Nolans - can someone please help?

[FB0515]

Nolans have sent me a letter threatening to send me a Charge for Payment and then for Sherrif Officers to attend my property and attach items.
it is for an old loan I had with Northern Rock that has been sold to Marlin, but I am sure this was settled. I have gone back through bank statements from 2006 to date but can't find the final.settlement payment

This is the info Nolans have given to me.
This was originally an agreement with Northern Rock for an unsecured loan taken out on 20th June 2006. A court Action was raised in 2014 and you submitted a time to pay of £50.00 per month which was lodged with the court. A Decree was granted on 25th July 2014 and Sheriff Officers have attended your property to serve a charge for payment in 2016 and an inhibition which was recently renewed in August 2021

I knew about the Time to Pay order, but I didn't realise until now it was for this loan - I thought it was for an HP agreement that we had been having trouble with handing the vehicle back for, whuch once resolved I must have stopped paying the order.

I had no knowledge of The Charge for Payment in 2016 or the Inhibition Orders until now, so they haven't attended our property.

Is there anything I can do? The original amount is for around £2k but they have stated £5334.00 s what they are looking to be settled !

Thank you for reading and in anticipation of any help

[Nostrus]

Hi there,

So a couple of things. Initial CfP is definitely out of date, so they will have to serve another. Scotland is different to England in that Sheriff Officers cannot just enter your home and start "attaching" (which is the process for listing items for sale at a later auction) your personal items. In order to do that, they would need to apply for an Exceptional Attachment Order from the local presiding Sheriff court. What they'll actually be trying to do is attach any vehicle that you currently own that is not on a finance arrangement (because if the vehicle is on a finance arrangement, then someone else has a commercial interest in the vehicle and it cannot be attached).

Given that they have gone to the effort of applying for an Inhibition (which prevents you from selling your property until you clear the debt, or effectively promise to pay out of the sale of the property) I'm guessing that they could find no other way to effect diligence in 2016. FYI, unless the rules have changed recently, this Inhibition shall fall off in 2026 and I don't believe they can apply for a third re-application.

They definitely will have attended your property in 2016, as the only other way to effect service of a CfP is on the "Walls of Court" (this changed to a website with the Simple Procedure coming in, but that was after 2016) but to do that, they have to prove they have exhausted all other methods of reaching you.

Unfortunately, without any proof that of having made the final settlement, then you are most likely going to have to come to some arrangement to pay them.