court papers arrived today - what now

[OHKNOWANOTHERDFW]

Hi, I posted this on Martin lewis site, and was advised to shoot over here. so here I am

Hello, I have just opened my post and received papers from Northampton court

The paperwork is a claim form, (showing amount I owe + £85 court fee +£80 solicitors costs)and a response pack (acknowledgement of service, admisission and counter claim)

I sent CCA, and was told that they couldnt find it but were looking. I as advised stopped paying. Then they found it and I was told it was incomplete on here and I told them so, and continued not to pay
They then sent more info, and having taken advise from various experts I am told its now enforceable, and I have to pay.
How do I proceed? The letter from the court is dated 11th November

BACKGROUND - I have several defaults, and couldnt give a hoot about damaging credit file, as I never intend to use credit again (big statement I know)
I am not unduly bothered about a CCJ, and have a track record via a DMP of making monthly payments on time every month without fail.
I am not unduly bothered about a charging order on the house
I AM VERY BOTHERED about attachment of earnings as I believe this will jeopardise my employment
I AM MEDIOCRE BOTHERED about charging order on house - I dont care but partner will feel trapped
I AM VERY BOTHERED about racking up unecessary interest and fees (as has happened with some other debts) and would be keen for this to move otwards a full n final settlement negotiation with a DCA if that was possible (as has happened with some other debts)

Thank you in advance!

Thanks

[Amethyst]

Re: court papers arrived today - what now

hiya, welcome to Beagles

Have you a link to your thread on MSE which has the agreement etc on ? That will probably be the best place to start to see if you have any defence to the claim or whether you need to get together an IE sheet and submit and offer to pay. From what you have said you are happy the agreement is enforceable so it sounds as though an offer to pay is the right way to go.

If you do this straight off then the chances of getting an installment order straight off are greater and the chances of a charging order less.

Also a little idea of your financial situation. Did you stop paying solely due to the CCA perceived issue when previously you were in a DMP and the payments were being accepted ? The installments offered will probably be on the same level as those you were paying on your DMP.

Thanks

Ame
xx

[Amethyst]

Re: court papers arrived today - what now

Oh and who is the claimant ? Have found a couple of your threads over there trying to asertain some background.

MBNA ?

http://i802.photobucket.com/albums/y...bna111scan.jpg ?

[OHKNOWANOTHERDFW]

Re: court papers arrived today - what now

amerthsy, have sent you a private message, as I wasnt sure how much to put on here

But yes MBNA are creditor, although have several debts originating with them so not sure if your link is this one

[Amethyst]

Re: court papers arrived today - what now

Morning

I'm going to be quite tied up today but have all weekend absolutely free so will be able to help properly then.

Received the docs (blimey loads of them!) and of course your PM.. I think you would be find posting most on here, just keep the numbers rounded up.

So the situation basically

1) you were in a dmp
2) you sent off for cca's - MBNA sent you a copy of the front and reverse of the agreement
3) someone said this agreement was unenforceable
4) you stopped the dmp (I assume you were trying whats being known as the UEA route to try get to statute barring without anyone catching up? (or whatever that plan is))
OR
4) you stopped the DMP BECAUSE they were continuing to charge massive interest and adding Late payment charges on each month and you werent getting anywhere (thats a much better reason)
5) Optima sent a further copy of the agreement (front and the ACTUAL back) and additonal recon T&Cs which were in a leaflet. It is enforceable.
6) you have a bit of cash set aside that WAS going on the DMP - so may be able to offer a f&f settlement to avoid the CCJ
7) otherwise its restarting the DMP and asking the court for installments of the same amount, and defending the late payment charges and any interest since default

We good so far with that?

So a quick letter to Optima offering your F&F to discontinue in court......

....then if they decline the defence basically will be


Admit account
Admit agreed amount of debt
Offer installments on it at affordable rate (backed up by a new income expenditure sheet)
Basic unfair charges defence
Basic moan about OFT Debt collection guidance and the Lending Code breaches (ref the adding interest and charges after notified in problems and DMP)

[OHKNOWANOTHERDFW]

Re: court papers arrived today - what now

thats almost perfect

lots of creditors, 1 in particular (not the client here) werer adding ridiculous charges and interest and I could see no light at the end of the tunnel, so to break it tried to vary payments via dmp, but as they insist on prorataing payments this proved impossible, so ended DMP....Carried on paying, but sent every creditor CCA

Some admitted having lost papers , some provided 100% legitimate agreements etc etc

In this case I was provided a fudge which I was advised was Unenfofrceable. I am now being told the bid agreement (which I emailed you ) is Enforceable

for clarity I have continued to pay several creditors at the amount previously agreed, as the have provided enforceable agreements

I havent paid anything to this client, HOWEVER they have not added any interest OR charges for over 2 years when I started the DMP. I was hoping that all the debts would default and pass to a DCA so I could look at full n final settlement agreements with them.

Re the way forward - if I offer full n final, surely they will take that as a sign I have money and ask the court for the full amount? If I am goiung to negotiate monthly payments on the back of income and expenditure shall I negotiate with the court or the creditor?

Thanks so much

[Amethyst]

Re: court papers arrived today - what now

Anything other than a F&F I would go through the court for definate, we're a bit stuffed with the moan about lending code etc as they appear to have acted pretty well (annoyingly)., so you are in court now solely because of the stopping paying solely due to someone saying the agreement was unenforceable, when you were on a DMP and interest and charges were frozen.

(not having a go just hope others who come to read this will realise that stopping paying in that situation is a little daft in the present climate and maybe avoid having to go through the stress of a county court claim)

Rest is fine, do you want me to get a basic outline of admission together or would you prefer just to use the court forms ? Also have you got any transaction lists so you can work out an approximation of unfair charges applied to the account to defend or you not too fussed about those ?

Definately need to get an IE sheet together, I would highly recommend the CFS sheet which is available from the I/E Sheets link in the blue bar towards top of forum.

Any F&F would be a 'I've managed to scrape together' / 'a friend lent me' etc so dont worry about that, it is unlikely Optima would accept though as they pretty much know they will win in court - you'd have to word any F&F that otherwise they'll have to wait 1000 years for the full lot back when they could just have half now and save themselves the trouble (and so on).

[Amethyst]

Re: court papers arrived today - what now

Oh yes, and if theres any more you stopped paying on a similar basis, if you want to have a look at those agreements and possibly consider starting the DMP up again and trying to get back to frozen interest / charges etc and staving off another CCJ, then just post a new thread for each with the background etc. Its fine to post attachments, just blank out your names/barcodes/addresses/account numbers first.

[OHKNOWANOTHERDFW]

Re: court papers arrived today - what now

Thank you amertyhst. I dont want to go back on to a DMP as a couple of my creditors were charging more interest (24.9%) and late fees than I was paying. One of them had £2620 from me in 2 years and added £2575 in charges and fees, and despite begging from me, begginf from cccs, and complaint to Ombudsman managed to justify it....(my dmp payments changed as my incomce flexed and even though I always overpaid the minimum agreed they used this as justification to make me a 'normal' customer)

They have now told me verbally if they dont get minimum payments from me by feb 11, they will default me and commence proceedings including potentially passing the debt to a third party - HALLELUI!

I could send the mum n dad can gift me some money on conditional of full n final. Should I also state in the letter that its on condition that the court proceedings are dropped?

Menawhile, I take it I write back to the court with income and outgoing making it clear I cannot afford much - perhaps £40 a month (thats >100 months)?

Thanks so much

[Amethyst]

Re: court papers arrived today - what now

Well you need to do an IE sheet the same way you did with CCCS, so it shows proportional payments to ALL your creditors (whether you stopped paying them because of UEA or not), then you should have something back for when any of those take action.

I completely agree, if you are willing to destroy your credit file and get CCJ's against you, defaulting on payments can work to get a stop on rapidly increasing debts, and you tried the DMP first, so you have probably done the right thing with those. This one though had frozen the interest and charges on the DMP so it is a shame you continued to take this route on this one as you could have avoided this ccj.

By the by now, if you want a hand with your IE complete the CFS sheet and email it over to me amethyst1664@hotmail.co.uk or admin@legalbeagles.info (it sometimes comes back with errors).

[OHKNOWANOTHERDFW]

Re: court papers arrived today - what now

Thanks, Doing I/E now and will email the addresses by 1600 with a draft

Meanwhile shall I do the unthinkable and phone Optima asking fi they will negotiaite full n final, and if they say its still feasible send the writen formal template letter about parents gift

Cheers

[OHKNOWANOTHERDFW]

Re: court papers arrived today - what now

they will take a short settlement of £2600 and put in writing no further action by themselves or any other party in respect to the debt if I confirm on Monday am, and they have full payment of this amount by 30th Nov!

[Amethyst]

Re: court papers arrived today - what now

WELL NEGOTIATED !!! Can you manage it ? Get it in writing BEFORE you pay. Should be a consent order really.

[OHKNOWANOTHERDFW]

Re: court papers arrived today - what now

almost - if I know thats definitely it. The thing is I am not sure I have time to get everything in writing, and I fear they will come back or someone else will

[Angry Cat]

Re: court papers arrived today - what now

A short settlement!

Just to warn you that if you accept a partial settlement, the remainder of the debt can be sold on and a DCA could come after you for the money in the future. I'm not sure if you are aware of this or have considered this?