Claim issued by student loans

[dendroid]

Apologies but I think I should have posted in here. I would really appreciate any help on this claim against me from a legal perspective.

My situation:

-Took out student loans with SLC in 1997, 1998, 1999 and have been deferring them since
-Got a notice of transfer to erudio in November 2013 which I stupidly filled out and signed and sent back
-A year later found out that debit card details were not necessary and that they were a DCA
-Also read that the government had written off loans pre 2007 or something like that, it was a news article, after looking into my student loan situation further
-I sent approx 2014 a CCA to them about the loan details and they sent back a wad of paperwork with everything
-I minimally filled out the form without the debit details and sent it (I think, but I am assuming worst case scenario, I cant remember if I did or not)
-Never earned enough to even get close to limit
-shortly after I stopped deferring to erudio
-forward to now, I received a pre action letter from drydensfairfax a while ago which I didnt respond to.
-court claim on 3rd Nov this month (Saturday)

• The claim is for the sum of £7970.17 in respect of monies owing by the defendant on a credit agreement held by the defendant with student loans company under account number XXX upon which the defendant failed to maintain payments
  
  A default notice was served upon the defendant and has not been complied with
  
  The balance owed was assigned from SLC to the claimant and the defendant has been notified of the assignment by letter, contact drydensfairfax solicitors.

Some advice on this I would be grateful for

The account loan was then transfer of agency to capquest last year september 2017 who then were in charge of my account, and I have been sent two default notices and terminations of account one in 2016before and after this transfer from erudio.

Now it is erudio again, but nothing was transferred from capquest back again, I got no letter saying it was being transferred back.

Would there be anything I could use in defence against it?

Thanks

[dendroid]

Hello all, just signed up!

Here it goes, I will write this as a bullet list which will sum up my situation:

-Took out student loans with SLC in 1997, 1998, 1999 and have been deferring them since
-Got a notice of transfer to erudio in November 2013 which I stupidly filled out and signed and sent back
-A year later found out that debit card details were not necessary and that they were a DCA
-Also read that the government had written off loans pre 2007 or something like that, it was a news article, after looking into my student loan situation further
-I sent approx 2014 a CCA to them about the loan details and they sent back a wad of paperwork with everything
-I minimally filled out the form without the debit details and sent it (I think, but I am assuming worst case scenario, I cant remember if I did or not)
-Never earned enough to even get close to limit
-shortly after I stopped deferring to erudio
-forward to now, I received a pre action letter from drydensfairfax a while ago which I didnt respond to.
-court claim on 3rd Nov this month (Saturday)

Its probably not my best move I have made, but I am court time now, and I have to do something. I dont have the full amount to pay off. Just wondering where I stand with being able to sort something out without this spiralling out of control because I dont have money to pay court costs. I was hoping for some advice on how to proceed

Thanks.

[Amethyst]

Could you type the particulars of claim out please.

[dendroid]

They are:

The claim is for the sum of £7970.17 in respect of monies owing by the defendant on a credit agreement held by the defendant with student loans company under account number XXX upon which the defendant failed to maintain payments

A default notice was served upon the defendant and has not been complied with

The balance owed was assigned from SLC to the claimant and the defendant has been notified of the assignment by letter, contact drydensfairfax solicitors.

[dendroid]

Hello, would like some clarification please. I read the "how to acknowledge" for a claim, very well presented almost reassuring, and it says defence is not binding and you can choose to accept, sorry for being lame but that goes for all CC right? What costs would that entail, and if I were to lose a defence is that a judgement against me? Please respond as I don't have much time and this could give me some real hope. Thanks

[Amethyst]

Hi there, You can acknowledge the claim and say you intend to defend in full to extend the time you have to make a decision as to whether to defend the case , or file an admission and offer to pay, to 33 days from the date of issue rather than 14.

You use that extra time to obtain more information about the debt that is being claimed.

A defence doesn't cost you anything to submit.

You can negotiate directly throughout the process. There's also a formal mediation process to go through.

If you defend through the court process, then there's normally 3/4 months between filing your defence and getting notice of any hearing. Costs would be added if the claimant pays a hearing fee, and if you went on to lose in court costs could be awarded against you on top of the debt, and yes, you would then have a CCJ against you ( registered and on the credit file for 6 years unless you pay it in full within 28 days from judgment )

Do you want to tell us a bit more about the claim you have received ?

[dendroid]

Thanks for responding. Yes some more info if you could. Say I defend and then get the 33 days, I send the letter to the solicitor CPR31 something and then a CCA to the studen loans, can I still pull out and accept, or am I commited then? My main worry is the cost going out of control because I hardly have any money for this to spare. I am defending to see if I have something against them, but if there is a hearing I cannot afford that. When would extra costs other than what is on the claim come in during this process? Because I would have no option but to get bailed out, because I can't go beyond what they are claiming.
Thanks.

[Amethyst]

Okay presumably this is related to your other thread and this is a student loans claim? I'll sort out merging the threads.

You have already received all the information and appear to have simply failed to defer repayment due to your income not being at the level required for repayment to kick in? I'd ring them tbh to find out what's going on and why it's got to a court claim and what you can do to get it sorted out without ending up with a CCJ.

Put the acknowledgement in, then you can find out why you have a court claim and decide what to do.

Process wise;

You acknowledge the claim.

That JUST gives you more time to put in a defence or admission.

Then before 33 days from the date the claim was issued you decide if you want to defend or admit and offer.

If you defend, the claimant has 28 days to tell court if they want to proceed.

Then you both get directions questionnaires to transfer the case to your local court.

Then you are offered mediation.

Then the case is sent to your local court ( as you're an individual and the defendant it's your nearest court )

Then the local court will set a hearing date and send an order out for directions.

About 2 weeks before the hearing the claimant pays a hearing fee ( this will add costs - about £200-300 I think but check Hearing Fees on form EX50 on the HMCTS website )

Then exchange witness statements etc before you have a hearing.

As it's small claims costs are limited but if the court thinks you have acted unreasonably they could award full costs against you. ( could be a few thousand worst case scenario )

As it is a student loan your best off trying to get it sorted direct with the claimant to try avoid getting a CCJ.

[Amethyst]

Okay think that's everything together now

[dendroid]

Yes it is, thanks, sorry about that, it just occurred to me to put it in the right forum. My head is not quite straight to say the least.

Also I stopped deferring because I got fed up with the constant forms and that I was no where near the limit. I must have just ignored them for a couple of years.

[dendroid]

So I can still make them an offer to settle at this juncture (defence time)? I would like to say ill pay the original amounts and not the interest. If I chose to admit and pay in stages does that then go back to being an interest gathering amount?

Also are you sure you can admit after the 14 days are over and into the 33 and go back on yourself?

[dendroid]

I decided to cancel the defence, and go to citizens advice to see whats up, maybe I can get some kind of reduction given that I never earned enough to pay it in the first place

[Amethyst]

Yes I'm sure. But that sounds like an idea - you need to deal with Euridio and if you aren't earning over the limit but haven't deferred you'll need to get that sorted out.
But now they have taken you to court you do need to acknowledge , even if just to buy you the extra time to get in touch to sort it out - else you will have a CCJ against you by default - you must acknowledge within 14 days. You can say Defend - then enter admission and offer to pay later if you want to and have been unable to sort it out with Euridio via CAB.

[dendroid]

Yes, I wasn't sure about your advice on "defend all" but I am still in 14 day time, so I figured there would be more of a chance, but I got too paranoid to let it hang for another 3 weeks. And for what? You can't get out of it, because it is set up that way. Maybe my following discourse is completely naive and redundant, but, what can I say: tales from the back of the line.

No, I am paying it. Honestly I feel so much better, the relief is staggering despite that I will have to bite the anvil. Over the past few days I have never experienced such an apocalyptic, dysmal, void black, infinite inner desolation of nothingness and pure fear and panic.

I tried to go bankrupt on it and the helpdesk guy said that you can't because so many students jack off abused the bankruptcy system, they changed the law so that the student loan was nailed to your forehead forever... or until you paid it back. That was the point; the payback for freedom, which I would never have been able to afford. Ever. For something like this. I remembered that I entered a defense that day and I could not sleep that night to say the least, I felt like someone had fed razorwire down my throat and pulled it all in from the inside.

I re-read the consequence of getting a judgment about 4235 times over and over again, on the claim form (which all should examine) and to think that I would be triple crucified by interest, court charges and even further interest with no limit, for the rest of my life possibly going well into 5 figures. You can delete this post if you like, I don't care, but that night it actually felt worryingly comforting to wrap a telephone cord around my neck, tie it to the bannister then... finish it, because I was not sure if I had to see the defense through knowing that a default judgment would kick open the doors of the abyss.

I woke up this morning looking like a severed pigs head inside and out, phoned the courts and after what seemed like being fed though a mangle, a the nice lady behind the court phone finally said that I could rescind the defense and go sort out a payment. God help me if she said NO! That call countdown was nerve wracking to say the least. I could jsut see the clerk go "no sorry its done, got to go though with it, K, cheers love byeeeee!.. *klik*". Good.... lord....

I will have to take the long hard road out of Hell, but it isn't as if I was ever taking another route, I just chose to walk instead of take the bus.

Honestly, a defence would have been futile. They would have been laughing at me the entire time in a hearing while that cash register was clanking. There is no defence in getting out of a student loan. You aren't meant to. The moment you decide to step off the precipice there is no going back. I thought there was, and I thought I could swerve my way out, but nothing really was achieved. The only thing you can do is keep deferring and stay in a shit low paying job until you are 70, or get a proper job and make the payments irrelevant in your salary. Unless you have some really wierd circumstances (which do happen) then don't try that "CCA is all wrong, ALL WRONG I TELL YOU!!", no, no and no.

I have to admit I fell for all the whole "find mistakes on gov.uk and present a watertight case" to beat the system, but you can't. Not from the outside.

A good bit of advice from someone (ME) who has been dragged over broken glass and dirty hepatitis alley needles (metaphorically), don't contest it. I suffer for you. You can't shilly your way out of it, it has been designed like this by people who get their food on the table to make it work. It took 2 years of dilly dallying, but unless you are planning a one way trip to Mars, it PAINS me to say, that you are in it. Just know what situation you are in. Or, maybe I have made a complete fool of myself and been the last one to cross the finish line to a lot of slow clapping.... So be it.

Anyway, thanks for your help, it was appreciated.

[Amethyst]

An acknowledgement isn't a defence, it was simply giving you extra time ( 33 days rather than 14 days ) to get things sorted and work out what to do - whether it be defend or sort out instalments - it's not binding -

your idea of going to see CAB was a good one, and I think you should still try and do that as they may be able to help you either get this deferred again due to your low income, or help you sort out instalments that are affordable long term, plus it might be helpful to you to sit face to face with someone and talk it through and formulate a sensible plan to move forwards xxxx

The internet is the worst place to get advice from. There's a lot of sh*t about the place. We're forever trying to help people who've followed some weird maritime law, wet ink signature of blood rubbish …. and left wondering why they are in court facing costs. Not their fault, google just led them astray.

[dendroid]

Riiight, I see now (also from bitter personal experience too) but they don't make that clear on the form. It must be on purpose but the CC reads like "which route ye liketh to taketh to the gallows you scoundrellest blaggarde!" You see the thing is that it is not that clear, at least to me. I didn't want to sound rude by saying that you were being misleading, its just that the CC doesn't specify that the defense is not binding as in you can retract your defense. It sounds like once you set an option then you get the one way train. I think they should edit their description on the CC, because that one had me, I have not had any hint that it was not binding. They really had one on me there. That part in the AOS was a gold line for anyone with a CC.

The BS sites of "I wants me allodial land right now!" do not help and generate too much false perception of what REALLY the system is about and how it functions in any helpful or pragmatic way. It seems to be; send them this form and they will run away screaming and you get to walk away untouched brushing back our hair James Bond syle from the flaming helicopter crash. I wonder where that wet ink thing came from, looking back I dont see how that is of any consequence. The scammers are everywhere and I am ashamed to admit I bought that party line which landed me in this position. Where did I birth me vessel again, it's around here somewhere?

I did go to CAB well I PHONED CAB, and they were quite efficiently responsive to my case, and put me through to NationalDebtline which was crammed with callers they stopped the line. LeL!

One thing I will have to ascertain is whether this repayment includes interest, which would not have me in any form of surprise, that would be the only problem with a installment plan but whatever. It is what it is.

I will try and get through to them tomorrow and sort something out. I dont want to cheat anything (as if one can) but it has inspired me to turn my energy to actually getting off the wet cellar floor and applying my energy to making some kind of real money, even if I also have a peanut gathering job right now. I don't mind my job but it is too much for too little.

How uncanny I should take a holiday this week or I don't know HOW this mess would have turned out. Coincidence.... who knows.

But, a better nights sleep tonight. Thanks again!

[dendroid]

I came upon this video yesterday, I found it quite "coincidental" with regards to law and the idea of civil rights and all that legal jazz, you may find it informative and rather interesting:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=s9qlNBBoFG4

[Amethyst]

Ha - thank you for making my day... your post had me in tears ( which I do hope was your intention )

So much energy gets wasted trying to find some 'loophole' round things... and much of the time it's just pointless. Work WITH the system and be respectful and things work out better, generally.

I hardly dare click the youtube link now...

"which route ye liketh to taketh to the gallows you scoundrellest blaggarde!"