying you till we've got last years council tax out the way? I should start my new job in a couple of months but till then things are extremely tight

Contact a debt advice charity such as Stepchange, National Debtline or Christians against Poverty. They should help with contacting creditors on your behalf (not sure if National Debtline does that or if they just advise).

They will have to accept £1 token payments until you sort out your Council Tax arrears. If they try to play hard ball, tell them to take you to court and see how they fare with the judge. A judge will not order you to pay more than you can afford.

Emzie86

Thank you, ill get on to this asap

matttye

Remember that if you get a summons, instruct a criminal defence solicitor ASAP. If they are asking for committal to prison, you will definitely be able to get legal aid. To speed up the process, if it does come to instructing a solicitor, your husband should take wage slips and details of any benefit(s) and also details of the household expenses with him to the appointment. This will help them to fill out a legal aid application on your behalf.

The forms that need to be filled in to apply for legal aid are: -

CRM14
CRM15 - Only if your combined pre-tax annual income from all sources is more than £12, 475.

This will give you some idea of the information the solicitors will require. You could even fill in all of the personal details and take the forms in with you. I'd suggest leaving any of the 'legally' bits to the solicitor.

Hopefully it won't come to that - just trying to let you know what you need to do if you do get a summons.

Finally, I work for a criminal defence solicitors and I've never seen a committal to prison application succeed. So don't panic too much. They're not guaranteed to succeed.

Emzie86

Thank you for all your help