Court help please

cal123321

Hi, I’m not sure if this post is in the right place, apologies if it is not.

If possible could I please have some help with a debt belonging to my partner which has now reached the court stage? I’ve done research online but still have quite a few questions.

My partner took out a credit agreement for just over £1000 for a distance learning course from Stonebridge Associated Colleges Limited in 2019. He made 2 - 3 payments towards the course which totalled about £300 but then stopped making payments after a few months as he found he did not have time to complete the course. Apart from receiving an introductory bundle of paperwork he has not used any other services from the college. Beween 2019 and 2022 I don’t believe any attempts were made to recover the remaining £739. However this summer UK Search Limited made several attempts via letter and phone to recover the remaining. He believed he was not liable for the debt as the money he had already paid towards the credit agreement, he believed, easily covered the services he actually used from the college. He ignored the demands for payment and when receiving phone calls he explained that he did not believe he was liable for the debt and that he had no intention of paying.
           

He received a Letter of Claim in June this year dated 22/06, giving him 30 days to come to an arrangement, but again he ignored this.
          

A few days ago he received a Claim a pack from the County Court Business Centre. After interest and additional costs the claim  totals £1061.38.

My first question is, has he got any legitimate argument to defend himself against the claim? He would argue that the claim is disproportionate and that he has more than adequately paid for the services and materials he used. I am very doubtful, but would this defence have any legitimacy in court?

If he were to admit claim, we would not be able to pay full amount as a household in one go but would need to propose a payment plan.

My second question is, if we went down the route of proposing a payment plan, could a judgment still be made against him and a CCJ put on his credit file? He has no intention of using credit any time in the near future, as we are already on a debt management plan for our joint debts, but after graduation he will hopefully be working in the NHS and would have to disclose any CCJs when applying for jobs.

My third question is, when filling out the admission form in the Claim Pack, do student loans, grants and bursaries count as income? He has no other income himself other than from those,  but the forms don’t give the option to put “student” , only “unemployed”.

My final question is, as we live together, should his response in the form take into account my income, which is itself low? We work out our finances jointly as a household, but the form seems geared towards people who organise their finances individually. The only part of the form that allows for income from others in the household reads “Others living in my home give me £___ per ____”. The problem is we don’t operate our finances in that way, so we would struggle to put any figure within that section of the form.

Apologies for the long winded post and I hope it makes sense. We don’t have long to respond to the claim , and we are quite confused by the process. 

sourcrates

Firstly acknowledge service online, that gives you further time to submit a defence, 28 days in total.

He would be responsible for whatever terms and conditions that were included in the agreement he signed up too, you can`t chop and change parts of it you didn`t use or disagree with.

You can try organising a payment plan now, but as he ignored all other correspondence, its unlikely the creditor would agree, if judgement were made against him, he can apply for an instalment order and just pay what is affordable.

Student loans are debts, not income, if he doesn't have a job, then his income is nil, and if you are not a named debtor, then only his income should be shown, not your household income.

If he has no regular income, its unlikely the court would make an order against him.

cal123321

Thanks ever so much for your reply.

I agree disputing the debt would be a not starter.

I tried ringing the company managing the debt to offer to set up a payment plan outside the court process, but they would only accept full payment within the next 30 days.

Sorry if I’m misunderstanding you, but you think he should admit to the debt through the claims pack and at least propose a payment plan on the off chance ? Do you think it’s a certainty now that he’ll get a CCJ?

Also when filling in the admission form, if he puts his income as nil, should he put all of our joint households expenses down as his own? If the forms show that his expenditure is more than his income would that prevent him making an offer of a payment plan ?

sourcrates

I think the creditor has made it clear enough that the court process should now be followed.

His options are to either defend the claim, but he would have to have a defence he could rely on, or admit it, and use your household budget to propose some kind of monthly re-payment.

He could try the defence strategy first, he has nothing to lose by doing so, get the claimant to prove their case, which is not always possible, so its a bit of a gamble, but he can`t end up any worse off for trying.

Worse case scenario is he loses, gets a CCJ, and has to re-pay the debt at say £10 per week/month, or whatever is affordable.

cal123321

Thank you for your help. He managed to persuade them to postpone court proceedings and give him more time to pay and avoid a CCJ .