DMP and Northern Rock Demands

mummum2

RB, thanks for that post! I'll probably do my own dmp once all is running 'smoothly' as as smoothly as these creditors allow, as I think no matter how good we think these agencies are, we can after the initial setting up take over control of our debt with these creditors. Good luck with whatever you decide to do, but please keep us posted.

Jo, How are you today?

giddykipper

I never thought of taking over the dmp myself. I suppose that way if any of us do come into some unexpected funds, we can choose who and when to pay off first - whereas I suspect if you deposited a large amount of money with payplan they would spread it equally.

Hmmmm ... interresting!

I'm ok today thanks mummum - I've been a bit up and down the last few days and have taken to ignoring the home phone (although of course this could get tricky if we have people round at the time when they ring!) for the time being.

Jo x

snappy_badger

I thought I would offer up my experience so far with NR and CCJs.

I started my DMP with CCCS in February and NR wouldn't accept it from the outset. Fair enough, I owe them something like £23k and the month payment was something like £350 and I was offering £35ish under the DMP!

So they defaulted me and the case was taken to court. The original CCJ told me I'd have to pay back some extortionate amount per month that I obviously couldn't afford. Apparently in the judgement NR get to ask for whatever amount they want and the court awards that.

So the next step was for me to appeal and ask for a redetermination in my local county court. That took place and I was present, but noone from NR showed up. The thing took all of 5 minutes and the judge ruled that I could continue to pay the amount I was paying under the DMP but that he had to set some time limit for the amount to be repaid. As under the DMP amounts it would take something like 30 years!

So he gave me one year to pay off the whole amount. If I didn't pay it off in that time then NR would be allowed to apply for a charging order against my property. The judge explained that they issue a fair amount of charging orders against peoples properties so it's not too uncommon. Basically it means that if you sell up you have to pay what you owe from the equity.

NR also have the right to request the courts order you to sell your property if it looks like you're not going to sell soon and therefore pay off the debt. But the judge explained that they only ever make such an order once or twice a year out of all the hundreds of charging orders they issue. Obviously the court doesn't want to make you homeless if that's not the best solution!

Anyway I accepted this outcome but on later reflection realised that by making my pay the full amount by August 2008 NR would be getting their money more than 2 years earlier than the original loan term and with the full amount of interest on a 5 year term. So I wrote to the court and asked for a redetermination to change the date that I need to repay in full to October 2010 (the original end of the loan term). I'm back in court on 22 November but have no reason to doubt that the judge will award in my favour here.

Hope this helps! Basically don't worry too much about the whole charging order thing. I was really worried about it at first but after the judge explained things to me it doesn't bother me so much now!

giddykipper

Thanks Snappybadger, that helps a lot. So they can't administer the charging order until your time to pay the full amount is up.

Once they do administer the CO can you just continue with the payments you are currently making or can they then push you to pay more?

Thanks

Jo

snappy_badger

giddykipper wrote: »

Thanks Snappybadger, that helps a lot. So they can't administer the charging order until your time to pay the full amount is up.

Once they do administer the CO can you just continue with the payments you are currently making or can they then push you to pay more?

Thanks

Jo

Hi Jo,

The way it was explained to me by the judge was that if I don't pay in full by the date specified on the CCJ then NR can apply for the CO. This would then give them rights to be repaid from the equity in any house sale, but I would just continue to pay at the DMP rate each month.

If I didn't sell my house (and therefore release equity that would pay the debt in full) and NR began to get funny again because the debt is still not being repaid quick enough they would then be able to ask a court to force me to sell my house. Can't remember the legal term for this order!

But the judge said that even if NR request this the courts very rarely order this to happen. Now the judge was speaking from his own personal experience here - it could be that in other courts they award such orders more often but I'd hazard a guess that it's not really in anyone's best favour to force people to sell their homes unless it's deemed really necessary!

Hope this reassures you a bit. Basically the charging order is issued to pacify the creditor a bit (gives them some reassurance that they will eventually get their money back from the equity) so you just continue paying via DMP as normal.

Caroline

snappy_badger

giddykipper wrote: »

Once they do administer the CO can you just continue with the payments you are currently making or can they then push you to pay more?

One other thought...when the judge told me I had to pay back the whole amount within one year I explained to him that there was no way that was going to be possible, so what would happen. That's when he explained about the charging order process.

Basically what the judge is trying to do is let you pay an amount you can safely afford, but obviously he wants to be sure that you're doing everything you can to pay off the debt as quickly as possible - hence setting a time limit. Because he has to be seen to be doing something for the creditor as well.

I would expect that if I don't pay the debt off by the date on the CCJ and NR took the matter back to court the judge would probably expect me to start paying a bit more each month to show willing towards NR.

My DMP says that if I continue repaying my creditors at the small rates I can afford at the moment the plan will continue for more than 30 years. Obviously I expect to be in a better position in the near future to be able to speed this process up - I don't want it hanging around for 30 odd years!

But on paper that's the current timeframe. So the judge is just trying to speed it up too!

Apologies for my ramblings...hope some of it is useful to people!

giddykipper

Thanks - that really does help. My dmp on paper is going to take around 30 yrs to pay too - but, like you, I'm hoping in the future I will be in a better position to pay more into the dmp and bring the date a lot nearer.

I might get a payrise in January so may be able to up my payment (ok not by a lot, but by a little) to the dmp but obviously NR want assurances and not 'mights n maybe's' from me!

Thanks again

Jo

mummum2

Good morning Jo, just popping in to say hi and hope all is well with you.

Caroline, thanks for the clarity on CO. I'm paying NR £128 on my DMP and they have accepted for 6 months. Now in month 2 of DMP and hoping and praying that they accept this for the duration, my loan with them was due to finish 2010 and I also have £21,000 debt with them, hoping to up payment as early as March '08 when I get pay rise.

giddykipper

Hi Mummum - Sorry I missed your post y'day and have been mad busy at work this morning! (dont they realise I have socialising on the net to do?) lol. How are you doing?

Well I asked Payplan where we were up to with NR and what was going to happen next and she has basically said if NR sell my debt to a collections agency then it'll probably be better for me because they usually accept payments on a dmp ......... but I dont know if NR are doing that .... so am still no wiser really.

Other than that the news is good really - I've had no calls from NR since weekend now. Yaaaaaaaaay!

Jo x

mummum2

YAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAA! great news for not getting call, long may it continue... lol. Take care x