CCJ payments confusion

lisa_cornwall

Hi, sorry if this isn't the correct place, but I thought it was the most suitable out of the given forums.

Last may I got a ccj for an unpaid electric bill, I filled out the income sheet and the court agreed to payments of £1 by the end of each month. My first payment of £1 was made on 31st may 2013, long story short, some months I have found myself with a bit of spare cash, so have paid more than £1 occasionally, and now after 14 months, there are £26 worth of payments on my account, I'm not great at maths, but I think that means I'm paid up nearly a whole year in advance so I've not paid for a couple of months thinking it wouldn't matter as my payments are not only up to date, but ahead.

Today I have had a letter from the solicitor to which I make payments, stating that their client (Npower) appreciate that payments have been made sporadically on the account for sums higher than requested, I have not paid payments every month as ordered by the court and they consider this a default.

Apparently they are planning on taking me back to court unless I start making £1 payments every month, even though my payments are now a year in advance.

Is this right? I'm not sure where I stand on this. I know it's only £1, but I'm a lone parent carer with 2 disabled children and sometimes sparing even £1 is considerably difficult, not to mention the 50p handling charge they take on every payment! So I assumed that paying £5 when I have that spare woud let me off the next month when I may not be able to pay the £1.

Tixy

If the court ordered you to pay £1 a month then you do need to do this regardless of any extra payments you make.

So strictly speaking you have defaulted and the creditor can therefore decide to take you back to court if they wish to do so.

If they did take you back to court they may be looking to either see if the judge will order higher payments or could be looking for a ruling allowing them to take further enforcement action (e.g. appoint bailiffs).

It sounds like if you do start paying every month they won't go back to court, so ideally you need to do this. If you may not be able to afford some months in the future then best to not overpay but hold that money back for future months.

How much is the CCJ in total? Is this the only debt you have? if you are struggling to afford £1 a month then have you considered speaking to one of the debt advice charities to consider if other options may be more suitable (perhaps a DRO or bankruptcy for example).

nPower

lisa_cornwall wrote: »

Hi, sorry if this isn't the correct place, but I thought it was the most suitable out of the given forums.

Last may I got a ccj for an unpaid electric bill, I filled out the income sheet and the court agreed to payments of £1 by the end of each month. My first payment of £1 was made on 31st may 2013, long story short, some months I have found myself with a bit of spare cash, so have paid more than £1 occasionally, and now after 14 months, there are £26 worth of payments on my account, I'm not great at maths, but I think that means I'm paid up nearly a whole year in advance so I've not paid for a couple of months thinking it wouldn't matter as my payments are not only up to date, but ahead.

Today I have had a letter from the solicitor to which I make payments, stating that their client (Npower) appreciate that payments have been made sporadically on the account for sums higher than requested, I have not paid payments every month as ordered by the court and they consider this a default.

Apparently they are planning on taking me back to court unless I start making £1 payments every month, even though my payments are now a year in advance.

Is this right? I'm not sure where I stand on this. I know it's only £1, but I'm a lone parent carer with 2 disabled children and sometimes sparing even £1 is considerably difficult, not to mention the 50p handling charge they take on every payment! So I assumed that paying £5 when I have that spare woud let me off the next month when I may not be able to pay the £1.

Hi lisa_cornwall,

Thanks for your post.

With regards to payment plans, our systems are set up to recognise whether a payment has been made each month, so although you've paid extra in advance, the system will still look for the scheduled payment until the balance has reached zero. As these were missed, the plan defaults and in some circumstances may be cancelled.

In future, I'd recommend continuing to make the scheduled payments as normal to avoid the plan defaulting. If you miss a payment, call our Affordable Solutions Team on 0800 975 9065 to make them aware of this, so they can complete any necessary actions and ensure your plan remains in place.

If you have any further questions, please get in touch using the details on our profile.

Thanks,

Jess

chanz4

nPower_company_representative wrote: »

Hi lisa_cornwall,

Thanks for your post.

With regards to payment plans, our systems are set up to recognise whether a payment has been made each month, so although you've paid extra in advance, the system will still look for the scheduled payment until the balance has reached zero. As these were missed, the plan defaults and in some circumstances may be cancelled.

In future, I'd recommend continuing to make the scheduled payments as normal to avoid the plan defaulting. If you miss a payment, call our Affordable Solutions Team on 0800 975 9065 to make them aware of this, so they can complete any necessary actions and ensure your plan remains in place.

If you have any further questions, please get in touch using the details on our profile.

Thanks,

Jess

Bad advice as its subject to a court order, Affordable Solutions Team cant do anything different