Charging Order hearing.......gulp!!

GasHead

Hi craftingqueen,

Thanks for your reply. Hope everything goes alright with your hubby's CO's. I presume he's going to oppose the CO's. What arguments is he going to raise?

Regarding my case, NatWest initially accepted the DMP payments but have only recently turned nasty. I'm hoping this will sway the decision my way a little.

GasHead

Hi All,

I've drafted this letter to send to the court, which I've set out my opposition to NatWest's charging order application. I would be grateful for any feedback. Anything I need to add or remove?

Ref: Case No. ???????

To whom it may concern,

I am writing to you to express my opposition to the Charging Order application, brought by Irwin Mitchell solicitors acting on behalf of NatWest Bank (case no.????????).

I oppose the application for the following reasons:

·I am currently undertaking an arranged Debt Management Plan with the debt charity Payplan. This DMP has been running for 15 months and I have not missed a payment. NatWest agreed to the original DMP proposals and have been accepting monthly pro-rata payments of £89.13 since that time.

·Since the issue of the Forthwith Judgment in January, I have continued making monthly pro-rata payments to NatWest, totalling £356.52. The total outstanding debt should read £7965.26, not the stated £8321.78.


·I have five other unsecured creditors, all of whom have accepted my monthly pro-rata payments. Only NatWest have felt the need to take court action.

·If the Charging Order is granted, NatWest will be made a preferential creditor. This would grant them unfair priority over my other unsecured creditors.

·The current pro-rata payments to NatWest are all I can reasonably afford at the moment. In thirty months time, my secured car loan is ending. This will free up an extra £200 a month to service my debts.

·The debt is in my sole name. If the Charging Order is granted, it will place more financial hardship onto my wife and 11 year old dependant. Our fixed-rate mortgage deal ends in October 2009 and we would find it difficult to remortgage. This would mean our mortgage payments would increase dramatically.

·I would be grateful if any interest on the debt could be frozen. The original loan was covered by the Consumer Credit Act 1974.

·I would ask the Court to consider other ways of enforcing the payment, such as an Instalment Order.


All the Best

GasHead

Miss_Poohs

Very apt thread for me and my OH.

We don't get to thrash out our options until Monday, when we get to talk with a dept counsellor - but I have a feeling this situation may well apply to my OH.

He owes NR £47000, all debts in his own name, and I doubt they'll want to wait for it.

Thanks for the thread GH - very best of luck.

GasHead

Hi Miss Poohs,

Thanks. Best of luck for Monday. I'm getting nervous now, thinking about the hearing. God knows what I'll be like an the actual day.

dancingfairy

letter sounded good to be but I am not an expert. They may grant a charging order but it doesn't mean you have to sell your house. It just sits there until you sell up then they get their money back.

From Fermi's National Debtline quoteline 'It is unusual for the court to agree a creditor's application to be allowed to sell your home'.

Hope someone else can provide some more help.

GasHead

Thanks for reply dancingfairy,
I know deep down that it's not the end of the world to get a Charging Order. I'm not the first and certainly won't be the last. I'm just at the point of saying to them "Sod it, just get on with it and get it over and done with". Just the frustration of knowing this all could have been avoided by not signing on that damned dotted line.

fedup2007

Please, whatever you do, don't get complacent.

I have a court hearing for an order for sale - when you hear the details you will understand what a risky position you are in.

Had a small loan (1500) in 1999 which I defaulted on. Subsequently moved around a bit (I did pass my addresses on)then the loan co went bust.

A few years later the debt was bought by (from what I know) 3 further debt companies.

I eventually managed to buy my own property in 2005 (ex authority) and have no debt whatsover. In 2006 I get hit with a Charging Order application by said debt management company. They had issued a ccj at an address I had never lived at nor heard of!

Needless to say, I made them start the process again from scratch. They initially made a claim for 11k (omg!) and after a lengthy and tiresome court battle reduced to just under 5k. I have offered payment all along - which they continually refused. I completed a SOA with CCCS to justify my situation and they just persisted with court action.

After dropping off a fixed rate deal in summer last year - I attempted to re-mortgage to try and clear this debt and get a better apr on my mortgage. I'm afraid no-one will touch me with a 5k ccj/charging order so I am stuck with a horrendously high mortgage payment.

The whole process has been a shambles (on their part) with ambiguous documentation and blatent errors in their communication.

Anway, I cannot afford legal rep and don't qualify for legal aid. So I am busy drafting my own defence ready for court in 2 weeks.

In the back of my mind I know its unlikely they will force a sale on my home to pay a 5k debt to a dodgy company who probably bought the debt for £50. However I have to bear in mind that I have no children, partner or health reasons (these have all been used in defence of an order) so its not clear cut.

I have other options (HRA legislation) and a couple of cases to back me up. Fingers crossed!

GasHead

Thanks fedup2007,
Your advice about not getting to complacent is heeded. Your situation sounds an absolute nightmare. I am worried about getting a new remortgage deal, but I'll have to cross that bridge when it comes up.

GasHead

Just got back from the dreaded Charging Order hearing and it wasn't half as bad as I thought it would be.

Unfortunately, the Judge adjourned the hearing due to the fact that NatWest had not informed my other creditors of the Charging Order application (even though I had sent them a letter listing the creditors). All in all their solicitor seemed under prepared. The Judge was very down to earth and from her remarks seemed to be more on my side rather than NatWest's solicitors. Without prompting, she stated that I would NOT be losing my home and if I kept up the DMP payments she could not see any further problems.

Of course I will have to go all through this again at the new hearing date and I may still get a Charging Order, but I will at least know what's coming.

If you have one of these hearings upcoming, all I can say from my experience is that the Judge is very understanding and it is nowhere near as bad as what your imagination can cook up.

chappers

Thats good news from the judges comments it seems as if she is not going to award a charging order at the adjourned hearing, provided you stick to your DMP.
Did the judge say anything about the variance order you filed.
as was said earlier on don't get complacent, but it seems that the judge may look favourably on your case, probably in light of the fact that Natwest originally agreed to the DMP but then still decided to chase you for the full amount.

Fedup2007
I'm not sure if legally this is of any help to you as the debt company now have a CCJ against you, but do they have adeed of assignment stateing that they have bought the debt and can legally enforce it also do they have the original signed CCA.
The reason I ask is that without those documents they wouldn't have been able to get a CCJ against you and you may be able to use these facts, together with their bad practice(particularly not serving you correctly with the summons) to get the judgement set aside.
Not sure if it is too late but maybe someone such as fermi could shed a bit more light on this.
Also maybe you could use form N244 to apply to set the current action aside too. This would stop any further action until the outcome of the set aside hearing and give you a bit more breathing space and time to prepare your case.
Again perhaps fermi could give you some more firm advice on this.