Debt and court advice please

Pere_Ubu

My husband and I contacted Payplan some time ago (they are great). They pay each of our creditors a set amount each month. Each of our creditors have accepted our situation and have agreed to accept the reduced payments and freeze interest and charges all except FIRST NATIONAL! They have bombarded us with telephone calls and letters telling us the amount paid is not acceptable etc. Then on Thursday we received letters from Asset Link whom First National sold our debt to. Today they telephone us and I explained that we are making payments through Payplan. Not good enough. The conversation ended by Asset Link telling me court papers are to be issued and they should be with us in 2 weeks. I'm stunned. Going to court is not going to increase our income just our debt. I have written to them quoting the new Civil Procedure Rules which basically say that the commencement of legal proceedings under such circumstances could be counter to the overriding objectives of the New Civil Procedure Rules where the courts expect parties to act reasonably.

We never ignored our debts we contacted all creditors as soon as we experienced problems. This Asset Link Company are taking court action and continue to charge us interest and other charges.

My head is spinning. Does anyone have any experience of Asset Link? When it goes to court what can happen we don't have any more money to increase payments each month. What sort of action will the court take as to ask us to pay more is a none starter as we can't magic any more money.

Thanks for any advice you guys can give.

debtbuster2K5

Hi Pere,

Have you tried talking to payplan about this?
If they are no help, try CAB,

At the end of the day they CANT have what you havent got.

Sorry I cant be of any more help

Regards

Xbigman

Firstly tell them you will only deal with them in writing or you will report them. Then write to them recorded delivery and put it in writing. Their comments sound like scare tactics and they will call you back next week asking for a few pounds more but, the big question is the amount of the debt. If over roughly 3.5k (so over 5k with interest) and you own your home they are probably trying for a charge on your house. This is serious and you need to talk to payplan ASAP (and let us know on this board). If the debt is for well under 5k then ignore this until court papers actually turn up. You might need to go to court but the courts will be sympathetic in the circumstances.
Regards



X

Pere_Ubu

Xbigman wrote:

Firstly tell them you will only deal with them in writing or you will report them. Then write to them recorded delivery and put it in writing. Their comments sound like scare tactics and they will call you back next week asking for a few pounds more but, the big question is the amount of the debt. If over roughly 3.5k (so over 5k with interest) and you own your home they are probably trying for a charge on your house. This is serious and you need to talk to payplan ASAP (and let us know on this board). If the debt is for well under 5k then ignore this until court papers actually turn up. You might need to go to court but the courts will be sympathetic in the circumstances.
Regards



X

We owe them 5900K. They have telephoned us again today. We have asked them not to as it causes us so much stress. We have told them to put things in writing we have written to them recorded delivery. Today we were told they were to put a charge on our property. My husband owns 5% of the house I own the rest. What does it mean putting a charge on the property? We have been est throughout our problems and all other creditors have accepted the Payplan offer. First National is making our life absolute hell. I told them I felt harassed by their telephone calls and the responce was "we can do this".

Will the courts allow a charge against our property? Will it be that they will own 5900K of the house?

I will be talking to Payplan tomorrow. This has happened the weekend. I'm sure creditors do this sort of thing at the weekend when they know Payplan is closed and CAB!!!

Xbigman

Putting a charge on a property means that if you sell it they have a direct claim on the money. Your solicitor handling the sale would legally have to pay off the charge. This would be after the mortgage was paid off. Your main mortgage is usually the first charge and has priority but any other charges then have to be paid. This can get complicated so I've kept my explanation very straightforward.
Unfortunately first national getting a charge is only the first step. They will have made your debt to them secured. They will then try to force the sale of your property to clear the debt. This is their ultimate objective.

You need to go to court and argue that you are attempting to pay them and payplan have sorted out a budget for you (take a copy). Tell the court FN were unreasonable and kept phoning you after you told them to deal in writing, which you consider to be bordering on harrasment. Is the debt in joint names or only your husbands? If only your husbands name you must also tell the court that only 5% of the property is securing the debt and you think that securing this small piece is going too far.

FN are within their legal rights to secure the debt with a charge but you can fight it. Even if they get a charge you can fight any attempt to force a sale.

There will be lots of stress involved but if you go to court, are calm and put you arguments clearly the courts give you a sympathetic hearing. See CAB next week and then wait for the court papers to arrive.

As for your other comment. No they are not b*stards just at weekends. They are b*stards all week!
Regards



X

Pere_Ubu

Xbigman wrote:

Putting a charge on a property means that if you sell it they have a direct claim on the money. Your solicitor handling the sale would legally have to pay off the charge. This would be after the mortgage was paid off. Your main mortgage is usually the first charge and has priority but any other charges then have to be paid. This can get complicated so I've kept my explanation very straightforward.
Unfortunately first national getting a charge is only the first step. They will have made your debt to them secured. They will then try to force the sale of your property to clear the debt. This is their ultimate objective.

You need to go to court and argue that you are attempting to pay them and payplan have sorted out a budget for you (take a copy). Tell the court FN were unreasonable and kept phoning you after you told them to deal in writing, which you consider to be bordering on harrasment. Is the debt in joint names or only your husbands? If only your husbands name you must also tell the court that only 5% of the property is securing the debt and you think that securing this small piece is going too far.

FN are within their legal rights to secure the debt with a charge but you can fight it. Even if they get a charge you can fight any attempt to force a sale.

There will be lots of stress involved but if you go to court, are calm and put you arguments clearly the courts give you a sympathetic hearing. See CAB next week and then wait for the court papers to arrive.

As for your other comment. No they are not b*stards just at weekends. They are b*stards all week!
Regards



X

We have 3 small children. Can they force a sale even though we have children. We wouldn't be able to gt another mortgage so where would they expect us to live? Is this a silly question!!

My husband received information about this loan just last year the letter was addressed to him. I signed the papers to agree to the loan. I had just had a caesearian (spelling?) baby was just 2 weeks old. I wish I had never done guess I wasn't thinking at the time. I'm not trying to get out of paying back any money just trying to do so which doesn't result in making me homeless.

The amount we owe them is getting higher with interest and other charges will their share in our property simply keep increasing until we pay them back?

Thanks

Debt_Free_Chick

I assume that the FN debt is currently unsecured. In this case they cannot simply put a charge on your house .... What they have to do is to apply for a CCJ (County Court Judgement) for the debt. This is what they mean by "taking you to Court".

A CCJ is an application to have the Court instruct you to pay back what you owe. But the Court doesn't just go along with what FN want. The Court will ask you if you want to make an offer to repay by instalments. So you complete the forms that the Court send you, set out your statement of income & expenditure, and make an offer to pay the FN debt by instalments. Make the same offer as you already have i.e. don't be frightened into paying more.

More often than not, the Court will tell FN to accept your offer and that's the end of the matter. But you MUST reply to the Court forms and, if at all possible, attend in person. Nothing to be frightened of.... the Court is there to act fairly for BOTH parties. And the Judge will not be happy that FN are refusing to work with Payplan on this.

Unusually, the Court may instruct that you pay the debt in full. This is very rare and almost certainly won't happen if you attend in person. However, if the CCJ is for full payment and you don't pay it, the FN can go back to Court and get a Charging Order on your property. This does not force the sale of your house, but it means that FN will effectively "own" part of your house until you finish paying the debt.

FN are trying to frighten you. Don't be bullied, but don't ignore any Court forms. Keep in touch with Payplan! They will help you.

Stay calm, don't be bullied. Good luck

Malestrom

Also, if FN did succeed in getting a charging order, which I think is extremely unlikely, then they wouldn't be able to add charges and interest willy-nilly until the debt was repaid. The court set the interest rate at which the debt increases. Read through the information on the National Debtline site about charging orders and how they work. There is some very relevant information there which should help to reassure you with regard to your children and husband.

As mentioned above, ensure that PayPlan are kept updated about any correspondence or threats, preferably in writing.

Xbigman

Talk to payplan and CAB next. As D_F_C said, don't ignore anything from the court.
Only point I can add for now is that you should send FN the payment they have turned down. Although they haven't accepted this level of payment it is important to show you are paying. This looks especially good to the courts.
Regards




X

Pere_Ubu

We have kept up paymetns,well Payplan have on our behalf to all our creditors.

We received a telephone call yesterday from FN who were really nasty. My husband passed the phone to me as he could no longer speak with the woman. I told her my husband was so depressed with the situation with FN he thinks the easy way out is to slit his wrists sometimes. Her reply was "we are within our rights to contact you" we know we owe them money we are not walking away from it but they are making it imposssible to repay.

Payplan pay them regularly but because it is not what they want they have put penalty chrages onto the account, so much so the account is now more than what we borrowed in the first place!!

We have now received a letter from Assett Management whom FN have sold the debt to. I guess we will start to get calls from them. Does anyone have any experience of them?

krisskross

Is it possible for you to send them a letter recorded delivery saying that you want all contact in writing only, then use one of the call filtering services on your phone?
Good luck and i hope it all works out for you both.
xx