Ignored a Court Claim from Cabots, feeling extremely overwhelmed and worried.

[MuffinTea]

Hi everybody.

I feel like such a fool and I don't know what to do, I'm overwhelmed by the situation and feel terrified of the idea of Bailiffs coming to my house.

About a month or so ago, I received a Claim form from Cabots Financial UK Limited, I put it out of my mind (not an excuse but in December there was a world shattering bereavement in my life, so for the past 2 months everything has been piling up.

I received another letter from them a few weeks back, it has a claim number and reads:

To the Defendant,

You have not replied to the claim form.

It is therefore ordered that you must pay the claimant £342.23 for debt (and interest to date of judgement) and £107 for costs (less £0 which you have already paid)

It says that I need to make a payment of £50 (they want £50 per month, or all at once) by February 26th or goods may be removed and sold, or other enforcement proceedings (I don't even know what they mean by that) I have not got anywhere near what they are asking for.

I am utterly clueless as to where to go from here, I feel so stupid for not doing something sooner, for what I've read I've missed the deadline to 'defend the claim'?

Any advice on what to do or how to handle this would be so appreciated. Thank you.

[enaid]

Re: Ignored a Court Claim from Cabots, feeling extremely overwhelmed and worried.

Hi and welcome, I have asked [MENTION=6]Amethyst[/MENTION] to have a look at this for you, she will be on line soon

[MuffinTea]

Re: Ignored a Court Claim from Cabots, feeling extremely overwhelmed and worried.

Thank you :-)

I have absolutely no clue about this stuff, I am so grateful a place like this exists, with people who know what they are talking about.

[Amethyst]

Re: Ignored a Court Claim from Cabots, feeling extremely overwhelmed and worried.

Good Morning Muffin xx

Welcome to the forum, try not to worry, you sound like you have more than enough to deal with so don't let this get on top of you. The judgment isn't for a huge amount and a £50 a month order seems reasonable although I do not know your financial circumstances. Is that an amount you can afford to pay ?

You do have a few options to sort this out, of course the path of least stress would be just to make payments as ordered at £50 a month.

That will leave you with a CCJ marker on your credit file for 6 years - after 10 months it would be paid up and marked as settled on the file, but it will still be a pain on your file for 6 years - so that really depends how important your credit file is to you ( are you wanting to borrow for a mortgage etc in the next few years ?)

If £50 is too much to manage comfortably, you can apply to the court to change the amount each month to one that is manageable based on your income and expenditure - there may be a fee to do this (£50) unless eligible for fee remission.

If you are still within 28 days of the judgment order you could pay the full amount £457, and then the CCJ wouldn't be entered on your file.

Alternatively if you think you could defend the claim, you could consider making an application to set aside the Judgment. As you did receive the form this will mean relying on your personal circumstances and the bereavement as to why you failed to respond, and also detail what your defence would be to the claim.

Do you know what the debt came from ? credit card/ loan ?



So a couple options to think about there. Bailiffs are a long way off and would only be if you stuck your head firmly back in the sand - and actually I don't remember the last time I heard of Cabot or any of these CCA claims sending out bailiffs, its not something they do generally, so I don't think that is a realistic threat worth worrying over xxx They have other options like an attachment of earnings order but most likely they will just annoy you with constant letters.

Do you work as an employee ? Do you own your own home ?


Sharon
xx

[MuffinTea]

Re: Ignored a Court Claim from Cabots, feeling extremely overwhelmed and worried.

Hi Sharon,

Thank you so much for your amazingly fast response just reading your words have really helped me, I had visions of baillifs banging at my door next week.

I know the original debt was for capital one credit card, I am not sure I could defend the claim because I do owe it, I wouldn't have a clue about how to defend the claim, so a payment plan would probably be the best way forward, although £50 per month is really out of my budget. I am currently on universal credit, that will hopefully soon change.

I could do £10 per month but I have no idea if they'd accept that. Luckily a CCJ doesn't bother me at all, ther is zero chance of me wanting a mortgage or anything like that.

I rent my home from a housing association xx


Again thank you so much, I can't say how grateful I am for this advice xxx

[Amethyst]

Re: Ignored a Court Claim from Cabots, feeling extremely overwhelmed and worried.

Okay, in that case you need to apply to the court for redetermination - ask the court to change the amount of your ordered payments to suit your income/expenditure.

http://hmctsformfinder.justice.gov.u...s/n245-eng.pdf

You can ask to change the amount you pay per week or per month.
To do this, fill in the N245 application form.
Give details of your income and spending, and say how much you can realistically afford to pay.
You may have to pay a £50 court fee.
If your offer is rejected, the court will decide on the amount you have to pay.

The form is quite self explanatory really, but if you get stuck on anything just ask xx