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Greetings all!
What a delightful forum - seriously, power to you folks who have put this together. A real inspiration!
I am in a fix and have been for a while. I was right down on the ground and getting kicked from everyside. Thankfully for real friends, I am back up on my knees now - but I am fighting banksters, and I know that I am costing them much more than they me at this point... So this is my story so far (like the Marillion song!) My hope is to make an eventual victory useful to all the other "little people" out there.
I am going to pass quickly over the sad bits, but they bear on who this drama has played out.
In the summer of 2008, I got very ill and was confined to hospital for an extended period of time. At the same time, I went through a separation with my spouse. Also the economy tanked, and a few investments and such I had went down the loo. Not a good time.
Anyhow, I had some loans and credit card debts and so on, as well as a house with a giant mortgage. However, I was unable to even read for several months and totally unable to pay bills or do anything really, and no one else whas around to catch me. Bummer as I said... A serious bummer. Not something I want anyone to have to go through...
By 2009, I had recovered sufficiently to begin to put my life back together, and so I began to write all my angry creditors and arrange payments, settlements, and so on. By the end of the year, my mortgage was being paid regularly and Northern Rock put my missed payments onto the principle. Council taxes got sorted. Utilities got sorted (sort of). I had debts in other countries also, but managed to see those sorted as well. However, by this time, I had three defaults on my record: an MBNA credit card, an HSBC credit card, and an HSBC loan. Moreover, one of the utilities put a CCJ on me (I had no clue how the civil legal system here worked - I am from Canada originally). And MBNA made a dramatic right turn and similarly sought a CCJ.
I am going to focus here on the MBNA story, and bring up the HSBC story and the Trent Water CCJ story on other threads (I am fighting both and all...)
I had in been in correspondence with MBNA and we had in principle agreed to a final settlement of 30% on the about £11K I (allegedly) owed. I was in process of selling a little land I had to raise the capital, and while I was not looking, and without telling me, they handed the account over to their solicitors, "Restons", about whom I have nothing nice to say.
So I received a letter stating that I should pay up fully and completely immediately or they would seek redress in court. That was September of 2009.
Now, as it turns out, they also registered my account as defaulted on September 30, 2009, but I only learned of this much later. Importantly, I was never sent a letter or informed that my account was in default. This is important - it is one of the arguments I am in the process of using now (Nov. 2010).
Anyhow, unaware of what was going on, I wrote to them in November that I was able to settle the debt. However, they now refused the 30% offer MBNA had made earlier... and indeed, they had submitted their paper work to the courts. So I waited to be served and prepared myself for the famous English legal system.
Unfortunately, the notification of the court date - December 16, 2009 - did not arrive before December 11th at the soonest (this is an estimation, since I was not there to receive it... After all it was Xmas and I had gotten back together with my wife, and there is more to life than paying bills and cursing at banks...). And the court date coincided with my wife's Bday... So my Xmas present was to find that not only had the court date come and gone, but a judgement in default was then sent to me somewhere around January 13. Actually, I did not even understand at that point what had happened, because I could not believe that it was legal to get a ruling without having an opportunity to present a defence...
In fact, I began reading up on what was going on, but it was not until I received another hearing notice in March for a charging order to be placed on my house that I finally understood what had happened.
Okay, I will continue this story with all the legal nitty gritty later...
What a delightful forum - seriously, power to you folks who have put this together. A real inspiration!
I am in a fix and have been for a while. I was right down on the ground and getting kicked from everyside. Thankfully for real friends, I am back up on my knees now - but I am fighting banksters, and I know that I am costing them much more than they me at this point... So this is my story so far (like the Marillion song!) My hope is to make an eventual victory useful to all the other "little people" out there.
I am going to pass quickly over the sad bits, but they bear on who this drama has played out.
In the summer of 2008, I got very ill and was confined to hospital for an extended period of time. At the same time, I went through a separation with my spouse. Also the economy tanked, and a few investments and such I had went down the loo. Not a good time.
Anyhow, I had some loans and credit card debts and so on, as well as a house with a giant mortgage. However, I was unable to even read for several months and totally unable to pay bills or do anything really, and no one else whas around to catch me. Bummer as I said... A serious bummer. Not something I want anyone to have to go through...
By 2009, I had recovered sufficiently to begin to put my life back together, and so I began to write all my angry creditors and arrange payments, settlements, and so on. By the end of the year, my mortgage was being paid regularly and Northern Rock put my missed payments onto the principle. Council taxes got sorted. Utilities got sorted (sort of). I had debts in other countries also, but managed to see those sorted as well. However, by this time, I had three defaults on my record: an MBNA credit card, an HSBC credit card, and an HSBC loan. Moreover, one of the utilities put a CCJ on me (I had no clue how the civil legal system here worked - I am from Canada originally). And MBNA made a dramatic right turn and similarly sought a CCJ.
I am going to focus here on the MBNA story, and bring up the HSBC story and the Trent Water CCJ story on other threads (I am fighting both and all...)
I had in been in correspondence with MBNA and we had in principle agreed to a final settlement of 30% on the about £11K I (allegedly) owed. I was in process of selling a little land I had to raise the capital, and while I was not looking, and without telling me, they handed the account over to their solicitors, "Restons", about whom I have nothing nice to say.
So I received a letter stating that I should pay up fully and completely immediately or they would seek redress in court. That was September of 2009.
Now, as it turns out, they also registered my account as defaulted on September 30, 2009, but I only learned of this much later. Importantly, I was never sent a letter or informed that my account was in default. This is important - it is one of the arguments I am in the process of using now (Nov. 2010).
Anyhow, unaware of what was going on, I wrote to them in November that I was able to settle the debt. However, they now refused the 30% offer MBNA had made earlier... and indeed, they had submitted their paper work to the courts. So I waited to be served and prepared myself for the famous English legal system.
Unfortunately, the notification of the court date - December 16, 2009 - did not arrive before December 11th at the soonest (this is an estimation, since I was not there to receive it... After all it was Xmas and I had gotten back together with my wife, and there is more to life than paying bills and cursing at banks...). And the court date coincided with my wife's Bday... So my Xmas present was to find that not only had the court date come and gone, but a judgement in default was then sent to me somewhere around January 13. Actually, I did not even understand at that point what had happened, because I could not believe that it was legal to get a ruling without having an opportunity to present a defence...
In fact, I began reading up on what was going on, but it was not until I received another hearing notice in March for a charging order to be placed on my house that I finally understood what had happened.
Okay, I will continue this story with all the legal nitty gritty later...
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