Bryan carter solicitors court proceedings - wanting my house

[Summertime]

Hello all

apologies for the early morning post I haven't slept all night.

Yesterday I received a letter from Bryan Carter solicitors advising me that if I didn't pay by the 6th December they will issue court proceedings on behalf of Lowell. I apparently owe '£2500' approx.


let me fill you in. I defaulted on my catalogues/credit cards etc 3 years ago when I got pregnant. Then my husband left me and I've been struggling since.


Ive had dmp's with step change which I had to then cancel because I began working part time and had negative disposable income. During this time I've got 3 months mortgage arrears.

I've not heard anything about this debt for at least a year and suddenly Bryan carter want payment or else it'll go to court. Foolishly I called them yesterday and didn't give any account/reference details. I asked them to give me general advice and I was told by them that because I am a homeowner they would begin proceedings as I could be forced to sell my home to pay them.

Im in now terrified. I have no money to pay them. I haven't even got £5.

Please help me. What do I do? I can't lose my home. It's all I have and I'm working so hard to clear my mortgage arrears.

Please help me.

here is the letter:-

we we have been instructed by Frederickson International ltd on behalf of Lowell financial to issue court proceedings on 6th December 2013 if payment of this debt is not relieved by us by that date.

If proceedings are issued, solicitor costs, court fees and interest will be added to the amount you owe and will be enforced against you if a judgement is issued and subsequently obtained.

You must contact us to make a payment before 6th dec 2013 to avoid this matter going to court.

Payment can can be made by a variety of different methods. Full details can be found on the reverse of the letter.

A judgenent itder will remeib on the register of judgements for a period of 6 years.

This is matter has now reached a stage where you may want to obtain independent legal advice.

[Amethyst]

Re: Bryan carter solicitors court proceedings - wanting my house

Morning Summertime

Welcome to LB xx

Bryan Carter are not known for having much in the way of paperwork to back up their claims so try not to worry.

Do you know exactly what the debt is they are chasing you for ? who the original creditor was and when you opened an account with them. Also h9w much you last balance was before you defaulted.

Lowells will either enter a claim through the county court, which would give you the opportunity to either defend the claim or enter an admission/offer to pay by monthly AFFORDABLE instalments which will be secured via a charging order on your home (this basically means if you sell your house in the future they will get the debt paid off before you get an of the equity). It is extremely rare for a charging order to turn into a sale order, if the instalments are set at a sensible rate by the court then you'll just pay your £2 odd a week/month and the CO will sit there. If you stopped paying instalments for any lengthy period then theoretically they could go back to court and ask to change the CO into a sale order - but judges look at all your circumstamces and the amount of the debt and most likely tell them to burger off.

A ccj isn't the end of the world - mucks up your credit file for 6 years but I doubt you fancy getting more credit for a bit anyway xx

There is another option they have been taking a bit more lately and that is to issue a statutory demand - if that does happen don't worry and have a look through lots and lots of threads on here where people have had SD's and had them kicked out of court to go on to have decent payment plans accepted. They have only mentioned court action so don't worry about that at this stage.

You are doing the right thing by concentratijg on y0ur mortgage arrears so don't let Bryan Carter put you off track at all.

Once we know what the debt is we'll be able to give you some idea of letters you can send out to get BC to back off anbit ok.

Others will be on to help I just wanted to try and set uyour mind at rest a bit - read other Bryan carters and Lowells threads , and fredrickson for that matter, and you'll see we're quite good at getting them sorted xxx

Basically THEY WON'T TAKE YOUR HOUSE - they just say it to scare you into paying because you are just a number on a sheet of paper to them and they are lowlifes..

Sharon
xxx

[Summertime]

Re: Bryan carter solicitors court proceedings - wanting my house

Hello Amethyst thank you so so much for your response I feel a bit better now.

I think the debt is possibly a Halifax Credit Card that I took out when I was 18 - which is
about 7 years ago. The frustrating thing is I don't remember recieving a letter from Frederickson or Lowell ltd whoever they are. I know they dont have any of my phone numbers - no d/a's do as when I started dealing with stepchange I changed my number as they were dealing with the debts on my behalf.

I'm pretty sure it's a halifax credit card - I don't think it's anything else.

The card had a limit of £1800, then charges/interest accrued etc increased it to nearly £2500. They only froze the charges because stepchange asked them to.

What should I do? I don't want to phone them again because phoning 'anonymously' I got spoken to like I was a serial killer who was hunting their next victim!

Once again thank you for replying to me I feel so much better knowing they can't exactly force me to lose my house.

[Amethyst]

Do you have a DMP in operation through Stepchange, and since when was that. How much is being paid via stepchange for this debt ? and who too ? (Halifax/Fredricksons/Lowells?) I see they negotiated interest frozen so that's good

First thing to send is a CCA request. This is quite simply a request for Bryan Carter to obtain a copy of the original credit agreement on the credit card which will show you if they are actually able to enforce the debt (take you to court). You need to enclose a postal order or cheque for £1 with the request.

Dear Sir/Madam

Re:− 000000000000

With reference to the above agreement, we would be grateful if you would send us a copy of this credit agreement.

We understand that under the Consumer Credit Act 1974 (Sections 77−79), we are entitled to receive a legible copy of our credit agreement on request. We enclose a payment of £1.00 which represents the fee payable under the Consumer Credit Act.

We understand a copy of our credit agreement should be supplied within 12 working days.

We look forward to hearing from you.

Yours faithfully

What should I do? I don't want to phone them again because phoning 'anonymously' I got spoken to like I was a serial killer who was hunting their next victim!

Don't phone them again, they are just geared up for stressing you out and threatening you to try get you to magically find some money to pay them off.

Stepchange can be pretty useless once things go to potential CCJ's.

[FlamingParrot]

Re: Bryan carter solicitors court proceedings - wanting my house

Yesterday I received a letter from Bryan Carter solicitors advising me that if I didn't pay by the 6th December they will issue court proceedings on behalf of Lowell. I apparently owe '£2500' approx.

let me fill you in. I defaulted on my catalogues/credit cards etc 3 years ago when I got pregnant. Then my husband left me and I've been struggling since.

Have you any idea what this debt is for? If it's for a catalogue account, they usually won't have an agreement in the first place.

It would also be useful to know whether this account was taken out before or after April 2007, that can make all the difference.

I've not heard anything about this debt for at least a year and suddenly Bryan carter want payment or else it'll go to court. Foolishly I called them yesterday and didn't give any account/reference details. I asked them to give me general advice and I was told by them that because I am a homeowner they would begin proceedings as I could be forced to sell my home to pay them.

Im in now terrified. I have no money to pay them. I haven't even got £5.

Please help me. What do I do? I can't lose my home. It's all I have and I'm working so hard to clear my mortgage arrears.

That's appalling! Unfortunately it was communicated over the phone, one reason never to contact any creditors or solicitors acting for them, by phone, at least not at this stage. If they issue proceedings there are times when phone contact may be appropriate.

That kind of 'advice' is highly misleading. They can't force you to sell your home to pay them. There is a process to be followed:

1. They issue proceedings, you then have the opportunity to defend the claim and challenge them to produce proper paperwork
2. *IF* they succeeded and obtained a CCJ, they could apply for a charging order. A charging order only secures the debt against your house, it doesn't force the sale of the property.
3. In theory, it is possible to apply for an order for sale to enforce a charging order. In reality, such orders are almost never granted, it certainly wouldn't be for the amount involved here and they could only apply if it's shown that the debtor has made no attempt to agree a repayment plan on an existing CCJ.

Thousands of people have charges on their homes, some for large amounts over £10k, some have several charges, that doesn't mean losing their home. All the above is merely for reference and is largely academic at this stage, so please don't let them bully you.

[FlamingParrot]

Re: Bryan carter solicitors court proceedings - wanting my house

The CCA request should be sent by recorded delivery with a PO for £1 and signed digitally using a computer font rather than your real signature. They have 14 days to respond, which should take you past the 6th of December, however, that should stop them on their tracks. BC will have to go back to their client who in turn will have to go back to the original lender to obtain the documents. Given the chain, not much is likely to happen before Xmas! :christmas3:

[Summertime]

Re: Bryan carter solicitors court proceedings - wanting my house

Thank you so much both of you. I've written up a letter today and I can buy a postal order online?
I want to get this sent today.

I won't be phoning them again they were awful.

I've been on the DMP for nearly 3 years on and off but I've had to cancel when I lost my job and then when I was off sick also. It could possibly be a catalogue debt for a Very account but again I just don't know.

If it is a catalogue debt it'll be before 2007 I'm sure of it. I'm going to send the letter and request to them and hope they respond as soon as possible. The date on the letter says 6th of December which is so close.

I feel sick at the thought of it all.

[Summertime]

Re: Bryan carter solicitors court proceedings - wanting my house

If it's a very account, it's normally all done online isn't it? I'm worried that they will have an online CCA.

[Amethyst]

Re: Bryan carter solicitors court proceedings - wanting my house

Very - will have been an online agreement yes, it depends when it was opened how well that stands up, although I suspect it wasn't long before you went into the DMP.

What other debts do you have that it might be.

Judging by a few other threads on here last couple days Bryan Carter have just bought a big bunch of debts from the ISME/VERY etc group, so it is likely to be Very if you have an outstanding debt with them. Also sounds like you've been given a bit more notice as some have only had 48 hours before court letter.

Swinebags.

Yes get the CCA sent off today xx

[Amethyst]

Re: Bryan carter solicitors court proceedings - wanting my house

Regarding the DMP - how long ago did you cancel it and did you cancel it on all your debts ? If so we need to look at getting you back on track somehow else you'll end up with more of these kinds of letters. But lets sort this one first before worrying about the rest xx Have you done an Income/expenditure sheet recently ?

[Summertime]

Re: Bryan carter solicitors court proceedings - wanting my house

Regarding the DMP - how long ago did you cancel it and did you cancel it on all your debts ? If so we need to look at getting you back on track somehow else you'll end up with more of these kinds of letters. But lets sort this one first before worrying about the rest xx Have you done an Income/expenditure sheet recently ?

I'm pretty sure that it is very because of the arrangements I have with other companies.


I cancelled the DMP about 6 months ago when it got to missing 3 months mortgage payments. I did an I&E with Stepchange and because I could only pay each creditor £1 (I'm paying £100 a month to my mortgage and that's all my disposable income) they told me I had to deal with creditors myself.


The ones that I have arrangements with are moor croft, 1st credit, and wescot. It's just this company that have popped up out of the blue.


Its so stressful! I don't know who Bryan Carter are but they're just awful. Xxx

[Amethyst]

Re: Bryan carter solicitors court proceedings - wanting my house

They are nasty. Have a search on just this forum for bryan carter and you'll see so many other cases.....then have a look at google - stacks more.

Stepchange are a useless pile of poo when it comes to anything serious. They are good when you have some disposable income to make payments with but anything other than that they just ditch you.

Once you have sent of the CCA then you can do a SAR to VERY for all your transactions on the account to see what the claim amount is made up of (interest/charges etc).

[Summertime]

Re: Bryan carter solicitors court proceedings - wanting my house

They are nasty. Have a search on just this forum for bryan carter and you'll see so many other cases.....then have a look at google - stacks more.

Stepchange are a useless pile of poo when it comes to anything serious. They are good when you have some disposable income to make payments with but anything other than that they just ditch you.

Once you have sent of the CCA then you can do a SAR to VERY for all your transactions on the account to see what the claim amount is made up of (interest/charges etc).

They were. They only accept a minimum of £5 per creditor and because all my money is going towards my mortgage they said I had to write to everyone offering £1.


I just really hope I can get them to accept my offers instead of being evil! I've looked through other threads and they're taking people to court for amounts less than mine so it's worrying me.

[Summertime]

Re: Bryan carter solicitors court proceedings - wanting my house

Ok, so I've just been to my local post office which is small who have advised that they 'don't have postal orders' !!!!!!!!!!!!!

I'm pretty sure the young man just didn't know what he was doing



I can send a cheque but it's from my married name so it will read for example Mrs J L Bloggs rather than Miss J Loggs.


Should I do that or wait til the morning to go to a bigger post office?

[maverick67]

Re: Bryan carter solicitors court proceedings - wanting my house

I went to a small post office last week and got a postal order, try again at the same post office because as you say he may not of had a clue what he was doing.