Urgent Advice Please BW Legal - Lowell & County Court Claim

[ditzee]

Can someone kindly help me by providing some clear concise advise on how to deal with a County Court Claim received in the post yesterday?

I suffer from agoraphobia and social anxiety disorder and consequently am unable to work and claim ESA and am classed as "vulnerable" by DWP and receive extra income as part of me ESA income to reflect this. I fell into financial crisis some time in 2009 after losing my job and and falling into depression and illness. I lost my owned home and have currently live in a rented property. I have been chased by the original creditor HBOS PLC for some time now and now they are proceeding with court claim. Can you please advise as to how I should deal appropriately? I am unsure as to when my last payment was made but would hazard a guess it would be in latter part of 2009. I requested a copy of the CCA in April 2014 after receiving some advice on this forum. I did not receive anything until 12/6/14. I received what looks like a photocopy of some form of reconstituted agreement and does not provide any figures, payments or signature details and I do not have an up to date default of payment statement from them.

Please can someone provide some basic clear guidance for me asap?

Kind regards

[ditzee]

Re: Urgent Advice Please BW Legal - Lowell & County Court Claim

Thank you again for all your help will post again when I receive written confirmation of the agreement. :clap2::cheer2:

[FlamingParrot]

Re: Urgent Advice Please BW Legal - Lowell & County Court Claim

Hi. Don't think there was any mention of Consent order only Mediation Agreement to pay back in full and final settlement of £695 - they reduced the final payment sum - and I agreed to pay back in £1 instalments. So Lowell pay the £50 fee to the court for the use of the mediation service? As you say FlamingParrot - no need to continue with worry of further court action. :whoo::high5::cheer2:

They will be paid back in 60 years! :lol: :lol: :lol:

Should really make them think whether it was worth starting court action in the first place, they won't even be getting their court fees back! :grin: :grin: :grin:

[nemesis45]

Re: Urgent Advice Please BW Legal - Lowell & County Court Claim

Hi. Don't think there was any mention of Consent order only Mediation Agreement to pay back in full and final settlement of £695 - they reduced the final payment sum - and I agreed to pay back in £1 instalments. So Lowell pay the £50 fee to the court for the use of the mediation service? As you say FlamingParrot - no need to continue with worry of further court action. :whoo::high5::cheer2:

Ok, please let us know when you get the written confirmation of the agreement.

nem

[ditzee]

Re: Urgent Advice Please BW Legal - Lowell & County Court Claim

Hi. Don't think there was any mention of Consent order only Mediation Agreement to pay back in full and final settlement of £695 - they reduced the final payment sum - and I agreed to pay back in £1 instalments. So Lowell pay the £50 fee to the court for the use of the mediation service? As you say FlamingParrot - no need to continue with worry of further court action. :whoo::high5::cheer2:

[nemesis45]

Re: Urgent Advice Please BW Legal - Lowell & County Court Claim

Hi there. Mediation completed. Did not get Lowell/BWLegal to agree to withdraw claim but the good news is that they have accepted my offer of payment of £1 per month. It's a shame I couldn't get them to see that my case is not worth pursuing at all but £1 per month is next best thing! I am in process of drafting a monthly £1 standing order - is this arrangement a Tomlin Order only this term has not been quoted to me by the court? Is the £50 fee for arranging this repayment term payable by Lowell/BWLegal or me? :noidea::der::der::der:

Lowell will pay the fee and add it to the debt.
Was the " agrement" referred to as a " Consent Order"?

nem

[FlamingParrot]

Re: Urgent Advice Please BW Legal - Lowell & County Court Claim

Hi there. Mediation completed. Did not get Lowell/BWLegal to agree to withdraw claim but the good news is that they have accepted my offer of payment of £1 per month. It's a shame I couldn't get them to see that my case is not worth pursuing at all but £1 per month is next best thing! I am in process of drafting a monthly £1 standing order - is this arrangement a Tomlin Order only this term has not been quoted to me by the court? Is the £50 fee for arranging this repayment term payable by Lowell/BWLegal or me? :noidea::der::der::der:

That is good news since you no longer have to worry about having your income and expenditure scrutinised by a judge and hoping they will agree. Well done ditzee! :whoo: :whoo:

In a way they are admitting they claim is not worth pursuing since £1 a month is a nominal payment. A Tomlin order is a form of consent order agreed by the parties, was there any mention of a consent order by the mediator?

[ditzee]

Re: Urgent Advice Please BW Legal - Lowell & County Court Claim

Hi there. Mediation completed. Did not get Lowell/BWLegal to agree to withdraw claim but the good news is that they have accepted my offer of payment of £1 per month. It's a shame I couldn't get them to see that my case is not worth pursuing at all but £1 per month is next best thing! I am in process of drafting a monthly £1 standing order - is this arrangement a Tomlin Order only this term has not been quoted to me by the court? Is the £50 fee for arranging this repayment term payable by Lowell/BWLegal or me? :noidea::der::der::der:

[FlamingParrot]

Re: Urgent Advice Please BW Legal - Lowell & County Court Claim

Hi again. Just getting in right frame of mind for my mediation call this Wednesday morning. Forgot to ask if it is possible after giving details of my poor financial situation that BWLegal may state there and then on the call that they will not be pursuing court action or if they may mention or ask me to agree there and then to a Tomlin order or it more than likely that I will be told that I will just have to wait to hear from either the court or BWLegal directly and it will be in writing?:blah::confused2:

That will all depend on what arguments both sides put forward. As I said on my post above, the idea is to convince them that it would be in their best interests not to pursue the claim because they simply can't get blood out of a stone and they will incur further costs if they decide to move forward which they won't be able to recover from you, let alone the amount claimed. :thumb:

With Tomlin orders, you'd be expected to agree to repay a certain amount every month. As there is normally a £50 fee for the order, it's hardly worth drafting one if all you'd be able to afford is £1 a month. One thing to consider. Also bear in mind that the purpose of the Tomlin is just to avoid a CCJ on record but they have liberty to apply to lift the stay imposed by the order and request summary judgment if you were to break the terms of the order by missing payments. :mmph:

[nemesis45]

Re: Urgent Advice Please BW Legal - Lowell & County Court Claim

Hi again. Just getting in right frame of mind for my mediation call this Wednesday morning. Forgot to ask if it is possible after giving details of my poor financial situation that BWLegal may state there and then on the call that they will not be pursuing court action or if they may mention or ask me to agree there and then to a Tomlin order or it more than likely that I will be told that I will just have to wait to hear from either the court or BWLegal directly and it will be in writing?:blah::confused2:

Mediation appointments are for both parties to put forward suggestions as to how to resolve the claim, if you feel uncomfortable with the claimants say so and give your reasons for the mediator to put to the claimant, if you can convince the claimant that there is no reasonable chance that you can repay the debt they may withdraw the claim, it's not common I have to say, as far as I can remember it's happened only twice out of a number of mediations I've conducted for others.

nem

[ditzee]

Re: Urgent Advice Please BW Legal - Lowell & County Court Claim

Hi again. Just getting in right frame of mind for my mediation call this Wednesday morning. Forgot to ask if it is possible after giving details of my poor financial situation that BWLegal may state there and then on the call that they will not be pursuing court action or if they may mention or ask me to agree there and then to a Tomlin order or it more than likely that I will be told that I will just have to wait to hear from either the court or BWLegal directly and it will be in writing?:blah::confused2:

[Berniethebolt]

Re: Urgent Advice Please BW Legal - Lowell & County Court Claim

Certainly when I was on assessment ESA my family were good to me and friends stood my round in the pub.
As anyone who has seen a pic of me will know, a haircut is the last thing i need

[FlamingParrot]

Re: Urgent Advice Please BW Legal - Lowell & County Court Claim

Just a thought about the I&E

I am notoriously bad with budgeting and can never work out an accurate budget but there are things that are allowable as a legitimate expense even if you do not pay them. I might be cheeky and put £5 a month for hair cuts , but you can also put an amount for clothes and don't forget the TV license . If you are on ESA it won't be difficult to legitimately get to the amount per week . If you need help should the worst happen then there are places that can help you with what are called trigger figures. The ones I have are a little out of date but will still do the job

I'd have thought if you are on benefits, they are not enough to even cover the basic expenses so the I&E could even show a negative output as you'd may have to rely on "charity" from family and friends to make ends meet. :mmph:

[Berniethebolt]

Re: Urgent Advice Please BW Legal - Lowell & County Court Claim

Just a thought about the I&E

I am notoriously bad with budgeting and can never work out an accurate budget but there are things that are allowable as a legitimate expense even if you do not pay them. I might be cheeky and put £5 a month for hair cuts , but you can also put an amount for clothes and don't forget the TV license . If you are on ESA it won't be difficult to legitimately get to the amount per week . If you need help should the worst happen then there are places that can help you with what are called trigger figures. The ones I have are a little out of date but will still do the job

[FlamingParrot]

Re: Urgent Advice Please BW Legal - Lowell & County Court Claim

Thank you so much FlamingParrot - can you please advise what evidence of income and expenditure would Lowell and the courts require if judgement is made against me?

This should give you an idea, it's the form you'd use to apply for an instalment order on a judgment: http://hmctsformfinder.justice.gov.u...s/n245-eng.pdf

However, it's a little early to be looking at that, the idea is to convince them (via the mediation service), that they'd be wasting their time and resources going that far. :thumb: