Being taken to court BY THE COURT!!!

Mike_Leopard

I seem to be in a spot of bother.

Any suggestions would be most welcome.


I followed Martin’s instructions to the letter and received everything I had claimed back from my bank. I had to threaten court action and used MCOL to do this. After I received my money I then wrote to the Court in Nottingham telling them that everything had been settled and no further action was required.
About four weeks later I got a bill from my local County Court (York) for £100 as an allocation fee. I had not had anything to do with YCC and therefore had/have no intention of paying them.
I rang them and told them what had happened and was told by the lady I had spoken to that it was probably an error and I should detail what happened in writing to the Court manager. (see below)
“This letter is just to confirm that the action had been settled at Northampton Court about 6 weeks ago. I wrote to the Court Manager to confirm I had received payment from the Nationwide and that no further action was required.<o:p></o:p>
If any further information is needed please do not hesitate to contact me.<o:p></o:p>
I trust that the fee mentioned in your letter of 22^nd of June will no longer be required.”
<o:p> </o:p>
On the 3^rd July I received a letter from the Court saying that I still owed them the £100!
Then on returning from holiday I find two more letters from the Court one on the 10^th saying:
“Further to my letter of 3 July 2007 the allocation fee of £100 in this matter is still due and remains unpaid. The fee is payable for work which has been completed by the court.” What work?
The second letter which is not dated is a Notice of Warrant of Execution!!!!!
This states:
“Urgent<o:p></o:p>
To the Defendant<o:p></o:p>
You have not made payment under the judgement as you were ordered. The claimant has therefore asked for a warrant to be issued to the bailiff to seize and sell your goods. Unless you pay the amount due to the county court before 24 July 2007 the bailiff will call and may remove your goods for sale at public auction. This may mean that you will have to pay further costs.”
<o:p> </o:p>
This is very frightening. To my knowledge no work has been carried out by the court on my behalf in this matter. I think this all stems from a lack in communication between Nottingham Court and York Court. When I sent anything to Nottingham regarding this matter I always sent it recorded delivery. Unfortunately after I received my money I thought it was all over and threw away post office receipts and correspondence.
<o:p> </o:p>
Any ideas please!


Mike

skintandsad

Seems like time is running out - I have no experience but if it were me, I'd take the letters down to my local Citizen's Advice Bureau and quick!

They are pretty good as mediators and will let you know whether or not you have to pay the £100.

Good luck and please update this message with the outcome.

:eek:

Edinburghlass_2

When your case is transferred to your local court further court costs become applicable if your claim is more than £1500. This should be in the letter where you are asked to fill in an Allocation Questionnaire or if the AQ is dispensed with the bit it scored out in the letter but it still goes on to say the fee of £100 is payable.

You can find the link to this in this post...

http://forums.moneysavingexpert.com/showpost.html?p=3884821&postcount=7

This fee is recoverable from the bank but if you didn't pay it in the first place it wouldn't be included in your payout.

Mike_Leopard

Thanks Edinburghlass but why would my case have been transferred after the bank had paid up?
I am at a loss as to what they have done to justify £100 and annoyed at the heavy handed way they are demanding payment.


Cheers,


ML

Twinkly

As suggested by skintandsad take the documentation pertaining to your case to the CAB and get their specific and specialist advice.

The key would be in timescales here. If the letter advising the court that the matter has been settled predates the date of Allocation to your local court then it has been sent in error. You have grounds for an appeal on that basis and you will need specific advice on how to go about making one to the court.