Court claim - rent arrears

[n20998]

Hi all,

I just received a court claim for rent arrears for a property I used to live in (moved out late last year after going through s21 eviction process). Everything in England.

The claim is for an amount of rent I agree is owed, plus court fee, plus representatives fee plus interest. Adding the interest takes it slightly over £5K. The first thing I notice is that this interest amount is not included in the box on the bottom corner of the first page of the N1 form (is this to keep it under £5K?).

Any advice I could get would be very much appreciated.

I had an arrangement in place following a letter from the landlords solicitor, a response by me, acceptance by them and me signing an agreement. However, I have not kept to this agreement. I have not received any correspondence from the solicitors since then.

As mentioned I'm happy with the rent owed, however not the interest. They are claiming interest at a rate of 8% (citing the appropriate act...) and it seems they want interest to continue being added (the monthly amount I could pay would be slightly more than the interest). Also, in the tenancy agreement it stated 3% above Bank of Scotland base rate, so 3.5%. Can they now claim 8%?

The reason the rent arrears occurred and the reason I've struggled with the agreement is disability. I was on sick leave for most of last year and some time this year already.

I want to be able to repay at the same rate I agreed earlier.

Any help on this would be great. Can I do anything to stop the CCJ? What about the extra costs?

The form has the case reference but not the password so it seems I can't do it online which is a shame.

Thanks

[stevemLS]

Re: Court claim - rent arrears

Hi and welcome to LB

There is nothing magical about a £5k threshold, the limit for the "small claims" track is £10k.

8% is the statutory rate for a judgment debt, it overrides any contractual interest rate.

It can continue after the date of judgment until the time the debt is settled.

The costs become payable when they issue proceedings, assuming they win and from what you say you are not arguing that you don't owe the money.

You can try and avoid a CCJ by trying to agree a Tomlin Order. Essentially this means that both parties agree to put the proceedings on hold provided agreed payments are made. It is an Order made by the court by consent of other parties.

The difficulty I see you having in trying to do this is you have already had one payment arrangement which you said you didn't keep to - so they may be reluctant to enter into another agreement. Did you think the payments were affordable previously? If you are able to agree a Tomlin Order it is ESSENTIAL that you stick to it.

Best of luck with it.

[n20998]

Re: Court claim - rent arrears

Thanks stevem not good news! How would I go about a Tomlin Order? Never heard of that.

[n20998]

Re: Court claim - rent arrears

Also what can I do about this interest. Can I ask them to stop charging at the date of the claim? Does that change it from accepting what is owed and asking for time to pay to disputing the claim?

[stevemLS]

Re: Court claim - rent arrears

You would need to propose it to the other side. I ams sure there will be a template on here somewhere, perhaps one of the site team would be kind enough to point to it?

The interest is a statutory entitlement if they ask for it, you can ASK for it not to be applied but they are not obliged to agree.

Not being nosey but they want £5k, what rate are you offering to pay it back?

[n20998]

Re: Court claim - rent arrears

Thanks again for the very quick response. Do I make the offer separate to returning the other documents? Got to be honest I'm confused I saw on one site I return it to the other side and somewhere else said I return it to the court. My disability relates to mental health and struggling to understand the process at the moment!

The offer would be for £50 per month. Unfortunately anything more would be unrealistic. I have no assets or cash to make any sort of better offer.

[CYNthesys]

Re: Court claim - rent arrears

You say that your disability is mental health related.
Are you classed as being mentally incapacitated. If you are deemed to be lacking capacity you would have no legal standing to bring or defend proceedings, and the only way in which a claim against you could continue woud be if a litigation friend was appointed to act on your behalf.

[stevemLS]

Re: Court claim - rent arrears

Others may have a different view, but in circumstances where you admit the debt you would normally say so on the Acknowledgement of Service and say you needed time to pay.

Was the claim issued on-line? If so it should have a date of service stamped on the front of it - you have 14 days from that date to acknowledge service.

In your position, I would make immediate contact with the other side and propose a Tomlin Order, by email if poss and explain your financial circumstances.

From their perspective it minimises costs and hassle and, depending on your financial circumstances, they may not better £50pm if the court determines the payment rate - the court will not set an unaffordable rate.

The problem, though, is that, I have just done a back of a fag packet calculation that it would take you about 24 years to pay it if they want their 8% - yikes!

So, assuming you have time, just give it a day or so and get another opinion or two off some of the people here.

[stevemLS]

Re: Court claim - rent arrears

You say that your disability is mental health related.
Are you classed as being mentally incapacitated. If you are deemed to be lacking capacity you would have no legal standing to bring or defend proceedings, and the only way in which a claim against you could continue woud be if a litigation friend was appointed to act on your behalf.

It is a HUGE step from saying someone has mental ill health to saying that they are incapable and if OP were to attempt to run with that it would have massive implications for all other areas of his/her life.

[n20998]

Re: Court claim - rent arrears

Hi CYn, no not incapacitated but protected under the Equality Act (confirmed by 2 OH doctors).

Thanks stevem, I don't know if it was issued online. It's from Northamptom CCMCC, has a claim number but no password. Strangely the stamp says served on 5 March 2015 (yeah just checking calendar).

[n20998]

Re: Court claim - rent arrears

I might try the Tomlin Order by email. In the meantime do I still send something to the court? What do I need to get back from their solicitor to show it's been agreed? Obviously weary of the timescales.

[CYNthesys]

Re: Court claim - rent arrears

I didnt mean to cause offence, was just trying to point out that mental health issues may render someone incapable of properly managing problems such as these. Mental incapacity is often considered to be issue specific

[stevemLS]

Re: Court claim - rent arrears

Indeed it is Cyn - I spent all afternoon at a professionals meeting discussing a patient who believes herself to lack capacity but who all the professionals assess as having capacity in all relevant areas.

I have been troubling the "new" Court of Protection since it was created in October 2007 lol (in a professional capacity).

n20998 - CCMCC is just the County Court Money Claims Centre, curiously based in Salford, not Northampton. I think that means it has to be dealt with by post but if date of service is 5.3.15 you have until 19.3.15 to get the AoS back. So, as I said previously, just sit tight for a day or two and see what others here suggest, you have time.

If push comes to shove you can always send it back saying you are going to defend it. It doesn't mean you ultimately do have to defend it but it gets you an additional 14 days - personally I think it is better to avoid doing that unless you have to.

And, for what it is worth, your understanding of the issues seems perfectly clear to me. Just don't panic.

[n20998]

Re: Court claim - rent arrears

Does anyone else have any thoughts or other ideas for this?

If I go for the Tomlin Order, I think I'm going to email tomorrow and ask for a response by next Wednesday - is that reasonable? In the meantime, do I send anything to the court?

For the Tomlin Order, can I get some advice on the figures please. There is an amount claimed, interest, court fee and legal representatives costs. Do I have to accept the legal representatives costs? Would the court fee change or would it be the same? I'm going to adjust the interest they've claimed to go up to the date the claim form was stamped (which is tomorrow, still think that's weird).

Thanks again to anyone and everyone who replies it's massively appreciated.

Thanks

[nemesis45]

Re: Court claim - rent arrears

It is a HUGE step from saying someone has mental ill health to saying that they are incapable and if OP were to attempt to run with that it would have massive implications for all other areas of his/her life.

n 20998 could you be classed as vulnerable person and if so could this have contributed to the problem of rent arrears?
Arrears of 5K is a significant amount over how long has this built up?
Have you made only one attempt to resolve the arrears?

You need to be very realistic and totally confident that any offer you make to the court is affordable not just in the short term but for a number of years, the LL may or may not agree to a Tomlin (Consent) Order) but if and agreement is reached and fails the claimant can immediately get judgement.
In the not too distant past I conducted a " mediation " which achieved a repayment rate of £5.00 pcm for 30 years.

nem