County court claim form received, I have questions

System

This discussion was created from comments split from: DMP mutual support thread part 13 !!.

tksnota

I received a claim form even I had a DMP with equivo of £1/month. I’m expecting this thing to happen so need a few advise from the group

1. The amount I need to pay increased because of the court & legal fee. If the ccj was successful do I need to pay the court & legal fee in full or they could be waived due to affordability?
2. How do I send the claim form because there was no return envelope?
3. Do we have a thread, forum or contact number helpline for me to understand how to fill up the claim form?
4. Can someone advise me do I need to send more docs before the ccj or judgement would be finalized after I admit the full amount?

//tksnota

sourcrates

If judgement is made against you, and you admit the claim, you can ask for the debt to be split into monthly instalments, which includes all legal fee`s etc.

The address for service should be on the forms.

Acknowledge service online, gives you 28 days in total to submit your defence or admit the claim.

Guidance on how to complete the form is here:

N1C - Notes for defendant on replying to the claim form (publishing.service.gov.uk)

fatbelly

Are they acting for someone else.If so, who?

What sort of debt was it initially?

Are you planning to defend, or to ask for payment in instalments? If the latter, what period are you proposing to pay over?

Yes, you are now liable for court and solicitor costs

Sly72

fatbelly said:

Are they acting for someone else.If so, who?

What sort of debt was it initially?

Are you planning to defend, or to ask for payment in instalments? If the latter, what period are you proposing to pay over?

Yes, you are now liable for court and solicitor costs

equivo are solictores and i would guess the debt is with Creation. The practice with them is they want debt paid off within 3 yrs or they do CCJ action and charging orders etc. Not a nice lot to deal with.

tksnota

fatbelly said:

Are they acting for someone else.If so, who?

What sort of debt was it initially?

Are you planning to defend, or to ask for payment in instalments? If the latter, what period are you proposing to pay over?

Yes, you are now liable for court and solicitor costs

Sly72 is right. Equivo is acting on behalf of creation. It is an unsecured debt and I don’t plan to defend it. 

I don’t have enough to pay any installments so I’m looking to still pay the DMP I had with them of token/month.

i have solicitor and court costs on the claim form. Will I need to pay them in full or will they change upon judgement?

Will there be any chances the interest will increase because I had several other creditors and most of them accepted the token payments and no claim forms atm?

@sourcrates - the form said 14 not 28 days. It will be good if it can be longer so I will have the time to respond

//tksnota

fatbelly

It's 14 days from service - that's 14 + 5 days from issue date - unless you acknowledge service, in which case you get 28 days.

Strictly speaking you should only ask for extra time if you are intending to defend but you could do a part defence and argue the balance figure and/or the costs.

If you are intending to present your income and expenditure so that you only have a token offer, say £1 or £5, then you are likely to get what they call a forthwith order - to pay everything immediately. However I have known £1 or £5 orders to be made.

There's some guidance here

https://nationaldebtline.org/get-information/guides/replying-to-a-county-court-claim-ew/

tksnota

@fatbelly - my confusion originated from the fact I showed equivo that I don’t have enough money to pay them and accepted a DMP of £1/month so will it still be classified as forthwith order?

What will happen if I can pay the whole amount immediately?

How do I send the claim form because there is no return envelope?

Will there be any possibility of the amount in the claim court increased after judgment?

fatbelly

You can respond online or send the paper form back to the court. Though I think if you are just asking for an instalment order and not challenging anything the instruction is to send it to the claimant, who will probably lose it.

Online has the advantages.

If you can't pay the ccj then the claimant can go to the usual enforcement options.

If you can pay, and do so within one month then the ccj is not recorded on your credit file

The balance claimed will probably increase a little because if you look at your particulars of claim it will say something like £1.07 per day interest up to the date of judgement

tksnota

What will happen if the claimant lose the form? 

Why do you think online is advantageous than snail mail because my view it will take longer for the claimant to review and file the ccj?

sourcrates

If you submit online, they can`t say they didn`t receive it, if sent by post they may "lose" it as sometimes happens.

These companies don`t always play by the rules, if it got "lost" you would get a "forthwith" judgement.