Hi All
Try and condense this as much as possible,
had loan over 10 years ago for 5k, APR was 50% got into difficulties and ended up with CCJ 10 years ago for figure of 12k and was ordered by the Judge to pay £5 per month and paid it to their solicitor ever since.
Never once missed payment up-to-date but had an absolute assignment sent to me by a DCA back in Aug 2003 saying that they had bought this debt back in October 2002 re various legal assignments from the OC and to carry on making my payments to the solicitor.
Since then this DCA has been trying to get me to pay more of which I told them I could not and in 2009 I received a letter from them stating thatinterest is being applied to the original judgement and the debt now stands at 20k!!!!!!
Then in December 09 I received an application for a hearing on behalf of this DCA but nothing appertaining to what the hearing was about, I rang, emailed, sent letters to the court to ask them to send me info on what this was about & to change this hearing to a local court,then literally 3 days before the hearing I received a copy of the DCA allocation form with their witness statement from the court to NOW all of a sudden 8 years after they called bought this debt they be substituted as the claimant and did not wish to attend or in fact want a hearing?GOT THE DISTINCT FEELING HERE THEY DID NOT WANT ME TO SEE THEIR WITNESS STATEMENT AND WHERE TRYING TO CIRCUMVENT COURT PROCEEDINGS
I rang the court to explain I had been given no time to form any sort of defence and to ask for the hearing to either be adjourned or again to be heard in a local court, this all fell on deaf ears and the substitution went ahead in my and the claimants absence
After digesting their application and witness statement certain legalities came into question plus the though that I had been shafted so I applied for aset aside on the grounds that in their witness statement it stated that this CCJ debt was sold to another DCA in 2001,in that time it also had a name change and in October 2002 it was then sold to the current DCA whom has also had several name changes and that ON EACH OCCASION NOTICE OF ASSIGNMENT WAS SENT TO THE DEFENDANT AT HIS LAST KNOW ADDRESS, which is certainly NOT the case.
1, I have lived in my property well before the CCJ
2, I keep all my correspondence even before the Judgement and I am completely oblivious to this first DCA taking ownership or getting any sort sort of assignment from either them ,the OC, or their solicitor!
3, The only absolute assignment I did receive was from the now DCA back in August 03 which even then stated they bought this debt a year earlier back in October 02!
4, On top of which the dates on the name changes either did not correspond with each other or did not correspond with the information I had received.
5, From what I have found out recently the OC went into Administration so therefore should this not have been referred back to court for an iterim hearing to allow the claim to continue in the first place.
In the mean time I then received another hearing date saying the DCA was now going for a variation order
I then got a hearing date for a set aside which was to be heard before the variation order at my local court got 15 MINS!!!!!! listing all the above of which I had also sent to the Claimant, the Judge took one look at all the documents involved sounded as though she had been given any time to read them and stated that she was adjourning the hearing and that their solicitor provide me with the relevant documents I have asked for which was,
A, A copy of the first absolute assignment from the 1st DCA which they state I had received in their witness statement.
B, A copy of the deeds of assignment to show how much this debt was sold for on each occasion.
C, To explain their inaccuracies in the name changes,
D,To explain why they are adding on interest and how come they have only told me this last year, as on the Original CCJ it just stated the 12k I owe and in brackets at the side (and interest to date of judgement) nothing about interest after judgement apart from at the bottom where it states in a box Notes For the Defendant,
if a judgement is for £5000 or more or is in respect of a debt that attracts contractual or statutory interest for late payment, the claimant may be entitled to further interest but that just looks like it is for information purposes only,
nor have I ever received anything from the OC or their solicitor after the judgement to say interest is being added as the letters I have received after the judgement just all refer to the figure on the judgement.
Plus why does it show the OC name on the now claimants application form and keep referring to the OC on their solicitors letters and the letters from the DCA when it was called sold to the 1st DCA back in 2001 surely it should refer to the 1st DCA name and not the OC ? furthermore why has it taken the present DCA 8 years from when they state they bought this debt in the knowledge that they Knew interest was being added unbeknown to me at the time and just let it run up over the last 8 years,IT JUST DOES NOT MAKE ANY SENSE!
Guess what! their solicitor sent me chapter & verse of each sale of assignments OC signature to first DCA then the sale to the current DCA apart from wait for it, a copy of the first absolute assignment that was called sent to me and their excuse for that from their solicitor was that " as the now claimant was not a party to the first assignment my client is not in possession of any such notices", WELL HOW CONVENIENT OF THEM funny how they seem to have just about every other document appertaining to the first sale.
Also they provided only the deed of assignment from each sale with the figure of how much it was bought and sold for BLANKED OUT.and they explained that the inaccuracies in the name changes where a simple error and although the dates did not correspond the company house registration number was the same.
As regards the interest they say that they are entitled to add interest regardless of weather or not it states it on the judgement as the debt is over £5000 , they also put on their second witness statement that it states judgement details,
OUTSTANDING DEBT
*including any interest where
Judgement was entered for £5000
or more, or is in respect of a debt
Which attracts contractual or
statutory interest for late payment*
Which it does not say that wording on the original judgement.
Anyway to cut along story short I had my second set aside hearing this week 30mins, went in to see the Judge along with their solicitor, again the Judge commented on all the paper work involved and said he had not been given any time to read through the notes, I explained to the Judge that I was not trying to shirk my responsibilities here and that I just wanted to make sure everything has been done legally which to me did not seem the case.
He seemed to take on board what I had brought up about the legalities of the assignments ect, but said that there were so many technical issues I had brought up regarding the law on assignments and on interest charges that it would have to have another hearing for about 5 hours to thrash out as to whether or not I had a case and whether or not any legalities had been breached by the claimant although he seemed to share the same opinion as the claimant on the interest issue that they are entitled to add interest after the original judgement because the amount was over £5000?
At the present time he said no cost would be incurred but on the other hand if I had another hearing and I lost then I would incur a lot of costs on top of what I already owed and it would then still carry on to the next stage, and from his mannerisms I got the impression he thought I would lose, he then suggested wavering my right to challenge the substitution of the claimant and as he could see that I had been making my regular payments and I could not afford more that £5 per month that he would not grant them the variation order to pay the £120 per month they had asked for yet in saying that he added the claimants next step would probably be to go for a charging order on my property.
He said the decision was mine as to whether or not to challenge the technicalities I have raised regarding the law on the legalities of the assignments, figures for each sale and interest added and with that in mind he would adjourn this hearing for another 28 days to await my decision.
I have read so many different threads regarding the laws on absolute assignments LPA act 1925 sec 136 and 196, also whether or not this case should have been referred back to Court when the OC sold it to the first DCA but I need hard FACTS here if I am to challenge these matters.
Same can be said as regards the law on adding Interest after Judgement.
Have I got a case or not and is it worth pursuing.
Any HARD evidence would be much appreciated.
PHEW!!!!
Try and condense this as much as possible,
had loan over 10 years ago for 5k, APR was 50% got into difficulties and ended up with CCJ 10 years ago for figure of 12k and was ordered by the Judge to pay £5 per month and paid it to their solicitor ever since.
Never once missed payment up-to-date but had an absolute assignment sent to me by a DCA back in Aug 2003 saying that they had bought this debt back in October 2002 re various legal assignments from the OC and to carry on making my payments to the solicitor.
Since then this DCA has been trying to get me to pay more of which I told them I could not and in 2009 I received a letter from them stating thatinterest is being applied to the original judgement and the debt now stands at 20k!!!!!!
Then in December 09 I received an application for a hearing on behalf of this DCA but nothing appertaining to what the hearing was about, I rang, emailed, sent letters to the court to ask them to send me info on what this was about & to change this hearing to a local court,then literally 3 days before the hearing I received a copy of the DCA allocation form with their witness statement from the court to NOW all of a sudden 8 years after they called bought this debt they be substituted as the claimant and did not wish to attend or in fact want a hearing?GOT THE DISTINCT FEELING HERE THEY DID NOT WANT ME TO SEE THEIR WITNESS STATEMENT AND WHERE TRYING TO CIRCUMVENT COURT PROCEEDINGS
I rang the court to explain I had been given no time to form any sort of defence and to ask for the hearing to either be adjourned or again to be heard in a local court, this all fell on deaf ears and the substitution went ahead in my and the claimants absence
After digesting their application and witness statement certain legalities came into question plus the though that I had been shafted so I applied for aset aside on the grounds that in their witness statement it stated that this CCJ debt was sold to another DCA in 2001,in that time it also had a name change and in October 2002 it was then sold to the current DCA whom has also had several name changes and that ON EACH OCCASION NOTICE OF ASSIGNMENT WAS SENT TO THE DEFENDANT AT HIS LAST KNOW ADDRESS, which is certainly NOT the case.
1, I have lived in my property well before the CCJ
2, I keep all my correspondence even before the Judgement and I am completely oblivious to this first DCA taking ownership or getting any sort sort of assignment from either them ,the OC, or their solicitor!
3, The only absolute assignment I did receive was from the now DCA back in August 03 which even then stated they bought this debt a year earlier back in October 02!
4, On top of which the dates on the name changes either did not correspond with each other or did not correspond with the information I had received.
5, From what I have found out recently the OC went into Administration so therefore should this not have been referred back to court for an iterim hearing to allow the claim to continue in the first place.
In the mean time I then received another hearing date saying the DCA was now going for a variation order
I then got a hearing date for a set aside which was to be heard before the variation order at my local court got 15 MINS!!!!!! listing all the above of which I had also sent to the Claimant, the Judge took one look at all the documents involved sounded as though she had been given any time to read them and stated that she was adjourning the hearing and that their solicitor provide me with the relevant documents I have asked for which was,
A, A copy of the first absolute assignment from the 1st DCA which they state I had received in their witness statement.
B, A copy of the deeds of assignment to show how much this debt was sold for on each occasion.
C, To explain their inaccuracies in the name changes,
D,To explain why they are adding on interest and how come they have only told me this last year, as on the Original CCJ it just stated the 12k I owe and in brackets at the side (and interest to date of judgement) nothing about interest after judgement apart from at the bottom where it states in a box Notes For the Defendant,
if a judgement is for £5000 or more or is in respect of a debt that attracts contractual or statutory interest for late payment, the claimant may be entitled to further interest but that just looks like it is for information purposes only,
nor have I ever received anything from the OC or their solicitor after the judgement to say interest is being added as the letters I have received after the judgement just all refer to the figure on the judgement.
Plus why does it show the OC name on the now claimants application form and keep referring to the OC on their solicitors letters and the letters from the DCA when it was called sold to the 1st DCA back in 2001 surely it should refer to the 1st DCA name and not the OC ? furthermore why has it taken the present DCA 8 years from when they state they bought this debt in the knowledge that they Knew interest was being added unbeknown to me at the time and just let it run up over the last 8 years,IT JUST DOES NOT MAKE ANY SENSE!
Guess what! their solicitor sent me chapter & verse of each sale of assignments OC signature to first DCA then the sale to the current DCA apart from wait for it, a copy of the first absolute assignment that was called sent to me and their excuse for that from their solicitor was that " as the now claimant was not a party to the first assignment my client is not in possession of any such notices", WELL HOW CONVENIENT OF THEM funny how they seem to have just about every other document appertaining to the first sale.
Also they provided only the deed of assignment from each sale with the figure of how much it was bought and sold for BLANKED OUT.and they explained that the inaccuracies in the name changes where a simple error and although the dates did not correspond the company house registration number was the same.
As regards the interest they say that they are entitled to add interest regardless of weather or not it states it on the judgement as the debt is over £5000 , they also put on their second witness statement that it states judgement details,
OUTSTANDING DEBT
*including any interest where
Judgement was entered for £5000
or more, or is in respect of a debt
Which attracts contractual or
statutory interest for late payment*
Which it does not say that wording on the original judgement.
Anyway to cut along story short I had my second set aside hearing this week 30mins, went in to see the Judge along with their solicitor, again the Judge commented on all the paper work involved and said he had not been given any time to read through the notes, I explained to the Judge that I was not trying to shirk my responsibilities here and that I just wanted to make sure everything has been done legally which to me did not seem the case.
He seemed to take on board what I had brought up about the legalities of the assignments ect, but said that there were so many technical issues I had brought up regarding the law on assignments and on interest charges that it would have to have another hearing for about 5 hours to thrash out as to whether or not I had a case and whether or not any legalities had been breached by the claimant although he seemed to share the same opinion as the claimant on the interest issue that they are entitled to add interest after the original judgement because the amount was over £5000?
At the present time he said no cost would be incurred but on the other hand if I had another hearing and I lost then I would incur a lot of costs on top of what I already owed and it would then still carry on to the next stage, and from his mannerisms I got the impression he thought I would lose, he then suggested wavering my right to challenge the substitution of the claimant and as he could see that I had been making my regular payments and I could not afford more that £5 per month that he would not grant them the variation order to pay the £120 per month they had asked for yet in saying that he added the claimants next step would probably be to go for a charging order on my property.
He said the decision was mine as to whether or not to challenge the technicalities I have raised regarding the law on the legalities of the assignments, figures for each sale and interest added and with that in mind he would adjourn this hearing for another 28 days to await my decision.
I have read so many different threads regarding the laws on absolute assignments LPA act 1925 sec 136 and 196, also whether or not this case should have been referred back to Court when the OC sold it to the first DCA but I need hard FACTS here if I am to challenge these matters.
Same can be said as regards the law on adding Interest after Judgement.
Have I got a case or not and is it worth pursuing.
Any HARD evidence would be much appreciated.
PHEW!!!!
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